By Will Foster

The early to mid 1960s were a pretty miserable time to be a Luton supporter. But it was even worse for the fans of Port Vale as the decade drew to a close. In the 1967/68 season they were expelled from the Football League altogether for allegedly making illegal payments to players. On appeal, and in large part thanks to the lobbying of then manager Stanley Matthews, the decision was reduced to making the famous old club apply for re-election. They were successful, but there was little joy around Vale Park as Gordon Lee took charge for the following season.

Nor had the mood improved much by the time an FA Cup tie against Shrewsbury came around in November. The Valiants were sitting 18th in the 4th Division, now League 2, and a goalkeeping injury crisis had forced them to turn to a 17-year-old apprentice goalkeeper. He was the son of a Yugoslavian garage owner, and the name Milija Aleksic would likely have sounded exotic in an era when players of foreign heritage were scarce.

His confidence was apparent, ‘I have never had it so easy,’ he told reporters after the game, in which his only real task in the 1-1 draw was the take the ball out of the back of the net following Alf Wood’s early header. Aleksic was in-situ for the replay too, and was similarly untroubled as Port Vale ran out comfortable 3-1 winners.

However, despite acquiting himself well it didn’t signal the start of a long and successful career at Vale Park. In-fact, with Gordon Lee signing Keith Ball on loan in time for the next league game, those two FA Cup appearances would prove to be Milija’s only games for the club, and he was released altogether at the end of the season upon the conclusion of his apprenticeship.

‘The money was laughable,’ he would reveal in a later interview, ‘I’d have made more doing a paper round. So I gave up and qualified as a mechanic’.

Drifting into the amateur game he would eventually end up at Stafford Rangers, who were managed by former Villa and Lincoln forward Roy Chapman. There, he was part of one of the strongest non-league club in the country, winning both the FA Trophy and the Northern Premier League Championship in 1971/72. His performances would create interest among many league clubs and a move to Plymouth was agreed in early 1973.

He would find it tough at Home Park where he was competing for a place with former Arsenal ‘keeper Jim Furnell. Though he was part of a side that won promotion from the 3rd Division, he is perhaps best remembered at Argyle as the goalkeeper who conceded a goal to Brazilian legend Pele when Santos visited for a friendly in March 1973.

Ultimately frozen out at Plymouth due to a wage dispute, he was brought on loan to Luton in December 1976 by Harry Haslam when first choice ‘keeper Keith Barber was injured with broken ribs. Intended to be a stop gap until Barber returned, Aleksic, or ‘Elastic’ as the fans had inevitably nicknamed the new man, impressed Haslam enough to spend £20,000 to sign him permanently a month later, after which he would become first choice for the next couple of years.

He had joined a club languishing in the middle of the 2nd Division (now Championship) at best, but a 4-0 win against Chelsea just before the New Year seemingly lit a fuse in the side, and with Aleksic in goal, they would win 12 of their next 15 games in all competitions, including a remarkable seven game winning streak in February and early March in which they conceded only twice. It left the Hatters third with only six weeks of the season remaining and dreaming of a return to the top flight.

Aleksic, speaking at the time, was very bullish, ‘if the side keep on like this, we could go up. If we do, we could be one of the best sides in the country in two or three years.’

It wasn’t to be. A drop off in form saw them win only two of their last nine league games, resulting in a credible but ultimately disappointing 6th place finish. Aleksic kept his place for the following campaign under both Haslam and new temporary boss David Pleat, and was between the sticks for the first game of the 1977/78 season too, in which Pleat’s seven debutants hammered Oldham 6-1 with a blistering 2nd half display, signalling a new era at Kenilworth Road.

But Aleksic’s time at the club was almost over. He had impressed Tottenham manager Keith Burkinshaw enough to put forward a significant bid of £100,000 for his services, an amount far too big for the Hatters to turn down. Sadly his time at White Hart Lane would be beset by injuries, including a broken jaw inflicted by Manchester United’s Joe Jordan, though he did play in the famous 1981 ‘Ricky Villa’ FA Cup Final Replay as Spurs beat Manchester City 3-2. Incredibly, just twelve months after that, and with a brief loan spell back at Kenilworth Road sandwiched in-between, he found himself right back down in non-league, joining up with another ex-Hatter, Barry Fry, at Barnet.

In later life he would emigrate to South Africa and work at The Golfer’s Club in Johannesburg. Sadly he passed away suddenly in 2012 at the age of just 61. In all he made 92 appearances for the Hatters in a somewhat short, but certainly memorable, spell at Kenilworth Road.

Below: Aleksic shakes hands with Manchester City’s Joe Corrigan in 1977.