Having it Large

This 1969 issue of The Football League Review features Frank Large on the cover, wearing the shirts from each of his league clubs.
It was unusual for a player to turn out for so many teams back then, though these days it is pretty common with the loan system used to full effect (Trevor Benjamin has clocked up twice as many clubs).

Frank’s shirts are: Halifax Town, QPR, Northampton, Swindon, Carlisle, Oldham, Northampton, Leicester, Fulham, Northampton, and after this photo Frank moved to Chesterfield.
Frank was only at Filbert Street between November 1967 and June 1968 but he left a big impression with his bravery, his wholehearted performances and his goals, scoring 11 times in 32 appearances.  Especially memorable were his two goals in a dramatic 4-3 FA Cup victory over Manchester City at Filbert Street.
The big striker left City as part of the deal that brought Allan Clarke to Leicester and he was missed in a season that ended in relegation.
At the end of his much travelled career Frank retired to Ireland and sadly passed away in 2003 aged just 63.

Dyer Goal Settles Riverside Encounter

Middlesbrough 0:1 Leicester City

City bounced back from their home defeat to Preston with a victory at Middlesbrough on Tuesday night… 

Nigel Pearson changed nearly half his side for this long midweek trip: Morrison replaced Neilson at right back; Hobbs returned for the injured Tunchev in central defence; , King replaced tonsilitis victom Wellens in midfield; Dyer took N’Guessan’s place; and Kermorgant made his full debut replacing Howard up front.

A poor first half unfolded in front of the Riverside’s lowest ever gate, with few chances for either side.
Johnson got round the City defence early on and forced a save from Weale, and Brown blocked O’Neill’s follow up effort.
An Arca free-kick from a decent position saile dharmlessly over.
City’s best chance of the half fell to Kermorgant whose hurried shot went wide.
The half time whistle was greeted by boos and a worrying number of  limping City players making for the tunnel – Gallagher, King and especially Fryatt.
The second half brought more of the same uninspired fare and both managers brought on two subs around the hour mark – Pearson replacing his front pairing with Waghorn and Howard. Lita and Yeates came on for Boro, prompting the feeling that either the player we had on loan or the player who turned us down would be bound to score against us.
But they didn’t, despite Boro enjoying a much more lively attacking spell. Wheater sent a header too close to Weale when well placed; Johnson wasted a good chance with a badly taken free-kick and Weale produced a fantastic save to deny St Ledger from close in.
Just when it looked as though City would surely succumb to the pressure they had a great chance of their own. Jones failed to hold on to an Oakley free-kick and Hobbs sent the rebound against the post. 
A minute later, with seven minutes remaining, they had another chance and they took it. Oakley went on a good run and squared for Dyer to produce a neat finish.
700 City fans went wild at this rather unexpected turn of events and were soon in full voice advising Gareth Southgate that he would be: “Sacked in the morning!”
City survived five minutes of time added on and two late scares with Weale again pulling off a great save from Yeates before Wheater sent another effort wide when it looked easier to score.
It may not have been a great game, but it was a great result for Nigel Pearson’s side.

Boro: Jones, St Ledger, McMahon, Wheater, Williams, Bennett (Digard 86), Johnson, Arca (Yeates 62), O’Neil, Aliadiere, Emnes (Lita 62). Subs Not Used: Coyne, Hines, Grounds, Franks.
Leicester: Weale, Brown, Berner, Hobbs, Morrison, King, Dyer, Oakley, Gallagher (Adams 71), Fryatt (Howard 61), Kermorgant (Waghorn 61). Subs Not Used: Logan, N’Guessan, Neilson, McGivern.

Referee: M Haywood (West Yorkshire). Attendance: 18,577.

Top Ten Moments at the Walkers…

We know we are guilty of mourning Filbert Street’s passing on here, so let’s have Ten Great Moments since the move from Filbert Street to Filbert Way…

1.  10/8/02 - Opening Day – the first 30,000 plus crowd in many years, the excitement of being in our new home, and a great 2-0 win over Watford thanks to two goals from Brian Deane.

2. 14/12/02 – Despite Stevie Claridge’s first minute goal, City thrash Dennis Wise’s Millwall 4-1. 31,904 City fans fill the ground, but away fans are banned.

3.  27/4/03 - Micky Adams and his side celebrate promotion to the Premiership after a 1-1 draw against Norwich City.

4. 15/9/03 - City stuff Leeds 4-0 and Lilian Nalis scores a magnificent opener, all in front of the Sky cameras.

5. 8/11/04 - Craig Levein’s first home game in charge brings a 3-0 win over neighbours Coventry with goals from Nalis, Tiatto and Heath.

6. 26/11/2005 - An otherwise drab season is lit up by a fine 4-2 win over Sheffield United, Hume (2), Smith and Hammond finding the net.

7. 4/3/06 - City win a thriller against Hull 3-2, with Joey Gudjonsson scoring from the half way line.

 

8. 25/8/07 - It all clicks together for Martin Allen’s side as they beat Watford 4-1, with goals from Hume, Campbell, Sheehan and De Vries. 

9. 13/4/09 - Steve Howard’s late header against Leeds brings a 1-0 win and huge step towards the League One title.

10. 24/4/09 - Nigel Pearson’s side are presented with the League One trophy after a 2-2 draw with Scunthorpe, bouncing back from Division Three at the first attempt…

Shoot!

From The FOX 162 – Oct/Nov 2008

They say you never forget your first time, and mine went like this: Billy Bremner playing for Scotland against Brazil on the cover, Jairzinho in the background; an article by Bobby Moore; You are the Ref; colour action from the 1974 World Cup featuring Australia, Scotland, Holland, Zaire, DDR and Yugoslavia; stats on the previous nine finals; a tearful article by Bremner on Scotland’s exit; ‘Goal Lines’ – letters to the editor; ‘Football Funnies’ chosen by Stewart Houston of Manchester United; Kevin Keegan revealing how he was beaten up by officials at Belgrade airport, smashing some attractive Bulgarian pottery he had bought for his family; ’Focus On’ Paul Gilchrist of Southampton (Miscellaneous Likes – Motor racing, oil painting, music); ’Bob Wilson Was Wrong to Retire’ by Alan Ball; Spotlight on the 73-74 season; At Home With John Radford of Arsenal and his Dutch wife Engel; ’Rangers Can Win the title next Season’ by John Greig; and a grinning Colin Bell of Manchester City on the back page.
I was allowed one comic a week, for as long as I can remember. Disneyland was my first choice; then I graduated to the Beano, followed by Roy of the Rovers when I shifted schools and fell in with football fans. Then, in July 1974, while immersed in the West Germany ’74 World Cup, I considered myself man enough to change to Shoot! (incorporating ‘Goal’). I was instantly hooked. For just eight pence the gateway to the wonderful world of Soccer opened up and you were inside. You could read the innermost thoughts of regular columnists Kevin Keegan, Danny McGrain, Billy Bremner and Alan Ball. You could puzzle over the fiendish problems posed in ‘You are the Ref’. Realise there were people just like you all over the country when you read ’Ask the Expert’: “Which goalkeeper has the biggest pair of hands in the First Division?” “I pronounce John Mahoney’s name as ma-ho-ney, but my father says it is an Irish name and should be pronounced Mar-ney. Who is right?” You could study the lavish full colour photos of these gods in action. And best of all were those too rare occasions when a photo of a Leicester City player would be featured, immediately to be removed from the magazine and stuck on the bedroom wall with a blob of blu-tac in each corner. And then, but once a year, came that most thrilling of days when Leicester were the team group featured in the centre pages. Three rows of City players, in crisp white socks and shorts, and shirts in the shade of Royal Blue that they don’t seem to make any more; the Double Decker brooding in the background… perfect. It is difficult to explain now why a simple colour photo was so prized, but this was in the days when the programme was nearly all black and white, newspapers were entirely in monochrome and, unless your family was particularly well off, you only had a black and white TV. Those eight pages of colour in Shoot! were like an oasis in a grey desert. For six years my Shoot! collection grew and grew by the week, filling several boxes, until 1979 when my head was turned by an attractive newcomer called ‘Match Weekly’. I dropped Shoot! like a hoody drops a knife before a stop and search, and kicked it away into the gutter. Match had some fresh new ideas; it’s full colour was somehow fuller; and they seemed keen on Jock Wallace’s City side, often featuring them on their way to the Second Division title. Despite my defection, and having to share the market with Match, Shoot! still enjoyed good circulation figures. Although in a general downward trend, in 1996 they were still selling 120,000 copies a week despite a new wave of competitors such as 4-4-2, Match of the Day, 90 Minutes and Total Football.. By 2007 however, they were down to 33,000. After nearly forty years as a weekly magazine (first launching in the 1968-69 season) IPC made the drastic decision to re-launch as ‘Shoot Monthly’. This didn’t work out and the axe finally fell in June of this year. Sadly the modern version of Shoot! was a terrible effort that deserved to die. Aimed squarely at a marketing man’s idea of ‘kids’, the thoughtful articles, sense of the game’s history and sparing colour had been replaced with shrieking luminous graphics; ‘20 MEGA POSTERS’ and an invitation to deface a poster of Ruud Van Nistilrooy entitled ’Make Ruud Rotten!’ A magazine designed for a generation whose attention span can apparently be measured in milliseconds, it wasn’t worthy of carrying it’s predecessor’s name.
So I won’t be mourning the Shoot! that has recently died, but the one that used to be the best football magazine in the world. The one that would have me running up to the newsagents on a Saturday morning in eager anticipation. So Shoot!, I’m sorry I dropped you for Match and I regret that the kids of today will never know the simple pleasure we found from thumbing through the latest issue.

Preston Breach City’s Fortress…

Leicester City 1:2 Preston North End

Preston became the first side in over a year to take three points from Filbert Way on Saturday afternoon…

Nigel Pearson made one change to his side with Hobbs dropped in favour of Tunchev.
The first half saw play switching constantly from one end to the other, with neither side able to convert their chances.
Wellens fired a shot over the bar, while at the other end Preston carved up City’s defence with a fine passing move but an unmarked Chaplow slipped at the vital moment.
A superb turn from Fryatt saw him on on goal but he was denied by Lonergan, while Weale denied Brown with a fine save.
Gallagher and Oakley both sent shots over the bar before Preston took a 41st minute lead.
A mispalced clearance from Wellens put the ball back into the danger area and Preston neatly teed the ball up for Mellor whose low drive beat Weale to his left. 
The visitors almost doubled their lead before the break but Weale denied Mellor with a fine save.
City were second best for most of the second half. Preston passed well, were quicker to the ball and also knew how to play the ref, getting every decision their way.  City lost their shape and were disconnected up front.
N’Guessan became the latest City player to fire the ball a yard over the bar and then Berner sent a shot wide, but City found themselves two goals down in the 65th minute. From a City corner Preston broke swiftly upfield  and Mellor set Chaplow up to extend their lead.
Howard, N’Guessan and Wellens made way for Waghorn, Dyer and Kermorgant as City set about trying to rescue their proud home record, but it wasn’t to be, despite a late rally.
City finally found the net in the 90th minute when a Gallagher shot was blocked and Berner smashed home the rebound.
Any thoughts of an equaliser were dispelled when Neilson sent a woeful effort sailing over the bar and City’s attacking momentum was lost.
After more than a year without defeat this was a poor way to surrender the record with City out played, out thought and out fought.

Leicester: Weale, Brown, Berner, Tunchev, Neilson, Gallagher, Oakley, N’Guessan (Waghorn 63), Wellens (Kermorgant 77), Fryatt, Howard (Dyer 62). Subs Not Used: King, Logan, Hobbs, Adams.
Preston: Lonergan, Jones, Chilvers, Collins, Nolan, Wallace, Shumulikoski, Chaplow, Sedgwick, Mellor, Brown. Subs Not Used: Carter, Henderson, Parkin, Elliott, Hart, Mawene,

 Referee: James Linington (Isle of Wight). Attendance: 20,623.

Free Kicks the David Pleat Way

A vintage cartoon from The FOX no 8 April 1990, by the talented Simon Smith, digitally recoloured and re-mastered for the internet age.
There was, at the time, a certain frustration with some of David Pleat’s over-elaborate free-kick routines which left the players looking confused and the scoreboard untroubled…

The East Stand, Filbert Street

There was a lot of criticism about the East Stand at Filbert Street. It was the size of a bike shed. Well okay.
Compared to the Double Decker and Main Stand/Carling Stand it let the side down. Martin O’Neill always said that he would make potential new signings walk out of the tunnel backwards so that they didn’t see it before they had signed. But bear this in mind…

It was built by one bloke with a pickaxe and another bloke with a wheelbarrow. So really it was quite some architectural achivement…

Gordon Milne on Life as Leicester Boss

Extract from an Interview with Gordon Milne from The FOX Summer Special 2007 

FOX: You became manager of Leicester City in the Summer of 1982, how did that come about?

GM: I’d finished at Coventry. I had nine years as manager there and then I had a year upstairs when Dave Sexton came. Although he is actually older than me it was like the young coach coming in who doesn’t want to be concerned with contracts and stuff. Dave just wanted to be out there and he would even take a full session with the kids, he was good like that. Anyway, I did it for a year but I didn’t really enjoy it. I was too young to do that role and I thought this is me getting farmed out here. I wasn’t ready for that.
Leicester were interviewing for a new manager then and Terry Shipman rang me, so I went along. Three or four days later I got a phonecall saying I had got the job. Instead of driving to the end of the road and going thirteen miles that way I was going thirteen miles the other way!
I was lucky that it came up at the right time for me, and it wasn’t somewhere at the other end of the country.

FOX: What were your first impressions?

GM: Well, obviously I knew plenty about Leicester, living in Barwell and it being the local derby. They had quite a good squad at the time. Coventry had a lot of promising young kids then, but at Leicester they were moved on that little bit, a bit more mature and experienced. When I first went to Coventry there was a bit of a heavy mob there, Willie Carr, Roy Barry, Ernie Hunt… a lot of old soldiers that had to be sorted out!There was a little bit of that at Leicester when I arrived. Obviously Jock Wallace had been very popular and there were a lot of his own men in there who were in the ’Jock Mould’. Which is all credit to him, but I needed to do things differently. There was a bit to go at there.

FOX: Which players did you need to ‘go at’?

GM: Remember this thing with Tom English and Jim Melrose? I really had no problem with Jim, except perhaps he was a bit of a scatterbrain as a player, but there would be a day when you could sell him to anybody because he had just scored three; and there was a day when nobody would want him because he had gone missing. And Eddie Kelly, he was a good midfielder, but definitely his own man. I thought his legs were going, but as a player that is very hard to admit. When I was playing for England I thought, well I’m better than Alan Ball, but somebody thought differently and they were probably right.
There was Alan Young the big centre-forward. Bobby Smith, who actually turned out good for me. I can’t remember the details but there was a group there and something had to change. Sometimes it is necessary when a new manager arrives. Big Sam has just gone to Newcastle and some players, their feet haven’t touched the ground on the way out. There are things that have to be done. But you can’t do it all straight away and you have to be careful. There was a group of experience there that you couldn’t just cast aside.  

FOX: Obviously it was a big change from Jock Wallace, how would you describe your own style of management?

GM: I’m certainly not a tea cup thrower. I did my work during the week, I liked to be out there on the pitch with Gerry Summers when I could. I tried to get a collective team spirit going and I liked players to balance each other so that they felt comfortable in what they were doing. I liked to put square pegs in square holes. Without me shouting and screaming I think they knew when to tow the line and when they could get away with a bit. I wanted them to believe in what we were doing, and I think in the end we had a pretty good side there.

FOX: Who do you consider to be your best signing for Leicester?

GM: Errm… should I say Tommy English?!

FOX: We were going to ask you about him later… do you realise how controversial that was at the time?

GM: No, I didn’t really. Coming back to Jim, I knew he was popular but I swapped him. My thinking was that Tom was young, while Jim was getting on. I think Dave Sexton sold him to Celtic and got quite a bit of money for him so there must have been more to Jim than I saw in him. Whereas Tom turned out to be a disaster and we got nothing for him. I probably didn’t anticipate how much pressure it put on Tom English. It put pressure on me as well with Jim being such a favourite.
I remember Tom scoring a hat-trick against Leicester at Highfield Road and we were very excited about this 18-19 year old who could produce goals out of nothing.
How Tom was, he was quite dozy. He’d always be saying “Oh what time’s training, is it 10 o’clock?”
But on the field I liked the way he used to glide about, quick and good at getting into position, but no. He let me down at Leicester. It didn’t mean enough to him, that was Tom’s problem. He was still very boyish and after a poor start he wasn’t strong enough to handle the criticism, and consequently he never performed.
I think my best signing was probably Gary McAllister and Ali Mauchlen on the same day, especially when you consider what we paid for them. Gary went on to become a world class player. Ali was the makeweight in the deal but he did just as well in a different way. 
Bob Hazell was a good signing – a good example of putting a square peg in a square hole. Bob was Bob. He did a steady job as a centre-half but he also gave us good mileage as a personality. The crowd loved him. He would frighten you to death but he was a gentle giant really.  

FOX: The arrival of Bob Hazell coincided with an up turn in fortunes in 83-84 after we had got off to a terrible start….

GM: Yes it did, not bad considering we couldn’t even get a pair of shorts to fit him!
Gerry Daly, I’m struggling to remember the details of signing Gerry, but he did very well for us. He was the impetus for that run that saw us get promoted. You know at that time with Gary Lineker and Alan Smith and Stevie Lynex we never had a problem scoring goals. You’d think at the start of the season well Gary will get 25 and Smudger will be good for 20 and Stevie Lynex could get 12 so you had almost 60 goals before you’d started! You knew you’d be at the right end of the table, but it was Gerry who pulled it altogether.

 FOX: Can you remember why he didn’t sign permanently for us that Summer?

GM: I think he got a very good offer from somewhere, I can’t recall where he went.
When you look at players today I don’t think there is anyone in this league better than Gerry. 

FOX: We just mentioned the 1983-84 season back in the First Division when the side got two points out of the first 30. How do you keep the players going during times like that, because it then turned round spectacularly…

GM: I remember it wasn’t easy. The knives were out for me and everyone was thinking it was time for a change. I remember being at Villa Park where we had just lost and I was in the car park and a load of fans were having a go at me thorough those big railings they used to have there. I went over and spoke to them about the situation, explaining what we were trying to do. But it was rocky for a while.
Once the supporters start to lose the belief that can affect the players and it gets where you can’t see a way out. But they just dug in, you know, and we saved the situation. Maybe it was something like signing Bob when we did. Who knows what turns it round sometimes.
I remember Ronnie Allen at Coventry saying: “You’ve got to give the fans hope.” Big Tommy Hutchinson was the sort of player who did that. He would beat four players then decide not to cross it, then lose it, then get it back and beat four again. It must have been frustrating for the strikers who played with him, but the fans loved him.
I still think that is true to this day. As a fan going to the game, you have to have somebody that you like to watch, especially if the team aren’t too good. Someone who can do something to make your trip worthwhile.  
But at that time it was strange because we went from losing all the bloody time to a great run where I really couldn’t see anyone beating us. I didn’t want that season to end.

FOX: There was a 3-3 draw at home to Liverpool late on in that season and Bob Paisley was very complimentary about us… 

GM: Yes, it was a fantastic game, I remember. We were going into those games against the top sides thinking that we were going to get a result.

FOX: If we could just go back to the promotion the year before, what do you remember of the delay when Fulham decided to appeal because of the pitch invasion at Derby?

GM: I can remember everyone celebrating in the dressing room and then suddenly somebody coming in and saying the game at Derby is still going on. Then it came through that the Fulham manager Malcolm MacDonald was going to protest to the League. I remember thinking: “Oh Christ Almighty!” We took the team off to Majorca I think, and it we were out there when the news broke that they’d given up their appeal.
What had really worried me was that if the League decided to replay the game it was then out of our hands. We couldn’t beat Burnley on the last game of the season, talk about not having a problem scoring goals, but we couldn’t get one that day. I felt like that was one of the days when they froze a little bit.

 FOX: 29,000 turned out for that one when earlier in the season we got just over 6,000 for a league game…

GM: Yes, I remember walking through the car park before the game at around half eleven and there was a huge queue that went past the player’s entrance. As I excused myself through the queue I said to this chap: “This is a bit more like it isn’t it?” and he said: “I don’t know I’ve never been here before.”
But that’s what happens. 

FOX: You had a very special striker at the club at that time in Gary Lineker, did you see the signs then of what he would go on to achieve?

GM: Well he was just beginning really. The thing that first struck me about him was that he used to fall over a lot. Every time he turned his legs would get tangled up and over he’d go. It was a case of working on his control, because that was a bit loose and a ball played into him could pop off him. In his make up then that world class player was in there, but we had to work on making him a part of a team. Smudger was better at keeping the ball and holding it up, he had a good touch for a big feller.
There was no point really trying to turn Gary into an Alan Shearer type who could hold the ball up and shield it, instead we had to work on players getting the ball into areas where he wanted it. Gary was always very focussed on what he wanted to do. Even as a young lad he’d say: “No, I don’t want to do that.” I think Graham Taylor had a bit of a problem with him for England like that. You had to give him his head and come up with a system that suited him, without making it look as though you were doing him a favour in front of the other players. You had to provide the ammunition and the decoys for him. But I thought Gary and Smudger were a great partnership. Of course Gary went to Everton and Smudger went to Arsenal, but with Gary it was touch and go. I think if there had been a bit more cash around and I could have sat him down and said, “Right, we’re going to do this and we’re going to do that…” I think we might have been able to keep him for another year or two. Obviously he wouldn’t have stayed forever. I thought that if I had been the manager of Liverpool or a club like that I would have taken the two of them together. They had such a good understanding I think they could have taken it to a higher level. People didn’t realise quite how good they were, because Gary was only a year at Everton and then he moved on to Barcelona. The two of them were a fantastic combination. They were good characters and they respected one another.  

FOX: Was it frustrating being the manager of what was undoubtedly a selling club at that time?

GM: Well, I was used to it because we had the same thing at Coventry where we were producing a lot of good young players and every year we were losing one. But that was the nature of the business then. I had Jimmy Hill as chairman then and I think he was one of the best chairmen you could ever hope to work for. He would say to me in the summer: “Look, this is what we’re doing, it might affect the team, but this is what we’re doing.” In a way that was him admitting that it was hard for me to lose good players and keep coming up with the results which took a little bit of pressure off from above.
At Leicester it was more of the same. You had a good relationship with players and what are you going to do? Tell Gary Lineker he can’t move to Everton or Alan Smith he can’t go to Arsenal? As an ex-player myself I would have made those kind of moves because you want the best for your career. We were getting very low gates and it was difficult to say to them, “We’re going places.”
That is why surviving that 83-84 season was so vital to us because if we had gone back down again we would have lost them. You can keep them if they know they will be playing Liverpool and Manchester United and we are up with the big boys.
But you know it was inevitable that we would lose them at some stage. It is even worse now with freedom of contract.
At least if we stayed up I could build something over two or three seasons. Work out a plan. I don’t think you can do that as a manager now, I think you just have to plan for the coming season and you can’t look any further than that.
I used to think at the end of the season: “Right, if we can hold on to our best players and maybe get a couple more key players in then we’ll really be competing.” But in the end we couldn’t do that and it was a bit disappointing.

Photos: Neville Chadwick Photography – enquires: info@chadwicksphoto.co.uk

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Filbert St Memories – Duck, Simmo, Larry and Me…

Another piece from the Filbert Street Memories series, this one from The FOX No 108 October 2001 by Jackie Guaccomole…

Duck, Simmo, Larry and Me (The Day I Nearly Died)…

I was in my early teens and my Grandad and Dad were taking me to a lot of the matches. I loved going to footy with me Grandad.
“Always use you initiative son, always use your initiative.” he’d say.
I was never really sure what this meant until I found out that it meant me sneaking down to the front of the long queue and striking up a conversation with someone so we didn’t have to wait so long….
”Excuse me, what time is it, do you reckon we will win today?”
Eventually my Grandad would sidle down the line to join me in the friendly banter with the bloke at the front of the queue. Everyone else thought we were all together and made space for us. My Grandad never queued for nowt as along as I was around.
I remember this day well because it was Duck’s first ever footy match. He was a couple of years younger than me. Grandad and I had invited him along with us and my other mate Simmo, who was the village gang leader. He was a bit older than me but I considered myself the oldest and wisest where football was concerned.
It was Chelsea at home, Saturday 5^th April 1980. A promotion battle on a sunny afternoon and we were all really looking forward to it. Simmo and me were really winding Duck up in the car on the way to the ground. Telling him all about the trouble and the fighting at footy matches and how frightening it was. The poor lad was cacking it by the time we got to Filbert Street. My Grandad lead us in and we took up our positions at the front of the white wall near the Kop end of the old Main Stand Enclosure. The atmosphere was intense and we’d only been in there five minutes when it became clear that there was major trouble kicking off in the Kop pens.
Of course, Simmo and me acted all hard, telling Duck that we would have gone in that end if it wasn’t for having Grandad with us. The poor lad was shaking by now and I offered him an Embassy to calm his nerves. I don’t think it helped much!
As the roves of the burger bars in Pens 3 and 4 were ripped off and thrown down on to the crowd in the Kop I realised that this was going to be a new experience in my short footballing life. Never before had I seen trouble like this at Filbert Street. It seemed to be ongoing and looking back I don’t recall many police being involved. It was more just the two sets of fans marauding through the Kop like whirling dervishes. Once the game had started I don’t remember a lot else happening. Perhaps it had quietened down, or perhaps I’d adjusted to the hostile atmosphere. I know Duck was struggling to get into the experience.
Anyway… ONE-NIL! As Larry May’s header crashed into the back of the net the whole of Filbert Street erupted into celebration. It was pure elation initially, but that soon changed to sheer panic as a group of Chelsea supporters stormed our section of the crowd from the rear.
At some point in the next few minutes I remember looking for my granddad and seeing bloke with his face slashed all down one side.
The surge forward became stronger and stronger, and we were becoming crushed against the wall. I remember waves of fear and excitement shooting through my body, the screaming of adults behind me getting louder and louder and more dreamlike, and then everything went quiet.
I needed to concentrate because we were in trouble. I managed to grab Duck and shove him over the wall but Simmo and I were stuck fast. Kids were being pulled out of the crush and people were screaming for the crowd to go back, but it wasn’t. If anything the pressure on my legs and hips was becoming even greater. Simmo was next to be dragged out and he and Duck tried to pull me free but there was no chance.l I was stuck fast and getting more and more worried about where the f*** Grandad was. There was something ripping into my leg stopping me from sliding out to safety and the pain in my leg was getting worse with every crush. I don’t know how long it took to get out and I don’t really know what I felt at that point. I knew I was wedged on some kind of bolt sticking out of the wall and if I couldn’t get clear of it then I was in serious trouble, perhaps even dead. F***ing dead? Me? F*** that! I don’t know what did it. I think the crowd eased just a bit for a second and as they did I wrenched my leg free and my mates pulled me out and I slid down on to the Filbert Street turf. Within a split second my whole world changed. I remember the difference between feeling completely on my own, slowly being crushed, not really aware of anything else around me, then as I was pulled free, this cacophony of sound and blue and white exploded all around me. I went from one extreme to another in that short pull to safety. One of the clearest memories I have is of being on the pitch for the first time ever and the pride I felt. I was on the Filbert Street pitch… on a Saturday afternoon… With all the players!… I grabbed a handful of hallowed grass and rejoiced. It was at that point that Jock Wallace came and bundled us all back into the enclosure saying that we needed to win this game and if we didn’t clear the pitch it would be called off. Of course we did what Jock said. I mean, at least the man was pushing us back in himself, he hadn’t sent any Tom, Dick or Harry to do it. We managed to find Grandad again and he was okay to our relief.
There were a couple more points in the match were we spilled out onto the pitch again, but that was more down to nerves and the fact that as soon as we felt a surge starting again we’d all hop over the wall to safety. No way were we getting crushed again.
That was, and still is, a massive day in my footballing life. I don’t think Duck ever went to another game and also it was the first game we ever left early… as we walked out of the ground and down the empty streets to the car part of me was saddened that we hadn’t stayed to see the end.
From that moment on I knew I was hooked for life.

Unsung Heroes: Tina the Oddfellows Barmaid

Here’s to those who do a damn fine job, whatever their vocation.
Tina slaved away behind the bar at Oddfellows in Watford on Saturday serving up beer to hundreds of gradually more leery Leicester City fans, stopping only for the occasional group photo.
I hope the landlord pays her well.
If anyone has any more photos of her we require them for research purposes…