It certain brought back happy memories for me, went to nearly all the away games a never missed a home game that season.
A good read that ... thanks for posting it up Peter. I was only aged 5-6 years in that season and my dad took me to a few games. I can vaguely remember being there at the games, but probably the bigger thrill at that age was getting the train from Paragon Station to Boothferry Park! LOL!
In 10 years either side of that season I only missed one home game - because I'd been naughty and my mam didn't let me go - until I moved to London in 1973. Most of the time you would expect City to win and usually you'd expect to be entertained.
That really stirred the memory. The Boxing day match with Millwall in particular - I am certain Alex Stepney was in goal for them. Massive crowd that day and we went home happy but I recall him {Stepney} making one stunning save at the Bunkers Hill end to keep Millwall in the game. Remember well the two games against Chelsea, nobody gave us much of a chance at the Bridge and we probably deserved to win. The replay was another fantastic evening and Chelsea fielded all their stars that night, we lost but were not disgraced. Happy days and oh for forwards who could score 100 goals in a season. Doubt we will ever see the likes of Chilton, Wagstaffe, Houghton, Butler and Henderson again.
The author certainly did a great bit of research for that well-written article. Particularly as he wasn't born in the 60's
Millwall - yes Stepney was in goal - fans were sitting in front of the barrier because the crowd was so big. I was a couple of yards from the goal at the North Stand end.
This is time scale that I was fanatical about City and yes the article is well written. I was in my mid teens at this time and was able to travel away having started work and had my own money, even after paying board to mum. I can't remember how many matches, including reserve matches I saw in those days and the time I spent travelling away, sometimes by coach sometimes hitch hiking, but it took a big part of my life. And the World Cup to boot, in black & white but still memorable, sat in my mates house with our glasses of cider, heady days lol, I was proud of both Hull City and England, champion teams.
It wasn't long after this match Peter that he was transferred to Manchester United where he spent many a successful year. And if I also remember correctly City were suppose to be after Millwall's centre half Barry Kitchener I think, a replacement for Mick Milner I believe, but we ended up with Tom Wilson who turned out to be a decent sort of player.
Another measure of the team's quality was, when Alf Ramsey first put together the team that went on to win the World Cup, he played it against the League of Ireland at Boothferry Park. In the warm up to that game he played a friendly match against City on their old training ground at Springhead (used to be where the Juniors played). City won 2-0. The home game against Millwall was really tense but a bit of a sad affair for us as one of our regular mates had collapsed and died a few days before (17 years old!) and we knew he'd have loved it. The away defeat wasn't much of a surprise though as Millwall had a fantastic home record at the time. Great days and I think this year's team has been the best City team I've seen since the mid 60s.
I saw every home game of the 65/66 season, still think Chilton deserved higher recognition than he got. Should have gone to a team better than Cov. Great player & bloke.
My Dad always goes on about this season and the Chelsea games in particular. It's been great reading the original article and other people's views on here - shows it's not just him that bangs on about how good that team / season was!
Trouble is by the time Chillo went to Coventy (the Club got good money at the time - £92k) his back was well and truly ****ed.
Brings back great memories, the atmosphere and noise in the ground and the expectation that we would score virtually everytime we attacked.
Happy memories,i saw the game at Spring head lane Alf Ramsey spoke to me back at the ground when I was getting autographs. Going to Chelsea was a big event, always remember a Fulham fan driving by as we left Stamford Bridge shouting with joy how well we had done. We were known as a footballing side then and I am sure we will get that accolade again Thanks Peter do you still wear denim!! I think it was you who had your denim uniform for Bunkers Happy days
No, that's long gone. I was thinking about my all-denim gear yesterday, though. That's as far as it gets now. Have you met up with Mike Pearlman? He lives in Melbourne.
I spoke to Alf Ramsey as well when I was getting autographs at the Station Hotel where most of the teams stayed in those days. What a brilliant article - I was fortunate to start going to City in September of the previous year, just before we signed Waggy. My big memory from the 65/66 season was being allowed to leave school early to get to the Chelsea replay game and being allowed to sit on makeshift benches on the inside of the fence. Brilliant value for the 1 shilling and sixpence entry cost. For the Millwall game for the first time I was allowed to go in the seats in the "new South stand". It was a great time, city promoted with record points and goals , England winning the World Cup and Yorkshire county champions almost every year.
