Some comments made earlier today on another thread brought a lot of memories back and a realisation of how the game and players have changed since I first went to Carrow Road in 1950. Can I first of all say that I fully accept that the stars of the 50's/60's /70's would not be stars in the modern game which is technically better, players are much fitter and tactics are far superior. Having said that were the old days bad? They were certainly different and the game was far more physical. If a GK caught a ball you could shoulder charge him as hard as you liked - even if you dislocated his shoulder- and if the GK and the ball ended up in the back of the net it was a goal. Before yellow and red cards you had your name taken by the Ref for a ' bookable ' offence or sent off for a serious offence but in those days a bookable offence equated to a criminal act and to get sent off you had to commit a crime against humanity. I remember Kevin Keelan getting sent off for the best left hook I have ever seen and us all being outraged because we did not think it was a sending off offence. Everybody understood the offside rule - 2 players between ball and goal line - if one of them was laying down injured it didn't matter - he still counted. Players like Trevor Hockey and Duncan Forbes would not have stayed on the pitch for 5 mins nowadays but how would some of todays Nancy's in their posh cars coped in the old days. Falling over or diving to get a penalty? Everybody - ref, players and supporters - would have laughed. You went for the ball in those days and if you got the player before, during or after then there was no problem as long as the ref thought you went for the ball. There was no shirt pulling etc because there was no close marking. You could tackle from the front, back or side - as long as you went for the ball. If a forward was shielding the ball and Big Dunc was behind him then he just went after the ball. His favourite trick was to try and kick the ball between the forwards legs. Most times the ball sailed 50 yars up the pitch but in the follow through his knee would either wedge up the forwards North Pole or divide his ging gangs!! As long as he wnt for the ball - no problems. Mind you, whether Trevor Hockey ever went for the ball is very much open to debate but how often did he ever get sent off? Brutal? - Perhaps but how many players were out injured in those days? Most players went through a season without missing a game - explain that!! Is the modern game a better spectacle? I would have to agree that it is but it is not as clear cut as some of the youngsters would have us believe and whilst our memories can be selective they certainly weren't the bad old days
You've made some excellent points there, midway, that's the main problem that we 'oldies' will always have! We can't understand how the game has become a non-contact sport! If you're not allowed to tackle, how on Earth can a defender be expected to do his job!
Some excellent points, which caused much chuckling. One thing you didn't mention was the ball. How much of the skill shown today, especially in dead ball situations, is down to the player? In the old days, the ball was simply a ball, not an object of science.
I asked my dad for a proper leather football for christmas one year. he got me one of those lace ones. he said if i could head the ball properly back to him when he threw it he would give me a quid. I ran indoors crying my eyes out because my neck was down where my balls should have been. And when it was wet and the ball got you on the thigh............
And don't forget they pumped the ball up so hard that between November and March it hurt your feet just to kick it. Dave in goal must have been a masochist. No wonder he turned to drink. Its better for your health! I have to say whether or nor the football is or was technically better has no bearing on my judgement. The game was better then. Yes the big clubs were bigger but thats because they had bigger support and more money through the turnstile. Apart from that, it was a self regulating self determining industry with big clubs buying players from smaller clubs and the small clubs made just as much profit as the big ones. Clubs did hold the players to ransom but its the other way round now. And an agent was James Bond not a suit with a fat cigar at the end of it. Admittedly grounds or spectator comfort is superior now but I still enjoy the terraces and the banter and humour that abounded there. And I'm sure a lot of the ground improvements have been done as with revenue gathering in mind rather than with spectators in mind.
Excellent post 1950! Those indeed were the days when the players were fed a diet of raw meat before they went out onto the pitch! These so called "Hard Men" of today wouldn't last 5 minutes on a pitch with players like Hunter, Beattie, Chopper Jeffersen, Billy Baxter and your Forbes. These guys played hard and gave as good as they got! This goes back to the days when you were only booked if you committed a grevious assault. I remember the mud baths they used to play on from November through to March where the pitch was covered in sand and there wasn't a blade of grass to be seen! After half an hour you could barely make out which colour shirts they were wearing. The goalies wore no such thing as gloves and used to play sometimes in track suit bottoms. My one favourite time was when our Big Allan Hunter stuck one on Alan Clark at Leeds for spitting at John Wark. Those were indeed the days and the memories come flooding back of standing on a crate in the Churchmans stand.
As a football fan, I'd have loved to have attended a match 'back in the day', as much for the atmosphere as for the style of football played. Unfortunately for me, the days of terracing and hard men are all but gone, although I do enjoy watching King's Lynn play, which is like a scaled down version of the old matches I enjoy watching on youtube!
I think the biggest diference, and the one I miss most is that chance that just for a season or two ANY club from ANY level could be successful, could rise up the leagues and either win or certainly challenge for top flight league honors. The premier League put paid to that I'm afraid. Never again will a club the size of Norwich, Derby, Forest or Ipswich be top of the league for long periods, let alone ever win it, without some Arab billionaire bank rolling the club....ho hum...
I agree Kenny. Thats why I thank my lucky stars that I am old enough to have watched Ipswich during the Sir Bobby Robson era and to watch our team demolish the Man Utds, Liverpools and Arsenals at Portman Road on a regular basis. I really thought we were going to win the league championship back in 1980/81 only to have been thwarted at the last hurdle. I seem to remember that we lost at Carrow Road a few days before our first leg of the EUFA semi final away against Cologne. Its so hard to believe that back in those days we only had 14 players in the first team squad. The most expensive player we bought was Paul Mariner for £450K and in 13 years Robson only signed 11 players! Truly amazing days.
I agree Kenny and JWM. That's why teams like Watford, Cambridge etc managed to achieve their rapid rise through the leagues - albeit not the 'prettiest' football we've ever witnessed, but for fans of those clubs, or fans of seeing the occasional 'underdog' rise through the ranks, it was all good stuff Roy of the Rovers springs to mind. Alas, never again will we see feats like that. More likely to see clubs of that ilk fold, rather than prosper
And Champions were champions not 4th in the league and if you lost you went out not into a secondary competition. Waiting for a game to be shown after News at Ten was special. Mind you, I watch City every game thanks to the internet so I'd rather not go back to boys climbing chimneys but I just want the game I knew back.
I remember Norwich v Newcastle early 70's Malcolm MacDonald got goalside of Duncan who simply put both arms over his shoulders and hung on his back.Supermac took off at a pace little diminished fromhis usual trot and scored.
Another great thing about those days was the players attitude. They were paid little more than we were and usually lived amongst us in houses they rented from the club. A lot of these houses were in Sprowston and a lot of the players used the Beehive in Cannerby Lane. I spent many a night in there playing cards and drinking with the likes of Phil Kelly, Joe Mullett and Charlie Crickmore. They were just ordinary blokes grateful for earning a living doing something they loved. I always remember Charlie coming into the Pub after the first day's training under Ron Saunders and moaning ' if I stay at this club much longer he will f*****g kill me ' - not surprisingly he didn't last much longer!! Happy days never to return.
I'm old enough to remember MANCHESTER UNITED and TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR getting relegated to Division Two, also ASTON VILLA to Division Three ! Could you imagine that today ? Never in a million years ! Things I don't miss about back in the day are: Uncovered terraces, Open topped brick wall 'toilets' , BSE recipe burgers, Hooliganism and Robert Chase ! Things that I really do miss are: Sitting in the pub Saturday lunchtime deciding at the last minute to go to the game and paying at the turnstile, standing on the terraces with my Dad, getting a 'transfer' for a small fee to the next stand if you couldn't get a good view, every match kicking off at 3PM Saturday, The F.A. Cup being more important than the League, evening matches kicking off at 7.30PM, Bovril, The little man putting up the half-time scores on hooks on the ABC scoreboard, programmes that cost bugger-all, Boot-leg 'Sovenier' Programmes, players who would stop in the street to talk to you, Match Of The Week, David Coleman, The Old Wembley, Saint & Greavesie, Grandstand, World Of Sport, Sportsnight, It's A Cup Final Knock-Out, Replica shirts that were actually comfortable to wear, Graham Paddon's free-kicks, the dribbling of Jimmy Bone, John Bond, Gerry Harrison (even though he was a Binner), muddy pitches, the 'lesser spotted' orange ball, Mackintosh's 'Munchies' that Dad would buy me at half-time, crush barriers on the terraces, wearing your scarf tied around your wrist, Subbuteo, I could go on, happy, happy days ! please log in to view this image
Taking a rattle and being allowed to use it. Being passed down to the front of the stand by your dad, knowing you would be returned safely. Having your own stool to stand on. Scarves tied around your wrists. The blanket being paraded round the ground at half time collecting coins. On a sideline, with the subbuteo. Who remembers when a player broke, holding the broken player over a candle so that it melted then you could stick it to the base. Or, having a coloured player in your team, by wetting the player's head and dipping it in coffee.
