90 Minutes from Europe

Simon Turner

Description

It was the summer of 1983. Walsall were preparing for another season in the Third Division when British Airways' advertising people got in touch. The airline were embarking on an innovative promotional campaign and needed the club's help. To show how quickly continental cities could be reached from regional airports, they wanted to feature the team beneath the banner, 'They're only 90minutes away from a place in Europe'. Walsall were the only league club in the West Midlands never to have taken part in a European competition, and even their most ardent supporters didn't expect that to change any time soon. As the new season started, Walsall looked set for relegation, but they soon embarked on a League Cup campaign that saw them defeat Arsenal, stun Liverpool and come closer to reaching Europe than anyone would have dared imagine. Based on interviews with the players and management team from that fondly remembered side, 90 Minutes from Europe is an underdog story to lift the spirits and inspire us all.

Sujets

• Midlands Occidentales
• West Midlands
• Warwickshire
• Midlands de l'Ouest

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 14 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781801502320
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2022
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Simon Turner, 2022
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A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781785318740
eBook ISBN 9781801502320
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The Odd Couple
2. Hearts and Minds
3. Flirting with Disaster
4. Distant Glances
5. Conquest
6. Thrill of the Chase
7. Climax
8. Valentine s Day
9. Cold Feet
10. Separate Lives
Photos
This book is dedicated to my mother, who never complained when my father went to watch Walsall play Liverpool on her birthday, and then again a week later on Valentine s Day
If you do not hope, you will not find what is beyond your hopes
Clement of Alexandria
Acknowledgements
FIRST AND foremost, I must thank the participants in this story, not only for generously giving their time to be interviewed, but also for creating memories that shall last a lifetime. Those who witnessed their triumphs will never forget them, while hopefully this book will help others to appreciate what they achieved. Along the way, I received vital assistance in tracking them down, with thanks due to Olly Beckett, David Evans and Luke Summerfield. I must show my gratitude to Walsall Football Club for their support and to the Express Star for giving permission to reprint their photographs. I would also like to thank Jim Davies at the British Airways Speedbird Heritage Centre for providing a copy of the iconic 90 minutes from Europe poster and for giving permission to reproduce it. Likewise, I would like to acknowledge Lennard Associates Ltd for kindly giving permission to use extracts from Tony Woodcock s book Inside Soccer (Queen Anne Press, 1985). Paul and Jane at Pitch Publishing have been as supportive as ever, while Duncan Olner has produced yet another vivid cover design. Finally, a word for my wife, Val, whose tolerance for the time I spend on my literary efforts seems to show no bounds. I shall put the laptop down one day, I promise!
Introduction
SMALL TOWN in Poland. You re just a small town in Poland.
Yes, all Walsall fans have heard that chant at one time or another. Perhaps it s our accent that causes all the confusion. Having spent many years working and travelling across the country, I can attest to the depressing fact that many people don t know where Walsall actually is. So, if you fall into that category, let me help you out. Basically, if you re coming up from London, it s next on the right after Birmingham, whereas if you re descending from the north, it s left after passing Wolverhampton. To be honest, you ve probably already seen the club s current stadium without realising. It s right next to a notoriously congested section of the M6, situated underneath one of Europe s largest advertising hoardings. To the untrained eye, it looks like a gigantic sign with a small football ground appended, though it really is the other way around. Trust me.
Like the town it represents, Walsall Football Club deserves to be better known than it is. Formed in 1888, it was one of the game s pioneers and a founder member of the Football League s Second Division. At the time of the club s birth, many of the modern game s giants didn t even exist. It would be another four years before Liverpool were formed, while a further decade would elapse before Manchester United played their first fixture, and by the time Chelsea came into being, Walsall were about to embark on adulthood. Nicknamed after the booming local leather trade, the Saddlers initially failed to make much of a mark. They finished 12th in the inaugural season of the Second Division in 1892, which would appear respectable but for the fact that only 12 teams competed in it. That rather set the tone for what would come over the following decades, with the club eventually dropping out of the league and not returning until the creation of the Third Division in 1921.
The 1930s witnessed one of the club s finest moments, when they caused perhaps the greatest FA Cup shock of all time by knocking out Herbert Chapman s all-conquering Arsenal. It was a moment of true glory, but alas only a moment. After the Second World War, Saddlers fans had to endure the worst period in the club s history. They finished bottom of the Third Division (South) for three consecutive seasons between 1952 and 1954, and only one place higher in 1955. During those four campaigns the club lost almost two-thirds of the matches they played and conceded 385 goals. Thankfully, other clubs continued to re-elect Walsall to the Football League, though presumably that was only because it almost guaranteed them four points a season. No doubt the club s location in the heart of England also counted in their favour, given their ability to help make the numbers add up in the regionalised Third Division without too much of a fuss.
Eventually, the team s form improved and a rare spell in the sun ensued, with the Fourth Division title won in 1960, followed by a runners-up finish in the Third Division a year later. Walsall had never won promotion in their history but suddenly, like the proverbial buses, two triumphs came along almost at once. The club s first season in the Second Division for 60 years was a thrilling ride, with fixtures played against Brian Clough s Sunderland, Bill Shankly s Liverpool and Don Revie s Leeds United. Those men may have been bound for greater things but, sadly, the Saddlers weren t. They soon returned to the Third Division, embarking on a long, almost uninterrupted, spell there which encompasses the era that is the subject of this book.
I became a Walsall fan a season or two before the events set out over the following pages unfolded. In researching this period of the club s history, I have remembered many events that I had forgotten, as well as unearthed a host of things I never previously knew. Chief amongst these is that two players from that great, much-loved Saddlers side only lived a couple of streets away from me at the time. I had absolutely no idea they were so close at hand. I may even have delivered their newspapers. An incident that I do recall from the early 1980s is when my father came home from work one day, brandishing a letter in his hand before showing it to me with great amusement. He worked for the local council, and they had been sent a letter addressed to one of the key government institutions in communist Warsaw, so clearly even the international postal community thought our hometown was located somewhere in Poland
Anyway, this is the tale of how a much-ridiculed football club finally put Walsall on the map, and in doing so came within a hair s breadth of being able to take the continent by storm. For those who remember it, reminisce with joy. For those who don t, sit back and uncover one of football s most romantic stories.
Chapter 1
The Odd Couple
IN THE space of less than a year, two men walked through the doors at Walsall Football Club for the first time. One was a balding local businessman, the other a young, flaxen-haired striker determined to make his mark on the game. Few could have predicted that together they would dominate the club s fortunes for more than a decade, building teams that lived long in the memory and propelled the club to undreamt of heights. The older man soon developed an undeniable soft spot for the goalscoring youngster, who in turn grew to have a grudging respect for his inscrutable, often crafty superior. Despite being quite different characters, they cultivated a relationship, which though occasionally acrimonious, was built on genuine affection. The two men were Ken Wheldon and Alan Buckley: the proverbial odd couple.
Wheldon was the first to arrive, taking over as chairman just before Christmas 1972. The club that he now presided over was not in the best of health, with its new owner describing it as wrapped in waste paper and tied up with string . He wasn t wrong. The set of financial statements for the period prior to him taking charge reported that the club had a bank overdraft of almost 42,000 and loans totalling over 60,000, while the opposite side of the balance sheet showed they had just 176 in cash. Not only was the club being kept alive by its benefactors, its team was in the middle of a seven-game winless run, while its chief administrator, who had been there for almost 40 years, was gravely ill in hospital. If all that weren t enough, the club was already on its second manager of the campaign, and there would be a third before it was over. Eventually, the Saddlers managed to limp home in 17th place in the Third Division, which given how turbulent a season it had been, was widely viewed as a success.
The man who took it upon himself to sort this mess out had made his money from scrap metal before turning his attentions to football. Ken Wheldon was a diminutive, dapper figure, rarely seen without a tie and smart three-piece suit. His shiny dome, circular face and deep-set eyes reminded one of a ten-pin bowling ball, with only his thin moustache detracting from the image. The street-smart local businessman would never become a particularly well-