Final farewell as Chester City great Cyrille Regis is laid to rest

The football world has paid its respects to the late, great Cyrille Regis after the former England striker was laid to rest in Birmingham.

Pioneering Regis died of a heart attack on January 14. He was 59.

West Bromwich Albion legend Regis, who had a successful season as a player at Chester City during the 1995/96 campaign, is widely credited with inspiring a generation of black footballers after he and teammates Brendon Batson and Laurie Cunningham endured vile racist abuse during the 1970s.

Thousands of Baggies fans came out to pay their respects to Regis, who was appointed an MBE in 2008, at a special celebration of his life at West Brom's Hawthorns ground before a private funeral service was held.

Regis was a man held in high regard wherever he went.

Even his relatively short stint at Chester under Kevin Ratcliffe, Regis did enough in his 29 games, where he also scored seven goals, to ensure hero status with the Blues.

Speaking to the Chronicle earlier this month, former Chester striker Eddie Bishop recalled one fond memory of his time playing alongside Regis.

Bishop said: “Playing alongside him made you want to be better player because it was like you were wanting to impress him and make him see that you were a good player. It was a real honour to be in the same team as him.

“I remember one time in the League Cup, we’d been drawn against Tottenham and we headed down there for the away leg. We got there and the stadium was fantastic. They’d just had this big stand built and we were walking around the pitch just soaking it all in.

“Cyrille had failed a fitness test that morning. We got there and he was looking round the place and saying ‘this is fantastic, I wish I was playing’. He said he felt fit enough to play and we’d all said to him to tell the gaffer (Kevin Ratcliffe) that he was fit.

“The lad that was coming in for him was John Murphy and he was only a teenager at the time. Cyrille could have played and he wanted to play but he said ‘no, I’ve had my time, young John should be playing here today’. That was the mark of the man.”