LAST ONES OFF THE PRODUCTION LINE

Is it 'cos I'm getting on, are more people dying? I'm older than a lot of folk, so I have been around a bit and therefore know more people, especially oldies, who saddly pass on. So today, RIP Terry Wogan, but for football's sake, RIP Peter Baker, the Spurs' modest and efficient full back who played in the Double winning team and RIP Ray Pointer, who was in the Burnley side that was the team closest to Spurs in that 1959-62 period.

Pointer was the blonde bombshell, a quick and brave centre forward, who joined the Lancashire club in 1957, and who led the line in every game for Burnley in their First Division Championship victory in 1959-60, scoring 23 times. Burnley were left in the wake of Spurs the following season, coming 4th. They were runners up to Ipswich the following season (Alf Ramsey's success), 3rd in 1962-3 and then there was mediocrity. Much of this period of success, was to do with Pointer's goals-118 in 223 appearances.

Pointer, amazingly, only played 3 times for England despite scoring in two games and he did not even make the 1962 World Cup squad. In 1963 he suffered an ankle injury and went to Bury (1965) playing alongside a youthful Colin Bell. Jimmy Hill signed Pointer for Coventry's "revolution" from 1965, he then went to Portsmouth (1966-72) and finally Waterlooville, hanging up his boots in 1975. Pointer gradually faded and ended up coaching at Blackpool, Burnley, Bury until he retired to own a shop in Blackpool and suffered from Alzheimer's spending his last years in a care home.

Another Coventry goal scorer, who has died this week, is Ken Satchwell. He passed on at 75 years old and is famed for scoring 4 goals in a 5-3 victory over Wrexham on Christmas Day (yes, 25th Dec) in 1959, the last time the club played a league match on the big day. He was only 19 years old and managed a brace of goals the following day (Boxing Day) in Division Three (now League Two).

Satchwell was quite a goal scorer and started his footballing career as an amateur working for SU Carburettors and playing for their works' side at first. After Coventry 1959-62) he went onto Nuneaton Borough, Telford, Walsall, Wellington Town and Stourbridge, ending up on the shop floor again with British Leyland and for Land Rover at Solihull. Coincidently, this week the last Land Rover "Defender" rolled off the production line at the Land Rover car plant Solihull! Would have been more of a coincidence if it had been called an "Attacker"

SIX OF THE BEST BUT NOT ENOUGH

As Tottenham have avoided the embarrassment of being beaten by Colchester and Portmouth and Bournemouth are facing up to one another, it is the Fourth round of the FA Cup. As snow and hail fall over the Pennines, some games are in doubt of finishing. In 1961 during a Fourth Round tie on January 28th an abandonment prevented Dennis Law from registering a record personal goal feat.

Playing on a very wet Kenilworth Road, Luton Town were taking on Manchester City on a quagmire. The clouds cleared and the ref gave the game his blessing and so Luton quickly went 2-0 up after 18 minutes. Alec Ashworth scored both.

Dennis Law pulled one back quite quickly and by half time he had tucked away a hat trick. Three more for City's wirey forward came in the second half, between the 51st and 66th minutes. Seconds later, unfortunately for him, Law's record meant nothing, as the referee abandoned the game with rain falling in a torrent and the pitch reduced to a swamp.

Had this game finished, Law would have been the FA Cup leading scorer in the 20th Century. As it was Ian Rush pipped him with 44 goals scored with Liverpool 39, Chester 4 and Newcastle 1.

There were puddles, with water over the boots and it was decided to play the game four days later, on February 1st. The pitch this time was described as a "pudding" but home team Luton adjusted and Alec Ashworth, who had scored two in the first match, opened the scoring for the Hatters. They went 2-0 up again. Law grabbed one back, but Ashworth was having none of that and he made it 3-1.

Luton went on to lose to Barnsley, in the next round, who then lost to losing cup finalists Leicester City, who were beaten by Spurs of course, who did the Double.

COLONIA CASTRA CUCKOOS v COCKERELS?

It is the Fourth Round of the FA Cup tomorrow and I have two interests in Colchester United and many in the Tottenham Hotspur party. But I am not going to bang on about Tottenham being beaten by the Old Carrthusians all those years ago, or the fact that I saw the famed "Double" team play at White Hart Lane in 1960-1, or that a very kind OC arranged for the Spurs Vets (Ralph Coates and all) to play at Charterhouse against a mixed XI of staff, old boys and boys or that my good colleague Bob Noble, a Baggies fan, arranged a miracle retirement match for me at WHL with the great help of my successor at Charterhouse, David Howells, a Spurs' legend.

No, it is Colchester United that I am interested in. Their manager is Kevin Keen, whom I coached many years ago, when he was playing for English Schools' FA Under 18s, prior to signing professional forms at West Ham. He was a treasure and one of the brightest kids, signing forms for Wycombe Wanderers at 15 years and 209 days, in September 1982, the youngest player ever to do this. His father was Mike Keen, a professional and well respected coach, so he had a good upbringing. Kevin went on the play over 500 professional games at West Ham United (10 years), Wolverhampton Wanderers, Stoke City and was player then care-taker manager for Macclesfield and West Ham in the Football League before nestling down at Colchester in 2015.

The other link is Chris Porter, an Independent School footballer, who played against Charterhouse in the Boodles' ISFA Cup tournament in 1999-2000 for his Lancashire school, Queen Elizabeth's GS, Blackburn. We beat them! Porter did score a winning ISFA Cup Final goal against Brentwood School the following year. He joined Bury, Oldham, Motherwell, Derby County in 2009 and then Sheffield United appearing in the League One play offs. He was loaned out to Shrewsbury and finally Colchester.

So the ko is tomorrow at 12.45 at the Community Stadium, at Cuckoo Farm, a ground that has just over 10,000 capacity and was opened in 2008. Founded only in 1937 as Colchester United, the club grew out of the original "town team", Colchester Town, which eventually was disbanded. It was not until 1950 that United left the Southern League to rise to the Football League proper.

A great success include beating Don Revie's Leeds Utd in 1971, in the FA Cup and their worst failure probably being relegated to the Conference in 1990, but returning to the FL in 1992 and League One most recently. Ken Aston, one of the country's best known referees, came from the town.

FROM RUBBER AND LACE, GREAT TEAMS ARE MADE

A random book opening today (The Fathers of Football by Keith Baker-a Christmas present) led me to Alfred Ormonde Edwards, who was born in 1850 in Llanfair, Shropshire. If you look back in the blogs to Saturday 16th January, I watched Porthmadog comfortably beat Llanfair United  in the Huw Gray Welsh Alliance. It is too much of a coincidence that this was Edwards' home village because there are at least twelve "Llanfairs" listed in the UK, Edwards was born in the Shropshire Llanfair, whereas there are others including "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch".

In the 1870s, our Alfred left England for Italy and eventually established a partnership with the Pirelli Tyre industry (avid readers will remember I wrote about Kettering Tyres recently). With the need for rubber goods, wire coating and then the growth of the car and bicycle industry, Edwards made a fortune and built a factory on the edge of Milan. Milan was booming too and so Edwards soon became part of Milan society and the British Government recognised his value as an entrepreneur, so he became Her Majesty's vice-consul in 1893. The Genoa Club had also been formed around this time.

Edwards built tourist resorts on the lsle of Ischia and gained a reputation as a father figure, "Papa Edwards". He helped form a sporting club for the many international workers that were attracted to Italy. The Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club was founded to entertain the locals, covering both seasons! Edwards remained as President of the club until 1909. He eventually returned to Southampton with Pirelli's interests at heart and opened a factory there.

Another young Briton making his way in Italy, was Herbert Kilpin, a lace maker and former Nottingham Olympic (a local club in Nottingham not the great sporting festival!) footballer. By 1891, aged 21,  he was in Turin, playing for Internazionale Torino, reputedly the first club in Italy (the Genoans would argue not). Edoardo Bosio, an English merchant, had formed the Turin club in 1887. Kilpin brought the English style of play to the club, something that was alien to the Italians, who originally played football in a gymnastic style, dandy like and seemingly only doing it for fresh air purposes! Kilpin introduce the English method.

He worked in the lace industry, there but having tried to generate a winning philosophy in the Turin club, he moved to Milan in 1897 and by 1906 the club, AC Milan, won its first league title. The original pitch, Trotter Field, on Milan's race course, was located in the north-east of the city, where now Mussolini's Central Station stands. Nearby was a local technical college from which enthusiastic students came and joined in. By 1900 the club's first competitive game took place, the team containing six British players. A few months later they beat Juventus winning the "King's Medal" trophy, presented by King Umberto I. From that time onward, Milan never looked back. Their colours were chosen by the club founders; "Red to recall the devil and Black to invoke fear".

Whilst these Englishmen have great memorials in Italy, they are barely mentioned in England. The FA's archives state: "Genoa's greatest rival was the Milan Cricket and Football Club, now the great AC Milan. Its first president was a British businessman, "Papa" Edwards !!"

Where have we heard that before?

PUSH AND RUN; TOTALLY GREAT FOOTBALL

http://thesefootballtimes.co/2015/01/15/vic-buckingham-the-englishman-history-forgot/

This is worth reading! if you want to reminisce, it is good for you.
Vick Buckingham is the subject of this article and it tells us of Vick's influence on British and European post war football. Born in 1915 in Greenwich,  he played as a half back for Tottenham Hotspur between 1935-49. He briefly spent some time at Northfleet Utd prior to this, one of Spurs' nursery clubs.

Playing at Spurs he was impressed by Arthur Rowe's "Push and Run" style that led Tottenham to consecutive league wins in Division Two and then the First Division Championship in 1951 and league runners-up in the First Division in 1952. This was the antithesis to the success of Wolverhampton Wanderers who adopted the more direct form of football.
When Buckingham retired from playing, after working for the Middlesex county FA, he coached the Oxford University and then significantly, Pegasus FC, the historic amateurs who took a new brand of football to Wembley in the FA Amateur Cup. Here he worked with bright young students and graduates who put his plans accurately into action.

Vick maintained his contact with Spurs and especially Bill Nicholson, who led Spurs to the famous League and Cup Double in 1960-1, another FA Cup win in 1962 and a European Cup Winners Cup win in 1963.

He then travelled to coach at FC Moss in Norway, Bradford Park Avenue (Third Division North) and West Bromwich Albion, a club he took to the FA Cup Final victory in 1954 and second in the First Division.
Always innovating, there is film evidence that he had his players breathing pure oxygen at half times to stimulate their recovery.

In 1959, he had a spell at Ajax and then in 1961 he joined Sheffield Wednesday where in 1962, he was involved in a match fixing scam which led to the banning and disgrace of three senior players, Peter Swan (who ruined his chances of playing in the 1966 World Cup), Tony Kay and "Bronco" Layne.
In that period though he had a positive effect on many aspects of the game, including the development of Bobby Robson and Don Howe, two of England's greatest coaches.

Buckingham returned to Ajax for a year, where he "discovered" Johan Cruijff and influenced the young Dutchman with his approach to "Total Football" that emerged with the "Orange" in the 1970s.

Vick returned to England in 1965 with Fulham for three years, during a period when he eventually could not get on with "west London celebrity footballers" such as Rodney Marsh. Things did not go that well.  He went back to Europe to coach at Ethnikos Piraeus, Barcelona, Seville, Olympiakos and then Rhodos FC finishing in 1980.
He died on 26th January 1995.

Vick is with "star of stage and screen" Sabrina and Billy Wright before a Testamonial.

Now where are those spare match balls?

WORKING GLASS HERO

As if what I wrote yesterday about "hope in the community" wasn't enough, one of my chums from "Fox" country referred to another great working GLASS hero, Jimmy Glass, the much travelled Carlisle United goalkeeper. A journeyman footballer to say the least, he was on loan from Swindon Town, when he memorably left his goal and raided Plymouth Argyll's penalty area during the last minute of the last game of the 1998-9 season. His team were looking down the relegation barrel.
(Carlisle United by the way once were known as the Foxes following John Peel's association with Cumbria).

Scarborough, also on the edge of parachuting to the Conference, had finished their final match of the season and drawn 1-1. The Scarborough crowd was on the pitch celebrating their "survival" as news that Carlisle, still 1-1, had not yet earned the vital three points to stay up. Carlisle's match was over running, when this happened...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KejwqhLDeOs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QSigBwtFCk

So Jimmy Glass?? what do I know about his career. He was born in Epsom, Surrey and is now 42 years old. His career as a goalkeeper went from Chelsea Youth through Crystal Palace (1989-96) without any first team appearance. He was put out on loan to Dulwich Hamlet (14 games), Portsmouth (3 games), Gillingham (0 games), Burnley (0), Bournemouth (1996-98, 95), Swindon Town 98-00, 11) and to CARLISLE (1999, wait for it...for 3 matches and one goal).

Then  he was at Cambridge United (0), Brentford (0), Oxford United (0), Crawley (2001, 17 matches), Brockenhurst (3), Kingstonian (14), Lewes (3) and Weymouth (2004, 3 matches). He retired at 27 years old, hardly worn out, but returned to coach at Poole Town in 2011. Glass  had scored one goal in 169 "first team" appearances, not unusual for a goalkeeper of course.

After his short lived fame, Glass wrote a book called "One hit wonder", he worked in IT and then as a taxi driver in Lytchett Matravers, a scrumptious Dorset village, where he lives with his family. He is part of the hospitality package at AFC Bournemouth.

To counter his remarkable historic moment, Glass is one of few goalkeepers to score an own goal at Wembley, with 62,000 watching. This was in the Football League Trophy final 1998 (known as the Auto Windscreens Shields trophy). John Bailey had scored Bournemouth's first goal against Grimsby early on. After 75 minutes Glass put in his own net and the rest was history. He had quite a game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx42RZMSv1A
Bruce Grobbelaar famously being another in the 1984 Charity Shield v Everton.

His goal, the Carlisle one, was voted 74th most important goal in football history in the Times list! As well as gaining other shattering accolades.

COMMUNITY KEEPING THE CLUB AFLOAT

49 days on from Storm Desmond at Brunton Park, the club staff are working at 6.30am to prepare the ground and pitch for a game of football. Working all day the paid and volunteer staff have worked miracles in order to get Carlisle United a home game (on their own ground). Over the past weeks they have been loaned pitches for their league matches by Blackpool, Blackburn Rovers and Preston North end, at a price. The club provided their fans with free transport to these Lancashire stadia.

During the flood, players helped townsfolk with their recovery and in return, the fans helped out at Brunton Park. Imagine how muc mud and stuff had to be shifted, floors mended, walls painted.

Coming soon is Everton FC in the FA Cup and manager Keith Curle has just seen his team, playing their first game back at their proper home, throw away three points, after a 1-1 draw with lowly York City. The visitors are one place closer to relegation than Carlisle-that is bottom.

To reach the Third Round Proper, Carlisle have travelled to Plymouth Agyle (2-0 win)
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/its-long-way-to-make-point.html
and Welling United (5-0 win), so they have earned a pay day.

Storm Desmond drowned the goalposts (8 foot high, you should know that and caused £3 million worth of damage to fixtures and fittings at Brunton Park.

I saw Carlisle play at their home ground at the beginning of the 1974-5 season, when they were in the First Division-the equivalent of the Premier League now. This made Carlisle the smallest populated settlement to have a top flight football team since 1906 (guessing either Woolwich Arsenal or Bury??). They only stayed up there for a year.

The game  I saw, was against West Ham United, played on one of the best playing surfaces in the country. The reason for the fertility was because the pitch was sited on a river floodplain, the soil rich in minerals from the silt. This was way before the invention of various gadgets that will make any pitch like a billiard table! Have a look at this photo of White Hart from the 1960s and look above at Brunton Park recently.

Founded in 1904 they are now close to the bottom of the Football League Division Two, so Everton should go into the draw for round 4.
Nevertheless, fans have queued long to buy Cup tie tickets on what will be a very special day for the Cumbrians which will generate much needed cash, reputedly £150,000 from TV rites. Fortunately, insurance will cover most of Carlisle's expences but memorabilia has been silted and lost, including Bill Shankly's original contract from 1949 (I have seen a copy in the Shankly hotel in Liverpool) whihc was saved and has been sent to the restorer.

While Martinez' men will shower in temporary facilities "outside" their changing room, the new pitch has been hauled in from Lincolnshire on 22 lorries and laid in time to be tested last week by York City, another town hit by Storm Desmond. It worked.

The badge represents the "regent" Cumbrian Wyvern (dragons) and Carlisle Castle. The motto is from Shakespeare's Henry VIII, Be Just and Fear Not. In 1973 the club wore kit sponsored by the kit manufacturer, Admiral (see yesterday's post) and were the first club to advertise a sportswear firm.