Post by Jon on Oct 9, 2019 23:09:47 GMT
I can scarcely believe it is now over forty years since that incredible game at Plainmoor when County's Pedro Richards literally picked the pocket of the alliterative but incompetent referee Bill Bombroff of Bristol.
Would County have ended the game with eleven men on the pitch if BB had kept his wits and his cards about him?
Torquay, having already seen off Bristol Rovers over two legs, had pulled off an excellent 0-0 draw in the first leg at Meadow Lane.
County went top of the old second division on the Saturday between the two legs by beating QPR 1-0 with a goal from Don Masson who had starred in the World Cup finals just a year earlier. England could nae do it cos they did nae qualify.
One glimpse of hope for Torquay was that County's massive old-fashioned brick-outhouse centre-half Brian Stubbs was suspended - leaving a skinny 17-year-old debutant to partner England international Jeff Blockley at centre-back.
The kid got booked early on, but carried on hacking without risking a second yellow due to Pedro's light-fingered intervention. The kid grew up (or had already grown up) to be the infamous Killer Kilcline. He was vicious not clumsy.
We was robbed.
A writer in the Nottingham Football Post moaned that Bombroff was from just up the road from Torquay. Yate is 109 miles from Torquay and 134 miles from Nottingham. The FA should obviously have tried to appoint a ref from exactly twelve and a half miles further North.
An eye witness County exile put him right - saying he was ashamed of County's performance and rightly so.
Bombroff was thrown off the league list at the end of the season, but was still going strong at the age of 76:
www.gazetteseries.co.uk/sport/11328049.football-former-top-flight-referee-from-yate-excited-by-new-challenge/
I hated County with a vengeance for what they did that night.
Two years later, I moved to Nottingham and grew to love County - regularly attending games at Meadow Lane. Two years of top flight football in a friendly and welcoming environment.
I was spoiled for choice with two first division teams to watch, but just missed out on the Forest golden years. Forest were a top half team, but their fans had a developed a sense of entitlement - so being one of the better teams in the league was just not good enough for them.
A far cheerier atmosphere at County who were chuffed to bits just to be in the first division (after a 55-year absence) and were determined to enjoy every minute of it. I turned my back to spend a year in France and they got relegated. I came back to see them relegated again.
Would have loved to go to Saturday's game but not to be. Maybe next year?
Would County have ended the game with eleven men on the pitch if BB had kept his wits and his cards about him?
Torquay, having already seen off Bristol Rovers over two legs, had pulled off an excellent 0-0 draw in the first leg at Meadow Lane.
County went top of the old second division on the Saturday between the two legs by beating QPR 1-0 with a goal from Don Masson who had starred in the World Cup finals just a year earlier. England could nae do it cos they did nae qualify.
One glimpse of hope for Torquay was that County's massive old-fashioned brick-outhouse centre-half Brian Stubbs was suspended - leaving a skinny 17-year-old debutant to partner England international Jeff Blockley at centre-back.
The kid got booked early on, but carried on hacking without risking a second yellow due to Pedro's light-fingered intervention. The kid grew up (or had already grown up) to be the infamous Killer Kilcline. He was vicious not clumsy.
We was robbed.
A writer in the Nottingham Football Post moaned that Bombroff was from just up the road from Torquay. Yate is 109 miles from Torquay and 134 miles from Nottingham. The FA should obviously have tried to appoint a ref from exactly twelve and a half miles further North.
An eye witness County exile put him right - saying he was ashamed of County's performance and rightly so.
Bombroff was thrown off the league list at the end of the season, but was still going strong at the age of 76:
www.gazetteseries.co.uk/sport/11328049.football-former-top-flight-referee-from-yate-excited-by-new-challenge/
I hated County with a vengeance for what they did that night.
Two years later, I moved to Nottingham and grew to love County - regularly attending games at Meadow Lane. Two years of top flight football in a friendly and welcoming environment.
I was spoiled for choice with two first division teams to watch, but just missed out on the Forest golden years. Forest were a top half team, but their fans had a developed a sense of entitlement - so being one of the better teams in the league was just not good enough for them.
A far cheerier atmosphere at County who were chuffed to bits just to be in the first division (after a 55-year absence) and were determined to enjoy every minute of it. I turned my back to spend a year in France and they got relegated. I came back to see them relegated again.
Would have loved to go to Saturday's game but not to be. Maybe next year?
