Mutrie could really play - he had terrific feet. I'd been going for about three years before that team came together and even at a young age i had got used to seeing some real crud, so it was a delight to see people like Marwood, Roberts and Mutrie who could actually control a ball.
All these guys were the first footballers I ever saw play, was very lucky as some of them were very decent, not to mention the goalie Tony Norman who was exceptional for his time
We were only on £150 to £200 a week, McClaren and me, but we got an extra £100 crowd bonus for every 1,000 people over 4,000. The first thing we did when the fixtures came out was look for a home Boxing Day derby against Sheffield United because we could get a crowd of 12,000. That really was a Christmas present.
I was at the Scunthorpe Boxing day fixture (Ian Botham was playing for them) and I'm sure there were 19000 there so that would have been a lovely bonus for them!
He was a massive icon back then, the Beckham of his day- totally agree I remember I was giddy as a little kid being in the South Stand when he was defending for them
I suspect most players had this bonus. That maybe explains why when it looked like a 10,000 crowd it was announced as around 8,000!
Great days - I remember reading an article by Mutrie when Mclaren became England manager (or head coach or whatever he was called), where he recounted how Mclaren was sh1t scared of Whitehurst. (Mind you, I think everyone - including many an opposing defender was scared of him!). Also Les Mutrie scored one of my favorite ever goals for City. It was the fourth in a 4 - 1 win over Sheffield Utd. The match was 1 - 1 with about 10 minutes left, then Marwood scored two in about 3 minutes before Mutrie cut in from the left, beat about 4 defenders and coolly slotted home. 10 minutes of constant jumping up and down on Bunkers!
