4/12/1971
Crystal Palace 5 (Taylor, Hughes 2, Badger og, McCormick) Blades 1 (Dearden)
My dad and I travelled to London in Branson's coach organised by the SUSC (Dronfield Branch). We walked to where the coach was parked by the old Post Office (where Men Zone barbers is now), as soon as I got in the coach it was smoke filled which made me gasp for breath and I quickly got out of the coach for a breather. Luckily there were less smoke in the coach when we departed and it wasnt too bad all the way to London. A friendly chap who I do not remember meeting before looked at me and said "Hello Peter!" and it was Roger Beresford who is the youngest of the three Beresford brothers who I always got on well with over the years in the away coach trips in the next few years. Whenever I bump to Roger over the years at Bramall Lane we would greet each other and have a chat. He came to my dad's funeral in 1999.
I think the coach parked near Victoria station for the fans to catch the train to Selhurst. Dont think many Blades fans knew that Norwood Junction was the nearest station to Selhurst Park and it was the Blades only 2nd league fixture at the ground in history. I dont remember the long walk to the ground (maybe we caught the bus?).
My dad and I were sat in the West stand opposite where the tv cameras were. Not long before the kick off my dad spotted Tony Mercer sitting a few rows in front of us , pointed him out to me and asked me to get his autograph. I went over to him and he cheerfully signed my programme despite that I didnt know who he was. On coming back to my dad, I asked "Who's he?". "Tony Mercer from the Black and White Minstrel Show" was the reply. No surprise I didnt recognise Tony! Tony wrote the foreword in the Blades "50 seasons in the 1st division" souvenir that were published during the 1967-68 season.
Over the years I didnt really remember that we wore gold shirts in the match until I saw a photo of Bill Dearden challenging John Jackson in one of Barry Hugman's PFA footballers Who's Who
I dont think I took much notice that Palace had signed John Hughes and Willie Wallace from Celtic in October. I did see John Hughes play for Celtic at Ayr in August but I dont think I really knew much of him but he was brilliant on my first visit to Selhurst Park, the best display I had seen by an opposition player at the time and he scored two wonder goals. His popular nickname was "Yogi" and I read recently that he didnt have a good relationship with Jock Stein, the Celtic manager.
I was never expecting that I would see us concede by more than three goals for the first time. We were 3 down by half time! The first goal scored by Tony Taylor was after a quick free kick was taken, taking advantage of our defenders lacking concentration and having a moan at the ref's decision to give a free kick to Palace.
The second goal was sheer brilliance solo run by Hughes after flicking the ball over Len Badger leaving him for dead on the left wing and firing in a fierce left footed angle shot past John Hope.
The third goal looked a soft shot by Gerry Queen and some near me thought it was an own goal by Eddie Colquhoun which caused Hope having to change direction in stopping the deflected shot but he was too late to stop it. Later on watching MOTD that evening we realised that it was Badger who scored the own goal.
There was a strange incident soon after that, on the left wing, Willie Wallace tripped over what looked like to be an object on the pitch, he picked the object up and furiously threw it off the pitch. Ron Capey , the ref, awarded a free kick to Palace and booked Colquhoun who understandably got into despair about it.
Then in the 2nd half Hughes scored another wonder goal which won the MOTD goal of the month and it came 2nd in the goal of the season. He received a short free kick near the centre circle and it seemed he was going nowhere useful but he fired an unstoppable shot to the top of the net.
Bill Dearden reduced the arrears heading in a cross by Gil Reece which I dont remember much over the years.
The 5th was scorer by John McCormick who went through our midfield easily before firing in a shot past Hope.
When I got back into the coach after catching the train back to Victoria, there were a lot of glum faces and hardly anyone was in the mood to have a good conversation. I remember Roger saying to me "What had gone wrong with United?"
We arrived home in time to watch it all over again on MOTD. Understandably the commentators and whoever presenter the programme that evening were drooling over Hughes! Sadly Hughes didnt play many games for Palace due to an injury and some at Palace have accused Celtic of taking a big fee despite knowing that Hughes has injury problems. He joined his brother Billy at Sunderland in 1973 but played only 15 minutes for them and then never played pro football again.
Not sure if all of you can see all the goals in the link below
#CPFC hammer Sheffield United in December 1971. An absolute Christmas Cracker, who remembers this one?
www.facebook.com
Scores, scorers and line ups of that day are in the below link
.
