If you think things are bad now ......

If you think the striker situation is bad now spare a thought for us older generation pre-Keegan era fans who remember a ground not a stadium, ' sing in the corner ' and a regular Indian war cry fron the old East stand every home game. This trip down memory lane sparked by former player feature from today's Nufc.com on the legendary George Reilly ( excerpts below )

------------- " Beginning his football career at Corby Town, Reilly worked as a bricklayer before turning professional at Northampton Town and then moving on to Cambridge United.

1983 saw him sign for Watford, appearing in the FA Cup Final at the end of his first season as a Hornet - although his side lost 2-0 at Wembley against Everton.

Newcastle had first expressed an interest in Reilly early in the 1984/85 season, but were unable to agree a fee and instead signed Tony Cunningham from Manchester City to boost their attacking options.

No sooner had that deal been done though that Watford opted to accept United's offer and Reilly also signed - both strikers being paired for the first time in a 1-0 home win over Luton in March 1985.

Reilly's first goal followed in the next game, with Cunningham also scoring in a 3-1 home win over Watford. However the pairing wasn't a success and the route one football that it encouraged saw Chris Waddle quit the club and Peter Beardsley seek pastures new.

(Beardo later wrote that: "I certainly didn't enjoy the way we played, neither did Waddle and I am quite certain the fans didn't like it much either.")

The highpoint of Reilly's time in Toon was probably scoring the only goal of the game to beat Liverpool at SJP in August 1985, but within four months he had departed - sold on to West Bromwich Albion following the signing of Billy Whitehurst from Hull City.

His 'Rambo' nickname was ironic and stemmed from his donning a black bandana in the style of Sylvester Stallone's fictional hero - although some of George's play was more reminiscent of Sly's approximation of association football in "Escape to Victory"...

Perhaps his other nickname was more fitting - Mavis, in honour of the Coronation Street character Mavis Riley.... ------------------ "

What gets me about this is not the fact that we actually signed two strikers around the same time, but it actually made me yearn for the days of ' bustling ' Billy Whitehurst who actually went into Rosie's after the match for a pint.

Majority on here will not know who or what I am talking about, but for those who do, do you look forward and feel more part of the club then, than you do in Ashley era?

Bring back Billy Whitehurst !

 

heres a bit about 'battling billy whitehurst from the guardian in 2009

Being the Hardest Man in FootballHe played for 10 diff erent clubs, but whoever it was knew to expect a full-blooded display. Here Billy Whitehurst recounts a notorious episode in his career
The Guardian, Monday 18 May 2009 Article history
Billy Whitehurst - football's hardest man - beats the challenge of David Batty Photograph: Neal Simpson/EMPICS Sport/PA Photos

I was playing for Oxford at the time. I had gone into a boozer and had got in a scrap; I've gone outside with this bloke, who had a couple of guys with him. I start fighting with this kid who I had been arguing with inside and basically I've put my thumb in his eye, smashed his head against the wall then his friend has pulled one of those coshes that you can extend and he's smashed me over the nose with it. His other mate has hit me on the other side and as I have turned round he has hit me on the cheek. I've got a hole straight through my cheek near the side of my nose, my nose is all smashed up and I had 30-odd stitches in the back of my head. It looked horrendous: my nose was hanging off when it actually happened but then they stitched it back on.

This was about 10 days before the game. I had gone in and done a bit of training but normally they wouldn't play you with facial injuries like that. But Maurice Evans, who I thought was very wise and a smashing man, asked me if I wanted to play; he didn't just say you're playing and that's it. I thought I could and I said "no problem Morris". It was just stitches – I didn't think that it was a big deal.

You know for a fact that whenever you're playing and you have got a knock, the first game you play you're going to get a knock straight on the place where you don't want to – its sod's law. At some stage during that match against Nottingham Forest I knew I was going to get a smack on the nose.

About 10 minutes before half-time, their goalkeeper Steve Sutton and I went up for a header and he came to punch the ball and twatted me straight on the nose. I've seen the goalkeeper come out. He's got to come because it's in between the goal line and six-yard box and I've got to head the ball. Unfortunately for me he has missed the ball. It didn't hurt because you have got the adrenaline running through you haven't you? I went off at half time and the doctor's ripped all the stitches up and stapled me up, literally put staples in and to be fair they were a lot better than stitches. So he's stapled me out and I've gone out for the second half. I had a hole in my cheek so you could see the whole way through my mouth.

I can't remember what Sutton's reaction was, I just jogged back to the halfway line because it was a goal kick. I must have headed it over the bar or whatever – physios came on and just wiped the claret off , there was none of this "you have to come off when there's blood". I wouldn't have known if I was allowed to play with the state I was in because I looked like Frankenstein's monster. I played the whole game.

In Alan Hansen's autobiography he said he'd played in that game. I could never get to the bottom of that one 'cos he played for Liverpool. His ghostwriter phoned me up and asked me if he could say a couple of stories about me because Hansen wanted to do it. He said: "we'll send you a book when it's finished". They did put the stories in but I never got the ****ing book. I just can't understand that, I think he wrote in his books something to the effect that, at the beginning of every season he would look for Oxford – or whoever I was playing for – because it was a nightmare playing against me. And then he goes on to say this. It doesn't really bother me, if he's written it, he's written it. He was a different class as a player.

I would say that 99.9% of stories said about me were about being a hard man and kicking people, elbowing people, biting people, doing whatever to people. I would always remember me and my mum watching Match Of The Day when I was growing up. My mum and dad (RIP) loved Bobby Charlton and they interviewed him after a game when we played Manchester United once when I was at Newcastle. He said: "I've come tonight to watch Paul Gascoigne and Peter Beardsley and the best player on the pitch by far was Billy Whitehurst." It doesn't get better than Bobby Charlton saying that.

I wore my heart on my sleeve and gave 120% each game, but there was a bit of skill and I could play a bit and them types of things are nice to hear now and again. I was just like the lads on the terraces, that's why they all loved me – and I'd love 10 minutes against Rio Ferdinand

 

Sounds like a hero of a man

 

you need shooting i remember gorgeous george and he wasn't the worst what about frank pingel or rob mcdonald <shudder>