Aahh Swindon! The last time I was there was the 'Battle of the Giants' in 1969. We were packed into the Town End with the Swindon fans - no segregation back then. Great banter, great game, great result I think I'm right in saying that the attendance at that match is still their ground record.
Can't say i'm thrilled, bit of a shame, and i'll be gutted if it's on the sunday, coz i'll be working! I just hope NN is back by then so we have a bit of a chance!
This is the best possible draw for me. My family are Spurs fans and it's at Watford!.....my brother is a season ticket holder with me...but whilst he supports Watford his main team is Spurs :/. Will probably get them in the Rookery...but under pain of death should they cheer if Spurs score
Great draw for us on so many fronts and the most importantly the pressure will be off as we will not be expected by most to get a result.
This is the reason for putting out more or less our strongest teams against lesser lights,we've now reaped what we've sown..Great revenue for the club,let's get a replay then it will be well worth it..or beat them and Man U in next round away....We'd be able to write off a lot of our debts in one hit....
Where did you dig that up Yorkie? It's brilliant. Love the distant look in Tom Walley's eyes as he pictures himself letting Bestie know he's there! And Endean chewing his tie in anticipation! Imagine any sports programme today showing nearly 10 mins worth of footage of anything like this. 10 second sound bites is about all we get now.
that is amazing! Can you imagine smoking during the team talks now? lol...what a great bit of footage
Woz at County Ground too Boltons....was it not a Sat evening ko for some reason ? Hornetto Cornetto. do believe you've got yer 'double initials' mixed up...you surely mean MM rather than NN ??
A great bunch of players there, some of whom went on to bigger and better things - Keith Eddy & Terry Garbett in America and Brian Garvey in Oz. I met Brian in Melbourne in the early 80's when he was coaching a top Melbourne club - a lovely guy who always found time to talk to fans, mostly a rarity back then. Was always an admirer of Terry Garbett, especially as a midfielder, and often wondered why he stayed with us for so long. I like to think it was because he set himself the target of beating me at table football, he tried almost on a daily basis after training, but never could.
Well thanks for yer reply Boltons...too busy name-dropping. Sorry.but yer wrong! Garbett did sterling work for the club but would have done even better as just an out & out front player rather than the Tactics Man continually changing his role
Wallace of Crewe didn't think Garvey was such a lovely guy when he went through the back of Wallace and shattered his leg. The crack was heard around the ground - sickening. Still all's well that ends well - we won 3-2 there. Early 68-69 season as I recall. I also remember, in a Keith Dublinesque moment, Garvey hitting his own crossbar from 30 yards out at Haig Avenue Southport (same season I think). Usually didn't miss from that range..........
Who's wrong? TG was bought as a front man but his goals return was not exactly impressive - 1 every 5 games or so - his real talents were as a midfielder, as Sheffield U later proved in Div 1, not to mention NY Cosmos. By the way, yes, I think you're right about that Swindon game - an evening kick off for some reason. Can't remember why - certainly wasn't on TV!
6.30pm kick-off (Grand National Day - Swindon's first home game after winning the League Cup at Wembley) - I believe our coaches got there at around 4.30 - we all piled into the supporters club and only came out at 5.30 when someone came in and said there were long queues at the turnstiles (no tickets that day). We only just got in (and some were very quickly thrown out again!). 28,000 plus inside the County Ground. Fabulous match settled by Endean towards the end of the game - we knew we were going up after that.
One of Garbett's best goals was at Prenton Park Tranmere on a Friday evening - cross from Scully, punched out by Jimmy Coombes to the edge of the penalty area where Garbett hit it back past Coombes on the volley as the goalie was still coming down from the original punch. Memorable 3-0 win that night. The two games against Tranmere featured some extraordinary goals - the Brian Owen freak goal, described previously on the board, Garbett's goal above and another by our Terry not often remembered - a hard driven cross from the by-line between Coombes and his near post. Coombes got a hand on it and the ball rolled right along the goal-line before hitting the far post and (as Coombes attempted to drop on to it) rolling slowly across the line. If only the "Dodgy Keeper" had been around in those days. Coombes was a very handy cricketer as well, playing on after his football career was over - every time I saw his name on the Worcestershire team sheet, I was reminded of that night in Birkenhead......
.... then there was his 'in off the arse' goal at Hartlepool where he was standing in their six yard box looking upfield when a defender booted it against said part of his anatomy. The ball flew back to the keeper, bounced off him and into the goal, just before TG turned to see where it was. He claimed it and never believed that it should have gone down as an own goal.
68-69, as well as being a great Championship winning year, featured some distinctly odd goals - one of which was Tom Walley playing a 1-2 on the edge of the penalty area before scoring in a 4-0 win over Barrow. What's odd about that, you ask? Well it was a 1-2 with the referee......admittedly not deliberate on the part of the ref, but a pin-point pass for our Tom to hammer it home. An earlier goal (our equaliser at Northampton) was a shot from Dixie Hale which hit the cross-bar, came down, hit the back of the keeper's head as he lay on the ground and shot into the net.
