GORDON Taylor said it had been one of his “greatest honours” to have known Wanderers legend Tommy Banks as man and boy.

The former PFA chief and ex-Bolton Wanderers winger was one of hundreds who turned out at Bolton Parish Church to say a final farewell to the former Burnden Park defender on Wednesday.

Taylor – a Bolton supporter before, like Banks, he turned down overtures from Manchester United to sign professional terms with his beloved club – said he was proud of the way he had gone from a valued team-mate to a trusted friend.

“He is one of the biggest characters I have every known in football,” Taylor told The Bolton News. “He was a player when I started supporting Bolton Wanderers, I remember him also when I joined the club and blooming heck, he’d keep people going in the dressing room with all his jokes and his stories. He had a real warm side to him.

“And then being a union man, he is a real legend. The tale about removing the maximum wage is something that will be told forever and he was one of our special guests when we had the centennial of the PFA. We wanted him in the spotlight.

“We have been in touch with him all his life and help out, quite naturally, when he needed help in later years.

“I can only say the service was an excellent tribute to a legend, a character and a tremendous human being. I don’t think we will see the likes of him again.”

Banks was instrumental in football abolishing the maximum wage, making a famous speech at a meeting in 1960 which helped sway the argument despite being close to retirement himself.

“It illustrated what the union was about,” Taylor said. “The lads there together and when the Bury delegate spoke up and said his father was down the pit, so why should they earn more than us, Tommy just handled it so well.

“He said’ I’ve every respect for your dad because I’ve been down those pits but ask your dad to come up here and mark Brother (Stanley) Matthews on a Saturday afternoon, see what he thinks.

“It was a great line and he was a lovely person.”