Bruce Grobbelaar was left holding the baby!

Liverpool legend Grobbelaar was the guest speaker at the Cleveland Arms Sports Bar, Stowheath Lane,

Parkes was a Wolves custodian for 14 years between 1964 and 1978, before leaving to play in the North American Soccer League.

He joined Canadian outfit Vancouver Whitecaps for three years where, towards the end of his stint, Grobbelaar arrived after completing national service in his native Zimbabwe.

Parkes took Grobbelaar, then aged 21, under his wing before he left the club in 1979, along with fellow Englishman and former West Bromwich Albion defender Carl Valentine.

Valentine, now a Canadian citizen and back home visiting family in Manchester, and Parkes came for a catch up with him at the Cleve.

Grobbelaar told of how he and Valentine used to look after Parkes' young sons, Dean and Greg, the latter of which was born in Canada.

He said: "I spent 18 months with Phil and he was a mentor to me. 'Lofty' was one of the first to really teach me about the basics of goalkeeping.

"We all used to live in the same apartment block, Lofty with his wife Maureen and sons and me and Carl in another flat.

"My beginnings in first-team football came when he was injured and I had to take over from him for a couple of games.

"I used to babysit for his children, he used to tell me he wouldn't give me any more tips unless I did that for him! My goodness, to see them again and how they've grown, it's fantastic.

"We used to take it in turns, either me or Carl would watch the kids and the other one would go out with Lofty. They were great times."

Parkes and Grobbelaar were under the management of former England goalkeeper Tony Waiters, who later went on to manage the Canadian national team.

Parkes said: "Tony was probably the first goalkeeping coach that I'd ever had, I was fitter at that time physically and mentally than I had ever been at Wolves.

"Another claim to fame, after I had played all of these games for Wolves, was that Bruce was my understudy. What a great lad he was.

"You could tell, even then, that he was going to be a proper star. He was one of the fittest lads I'd ever seen. He had great agility and a fantastic spring.

"The world was his oyster, but he was a joker and a bit of a Jack the Lad, he put his mind to it after that and became different class. He was never going to look back after that."

Grobbelaar first came to England in 1979 and had a successful trial with West Brom, who couldn't complete his signing as they couldn't obtain a work permit for him.

He returned to the country to join Division Four strugglers Crewe Alexandra on loan, before finally being granted an ancestral Visa.

His move to Liverpool was completed for £250,000 in March 1981 and, later that year, long-term No 1 Ray Clemence left for Tottenham Hotspur.

Clemence is still the club's fourth record appearance maker with 641 games, but Grobbelaar would get to ninth after featuring 628 times.

His debut would come at Wolves on 28 August 1981, but would finish on the losing side after Mick Matthews scored the only goal of the game at Molineux.

He won more honours than any other Liverpool goalkeeper in history with six league titles, three League Cups, three FA Cups and a European Cup.

He remained in the Premier League after leaving Liverpool by joining Southampton in 1994, but his time with the Saints was marred by allegations of match-fixing where he was later cleared.

He dropped down the pyramid to turn out for Plymouth, Oxford United, Sheffield Wednesday, Chesham United, Lincoln City and Northwich Victoria before returning to his native country.

Now aged 59 and living back in Canada, he remains in the game as assistant boss to Paul Dalglish, son of his former Liverpool manager Kenny, at NASL outfit Ottawa Fury.