50 Years Ago

[march4]

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If this works, thank you for all of the help.

[deeside2]

Loving this thread March. Great memories !

Keep 'em coming !

[march4]

In the Leeds match, 2 Stoke players (Hurst and Mahoney) were both booked in the very first minute of the game.

This must still be a club record.

Would anyone like to guess why they were booked?

[lordb]

Oct 6, 2023 23:20:16 GMT march4 said:

In the Leeds match, 2 Stoke players (Hurst and Mahoney) were both booked in the very first minute of the game.

This must still be a club record.

Would anyone like to guess why they were booked?

Dissent?

Aggressive side burns?

Fighting with each other? - was Mahoney arguing Maximes was the best night out with Hurst bigging up The Place?

[march4]

Oct 7, 2023 7:17:58 GMT lordb said:

Oct 6, 2023 23:20:16 GMT march4 said:

In the Leeds match, 2 Stoke players (Hurst and Mahoney) were both booked in the very first minute of the game.

This must still be a club record.

Would anyone like to guess why they were booked?

Dissent?

Aggressive side burns?

Fighting with each other? - was Mahoney arguing Maximes was the best night out with Hurst bigging up The Place?

Could have been any of those or it could have been not retreating 10 yards from a free kick. The refs were clamping down on this but as usual the clampdown only lasted an instant and only seemed to affect us.

[march4]

Our small squad faced another busy week with 2 home games.

On Monday 8th October, we renewed our acquaintances with Chelsea in a League Cup 2nd round match in front of 17,000 fans. Our team was; - McDonald, Marsh, Pejic, Mahoney, Smith, Dodd, Haslegrave, Greenhoff, Hurst, Ritchie, Goodwin. A Denis Smith goal gave us our passage through to the next round.

On Saturday, 13th October, a similar sized crowd turned up to see us take on mid-table Sheffield Utd. After our win against West Ham and draw at Leeds, supporters were more optimistic about the future. Our line up was; - McDonald, Marsh, Pejic, Mahoney, Smith, Dodd, Haslegrave, Greenhoff, Hurst, Ritchie, Goodwin. An attacking formation from Waddo so Stoke had the early play and eventually our reward came when Eddie Colquhoun turned the ball past his own keeper on the half hour. In the second half, we seemed to sit back and Sheffield Utd looked more dangerous, particularly when the impressive Geoff Salmons was on the ball. Eventually the inevitable happened and Woodward scored just before the hour. Just as the game seemed to be settling for a draw, Stoke suffered the regular sucker punch of a late goal through Scullion. We had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

This dropped us to 18th in the table, 3 points above 21st place Birmingham (who had just signed Gary Sprake for a British transfer record fee for a keeper) and 4 points above winless West Ham. At the top Leeds unbeaten run continued with a draw at Leicester.

I don't have an image of the Sheffield Utd programme, but here is the one from the Chelsea game. If anyone has an image from the Sheffield match, it would be great if you could PM it to me.

[march4]

I thought I would post this week's 50 years ago edition a little earlier as this was such a significant week for English football. For SCFC it was a quieter week, with only a game on Saturday 20th October at the Dell for our players to negotiate. This was because it was internationals week.

The week started with the resignations of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor from Derby. This had been brewing for a while and seemed from an outsider's perspective to be a power battle between management and the board. I wrote a few months ago about Bobby Moore not playing against us because he was on the verge of a move to Derby for a record fee. Obviously, this did not go ahead and was probably a part of the friction.

Two days later, 50 years from tonight, Cloughie turned up on ITV as a pundit for the England vs Poland World Cup qualifier. Mr Clough was as outrageous as ever, describing the Polish keeper as a 'clown'. Inevitably, this 'clown' - Jan Tomaszewski, had a brilliant game, denying England time and time again until a Peter Shilton error gave Poland the lead. England did manage an Alan Clarke equaliser but a win was needed and it was Poland going to the World Cup (where they did very well) and not England.

After all of that, the Saturday fixtures were a bit of a side show. Our team to face Southampton was;- McDonald, Jump, Pejic, Lees, Smith, Dodd, Robertson, Greenhoff, Hurst, Mahoney, Haslegrave. TC was sub and replaced Haslegrave in the 2nd half. This was to be a chastening day for the Potters. Within 10 minutes, Southampton were 2 goals up through Terry Paine and Bobby Stokes, and by half time it was 3-0 (Stokes adding his 2nd). Thankfully, the 15,000 spectators saw no further goals in the 2nd half.

This result saw us drop a place in the table to 18th, just 2 points above the relegation spots which were filled by West Ham (who won their first game of the season at Coventry) and Birmingham. Leeds were still flying at the top of the table and unbeaten, beating Liverpool and going 4 points clear.

[march4]

The Sentinel letters page, 50 years ago today makes interesting reading. The headlines to the letters read; - 'Depressing reading', 'New ideas needed', Why this struggle?', Lack of conviction' and 'Think big, Stoke'. One of these even calls for a new manager. However, two of the others bemoan our lack of quality in midfield. One of these suggests moving Pejic into midfield once Bloor has recovered from injury. However, the letter which caught my eye talks about the impact the signing of Matthews had on the club and how we could do with repeating the feat now. I wonder if Waddo was thinking the same way.

Onto today's game at home to a Coventry team enjoying a strong start to the season under their general manager Joe Mercer and 'trainer' Gordon Milne. Our starting eleven was as follows; Farmer, Marsh, Pejic, Mahoney, Smith, Dodd, Robertson, Greenhoff, Ritchie, Hurst and Haslegrave. After a couple of dodgy performances and poor results, Mike McDonald has been replaced in goal by John Farmer who pretty much keeps the jersey for the rest of the season. The Coventry team includes; Bill Glazier, Mick Coop, Dennis Mortimer and Tommy Hutchinson.

We got off to a good start with Greenhoff opening the scoring on 6 minutes with a header and we easily held Coventry at bay until half time. Second halves had not been going well for Stoke this season and we seemed to settle into our shell after the restart. But..... this was not a typical Stoke performance and we scored two more goals mid way through the half within a minute of each other. The first a Hurst penalty following a handball and then Greenhoff added his second. A well deserved 3-0 win for the Potters, who even had a Robertson penalty saved.

The result left us in 18th position, now 3 points above the relegation zone. This was only our second victory of the season. Meanwhile, Leeds continued to storm away at the top with 10 wins and 3 draws in their 13 games putting them 5 points clear.

Elsewhere in the world, Israel and its neighbours were in conflict, across the Pond, 'Tricky Dicky' was trying to explain the Watergate evidence and at home, the miners were beginning to agitate for a pay rise (more about that later in the season).

[march4]

I'm going to add another midweek addition to our trawl through the 50 year memories as this was a big week for the club.

Tonight we faced Middlesbrough in a home League Cup tie. This was a game we were taking seriously and the whole squad had travelled to Carlisle to see them play in their previous game. Our small squad was also struggling with the volume of games and injuries were beginning to bite. TC and Bluto were long term injury victims and now it looked like our increasingly influential player coach, George Eastham needed a cartilage operation. Ritchie, Robertson, Smith and Mahoney were all struggling to make the game and needed late fitness tests. Skeels had been missing for weeks but was trying to prove his fitness in a friendly game against the Oxford University student team. Our side also contained Banksie and we won 3-0.

Middlesbrough under new manager Jack Charlton and his assistant, the England #2 Harold Shepherdson were running away with the 2nd Division title and had conceded goals in only 4 games all season. In the previous round they had beaten Man Utd and arrived in Stoke in a confident mood.

A slightly larger crowd of 19,000 turned up to see if Stoke could continue their good form after the excellent win over Coventry. In particular, Mike Pejic had a storming game with the England squad about to be announced for the friendly at home to Italy. Our team on the night was; - Farmer, Marsh, Pejic, Mahoney, Smith, Dodd, Robertson, Greenhoff, Ritchie, Hurst, Haslegrave. Sub Goodwin.

Stoke's new attacking style was in evidence straight away. Indeed we pressed for the entire game. M'boro were known for their frequent back passes to the keeper and the Sentinel noted they 'may not be doing very much for football'. In particular, Pej rampaged forward repeatedly and he got his reward in the 50th minute with a thunderous shot following a pass from Greenhoff. Surely that was it as M'boro had barely been out of their own half but 5 minutes later 4 Stoke defenders all went for the same ball allowing an unmarked striker to equalise. And that was the end of the action. Our weary players now faced an extra game in the replay.

It was at this time, that Waddo seemed to be handing the reins to Eastham more and more. Banksie was also increasing in influence. Was this to be the beginning of a new management team? Many supporters were wishing Stoke would approach the out of work Cloughie, but he had now been offered a job at Brighton. Derby had approached Bobby Robson to be their new manager but he decided to stay at Ipswich. There was some paper talk of the players at manager-less Derby going on strike.

It was a busy week for Banksie. As well as turning out against Oxford Uni, he also opened the new Jollees nightclub in Longton and he used his bricklaying skills by putting the final bricks in place on the new Hanley skyscraper that was eventually to be called Unity House. The finishing touches were also being added to Banksie's testimonial. The club hoped to play a Rest of the World 11 just as they had for Sir Stan. Unfortunately, a game in the middle of winter was not particularly attractive and Pele had offered his apologies closely followed by Franz Beckanbauer and Gerd Muller. Eusebio still hadn't replied though and perhaps he would be present. The club now asked Man Utd if they would be our opponents on the night.

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[jesusmcmuffin]

Mar 17, 2023 17:54:00 GMT march4 said:

Over recent months, I’ve been tracing our fixtures from 50 years ago and posting them into a variety of vaguely relevant threads.

So, I’ve decided to create a new thread just to keep the posts together.

50 years ago today, we played host to league leaders Liverpool in front of a bumper crowd of over 33,000 folk.

We started the game a point above bottom spot in the table. We had been playing better since George Eastham returned in February but results weren’t yet showing an improvement.

On this day, we again played well but lost narrowly 1-0. John Mahoney unfortunately scored an own goal midway through the second half. Greenhoff had nearly given away a goal with a back pass which stuck in the mud. Thankfully, Farmer was quickly off his line to smother Heighway’s effort. However, a minute later, Mahoney tried a similar back pass, lifting the ball to keep it out of the mud. He lofted it a bit too high and the ball sailed over Farmer’s head and into the net.

Our league position remained roughly the same as results went our way.

One other thing that sticks in the mind was a rampaging run by Denis which took him through the Liverpool defence with only Clemence to beat. Sadly in the mud, the ball ran away from Denis and into the keeper’s grateful arms. What I really remember was Denis’ sliding tackle which left Clemence writhing on the floor for 5 minutes before hobbling around for the remainder of the game. Proper football!!

Why is injuring a player proper football?

Lots of players had their careers ended in that era

[march4]

Oct 31, 2023 19:30:26 GMT jesusmcmuffin said:

Mar 17, 2023 17:54:00 GMT march4 said:

Over recent months, I’ve been tracing our fixtures from 50 years ago and posting them into a variety of vaguely relevant threads.

So, I’ve decided to create a new thread just to keep the posts together.

50 years ago today, we played host to league leaders Liverpool in front of a bumper crowd of over 33,000 folk.

We started the game a point above bottom spot in the table. We had been playing better since George Eastham returned in February but results weren’t yet showing an improvement.

On this day, we again played well but lost narrowly 1-0. John Mahoney unfortunately scored an own goal midway through the second half. Greenhoff had nearly given away a goal with a back pass which stuck in the mud. Thankfully, Farmer was quickly off his line to smother Heighway’s effort. However, a minute later, Mahoney tried a similar back pass, lifting the ball to keep it out of the mud. He lofted it a bit too high and the ball sailed over Farmer’s head and into the net.

Our league position remained roughly the same as results went our way.

One other thing that sticks in the mind was a rampaging run by Denis which took him through the Liverpool defence with only Clemence to beat. Sadly in the mud, the ball ran away from Denis and into the keeper’s grateful arms. What I really remember was Denis’ sliding tackle which left Clemence writhing on the floor for 5 minutes before hobbling around for the remainder of the game. Proper football!!

Why is injuring a player proper football?

Lots of players had their careers ended in that era

Fair point.

Apologies for any offence caused.

[jesusmcmuffin]

Oct 31, 2023 19:32:16 GMT march4 said:

Oct 31, 2023 19:30:26 GMT jesusmcmuffin said:

Why is injuring a player proper football?

Lots of players had their careers ended in that era

Fair point.

Apologies for any offence caused.

Just one of those things I never understood. Players who deliberately went to injure players were so called proper footballers. Harris etc

Didn't we have 4 legs breaks in a season?

Is one thing being hard, another trying to deliberately injure an opponent. More cowardly than proper

Not including Smith in that so much although he did boast that he was going back on the pitch to do a player I think were his words

I remember a player at Chester , another Psycho nickname who boasted about the players he did. Finished a young players career on a TV game on Grandstand with a horrendous challenge and laughed about it with the crowd. Think was v Sheff Weds

[smallthorner]

Oct 31, 2023 17:09:50 GMT march4 said:

I'm going to add another midweek addition to our trawl through the 50 year memories as this was a big week for the club.

Tonight we faced Middlesbrough in a home League Cup tie. This was a game we were taking seriously and the whole squad had travelled to Carlisle to see them play in their previous game. Our small squad was also struggling with the volume of games and injuries were beginning to bite. TC and Bluto were long term injury victims and now it looked like our increasingly influential player coach, George Eastham needed a cartilage operation. Ritchie, Robertson, Smith and Mahoney were all struggling to make the game and needed late fitness tests. Skeels had been missing for weeks but was trying to prove his fitness in a friendly game against the Oxford University student team. Our side also contained Banksie and we won 3-0.

Middlesbrough under new manager Jack Charlton and his assistant, the England #2 Harold Shepherdson were running away with the 2nd Division title and had conceded goals in only 4 games all season. In the previous round they had beaten Man Utd and arrived in Stoke in a confident mood.

A slightly larger crowd of 19,000 turned up to see if Stoke could continue their good form after the excellent win over Coventry. In particular, Mike Pejic had a storming game with the England squad about to be announced for the friendly at home to Italy. Our team on the night was; - Farmer, Marsh, Pejic, Mahoney, Smith, Dodd, Robertson, Greenhoff, Ritchie, Hurst, Haslegrave. Sub Goodwin.

Stoke's new attacking style was in evidence straight away. Indeed we pressed for the entire game. M'boro were known for their frequent back passes to the keeper and the Sentinel noted they 'may not be doing very much for football'. In particular, Pej rampaged forward repeatedly and he got his reward in the 50th minute with a thunderous shot following a pass from Greenhoff. Surely that was it as M'boro had barely been out of their own half but 5 minutes later 4 Stoke defenders all went for the same ball allowing an unmarked striker to equalise. And that was the end of the action. Our weary players now faced an extra game in the replay.

It was at this time, that Waddo seemed to be handing the reins to Eastham more and more. Banksie was also increasing in influence. Was this to be the beginning of a new management team? Many supporters were wishing Stoke would approach the out of work Cloughie, but he had now been offered a job at Brighton. Derby had approached Bobby Robson to be their new manager but he decided to stay at Ipswich. There was some paper talk of the players at manager-less Derby going on strike.

It was a busy week for Banksie. As well as turning out against Oxford Uni, he also opened the new Jollees nightclub in Longton and he used his bricklaying skills by putting the final bricks in place on the new Hanley skyscraper that was eventually to be called Unity House. The finishing touches were also being added to Banksie's testimonial. The club hoped to play a Rest of the World 11 just as they had for Sir Stan. Unfortunately, a game in the middle of winter was not particularly attractive and Pele had offered his apologies closely followed by Franz Beckanbauer and Gerd Muller. Eusebio still hadn't replied though and perhaps he would be present. The club now asked Man Utd if they would be our opponents on the night.

View Attachment

Thanks March for the memories.
I was twenty at the time so remember quite well but you put the fine details in tremendously..
My first match was ten years earlier but memory very foggy.
Not sure why my dad and uncle took so long for my stoke baptism..perhaps work commitments.
For some strange reason my early stoke player recollections are Lawrie Leslie, Bill Bentley, Calvin Palmer and Alan Philpot.
Not sure why haha.

[march4]

Oct 31, 2023 19:36:30 GMT jesusmcmuffin said:

Oct 31, 2023 19:32:16 GMT march4 said:

Fair point.

Apologies for any offence caused.

Just one of those things I never understood. Players who deliberately went to injure players were so called proper footballers. Harris etc

Didn't we have 4 legs breaks in a season?

Is one thing being hard, another trying to deliberately injure an opponent. More cowardly than proper

Not including Smith in that so much although he did boast that he was going back on the pitch to do a player I think were his words

I remember a player at Chester , another Psycho nickname who boasted about the players he did. Finished a young players career on a TV game on Grandstand with a horrendous challenge and laughed about it with the crowd. Think was v Sheff Weds

I was just reading about players 50 years ago complaining about foul challenges causing injury. You are absolutely correct

[jesusmcmuffin]

Oct 31, 2023 21:08:39 GMT march4 said:

Oct 31, 2023 19:36:30 GMT jesusmcmuffin said:

Just one of those things I never understood. Players who deliberately went to injure players were so called proper footballers. Harris etc

Didn't we have 4 legs breaks in a season?

Is one thing being hard, another trying to deliberately injure an opponent. More cowardly than proper

Not including Smith in that so much although he did boast that he was going back on the pitch to do a player I think were his words

I remember a player at Chester , another Psycho nickname who boasted about the players he did. Finished a young players career on a TV game on Grandstand with a horrendous challenge and laughed about it with the crowd. Think was v Sheff Weds

I was just reading about players 50 years ago complaining about foul challenges causing injury. You are absolutely correct

Don't get me wrong .not criticising the game but it's the 'proper football' term . The first player I loved at Stoke was Kevin Sheldon as about a 6 year old and he was a victim.

Proper football is perhaps defenders who use their ability rather than brute force

[march4]

Nov 1, 2023 7:45:39 GMT jesusmcmuffin said:

Oct 31, 2023 21:08:39 GMT march4 said:

I was just reading about players 50 years ago complaining about foul challenges causing injury. You are absolutely correct

Don't get me wrong .not criticising the game but it's the 'proper football' term . The first player I loved at Stoke was Kevin Sheldon as about a 6 year old and he was a victim.

Proper football is perhaps defenders who use their ability rather than brute force

You are absolutely correct.

[march4]

50 years ago, we're having to face searches before entering the ground for matches. While this is not unfamiliar these days, it was brought about due to the frequent terrorist attacks, particularly in London, and searches were also introduced by shops, cinemas, pubs, etc. The Middle East conflict meant oil was in short supply and the government were urging folk not to use their cars on a Sunday. Indeed petrol rationing was being mentioned as a possibility And if that wasn't enough the miners' dispute over pay and conditions was now joined by the power station workers with similar complaints. This would soon be affecting football.

Stoke faced the long trip to Newcastle, for a game against a team who were trying to catch unbeaten Leeds at the top of the table. We had all sorts of injury issues, with Robertson now sidelined on top of all the other injuries we faced. Thankfully, Skeels returned after a long lay off and indeed was our best player on the day. Our team at St James' Park was; - Farmer, Marsh, Pejic, Mahoney, Smith, Dodd, Haslegrave, Greenhoff, Ritchie, Hurst, Skeels. Newcastle were suffering a worse injury crisis than us and both of their free scoring forwards, MacDonald and Tudor were missing along with 4 other regular starters. We started well and in the first minute Ritchie put Hurst through on goal with only the keeper to beat but he mistimed his shot wide. Midway through the half, Terry McDermott picked up the ball unchallenged in the centre circle, moved forward unhindered to the edge of the D and rifled a pile driver past Farmer. From then on, Newcastle applied the pressure, and we survived to half-time only 1-0 down. On the restart, a speculative shot from Pejic hit Hurst on the knee and Ritchie lashed the ball home from the fortunate rebound. After that the game seemed to be settling as a stalemate only for a back pass from Smith to find a striker rather than keeper Farmer and we found ourselves behind again. At the end of their report, the Sentinel bemoan Stoke "need a class midfield man who can pull it all together". The 2-1 result puts Newcastle 2nd in the table, 6 points behind Leeds and we remain just above the relegation zone.

The Sunday papers are speculating that Wolves are trying to sign our former player Mike Bernard who apparently hasn't done much since leaving Stoke for Everton. The Sentinel letters criticise Stoke's supporters as we now have the smallest crowds in the division. One letter criticises those who moan at the manager, although there is still the obligatory letter complaining that we are not signing new players and we let Stan Bowles leave Crewe for QPR.

[march4]

50 years ago tonight, we put in one of our better performances of the 1970's in a League Cup replay away at a M'boro team running away with the 2nd Division title. Our opponents had lost only once that season and had already beaten both Manchester teams in the cup. M'boro's first crowd for a while of 30,000+ were in attendance expecting another victory for the home team. In the build up to the game, Mike Pejic had again been overlooked by Ramsay for the latest England squad and it was pretty obvious Pej was determined to prove him wrong. We had fitness doubts for Robertson and Ritchie, but we started the game as follows; - Farmer, Marsh, Pejic, Mahoney, Smith, Dodd, Skeels, Greenhoff, Ritchie, Hurst, Haslegrave.

Pej played like a man possessed. In our previous two games he had a goal and an assist and was determined to add to his tally. A 38th minute shot of his thundered into the goal post and back into play and we eventually forced a corner from the rebound. Haslegrave took the set piece and Smith knocked the ball down to Greenhoff who rifled home. M'boro stormed back and Dodd and Farmer were composed in repelling them. As the game drew to a close, it looked like we would win but our old failing of conceding late goals struck again and the game would go into extra time. Inevitably, it was Pejic who decided the game, exchanging passes with Ritchie before hitting an unstoppable shot. The Sentinel described us as 'conjuring up all our old cup fighting character and our best display of the season' in 'one of the finest cup-ties ever seen in the competition'.

Our reward for this 2-1 victory was an away tie at Coventry.

[march4]

Our weary players returned from their hard earned cup victory in the North East for a tricky game against a powerful, robust Norwich led by Ron Saunders. In midweek, Marsh and Mahoney had been knocked out but declared themselves fit and Skeels' ankle ligament issues had re-emerged leaving him a doubt. Farmer couldn't take goal kicks in the 2nd half due to a thigh injury and was potentially missing, while Robertson's knee issues were unresolved. Our team lined up; - Farmer, Marsh, Pejic, Mahoney, Smith, Dodd, Robertson, Greenhoff, Ritchie, Hurst, Haslegrave. Sub; - Goodwin.

Stoke are a more offensive outfit, now Eastham is having a greater influence. Hurst plays behind the strikers to link up play and it is working well. However, our injury jinx strikes straight from the kick off when Smith is injured in a goalmouth scramble and he has to go off with the impressive Haslegrave dropping to centre back to partner the even younger Dodd. This setback doesn't really hold us back and we dominate for the entire 90 minutes. A towering Ritchie header gives us the lead on the half hour (Pejic with the inevitable assist). Goodwin sealed our win with a goal from another Pejic cross in the 87th minute (I believe it is to be his final goal for the Potters). A well deserved 2-0 win in front of 15,000 fans whose only grumble could have been that we didn't score 4 or 5 goals.

The game left our defence in crisis with injuries to Smith, Bloor and Skeels. That night Waddo contacted Liverpool manager Bill Shankly who agreed their legendary captain Tommy Smith could join Stoke on loan. The Sentinel letters page is typically negative with 'Mr Waddington' coming under criticism for his negative, defensive football and lack of signings. One writer says the team needs at least 5 new starters to be competitive!

[Mr_DaftBurger]

Nov 10, 2023 19:37:52 GMT march4 said:

The game left our defence in crisis with injuries to Smith, Bloor and Skeels. That night Waddo contacted Liverpool manager Bill Shankly who agreed their legendary captain Tommy Smith could join Stoke on loan. The Sentinel letters page is typically negative with 'Mr Waddington' coming under criticism for his negative, defensive football and lack of signings. One writer says the team needs at least 5 new starters to be competitive!

View Attachment

Did he come? Can't remember him?

What a brilliant player Alan Dodd was. Didn't Hudson say he's one of the best players he played with and should have been capped by England? A proper footballer in the time of proper football!

[march4]

Nov 10, 2023 23:32:26 GMT Mr_DaftBurger said:

Nov 10, 2023 19:37:52 GMT march4 said:

The game left our defence in crisis with injuries to Smith, Bloor and Skeels. That night Waddo contacted Liverpool manager Bill Shankly who agreed their legendary captain Tommy Smith could join Stoke on loan. The Sentinel letters page is typically negative with 'Mr Waddington' coming under criticism for his negative, defensive football and lack of signings. One writer says the team needs at least 5 new starters to be competitive!

View Attachment

Did he come? Can't remember him?

What a brilliant player Alan Dodd was. Didn't Hudson say he's one of the best players he played with and should have been capped by England? A proper footballer in the time of proper football!

You will have to wait for next week’s thrilling instalment to see what happened when Tommy Smith turned up at Stoke on the Monday morning.

[march4]

So what is the story with Tommy Smith? I've mentioned Eastham taking a bigger role at the club and Waddo not being himself and over the weekend Waddo was taken ill and rushed into hospital. He was suffering from exhaustion and very high blood pressure. The pressure of being our manager was taking its toll on the poor man. When Tommy Smith turned up at Stoke on Monday, Waddo was still in hospital and he was instead greeted by Percy Axon and Alex Humphries, 2 of the directors. However, all seemed well with the loan until Waddo spoke to Liverpool's club secretary by telephone from his hospital bed and Liverpool wanted a quick return clause that both Stoke and the Football League didn't like. Tommy Smith had agreed to join and Stoke badly needed him but it wasn't to be. Imagine a defence with Denis Smith, Tommy Smith and Pej - talk about a solid back line! Stoke then put in a transfer bid for Tommy Smith for a permanent move but it came to nothing. Tommy Smith had fallen out with Shankly when he was moved from his favoured centre back to right back. Shankly then took the captaincy off Smith and gave it to Emlyn Hughes. Of course, Smith starred for Liverpool at right back for a few more seasons, but never seemed to be overly friendly with Hughes.

50 years ago tonight, England lost at Wembley to Italy in a friendly game that was to be Bobby Moore's final cap. The only goal was scored by an Italian who would go on to manage England.

The miners voted for an overtime ban, meaning the energy crisis just got a whole lot worse and the government consequently banned the use of floodlights at football matches. The Football League responded by allowing games to kick off at 2.30pm. Our cup tie against Coventry has now been moved from the following Tuesday evening to the Tuesday afternoon at 2.30pm. The Sentinel are now publishing a rota of areas which could suffer power cuts due to the energy crisis.

Princess Anne has married Captain Mark Phillips and schools were closed for the day as a result.

[spitthedog]

Nov 10, 2023 23:32:26 GMT Mr_DaftBurger said:

Nov 10, 2023 19:37:52 GMT march4 said:

The game left our defence in crisis with injuries to Smith, Bloor and Skeels. That night Waddo contacted Liverpool manager Bill Shankly who agreed their legendary captain Tommy Smith could join Stoke on loan. The Sentinel letters page is typically negative with 'Mr Waddington' coming under criticism for his negative, defensive football and lack of signings. One writer says the team needs at least 5 new starters to be competitive!

View Attachment

Did he come? Can't remember him?

What a brilliant player Alan Dodd was. Didn't Hudson say he's one of the best players he played with and should have been capped by England? A proper footballer in the time of proper football!

Should have played loads for England. He was a very fine player and Huddy loved playing with him. Reliable, cultured defender, intelligent on the ball.
Played in midfield later on in his career.

One of my all-time faves. I'm sure he would have been slaughtered on here these days for appearing to be too casual in his approach based on his appearance and demeanour.

[march4]

Nov 14, 2023 13:34:28 GMT spitthedog said:

Nov 10, 2023 23:32:26 GMT Mr_DaftBurger said:

Did he come? Can't remember him?

What a brilliant player Alan Dodd was. Didn't Hudson say he's one of the best players he played with and should have been capped by England? A proper footballer in the time of proper football!

Should have played loads for England. He was a very fine player and Huddy loved playing with him. Reliable, cultured defender, intelligent on the ball.
Played in midfield later on in his career.

One of my all-time faves. I'm sure he would have been slaughtered on here these days for appearing to be too casual in his approach based on his appearance and demeanour.

Indeed he should have played for England as should others of our players. It was ridiculous that Huddy and Pej hardly got a game and the likes of Jimmy, Denis and Doddy never played.

[march4]

The matchday programme might say kick off at the usual 3.15pm but our home game against bottom placed Birmingham actually kicked off at 2.15pm due to the government's floodlight ban in the light of the energy crisis (excuse the pun). Birmingham came to the game unbeaten in their last 4 matches although they had only one win to show for their season's efforts. They had attempted to stem the goals conceded by the big money signing of goalkeeper Gary Sprake from Leeds. This had been a disaster with him giving goals away with some comedy errors including punching the ball into his own net. He had been prone to the odd howler at Leeds but he was really struggling for form at Birmingham. Our opponents had Francis and Latchford up front.

We went into the game, in the midst of an injury crisis with Smith, Skeels and Bloor all injured. Stuart Jump was recalled in defence as we lined up; - Farmer, Marsh, Pejic, Mahoney, Dodd, Jump, Robertson, Greenhoff, Ritchie, Hurst, Haslegrave. Sub; - Goodwin. It was a surprise to see Waddo at the game following his hospital stay and a lot of supporters were expecting the club to announce Eastham was going to take over as manager. This didn't happen (not for a while anyway) but we continued with Eastham's new attacking tactic of Hurst in attacking midfield with Greenhoff and Ritchie up front.

This was a straightforward game for Stoke and we romped to an easy 5-2 victory. We raced into a 2-0 lead but were pegged back by the hour mark by some sloppy defending only for Birmingham's defence to self destruct as we scored 3 comical goals within a 15 minute period. Our scorers were Robertson, Hurst Mahoney and Ritchie with 2. This was a remarkable come back by Ritchie who never seemed sure of his place with Waddo. Eastham's new team shape gave Big John the ideal role and he was thriving again after being dropped a few months ago. It is perhaps fitting that Ritchie was playing so well, 10 years since he broke through into Stoke's first team with an incredible 15 goals in 9 games (still I believe a club record).

Perhaps, out of respect to Waddo's illness, the Sentinel letters page was less critical than usual and the main issue was the state of the ladies toilets!

So our next game is the exciting cup tie at Coventry. The game was scheduled for a 7.30pm kick off but was then moved to the afternoon due to the floodlight ban. However, Coventry have now announced they have acquired some generators and so kick off is back to 7.30pm!!

[march4]

Forgot to add that straight after the game poor old Waddo was readmitted to hospital for further treatment.

[castokie]

Thanks for this its bringing back so many memories. I remember the energy crisis and how the early saturday starts drastically reduced  the attendances. We were never bad but just lacked consistency until of course you know what happened in January. really hope your able to keep this going for the whole season 

[smallthorner]

Nov 18, 2023 20:17:20 GMT castokie said:

Thanks for this its bringing back so many memories. I remember the energy crisis and how the early saturday starts drastically reduced  the attendances. We were never bad but just lacked consistency until of course you know what happened in January. really hope your able to keep this going for the whole season 

Yes. Great thread.

[march4]

Nov 18, 2023 20:17:20 GMT castokie said:

Thanks for this its bringing back so many memories. I remember the energy crisis and how the early saturday starts drastically reduced  the attendances. We were never bad but just lacked consistency until of course you know what happened in January. really hope your able to keep this going for the whole season 

That’s the plan.

[march4]

With our defensive injury crisis biting deeply, we now faced a tricky cup tie at Coventry. Cup fever was alive in the Potteries and a huge following travelled with us to the West Midlands. As well as our injured defenders, John Ritchie was also struggling and needed a late fitness test. However, our journey to Coventry was more than eventful. As the squad travelled on their coach, as they reached Hanford on the M6, something flew through the windscreen sending shards of glass everywhere. Unfortunately, one, about an inch long, embedded itself in the eyebrow of our coach driver. He received treatment on the hard shoulder from club doctor, Sandy Clubb and physio Mike Allen. The players did their best to clean up the glass and fit a piece of perspex across the hole in the windscreen. Somehow the driver, John Brookes, resumed the journey, getting us to the ground just in time to hand in the team sheet by the 30 minute deadline. The players were frozen from the journey and now had little time to prepare for the game. The driver was given further treatment and his wound stitched by the Coventry medical staff. The only good news was Ritchie passed his fitness test. We lined up; - Farmer, Marsh, Pejic, Mahoney, Dodd, Jump, Roberton, Greenhoff, Ritchie, Hurst, Haslegrave. Sub; - Goodwin.

We made light of our difficulties straight from kick off and tore into Coventry. However, after our glass disaster, it was the Coventry goalkeeper Bill Glazier (you couldn't make it up), who put in a man of the match display, foiling us repeatedly. On the half hour we finally made the breakthrough. Ritchie cleverly dummied Robertson's low cross and Hurst slammed the ball home. With Stoke well on top, Coventry scored an equaliser 6 minutes later against the run of play. A speculative punt into our box, was left by our two young central defenders and Coventry equalised. Still we pressed. Ritchie was noticeably hobbling but made a great chance for himself immediately after half-time. From 4 yards, he somehow put his volley over the bar. The game became more even until the 68th minute. A Coventry shot incredibly rebounded off 3 Stoke players leaving an easy tap in to put the hosts in front. With Haslegrave also struggling to run, as well as Ritchie, we couldn't battle back and so our cup run came to an end in a frustrating manner.

We undoubtedly missed Smith's power and experience at the back and the disrupted coach journey couldn't have helped. Coventry were drawn at home in the next round to Man City - a game we would have hoped to win. Man City won after a replay before meeting lower league Plymouth in the semi-finals. They then went to Wembley losing to Wolves. What a cup final that could have been - Stoke vs Wolves!