From Ronnie Radford to Roger Osborne

Matthew Eastley

Description

There was a time, not so long ago, when the FA Cup really mattered. Fans went to extraordinary lengths for tickets, and the whole nation seemed to stop for a football. From Ronnie Radford to Roger Osborne arrays the amazing first-hand stories of the fans inside Wembley - tales of love, tragedy, kinship and loyalty.

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing
• Date de parution: 28 avril 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781909626737
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2014 Pitch Publishing A2 Yeoman Gate Yeoman Way Durrington BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Matthew Eastley, 2014
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 978 1 90962 645 4
eBook ISBN: 978 1 90962 673 7
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chelsea v Leeds United 11 April 1970
Chelsea v Leeds United (replay) 29 April 1970
Arsenal v Liverpool 8 May 1971
Leeds United v Arsenal 6 May 1972
Sunderland v Leeds United 5 May 1973
Liverpool v Newcastle United 4 May 1974
West Ham United v Fulham 3 May 1975
Southampton v Manchester United 1 May 1976
Manchester United v Liverpool 21 May 1977
Ipswich Town v Arsenal 6 May 1978
Arsenal v Manchester United 12 May 1979
This book is dedicated to the
memory of
Derek Hamersley

25 June 1958 to 22 April 1975
Acknowledgements
H UNDREDS of people were kind enough to share their memories with me during the research of this book. I would like to say how grateful I am to everyone who responded with such enthusiasm to my requests for help. I would like to extend special thanks to the following people - the brackets indicate which team they support: Ray Ashworth (Leeds), Ian Brunton (Manchester United), Bernie Butt (Arsenal), John Cross (Ipswich), George Forster (Sunderland), Dean Goodman (Arsenal), Mick Gorman RIP (Manchester United), Rosemary Gorman, Peter Hamersley (West Ham), Mick Kelly (Arsenal), Ray Leonard (Sunderland), Carole Parkhouse (Leeds), Mike Paxton (Newcastle), Tony Ryan (Manchester United), Jeanette Sutton (Sunderland), Derek Thornton (Newcastle), Jeff Van Doom (Chelsea), Steve Van Doorn (Chelsea), Les Wake (Leeds), Chris Wood (Liverpool), Emilio Zorlakki (Arsenal).
Big thanks also go to Dave Barber at the Football Association, the brilliant football reporter Ken Jones, formerly of the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and the Independent newspapers, as well as the following fans: George Ackinlose (Newcastle), Malcolm Adams (Millwall), Colin Appleby (Newcastle), Kevin Appleby (Newcastle), John Archer (Newcastle), Roy Arrigon (Arsenal), Ken Banham (Arsenal), Di Betts (Arsenal), Joe Blake (Newcastle), Stephen Blank (Manchester United), Peter Boyle (Manchester United), Dave Bowman (Sunderland), Alan Brabon (Newcastle), Geoff Buffey (Newcastle), Phil Carmichael (Newcastle), John Carrick (Newcastle), Frank Cozens (Newcastle), Peter Darby (Manchester United), Richard Davis (Arsenal), Paul Devine (Ipswich), David Dickie (Newcastle), John Doyle (Newcastle), Ken Dyer (Ipswich), Chris Eaton (Arsenal), Wendy Edgar (Kilmarnock), Stu Eglon (Newcastle), Alan Findley (Newcastle), John Foley (Chelsea), John Gateshill (Newcastle), Brian Gleghorn (Newcastle), Peggy Goulding (Arsenal), Andy Griffin (Newcastle), Paul Griffin (Manchester United), Dennis Guildford (Newcastle), Geoff Hall (Arsenal), Tom Hall (Arsenal), Peter Harris (Southampton), Barry Hatch (Arsenal), Michael Hoban (Manchester United), Peter Hollingworth (Arsenal), Keith Hudson (Newcastle), Gary Humphrey (Arsenal), Mick Hush (Newcastle), Rob Innis (Southampton), Damian Inwood (Chelsea), Colin Johnson (Newcastle), Colin Kriedewolf (Ipswich), Dale Lang (Newcastle), Peter Lawson (Newcastle), David Lewis (West Ham), Steve Lillico (Newcastle), Bill Lisgo (Newcastle), Paul Lockett (Manchester United), Tony Mallon (Newcastle), Niall McKenzie (Newcastle), Mick McNeill (Newcastle), Andrew McTernan (Newcastle), Alan Millen (Newcastle), Alan Mitchell (Sunderland), Jonathan Morley (Ipswich), Richard Morris (Arsenal), Layne Morrison (Newcastle), Ian Morton (Newcastle), Pauline Nicholas (Liverpool), Alan Oliver (Newcastle), Steve Oliver (Newcastle), Terry Paddison (Newcastle), Ken Parkin (Newcastle), Don Richards (Arsenal), Clive Risbridger (Southampton), Alex Royffe (Spurs), Ian Ruddick (Newcastle), Ronnie Rutter (Newcastle), Andrew Sanderson (Newcastle), Pete Sanderson (Newcastle), David Schofield (Manchester United), Liam Shannon (Newcastle), John Shelley (Newcastle), Ian Short (Manchester United), Ken Smith (Arsenal), Ian Snelling (Arsenal), Jonathan Stott (Newcastle), Graham Stubbins (Arsenal), Phil Stubbs (Leeds), Bill Tebay (Newcastle), Keith Udale (Manchester United), John Whiteoak (Newcastle), Brian Wood (Manchester United), Pete Woods (Southampton).
Thanks also to the following journalists, website owners and press officers who provided me with valuable assistance and publicity: Steve Parish, Andy Exley, Paul Chronnell, Chris Hall, Andy Philip, Brad Jones, Biffa at www.nufc.com , Barney at Red News, Philip Ham at www.twtd.co.uk , Simon Walter, Peter Blythe and Susan Swinney.
Thanks also to the staff in the central libraries at Leeds, Liverpool, Sunderland (Phil Hall), Southampton (Vicky Green), Manchester and Newcastle.
Introduction
T HE FA Cup is a shadow of its former self and especially so the FA Cup Final. It used to be a showpiece, a truly glamorous event that transcended football and stopped the nation in its tracks. It wasn t just another game. It was the biggest occasion of the domestic sporting calendar.
This book articulates this magic through the eyes of fans who were lucky to attend these famous matches which are etched in the memories of football supporters all over the globe.
It begins with the epic 1970 Chelsea v Leeds FA Cup Final, two matches which encapsulated the true drama of the competition. This book is about the 1970s, which was a particularly magical decade for the cup when the wonderful David and Goliath stories that were part of the fabric of the competition at last spread to the final itself.
Though the First Division at that time was usually fought out between Liverpool, Derby County, Nottingham Forest, Leeds United and Arsenal, for some reasons none of these top clubs were able to assert a stranglehold on the FA Cup, allowing less fashionable teams like Sunderland, Southampton, West Ham United and Ipswich Town their moment in the limelight and their fans a journey of unimaginable joy.
The stories of these successes are known by most football fans everywhere. For instance, they know that, in 1973, Sunderland produced one of the greatest shocks in FA Cup football when a goal from Ian Porterfield was enough to beat Don Revie s mighty Leeds side, or that, three years on, a late goal from Bobby Stokes gave Southampton victory over Manchester United.
But, what aren t known are the stories of the fans who were at these games. Fans who went to extraordinary lengths to get tickets for the greatest match on football s calendar, fans who defied the Football Association s unfair ticket allocation policy to watch their team at Wembley.
Mixed with news reports of the day, the television programmes that people were watching and the pop songs they were humming, this book portrays the sights and sounds of a time when the FA Cup Final was a truly unique and momentous event, watched on television not just by football fans but even by millions of people professing no love of the beautiful game. A time when the nation really did stop for a football match.
Hundreds of fans from the clubs who played in the FA Cup Final during this golden period have recounted their personal stories for this book.
They share their reaction to victory or defeat. What did those Sunderland or Southampton fans actually feel like when those goals went in?
What were Arsenal fans thinking when Charlie George s 1971 screamer hit the back of the net to clinch the double?
Because, after all, the FA Cup was, ultimately, not about the players, the managers or the dignitaries who attended, it was about the ordinary fan. The fan who followed his or her club through the good times and bad times and everything in between. For many of those fans, a Wembley FA Cup Final was the pinnacle of their football-supporting life. And many of them are able to recall it as if it were yesterday.
As Tottenham legend Danny Blanchflower once said of the FA Cup Final, The dream is not for the player, it is for the fan the lover of the game who doesn t really know what it is like out there and never will know. It is the fan s day.
In the 1980s and 1990s three factors conspired to change the complexion of the FA Cup. In the early 1980s, terrestrial television companies began tentatively screening live league and cup football matches at weekends. Then the arrival of satellite television resulted in several live matches a week, removing much of the gloss and glamour from those extremely rare matches broadcast live during the 1960s and 70s, of which the FA Cup Final was the jewel in the crown.
Then came the Premier League, which made the rich clubs richer. Winning the Premier League became the ultimate achievement and, for the big clubs, eroded their interest in winning the FA Cup, rendering it a nice-to-have rather than a must-have .
Before long, the top clubs were resting players for FA Cup matches, blooding youngsters or giving disgruntled reserves a run. This pattern reached its peak in 1999/2000 when Manchester United did not take part in the competition at all. It was the clearest signal yet that the cup was not what it was.
This book takes us back to a period of tight shorts, mutton-chop sideburns and giant-killing, played out against a backdrop of economic gloom, industrial turmoil and some great (and not so great) music and t