Sir Bobby's son moved by tributes

Thousands of tributes were left at St James' Park

One of the sons of former England football manager Sir Bobby Robson has spoken of how overwhelmed the family has been at the response to his death.

The County Durham-born former Ipswich, Barcelona and Newcastle manager died on 31 July at the age of 76 following a long battle with cancer.

His son Andrew Robson called in to BBC Newcastle's new Total Sport show on Tuesday night.

He said the family had been surprised and overwhelmed by the reaction.

Mass of shirts

Following Sir Bobby's death there were a huge number of tributes.

They included fans at matches paying tributes with rounds of applause - including Sunday's Community Shield clash between Chelsea and Manchester United at Wembley.

Newcastle United's St James' Park ground was opened up to fans to leave their tributes and one of the stands quickly became covered with flowers, shirts and banners.

Tributes were also left around the statue of Sir Bobby at Portman Road, home of Ipswich Town, who won the FA Cup and Uefa Cup under his management.

Mr Robson said he had visited St James' Park twice, once with his mother and brother and once with his daughters the day after his father's funeral, which was held on 5 August.

Chelsea and Manchester United players and fans stage a minute's applause for Sir Bobby Robson before the Community Shield match

A minute's applause was held before Sunday's Community Shield match

Mr Robson said: "I think we really have been surprised and overwhelmed. That mass of shirts and flowers. We were almost overcome with it ourselves."

He said they had been moved by the sight of all the tributes and the fact they had come from the fans of so many different clubs.

Sir Bobby was England manager from 1982 to 1990, when he led the team to the World Cup semi-finals.

During a lengthy career in club management either side of his time as England boss he had spells at Fulham, Ipswich, PSV Eindhoven, Sporting Lisbon, Porto, Barcelona and Newcastle.