60 years ago this month...

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

i still remember that final at hampden it was the most unbelievable performance by real madrid never seen anything like it absolutely brilliant football

The match was an absolute revelation, and showed what football could achieve. It was some years before I began to appreciate that the football was tainted by politics. The 7 Real Madrid goals were shared by Di Stefano and Puskas, an Argentinian and a Hungarian. Franco was a Spanish Nationalist, but the role of ‘Royal’ Madrid as the regime’s flagship football club meant that they were allowed to sign foreign players that other Spanish clubs could not. Indeed, both players played for Spain. The official propaganda celebrated Real Madrid’s victory as an example of Spanish ‘brio’ (verve, spirit), but it was very dependent on the contributions of an Argentinian and a Hungarian. But the quality of football was sublime.

 

[SUFC Handsworth]

Well spotted and well observed. An even better example (for me, if you get my drift) coming shortly. When was the last time the Lane crowd applauded an opposition player, other than ex-Blades? Kabba?

I seem to remember Duffy for Scunthorpe got applauded by our fans in the Ched Evans season

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

I seem to remember Duffy for Scunthorpe got applauded by our fans in the Ched Evans season

You’re right. I had forgotten that one. Was that a match we lost?

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

October 21st, 1961
Everton 1-0 United
Attendance: 42888

This game might look at first glance to be another example of Utd struggling to adjust to life in the top division. A 1-0 defeat to a talented Everton side which had won 6 out of the previous 7 games was unsurprising, but it remains one of my favourite away-days for reasons that will become clear.
My arm was still not healed, so instead of school football, it was a Utd away match and a return to the scene of January’s giant-killing in the Cup. That was good for a sense of expectation, but things were a little dampened by the rumour that John Harris was being offered the Newcastle job (vacant again 60 years later). The press reports (kindly provided by Silent Blade ) suggested he was a strong candidate:

As it turned out, Newcastle appointed the in-house candidate, Norman Smith, whose appointment proved short-lived.
Summers was out injured again, and United struggled to get into the game. Unlike the Cup match, where we scored first and held on to the lead, this time Roy Vernon scored the early goal, and we struggled to make any impact, until one good effort in the last minute.
So, what made this match special? The clue is in the player ratings from me and my brother:

I am pretty sure that Hodgy’s perfect 20 is the only time we gave that mark. His performance that day was spell-binding, and in his autobiography it is clearly the performance he was most proud of:

The game was a contest between Everton’s talented attack, and United’s sound defence, and especially the inspired performance by Hodgy. The large crowd gave all the players a great ovation; the nearest more recent occasion I can compare it to, but a totally different type of game, was the semi-final v Hull. I always hate to see United lose, but occasionally the match is so good or the performance so enjoyable that you just have to accept the result and enjoy the game; it is probably that kind of situation that the cliche ‘football was the winner’ was made for.
I think that day Hodgy was so good that I can’t picture individual saves; I just remember the feeling of awe and pride, pretending that because I was a Unitedite and school goalkeeper, a little bit of that performance belonged to me. No wonder Hodgy himself felt proud. He was a modest man, but took pride in his work.
More details in the following post:

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

 

[ancientblade]

yes hodgy remember the man saying in his autobiography it was his best ever performance playing for united by coincidence that day was my 10th birthday and today is my 70th how time flies eh

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

yes hodgy remember the man saying in his autobiography it was his best ever performance playing for united by coincidence that day was my 10th birthday and today is my 70th how time flies eh

Happy birthday. Have a to celebrate Hodgy’s wonderful goalkeeping!

 

[Grecian2000]

Thanks Hodgy, great memories in those reports.

Interesting reading throughout. Fascinated by the two pieces of "financials" though. The program was 4d (roughly 1.5p) and the Newcastle manager was on £3k pa.
If the program is £3.50 these days that's about 240 times the price then, which if the managers salary rose at the same rate would be about £720k.
Suspect the next Magpies manager wouldn't get out of bed for that!

 

[ancientblade]

Happy birthday. Have a to celebrate Hodgy’s wonderful goalkeeping!

already had a drink hodgy lol yes if he hadnt been around the same time as ron springett he would have been englands number 1 was at burnden park in 71 when i believe he played his last first team game for united he had a bad game that day and think he was blamed for both boltons goals

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

Thanks Hodgy, great memories in those reports.

Interesting reading throughout. Fascinated by the two pieces of "financials" though. The program was 4d (roughly 1.5p) and the Newcastle manager was on £3k pa.
If the program is £3.50 these days that's about 240 times the price then, which if the managers salary rose at the same rate would be about £720k.
Suspect the next Magpies manager wouldn't get out of bed for that!

Fascinating. And the maximum wage for players had just disappeared, but the players were on about £1500 a year. Not quite a modern Premier League wage!

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

already had a drink hodgy lol yes if he hadnt been around the same time as ron springett he would have been englands number 1 was at burnden park in 71 when i believe he played his last first team game for united he had a bad game that day and think he was blamed for both boltons goals

This is sometimes said, and he certainly was not at his best in 70-71. However, the material in the ‘50 Years Ago’ thread (post 436, for Jan 16th, 1971) suggests the goals were not his fault. My daughter was 3 weeks old at the time, so definitely was not at Bolton that day!

 

[Silent Blade]

This is sometimes said, and he certainly was not at his best in 70-71. However, the material in the ‘50 Years Ago’ thread (post 436, for Jan 16th, 1971) suggests the goals were not his fault. My daughter was 3 weeks old at the time, so definitely was not at Bolton that day!

First goal was a great shot by Seddon. 2nd goal looked miles offside. However I thought he should have stopped Fenoughty's shot at Saltergate a week later

 

[ancientblade]

This is sometimes said, and he certainly was not at his best in 70-71. However, the material in the ‘50 Years Ago’ thread (post 436, for Jan 16th, 1971) suggests the goals were not his fault. My daughter was 3 weeks old at the time, so definitely was not at Bolton that day!

This is sometimes said, and he certainly was not at his best in 70-71. However, the material in the ‘50 Years Ago’ thread (post 436, for Jan 16th, 1971) suggests the goals were not his fault. My daughter was 3 weeks old at the time, so definitely was not at Bolton that day!

cant remember goals but know hodgy carried the can that day can remember the shenanigans on boltons end that day both sets of fans continually charging at each other all match most of boltons fans were leather clad angels lol

 

[Isaw Joeshaw]

Thanks Hodgy, great memories in those reports.

Interesting reading throughout. Fascinated by the two pieces of "financials" though. The program was 4d (roughly 1.5p) and the Newcastle manager was on £3k pa.
If the program is £3.50 these days that's about 240 times the price then, which if the managers salary rose at the same rate would be about £720k.
Suspect the next Magpies manager wouldn't get out of bed for that!

To give it even more perspective , as a 20 year old at the time as a junior assistant in a drawing office I was on a third of that salary .

Based on Chris Wilder’s reported salary let alone that of one of the top clubs in the land , that would have been the equivalent of around £1.3 million a year .

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

October 28, 1961
United 2-2 Fulham
Attendance: 19601

One of the pleasures of preparing posts like this is that it brings back memories that have been submerged for many years. Boring for you, interesting for me, and I hope you forgive my self-indulgence. My health was again centre-stage.
The broken arm had just about healed, but there was no school football because it was half-term. That meant Friday and Monday off school, no more, and on the Thursday I felt off-colour in class, so my mum packed me off to to the doctor’s as she set off for work on the Friday morning. Do you remember when you just went to the doctor’s waiting-room, sat around for a few minutes, and were seen by the doctor himself (it was usually a ‘he’)? He wasn’t good at communicating, or I didn’t bother listening, and I decided to carry on to town where the autograph-hunting ‘community’ knew that Fulham would be stopping at the Grand Hotel. I got lots of autographs, and several of the players were happy to chat. It was only when I felt a lot worse on the Monday that my mother went to the surgery to find out what was wrong with me, only to be told that I had chicken-pox, and should not have been going out. At that moment I had great feelings of guilt that Fulham had made a last-minute change (Chamberlain for Metchik), because, I convinced myself, I had passed on my illness (impossible in such a short time, I know). The following week they had more players out, which made my guilt-feelings worse. I was convinced for years that I had helped Utd get a point that day.
Of the match itself, I remember nothing. The Lines from the Pavilion have 3 themes:
1. The Board was still upset about the crowd v Eintracht Frankfurt, and made it clear the experiment was unlikely to be repeated. The comparison of crowds with other clubs is interesting, and I think that Wednesday’s position as the more successful club in the city was a factor. United had this wonderful stability within the team, which made the club feel like a family at the time; but Wednesday had the more glamorous reputation, and were more likely to attract the neutrals. Fortunately for us, that did not lead to the great success which seemed worryingly possible at the time.
2. The league position was still worrying, and goal-scoring was the main problem. The positive was that there were a lot of teams just a few points ahead of us.
3. Hodgy and the defence were wonderful at Everton the previous week.

The match reports, kindly provided again by Silent Blade , suggest that United played pretty well once more against a team near the top of the league, and twice led through Pace and Hodgson, but each time they failed to hold onto the lead. The Green’Un and Heap cartoon gave the second goal to Russell, but I am pleased to report that we got it right in our programme annotations. Hodgson had returned to inside left in place of Simpson, with Hartle retained on the left-wing. The experiment with Simpson at inside-left in my view did not suit his strengths and weaknesses, and it was not long before he was back in ‘his’ position on the wing.
Other results left United in a precarious position:

Next week, we were to play at Bolton; Hartle and Coldwell scored the 2 goals in that game, but strangely we lost 2-0. All will be explained next week. Reports and pics from the Fulham programme follow in the next post.

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

 

[Silent Blade]

Boring for you, interesting for me, and I hope you forgive my self-indulgence. My health was again centre-stage.
The broken arm had just about healed, but there was no school football because it was half-term. That meant Friday and Monday off school, no more, and on the Thursday I felt off-colour in class, so my mum packed me off to to the doctor’s as she set off for work on the Friday morning. Do you remember when you just went to the doctor’s waiting-room, sat around for a few minutes, and were seen by the doctor himself (it was usually a ‘he’)? He wasn’t good at communicating, or I didn’t bother listening, and I decided to carry on to town where the autograph-hunting ‘community’ knew that Fulham would be stopping at the Grand Hotel. I got lots of autographs, and several of the players were happy to chat. It was only when I felt a lot worse on the Monday that my mother went to the surgery to find out what was wrong with me, only to be told that I had chicken-pox, and should not have been going out. At that moment I had great feelings of guilt that Fulham had made a last-minute change (Chamberlain for Metchik), because, I convinced myself, I had passed on my illness (impossible in such a short time, I know). The following week they had more players out, which made my guilt-feelings worse. I was convinced for years that I had helped Utd get a point that day.

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

View attachment 123743

My spots definitely were not that colour, so it can’t have been me

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

A photo I forgot to include, not because of Bobby Robson (he was at West Brom at the time) or Johnny Haynes (who did play at the Lane that day), but because of the man in the middle. He had retired several years earlier, a goal scorer I don’t think I ever saw play. But although managers didn’t have the media profile then that they have now, Bedford Jezzard, the Fulham manager, was a name I always remember simply because it seemed an extraordinary name, and one that doesn’t appear to have matched the man at all. Having said that, he scored a lot of goals for Fulham, and they had a successful few years when he was in charge.

 

[ancientblade]

View attachment 123803
A photo I forgot to include, not because of Bobby Robson (he was at West Brom at the time) or Johnny Haynes (who did play at the Lane that day), but because of the man in the middle. He had retired several years earlier, a goal scorer I don’t think I ever saw play. But although managers didn’t have the media profile then that they have now, Bedford Jezzard, the Fulham manager, was a name I always remember simply because it seemed an extraordinary name, and one that doesn’t appear to have matched the man at all. Having said that, he scored a lot of goals for Fulham, and they had a successful few years when he was in charge.

johnny haynes was a fantastic inside forward great passing ability dont think i saw him live but watched his england performances

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

johnny haynes was a fantastic inside forward great passing ability dont think i saw him live but watched his england performances

And quite a few us began our following of ‘fashion’ by using Brylcreem as advertised by him, in order to look cool (as if I could!). I moved on to the Beatles soon after, and there I remain. He was one of the first footballers of that era to cultivate an image. And, as you say, was a very good footballer.

 

[ancientblade]

And quite a few us began our following of ‘fashion’ by using Brylcreem as advertised by him, in order to look cool (as if I could!). I moved on to the Beatles soon after, and there I remain. He was one of the first footballers of that era to cultivate an image. And, as you say, was a very good footballer.

wasnt he the first footballer to do an advert hodgy ? and the first on £100 a week ? great passer of the ball right in to the path of the player receiving it 2 footed anall great player

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

wasnt he the first footballer to do an advert hodgy ? and the first on £100 a week ? great passer of the ball right in to the path of the player receiving it 2 footed anall great player

The maximum wage was abolished in 1961, and Haynes was the first to be paid £100 per week. He was not the first footballer to do an advert - Stanley Matthews was doing cigarette ads in the early 1950s, and I think there some even earlier. But it was not common.

 

[Bert]

The maximum wage was abolished in 1961, and Haynes was the first to be paid £100 per week. He was not the first footballer to do an advert - Stanley Matthews was doing cigarette ads in the early 1950s, and I think there some even earlier. But it was not common.

Denis Compton was also doing adverts, Brylcreem etc in the 40's

 

[ancientblade]

The maximum wage was abolished in 1961, and Haynes was the first to be paid £100 per week. He was not the first footballer to do an advert - Stanley Matthews was doing cigarette ads in the early 1950s, and I think there some even earlier. But it was not common.

oh yeah remember now didnt he do a tea advert in his kit in dressing room ?

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

oh yeah remember now didnt he do a tea advert in his kit in dressing room ?

The only ones apart from cigarettes that I know about were for football boots. But there may well have been others I didn’t know about.

 

[Trigger Blade]

October 28, 1961
United 2-2 Fulham
Attendance: 19601

One of the pleasures of preparing posts like this is that it brings back memories that have been submerged for many years. Boring for you, interesting for me, and I hope you forgive my self-indulgence. My health was again centre-stage.
The broken arm had just about healed, but there was no school football because it was half-term. That meant Friday and Monday off school, no more, and on the Thursday I felt off-colour in class, so my mum packed me off to to the doctor’s as she set off for work on the Friday morning. Do you remember when you just went to the doctor’s waiting-room, sat around for a few minutes, and were seen by the doctor himself (it was usually a ‘he’)? He wasn’t good at communicating, or I didn’t bother listening, and I decided to carry on to town where the autograph-hunting ‘community’ knew that Fulham would be stopping at the Grand Hotel. I got lots of autographs, and several of the players were happy to chat. It was only when I felt a lot worse on the Monday that my mother went to the surgery to find out what was wrong with me, only to be told that I had chicken-pox, and should not have been going out. At that moment I had great feelings of guilt that Fulham had made a last-minute change (Chamberlain for Metchik), because, I convinced myself, I had passed on my illness (impossible in such a short time, I know). The following week they had more players out, which made my guilt-feelings worse. I was convinced for years that I had helped Utd get a point that day.
Of the match itself, I remember nothing. The Lines from the Pavilion have 3 themes:
1. The Board was still upset about the crowd v Eintracht Frankfurt, and made it clear the experiment was unlikely to be repeated. The comparison of crowds with other clubs is interesting, and I think that Wednesday’s position as the more successful club in the city was a factor. United had this wonderful stability within the team, which made the club feel like a family at the time; but Wednesday had the more glamorous reputation, and were more likely to attract the neutrals. Fortunately for us, that did not lead to the great success which seemed worryingly possible at the time.
2. The league position was still worrying, and goal-scoring was the main problem. The positive was that there were a lot of teams just a few points ahead of us.
3. Hodgy and the defence were wonderful at Everton the previous week.

The match reports, kindly provided again by Silent Blade , suggest that United played pretty well once more against a team near the top of the league, and twice led through Pace and Hodgson, but each time they failed to hold onto the lead. The Green’Un and Heap cartoon gave the second goal to Russell, but I am pleased to report that we got it right in our programme annotations. Hodgson had returned to inside left in place of Simpson, with Hartle retained on the left-wing. The experiment with Simpson at inside-left in my view did not suit his strengths and weaknesses, and it was not long before he was back in ‘his’ position on the wing.
Other results left United in a precarious position:
View attachment 123727
Next week, we were to play at Bolton; Hartle and Coldwell scored the 2 goals in that game, but strangely we lost 2-0. All will be explained next week. Reports and pics from the Fulham programme follow in the next post.

This is a tiny example of unintended consequences I suppose. In your report of the United v Fulham game, you mention a change in the Fulham team (Chamberlain for Metchick) and that sent my mind racing back over 50 years, not as far back as 1961, but to later in the decade, and nothing to do with United or Fulham in 1967.

I was brought up in Huntingdon and no chance of getting to Bramall Lane, but a local pub ran a coach to Peterborough United and me and my football mad mates went regularly, spending some of our paper round money on the coach fare and junior ticket. In 1967, they signed a player called Dave Metchick, who I remember as swarthy, bandy and tricky. I thought he was a winger, but he’s described as a midfielder.

It was quite something for Posh to sign a player from that London and I can still see Metchick now in their blue shirts with two white hoops around the chest, which seemed very exotic at the time. I’ve just discovered all these years later that he was Jewish, which was probably unusual then and still might be for a footballer, I can’t think of many also that he eventually became a black cab driver. He’s still alive, mid seventies and not that much older than me, although he seemed so much older at the time.

Anyway, thanks for the inadvertent memory

 

[Isaw Joeshaw]

Denis Compton was also doing adverts, Brylcreem etc in the 40's

Earning him the soubriquet ‘The Brylcreem Boy’ and whose suave appearance and dashing good looks Johnny Haynes came nowhere close to matching .

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

This is a tiny example of unintended consequences I suppose. In your report of the United v Fulham game, you mention a change in the Fulham team (Chamberlain for Metchick) and that sent my mind racing back over 50 years, not as far back as 1961, but to later in the decade, and nothing to do with United or Fulham in 1967.

I was brought up in Huntingdon and no chance of getting to Bramall Lane, but a local pub ran a coach to Peterborough United and me and my football mad mates went regularly, spending some of our paper round money on the coach fare and junior ticket. In 1967, they signed a player called Dave Metchick, who I remember as swarthy, bandy and tricky. I thought he was a winger, but he’s described as a midfielder.

It was quite something for Posh to sign a player from that London and I can still see Metchick now in their blue shirts with two white hoops around the chest, which seemed very exotic at the time. I’ve just discovered all these years later that he was Jewish, which was probably unusual then and still might be for a footballer, I can’t think of many also that he eventually became a black cab driver. He’s still alive, mid seventies and not that much older than me, although he seemed so much older at the time.

Anyway, thanks for the inadvertent memory

Thanks for that. I feel very self-indulgent writing most of these posts, and love to hear stories of others’ experiences growing up loving football, and the pride youngsters take in ‘their’ club and players. Do you go back far enough to have been at the Cup match in January 1962? An away-day I remember well.
And it is good to know that whatever kept Metchick out of that game 60 years ago cannot have been serious!

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

November 4, 1961
Bolton 2-0 United
Attendance: 12563

Recovered from injury and illness, I was back in goal for the school under-14s, and therefore not only missed the 2-0 defeat at Bolton, but also a once in a lifetime opportunity to appear on the cinema screen, as some filming for ‘A Kind of Loving’, featuring Alan Bates and James Bolan in the crowd, was carried out during the match.


(Apologies if the link doesn’t work - I have not cracked this new-fangled technology.)
If I remember correctly, the football detail was not in the novel, but anything that shows Hodgy in action is ok by me; and the crowd scenes are a good reminder that the swinging sixties had got nowhere near the North of England by 1961. My comments on a match I did not see are:
1. The following pic from the programme (including my brother’s player-ratings) solves the riddle of goals by Coldwell and Hartle leading to a 2-0 defeat: Coldwell’s was an own goal, and Hartle’s was not our Barry Hartle, but the man marking him, Bolton’s right-back, Roy Hartle.

2. Another away game without scoring, and we moved down to second from bottom. Ironically, we had conceded fewer goals than 3 of the top 4 teams, and all was not lost: the next game was v Man City, in the top half of the league, but only 2 points ahead of us. Extraordinary!

3. The second Bolton goal was a deflected shot direct from a free-kick. This got me trying to remember who took our free-kicks (Simpson?), but I can’t. Is this because in the days of the heavy leather ball, it was almost impossible to score? Or did the centre-halves never get penalised? The only goal from a free-kick from that era that I recall was by Graham Shaw, v Portsmouth, a fluke from the halfway line which the keeper seemed to lose in the night sky above the floodlights. Football has changed much more than I had realised.
Report as ever thanks to Silent Blade :