Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2008 23:46:18 GMT
For my third Forgotten Westcountry Football Tale we head due north from Torbay to Minehead, best known for Butlins and the fact that Willie Brown ran a newsagency there for many years.
Take a look at the current Western League Division 1 table - taken from the good old Non League Paper - and you'll see Minehead Town are having a pretty typical season:
Not too many surprises there. After all, Minehead have been crap for years. Over the last 22 Western League seasons, the club has finished bottom of its division on 9 occasions and in the bottom four another 7 times (not forgetting, bizarrely, two Div 1 championships in between). Not even a crafty name change from Minehead to Minehead Town could stop the rot.
But it wasn't always like this. After periodic membership of the Western League since the 1920s, Minehead proved to be one of league's strongest clubs during the 1960s eventually switching to the Southern League in the early 1970s.
Promotion soon followed to the Southern Premier where the club spent two just seasons. Remarkably, for such a small club, Minehead were runners-up in 1976/77. In those pre-Conference days, this roughly equated to the top six of today's BSP.
Back in those days there were three leading leagues - Southern, Northern Premier and Isthmian - and, in time, the best of each would form the league that eventually became the BSP.
Here's the Southern table showing Minehead behind Wimbledon who were elected to the Football League that year:
The Southern's lower divisions included Cheltenham, Kidderminster and Barnet.
In the Isthmian - won by Enfield - Wycombe Wanderers (beaten by Minehead in the following season's FA Cup) were runners-up in a league which also included Dagenham.
The Northern Premier - won by Boston United with Northwich Victoria behind them - also featurerd Scarborough, Wigan Athletic, Morecambe and Macclesfield Town.
In short, Minehead had a better team than many of these future Football League clubs. They also proved a fair handful in the FA Cup:
1st Round
2nd Round
Now all of this proves that a lot can happen in 30 years. The odd thing is that, looking at the Minehead line-up, I've bugger all idea of who they were. Maybe it's David Jenkins, a Bristolian who moved from Arsenal to Spurs as kid before heading off the radar (maybe it isn't?). And I think it's Andy Leitch, an ex-Swansea player scoring against his old club. As for the rest I think they were mainly Bristol-based and the type who would have signed for Bath, Yeovil or Weymouth were it not for Minehead splashing the money.
And that is what I believe it was all about - money that came and went just as players come and go. I'd love to know more about the whole story.
And, lastly, here's Minehead's modest little ground at Irnham Road with its 1969 stand which heralded the club's greatest days. It would have been full for the 1977 FA Cup tie against Exeter City:
PS An unfortunate event happened on the day Minehead won at Swansea. It really made my day after surviving a missile attack at a particularly nasty encounter between Nottingham Forest and Chelsea. It shows how Willie Brown was otherwise engaged prior to moving to Minehead:
Sources: Rothmans, FCHD, Tony Williams Non-League Grounds.
Take a look at the current Western League Division 1 table - taken from the good old Non League Paper - and you'll see Minehead Town are having a pretty typical season:
Not too many surprises there. After all, Minehead have been crap for years. Over the last 22 Western League seasons, the club has finished bottom of its division on 9 occasions and in the bottom four another 7 times (not forgetting, bizarrely, two Div 1 championships in between). Not even a crafty name change from Minehead to Minehead Town could stop the rot.
But it wasn't always like this. After periodic membership of the Western League since the 1920s, Minehead proved to be one of league's strongest clubs during the 1960s eventually switching to the Southern League in the early 1970s.
Promotion soon followed to the Southern Premier where the club spent two just seasons. Remarkably, for such a small club, Minehead were runners-up in 1976/77. In those pre-Conference days, this roughly equated to the top six of today's BSP.
Back in those days there were three leading leagues - Southern, Northern Premier and Isthmian - and, in time, the best of each would form the league that eventually became the BSP.
Here's the Southern table showing Minehead behind Wimbledon who were elected to the Football League that year:
The Southern's lower divisions included Cheltenham, Kidderminster and Barnet.
In the Isthmian - won by Enfield - Wycombe Wanderers (beaten by Minehead in the following season's FA Cup) were runners-up in a league which also included Dagenham.
The Northern Premier - won by Boston United with Northwich Victoria behind them - also featurerd Scarborough, Wigan Athletic, Morecambe and Macclesfield Town.
In short, Minehead had a better team than many of these future Football League clubs. They also proved a fair handful in the FA Cup:
1st Round
2nd Round
Now all of this proves that a lot can happen in 30 years. The odd thing is that, looking at the Minehead line-up, I've bugger all idea of who they were. Maybe it's David Jenkins, a Bristolian who moved from Arsenal to Spurs as kid before heading off the radar (maybe it isn't?). And I think it's Andy Leitch, an ex-Swansea player scoring against his old club. As for the rest I think they were mainly Bristol-based and the type who would have signed for Bath, Yeovil or Weymouth were it not for Minehead splashing the money.
And that is what I believe it was all about - money that came and went just as players come and go. I'd love to know more about the whole story.
And, lastly, here's Minehead's modest little ground at Irnham Road with its 1969 stand which heralded the club's greatest days. It would have been full for the 1977 FA Cup tie against Exeter City:
PS An unfortunate event happened on the day Minehead won at Swansea. It really made my day after surviving a missile attack at a particularly nasty encounter between Nottingham Forest and Chelsea. It shows how Willie Brown was otherwise engaged prior to moving to Minehead:
Sources: Rothmans, FCHD, Tony Williams Non-League Grounds.
That was the week I began working for Torquay United....................and what a week. The first time the club had EVER lost at home in the cup to a non league side. Effectively the end of manager Malcolm Musgrove's reign...................and the opposing manager? The up and coming Barry Fry!
