Classic Matches

[Oldsmobile-88]

That was some side Watford had back then Ross Jenkins was like the Peter Crouch of the time.

The game was Tony Kellows last home game before his transfer to Blackpool.
The attendance for the league games before & after the Watford game were 3,900 & 3,500 respectively.Just showing the interest in the game..
24,000 at Elm Park !(Reading in the 4th Division at the time)

 

[Red Devon]

The game was Tony Kellows last home game before his transfer to Blackpool.
The attendance for the league games before & after the Watford game were 3,900 & 3,500 respectively.Just showing the interest in the game..
24,000 at Elm Park !(Reading in the 4th Division at the time)
View attachment 1790

Incredible attendance 14000 and it had nothing to do with the pull of the opposition either just the excitement of the competition back then....the fans that night would have gone home absolutely gutted that City had lost without a second thought for what money would have been made or could have.....unlike today where the competition is on it’s knees not helped by sponsor that doesn’t even put any money in until the semi final stage and only 150k for the winners I think....I certainly rate it lower now than the FL Trophy for a club like ours unless we get very lucky in the draw somewhere along line.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

Incredible attendance 14000 and it had nothing to do with the pull of the opposition either just the excitement of the competition back then....the fans that night would have gone home absolutely gutted that City had lost without a second thought for what money would have been made or could have.....unlike today where the competition is on it’s knees not helped by sponsor that doesn’t even put any money in until the semi final stage and only 150k for the winners I think....I certainly rate it lower now than the FL Trophy for a club like ours unless we get very lucky in the draw somewhere along line.

Yes,incredible attendance looking back.
More than the game against 1st Division Villa the season before(13,500)
Certainly more kudos in the competition in those days.

A decent run the next season too..3rd round before going out to a full strength Liverpool team who were reigning league champions.
Birmingham City were beaten 2-1 at St Andrews in the previous round.

The competition has been messed with too much since those golden years.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

After putting up a photo of a programme on the Odds & Sods thread & putting a anecdote on a fb forum,Red Devon suggested putting the particular game on this thread.

May Bank Holiday : Mon 2nd March 1988.
Scunthorpe V Exeter.

Football was slowly recovering & getting into better shape following the nadir of 1985,even the 4th Division was interesting with the new idea of play offs getting the fans excited.
Add into the mix three founder members(Wolves,Bolton,Burnley)of the Football League in 1888 slumming it in the 4th Division to add a bit of kudos to the basement division.
The Grecians were struggling as ever,21st in the table with just 4 wins since late November.
Scunthorpe were going for auto promotion & were 4th in the table & equal on points with Torquay(3rd)
Add into the mix it was the last Football League game at the Old Show Ground with a big home support for the special occasion, it looked not too good for the Grecians.

Prematch there was a parade of former Iron players just to add to the day.The crowd of 6,736 (minus the 40-50 Grecians in attendance,all sat in the Cantilevered Stand) expected a easy win to set up a do or die auto promotion battle at Plainmoor on the following Saturday.
It was all one way traffic in the 1st half but the nerves were starting to tell in front of goal,Mel Gwinnett in great form too,so all square 0-0 at HT.
Dave Shearer scored for the Iron midway through the 2nd half.Party time for the home fans..
The Grecians had hardly created a chance as the 90th minute arrived,Paul Batty on as a sub,knocked a ball into the box waist height for Dean Edwards who instinctively flicked it on with his hand & knocked the ball into the next.
The Ref & Linesman did not see the infringement & the goal stood..Talk about a lead balloon at a party ..Travelling Grecians had very little to cheer in the past 8 months,so made the most of that with gusto.

There were a few angry locals around to put it mildly

I bumped into Dean Edwards a week later & mentioned I was at the Scunthorpe game,he said “Did you see my hand ball ?”
“Yes” I replied adding “ The only ones who did not see it were the match officials “
He laughed & said “ Well it pi55ed on their fireworks”

Scunthorpe did not get promoted that season despite winning at Torquay on the following Saturday.Bolton unexpectedly pipped them both.
In the playoffs Swansea were promoted after sneaking into the PO position in the last game of the season.

 

[Red Devon]

After putting up a photo of a programme on the Odds & Sods thread & putting a anecdote on a fb forum,Red Devon suggested putting the particular game on this thread.

May Bank Holiday : Mon 2nd March 1988.
Scunthorpe V Exeter.

Football was slowly recovering & getting into better shape following the nadir of 1985,even the 4th Division was interesting with the new idea of play offs getting the fans excited.
Add into the mix three founder members(Wolves,Bolton,Burnley)of the Football League in 1888 slumming it in the 4th Division to add a bit of kudos to the basement division.
The Grecians were struggling as ever,21st in the table with just 4 wins since late November.
Scunthorpe were going for auto promotion & were 4th in the table & equal on points with Torquay(3rd)
Add into the mix it was the last Football League game at the Old Show Ground with a big home support for the special occasion, it looked not too good for the Grecians.

Prematch there was a parade of former Iron players just to add to the day.The crowd of 6,736 (minus the 40-50 Grecians in attendance,all sat in the Cantilevered Stand) expected a easy win to set up a do or die auto promotion battle at Plainmoor on the following Saturday.
It was all one way traffic in the 1st half but the nerves were starting to tell in front of goal,Mel Gwinnett in great form too,so all square 0-0 at HT.
Dave Shearer scored for the Iron midway through the 2nd half.Party time for the home fans..
The Grecians had hardly created a chance as the 90th minute arrived,Paul Batty on as a sub,knocked a ball into the box waist height for Dean Edwards who instinctively flicked it on with his hand & knocked the ball into the next.
The Ref & Linesman did not see the infringement & the goal stood..Talk about a lead balloon at a party ..Travelling Grecians had very little to cheer in the past 8 months,so made the most of that with gusto.

There were a few angry locals around to put it mildly

I bumped into Dean Edwards a week later & mentioned I was at the Scunthorpe game,he said “Did you see my hand ball ?”
“Yes” I replied adding “ The only ones who did not see it were the match officials “
He laughed & said “ Well it pi55ed on their fireworks”

Scunthorpe did not get promoted that season despite winning at Torquay on the following Saturday.Bolton unexpectedly pipped them both.
In the playoffs Swansea were promoted after sneaking into the PO position in the last game of the season.

You paint a good picture there Olds. Remember the away end went up like a Baghdad Market despite the low numbers that traveled...the party atmosphere burst like a ballon and quickly turned nasty come the final whistle...Dean Edwards comments certainly help to make this classic game live long in the memory

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

You paint a good picture there Olds. Remember the away end went up like a Baghdad Market despite the low numbers that traveled...the party atmosphere burst like a ballon and quickly turned nasty come the final whistle...Dean Edwards comments certainly help to make this classic game live long in the memory

Indeed mate.
Though we were in the stand.The away end was populated by home fans because of the expected large crowd...Still went up as you described though .

When I parked up I saw a Exeter Rd..Took that as a good omen.

 

[Red Devon]

^^^
Not a club I can particularly take to but there’s been quite a few memorable and high scoring games away at Scunthorpe certainly had our share of success there.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

^^^^
Yes,definitely since that game.
Iirc,it was pretty poor before that.I can remember a 7-1 defeat in the early 1980s

 

[Rosencrantz]

Only time I have been to Scunny was that end of season relegation saving game where we won 2-0 under Blakey. TMC and a late Gary Birch goal doing the job although Jamie Campbell getting Steve Torpey sent off didn't half help . Wish I could have seen that midweek 4-3 game though when TMC tore them up and Andy Roscoe thumped in a late and unlikely winner.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

Swansea v Exeter Division 4 : 22nd Aug 1987.

On the face of it,not a fixture that could be classed as a classic,but it did have a good ingredient at the end.
A win AWAY...The Grecians had gone a complete season without a win on the road.A run stretching back to April Fools Day 1986 at Plainmoor,29 games before,indeed I don’t think the Grecians ever looked like winning a away game in that run.

The Supporters Club had taken over the running of away travel from the start of the season.The football club had run it up until the end of the previous season not very well it has to be said,but that’s a different story.

A ropey old looking coach turned up at Bampflyde St at 10am curtesy of Dartline Coaches,then a fledgling coach company.
They had no experience of football supporters except what they had read in the tabloids,the experience of Go With Gordon’s coach getting trashed in the previous season was probably fresh in the coach fraternity’s minds,so one could not expect a luxury coach with trimmings.

A uneventful trip until we neared Swansea when the driver was seen to be frantically pumping the foot brake & shouting the brakes are going !
He managed to slow down enough,the car in front just pulled away so the collision was a ‘fender bender’ & a exchange of details.
There was obviously a issue with the air lines to the brakes but the driver felt confident to drive on
The Police motorcycle escort was picked up a mile later(as was the norm in those days) The coach driver wisely kept well back from the rider because the brakes were still not too good apparently.

Enough excitement before we had got to the ground
A good crowd at The Veitch Field about 5,500 which was pretty good in those days(about 150 Grecians) the usual charming knuts outside before you entered the ground.
I always thought Swansea was worse than Cardiff & have had a few close scrapes there.

In the first half Brendon O’Connell cut in from the right wing & fired a low beauty into the next just before HT.

In the 2nd half the Grecians were expectedly under the cosh.
As was the norm back then managers could not shuffle there team too much with just 2 subs.
Colin Appleton swapped midfielder Paul Olsson for Tony Kellow.Kells scored a beauty.Not a spectacular shot but a goal of real guile.
He picked the ball up in the box,there were at least 4 defenders covering the goal,they expected a shot,so legs were extended everywhere,Kells waited a second & passed the ball into the back of the net.
I was right in line with the line of the ball & saw the glance up by Kells before he threaded the ball past all of those defenders.
Pure strikers class.

That was it 2-0 game over & a away win after nearly 17 months.
The coach driver was watching the game too,which was a bit alarming because we imagined he was getting the coach looked at.

The brakes went completely on the M4 on the way back but luckily failed on a uphill section so we ended up sitting on the verge for a couple of hours before a mechanic fixed the brake line fault.

Dartline were told by never to give the travelling supporters old coaches again & to be fair to them we usually had their luxury coach after that(Sarah Jane)
After a difficult start it was a good relationship for many years.

A very eventful day out.