Musty, As Yankee said, it was very cramped. I was 10 yrs old and there were loads of us young ones at the front of the North Bank - we wouldn't have been able to see anything otherwise. The Swans played really well, and we even had a goal disallowed - I don't think that the referee could believe that Herbie Williams had outjumped Ian Ure fairly (I think it was Ian Ure). I remember that when the draw was made Arsenal still had to play Shrewsbury, and me saying to my father that it would definitely be Arsenal - after all Top Division teams don't lose to Shrewsbury, do they ??????!!
32,786 v Arsenal, FA Cup Fifth Round, 17 February 1968 according to wikipedia, just looked it up, must have been cramped taffvale I can remember the game well, I was on my dad's shoulders in the north bank and my dad in the end took me to the front and lifted me on the wall where there were other kids, you could touch the touchline we were that close, Mind you it got very frightening when the ball came close to where we were, i remember bobby Gould scoring the only goal that gave the mighty gunners the victory and i remember Ian ure who a few years later i met when he was manager for i think stenhousemuir or east fife, I was on the H.M.S Ark Royal at the time and we were on our way to rosyth and me and 3 other shipmates wrote a letter to the bottom club in scotland which happen to be stenhousemuir, well to cut a long story short we were invited as long as we wore our uniform and we had a VIP welcome where we met the players had a few whiskies before the game in the boardroom and after the match as guests of stenhousemuir to their club for a dinner and dance, i will always remember that for the rest of my days.......and on a foot note stenhousemuir won their first ever away match for years and Ian ure said we had brought the club luck and he had the grace to write to our captain to say how we were a credit to him and his ship and to the Royal Navy.....Ahhhhhhhh memories.
Musty, I'm going to gate-crash until Yankee arrives - I was one of the gate-crashers actually. Some of the guys on the turnstiles made a few bob that day!! I was in the middle of the North Bank with a dozen or so of my mates and we were packed so tightly it was difficult to move. Getting a tea and burger was impossible as was going to the bog. Shamed to say that on some occasions when the ground was packed and you knew there was going to be a queue for those atrocious, stinking toilets, some of my "desperate" mates resorted to relieving themselves on the terrace. The request, "form a circle, boys," went out and the pre-match beer closely followed it with a certain degree of privacy. Not that I ever did that, you understand! Anyway, on this occasion it was impossible to move more than a few inches. I couldn't even smoke because I'd have set light to the guys in front of me - that's if I could have got my ***s out of my pocket in the first place. It was as tightly packed as that. My memories of the game are sketchy. Arsenal were (I know it should be "was" but it doesn't scan as well) a quality team but we held our own and our performance was described in some circles as outstanding. I seem to remember that we had a goal wrongly disallowed in front of the East bank and being incensed when Ivor Allchurch beautifully turned Ian Ure, the Arsenal centre back, on the touch line in front of us and was crudely chopped down by him as he bore in on goal. Later, Ivor had a bullet shot superbly tipped over the bar by Arsenal keeper Jim Furnell before Bobby Gould stole in to plant a header into the net in front of the West stand. I believe this was Ivor's last season and he scored 21 league and cup goals in 45 appearances at the age of 38. He would have signed for another season but the club, having to economise, asked him to take a 20% cut in wages, which he declined to do. He had his testimonial game against Leeds United a while later. I am open to correction but I THINK the team that day was: John, Roy Evans, Gomersall, Purcell, Humphries, Herbie Williams, Brian Evans, J. Davis, Todd, Willie Screen and Ivor. Tragically, the following season, Roy Evans and Brian Purcell then playing for Hereford United were killed in a car crash. Happy times and those that think the Liberty has atmosphere could never have experienced the Vetch Field when it was full and pulsating with the roar of thousands of our passionate fans. No hospitality boxes and no prawn sandwich brigade in those days. Every single person who went to the Vetch was a loyal fan and supporter who loved the club - particularly those of us who still went with crowds of 2000 or less.
And those vetch toilets.pewwwwwwwwwwwwwww. but the best cup of tea and pies from the little caravan before you entered the tunnel to the north bank....happy days...
Taffvale, you might well be right but I honestly can't remember. Get far too many "senior moments" these days! I played against Toddy in the Welsh League when I was a kid - think he played for Clydach then. Also played against his brother, I think it was his brother but I can't even remember his first name!!
HI Lads I think you will find we had over 35.000 back in 64 when we were in the fa cup 5rd vrs sheff,utd we won 5 1 from memory, I used to stand on the north bank just as you came up from the path about 3 steps up by halftime we were 3 1 up and I ended up half way up the north bank as each time we scored I went back a step or too that was before they cut the crowds down.
IvorallJack has it down right. I remember I woke up that morning to a dusting of snow on the ground, although it didn't seem that cold and the day became milder as we moved into the afternoon. The ground was jammed packed. I was standing in the Enclosure inline with the six yard box. The Arsenal supporters were under the Double Decker and they made a lot of noise. In fact the whole ground was a cauldron of noise. People were everywhere - climbing the floodlight pylons that were on property outside the ground; standing on roof-tops of houses behind the old East Stand and on the TA bulding behind the Enclosure. Despite the crush barriers there were huge surges of people on the North Bank. The game was all ticket. We had three courtesy of Mel Nurse and some deal with my grandfather. But, as IvorallJack has confirmed, who really knows how many people saw the game, hundreds possibly thousands more than the official gate. There are two things I remember from the match. In the second half, Bobby Gould rising above everybody to head home from a corner taken from the right side (DD/North Bank corner). Of course, the Arsenal crowd in bottom of the DD erupted and that sealed the game. The other was the bullet shot from Ivor Allchurch in the first half. Now the two Arsenal center backs that day were Ian Ure and I think Frank McLintock. Although Peter Storey was the regular Arsenal right back at the time, that day the right back was a young Pat Rice. And, Jim Furnell was in goal. From where I was standing in the Enclosure, he appeared an imposing colossal man, tall, solid and I mean built like a stone **** house solid, smarting a bit of a tan and with platinum blond hair that just shone in the flood lights. Ivor Allchurch was playing a lone, roving striker role ... everybody else being needed to defend in and around our penalty box, desperately at times from Arsenal who were dominating possession. The move started when somebody on the edge of our box got the ball and clipped it out to Ivor who had drifted out to our left wing, just inside our half. He took it on his chest, dropped it to his feet and elegantly waltzed around the young Rice like he wasn't there. And then he began to run at the two Arsenal center-backs who just started dropping back -- think of two Tate's facing say Gareth Bale -- so Ivor turned them one way then the other and around 30 yards out took THE shot. Now from my position in the Enclosure, Furnell was on the edge of his 6 yard box, and this shot was heading just underneath the bar. How this giant of a goalkeeper launched himself up and back and just seemed to hang in the air to get finger tips on the ball I still can't believe but he did and the ball, with the whole ground erupting in a roar in anticipation of seeing the net buldge, just cleared the top of the bar. In fact, I later learned that the roar of the crowd was so loud at that moment that it was heard up in the Hafod and I guess echoed around other parts of the town. It was the goal that should have been but ... thanks to Furnell ... never was. And here's what everybody today should understand. Everybody that sees the statue outside the Liberty but has no real idea of Ivor Allchurch, who he was, and what he represented as a player, as a quiet and unassuming leader and role model, as one of the most esteemed professionals in the game at the time. Arsenal brought their entire first team to the Vetch Field that day to play a Div 4 club, no second string, no reserves, no resting the stars, no disrespect. And on that day, Ivor Allchurch, at the age of 38, or thereabouts, was double marked for most of the game by two top Scottish internationals, in their prime, playing for one of the top clubs in the country ... because they had to! That's how good Ivor was, that's how much they feared him. And in one shot, out of nothing, he almost made them pay.
i know that you are wrong there penlan as the game against arsenal is the record for the vetch, at the end of the match however about 30 minutes to go they used to open the gates and people use to rush in to catch the last half hour, with those and the many who sneaked in there was well over 34,000 but the official attendance was the tickets sold...
Penlan, that tie (4th round replay) against Sheffield United was played on a Tuesday night, January 25 1964. The attendance was 24,109 and we won 4-1 with goals from Derek (Didi) Draper 2, Jimmy McLaughlin and Eddie Thomas. The previous Saturday we had drawn 1-1 (Thomas) at Bramall lane. Had goal line technology existed (it still doesn't) we would have won 2-1 because the Sunday papers clearly showed a Herbie Williams shot which hit the cross bar had actually bounced down over the line. Our first, first division scalp in that run. We had beaten Barrow 4-1 in the third round then went to Stoke City in the fifth round. We were 0-2 down at half time due to goals from Mcilroy and........... Stanley Matthews!!! Toddy got two without reply in the second half and we won the replay 2-0 (McLaughlin and Todd) attendance 29,582. First division scalp number 2 and I saw both games.No segregation in those days and, at Stoke, we were surrounded by home fans singing their version of The Swinging Blue Jean's "Hippy Hippy Shake" except they were singing, "City City Shake". The legendary game at Liverpool next. First division scalp number 3, goals from McLaughlin and Eddie Thomas in a 2-1 win. We were totally under siege and they missed a late penalty. We were delighted to draw PNE in the semis because they, like us, were a Second division side and we had beaten them 5-1 at home and drawn 3-3 away, with us down to 9 men (no subs then). Fate chose to crap on us from a great height. Villa Park was a mud patch due to driving rain and a howling gale. A partisan ref (yes, we suffered in those days too) awarded them a dubious penalty, disallowed one for us and PNE were level after being 0-1 down at half time to a McLaughlin goal. Their winner was a complete fluke. Singleton, their centre half who hadn't scored a goal in years, swiped a clearance from near the halfway line and the ball, carried by this gale, sailed the best part of 50 yards over everyone and into the net. GUTTED! He admitted afterwards that he was only trying to clear the ball and was amazed that he scored. I had a terrific view of the goals as I was right behind the net where they were scored. Dwyer, our keeper and hero of the Liverpool game, obviously saw the ball coming from a long way off but as the ball reached him, his feet seemed to slip in the mud and the ball went over him. Interestingly, I had gone up from London where I was living at the time and was on my own. But I stood with a bunch of Wolves supporters who were cheering as loudly for us as our own fans. Great memories.
Yankee, great post and you might be interested to learn that I have an iconic picture of that Furnell save (incredible). It shows he and the right back airborne as the ball flies over the bar. A leather ball, mark you. Had Ivor hit one of today's lightweight jobbies, Furnell wouldn't have got anywhere near it. I'll try and upload the pic; it is spectacular to say the least.
Thanks Ivor; love to see that picture. It was one of those moments in life where time seems to stand still. F**king Furnell, he had no business being that agile for such a big guy. I saw a match progamme cover on the web today too. Check this out: http://www.programmesofyesteryear.co.uk/teams/swansea/swansea-vs-arsenal-1967-1968. Programme cost a whole shilling - too rich for my blood at the time. And whoever sold it online only wanted 2 pounds.
would it have been East Stirlingshire Ian Ure managed Dai?? 1974-75 (took over from Sir Alex Ferguson), he is now apparently working as a social worker in Kilmarnock
Yankee, seeing that programme cover takes me back! (In those days we kicked off out home games at 3.15pm. I can't remember when we switched to 3pm.) I will have to ask my father to see if he still has that particular programme. He has programmes going back to the 40s/50s. He still has our 1966 World Cup final tickets (25 shillings) and programme.
Musty, He is away until next week. I will see if I can borrow them from him and upload them next week.
