Fulham Match of My Life

Michael Heatley

Description

Fifteen Fulham legends come together to tell the stories behind their favourite ever games for the club - enabling Cottagers fans of all ages to relive these magic moments through the eyes and emotions of the men who were there, playing their hearts out for the white shirt...John Mitchell and Les Strong recall 1975 FA Cup heroics, recounting stories of overturning Birmingham City in the semi-final before facing West Ham at Wembley as Second Division underdogs; George Cohen waxes lyrical about an eight-goal semi-final against Manchester United in 1958. Rodney McAree opts for the goal at Carlisle in 1997 that started Fulham's climb from the basement to the Premier League - while Simon Davies nominates the Europa League Final. Craven Cottage greats Steve Earle, Ray Lewington and Danny Murphy also turn in characteristic star performances, winding back the clock to relive treasured memories of the Match of Their Lives for Fulham.

Sujets

• Gran Londres
• Greater London
• Grand Londres
• London

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781909178120
• Langue: English

Extrait

This edition first published by Pitch Publishing 2012
Pitch Publishing A2 Yeoman Gate Yeoman Way Durrington BN13 3QZ www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
© Michael Heatley 2012
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.
ISBN 978-1-909178-12-0
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Acknowledgements
THANKS TO DENNIS Turner, former programme editor of legend, whose name appears on every club history book of note and whose wise counsel is forever appreciated. Likewise Ken Coton, the even more legendary club photographer for so many years without whose work no Fulham tome would be complete.
Thanks also go to Carmelo Mifsud at Fulham Football Club.
Thumbs-up to Martin Plumb, who put us in touch with Steve Earle, Alex White, and Hammersmith-Enders Drew, Joe, Gavin and Paul.
Finally, a big thank you to the players we featured, whose time and cooperation was given in every case without mention of personal reward. We hope we’ve done you and your memories justice.
Contents
FOREWORD by Johnny Haynes
INTRODUCTION by Michael Heatley
1. TOSH CHAMBERLAIN v Newcastle United FA Cup fourth round, January 1956
2. GEORGE COHEN v Manchester United FA Cup semi-final, March 1958
3. STEVE EARLE v Northampton Town League Division One, April 1966
4. JOHN MITCHELL v Birmingham City FA Cup semi-final, April 1975
5. LES STRONG v West Ham United FA Cup Final, May 1975
6. GORDON DAVIES v Birmingham City League Division Two, August 1979
7. ROGER BROWN v Lincoln City League Division Three, May 1982
8. RAY LEWINGTON v Wolverhampton Wanderers League Division Two, November 1982
9. JIM STANNARD v Luton Town League Cup first round, August 1994
10. RODNEY MCAREE v Carlisle United League Division Three, April 1997
11. SIMON MORGAN v Aston Villa FA Cup fourth round, January 1999
12. SEAN DAVIS v Blackburn Rovers League Division One, April 2001
13. LEE CLARK v Manchester United FA Premier League, October 2003
14. DANNY MURPHY v Portsmouth FA Premier League, May 2008
15. SIMON DAVIES v Atletico Madrid Europa League Final, May 2010

Foreword
by Johnny Haynes
GOALS, ATMOSPHERE, INTENSITY, rivalry, giant-killings; just some of the ingredients of a truly great football match, and at Fulham there have been many. Naturally, it ’s thrilling to win by a big margin, but a flood of goals isn’t a prerequisite for a classic encounter. For me, nothing beats a game hanging in the balance until the dying seconds especially when it’s a cup tie or a promotion decider. The significance of a single strike can be enough to etch a game into history forever.
The Cup semi-finals of 1975, Lincoln in ‘82 - so much was at stake and yet these games could have gone either way. That’s what had fans on the edge of their seats and forged such indelible memories. When the whistle blows and you’ve won, there’s nothing quite like it. When you’re on the losing side, it’s a bitter pill to swallow. Either way, being part of such classics - for player and fan alike - is a special and unique experience
But games can be classics for a variety of reasons. The prospect of relegation has the capacity to create drama to rival the glory of cups and promotion. Sometimes the most highly-billed games are nothing but an anti-climax with each side so fearful of defeat. Conversely, a game with nothing more riding on it than three simple points can be unexpectedly propelled to the stuff of legend.
I was fortunate enough to have been involved in some incredible clashes during my time at Fulham. Newcastle in the cup in 1956, the famous semi-finals against Manchester United in 1958, the great escape at Northampton in 1966 - they are just three included in this fantastic collection in which I’m proud to have played a part. The Newcastle game lurched from one extreme to the other as we turned a 3-0 deficit into a 4-3 lead before their two late goals knocked us out. Against Manchester United at Villa Park in ‘58 we were a goal down and had clawed our way back to 2-1 before Bobby Charlton equalised to force a replay. At Northampton in ‘66 we came back from behind twice to win 4-2 and stave off relegation. The vivid memory of those occasions will stay with me forever.
Match of My Life brings together accounts of twelve legendary Fulham games from the last six decades, as told by those individual players whose names have become synonymous with each occasion. From my old friends Tosh Chamberlain, George Cohen and Steve Earle, via the likes of Les Strong, Gordon Davies and Roger Brown, to the more recent generation of Lee Clark and Sean Davis, this collection of stories will provide readers with a unique player’s-eye view of events that have gone down in Fulham folklore.
I feel immensely proud of my 20 years at Fulham Football Club and I am delighted to introduce this book. There is no better way to document such significant episodes in the history of English football’s most unique institution
Johnny Haynes
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This foreword was written for the book’s first edition in 2005. The Maestro, who died that same year, preferred to praise others than have his own greatest game recorded, so we have retained his words in tribute to Fulham’s greatest ever player.
Introduction
THE HOME-SPUN, olde-worlde virtues of Fulham Football Club have been appreciated by relatively few when measured against a Manchester United or a Liverpool – but those who have enjoyed life by the Thames have included players as well as supporters. Tosh Chamberlain, George Cohen and foreword writer Johnny Haynes were all one-club men, Jim Stannard and Gordon Davies returned to the fold after stints elsewhere, while Ray Lewington liked the Cottage so much he returned twice since his initial spell – firstly as player-manager and then as a member of the coaching staff.
Why do they, and we, love Fulham? Is it the picturesque Craven Cottage and its unique location – or something more? The word you may be looking for was coined by the club as its telegram address (and if you remember what a telegram is you’re as old as I am!). Fulhamish has since entered the vernacular as a kind of all-encompassing adjective to cover the club’s unorthodox and often frustrating progress. So it is with Fulhamish pleasure that we include Les Strong’s account of the 1975 Cup Final as the Match of his Life, even though injury prevented him from playing in it!
Then we wanted Alan Mullery, the man whose name was indelibly painted on a Stevenage Road wall in most un-Fulhamish fashion, to tell us one of his stories, but, though willing, a forthcoming autobiography precluded his participation.
Also, Rodney McAree, the Irishman who scored the goal that gave Fulham the first of their promotions at Carlisle in 1997 under Micky Adams, was impossible to get hold of until after the first edition’s deadline had passed. He now makes his well deserved appearance alongside ‘new boys’ Danny Murphy and Simon Davies.
The nature of players’ memories tend to vary according to era and viewpoint. Many games chose themselves, either for a particular individual’s performance or the fixture’s relevance to Fulham history. While Gordon ‘Ivor’ Davies proudly chooses his first career hat-trick, the club was still relegated that season in Fulhamish fashion. But Steve Earle, whose account highlights the awe in which teenage players like himself viewed the Robsons and Haynes’, overlooks his five goals against Halifax in favour of saving Fulham from top-flight disaster at Northampton in 1966 – ensuring George Cohen could look his World Cup team-mates in the eye a few months later!
Ray Lewington pinpoints a mid-1980s match which, though it will never loom large in the histories of either ourselves or Wolves, gave him the first inspiration to pursue a managerial career thanks to the tactical acumen of coach Ray Harford, while team-mate Roger Brown (who has sadly passed away since the first edition) goes for the game that saw Fulham pack the Cottage with over 20,000 people to see them promoted to the Second Division under Malcolm Macdonald in 1982. His blood and guts performance that kept promotion rivals Lincoln down led to a memorable dressing-room photo which says almost as much as the words…
The Cup Final campaign of 1975 provides not one but two interviews, and for that we make no apology. Fulham are probably the only club who would play a 25th anniversary game to celebrate a defeat, and until the recent rocket through the divisions fuelled by chairman Mohamed Al Fayed’s munificence, the Wembley showpiece was still the abiding memory of most fans of middle age or above.
My elder son saw his first game against Barnet in 1995, age eight, but has since seen Rooney, Lampard, Henry and Owen regularly strutting their stuff at the Cottage – a stunning transformation in a decade. Since the first edition, Fulham fans and players have flirted with relegation from the top flight – a ‘great escape’ recounted here by Danny Murphy, scorer of the crucial goal – and enjoyed European fame as one of the teams in the first ever Europa League Final. Simon Davies gives the inside story of the long and tortuous campaign that led to the so nearly glorious game in Hamburg in 2010.
The interviews contained herein were the product of a team covering every era of Fulham support over the last half-century. Chris Mason first came to the Cottage in 1951 and was programme editor for a couple of seasons, while I (born 1955) was unfortunate enough to miss Johnny Haynes