Sirrel kept wife's death from players
He did not tell any of his players of Cathy's tragic death. He told his two children, Audrey and David. And he told the club's chairman Jack Dunnett and trainer Jack Wheeler during the pre-match meal.
But he did not tell his players, not wanting them distracted before such a significant game.
Instead he waited until after the match in which Trevor Christie scored from the penalty spot in a 1-1 draw, and told them in the dressing room after the game.
"I sat the players down and told them," Sirrel later recalled. "One of them came up to me and asked me how I could be there at such a time.
"I told him it was not his problem. I didn't want to have this thing hanging over them during the match. It was their livelihood.
"You cannot imagine what would have happened if that news got out among the crowd. I thought it was the right thing to do. Others may think differently.
"You cannot stop the living going on. It was no one else's business."
His decision was not about putting the Magpies before his beloved wife.
It was about a man who put the club before himself in the most difficult circumstances imaginable – and that is the reason he will always be loved and admired.
As Sirrel so simply – and poignantly – put it: "It's what Cathy would have wanted me to do."
happy marriage: Jimmy and Cathy on their wedding day
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