Newport County(A).05/03/76.

It is a very interesting snippet of news that suggests the local council were sympathetic to our financial plight and did try to help. Whether that £4,000 pa was enough, and what we had to give up in return, is unknown to me. We had by then already spent two year's worth of Council donation on Willie Brown who, in my opinion, was cheap at twice the price.

There were a few future managers in that PFA XI: Ian Branfoot, Sam Ellis, John Ward and Ronnie Moore, the latter two still managing in the league. Plus Tony Whelan who, after playing in North America returned to this country and (according to Wikipedia) earned a Bachelors degree in humanities from the Open University, and a Masters degree in sociology from Manchester Metropolitan University. He is currently Assistant Academy Director for 9–16-year-olds & Under-11–12s Head Coach at Manchester United.

I note the advert on the back page for Stylo Matchmakers. The County wore them and so should you. I did, at that time, as did everyone at TBGS and the football world. Although not, it appears by that tam photo, Torquay United themselves. I wonder whatever happened to Stylo's position in the football-boot market. Did they overpay their star footballers to wear them, did they restrict sales by only selling from Barratts shoe-shops (I'm going on a wing with this one)? Did adidas have more financial clout and just bully them out of the market? Did they over-diversify too quickly?

It does appear that Stylos are, or were, part of the Barratt shoe empire, a company that has been in administration twice in the past five years. Still trading, they have a website packed full of shoe brands: www.barratts.co.uk/. But sadly no football boots.

Kids today will be as oblivious of Stylo matchmakers as they are Ceefax. Is that really progress, I ask you?

At this point I wish I had a Facebook account back in the 70's (what?! ) so that I could now track my sporting footwear from that period.

I had a great pair of Gola training shoes for Armada Park kickabout usage but my first proper pair of football boots were a non-branded "quality" pair that my mother was fooled into buying from a clever salesman at the shoe shop during the late-August back-to-school-uniform shopping trip (despite my earnest protestations). I managed to persuade her to buy me some Stylos a year later because they were also competitively-priced (or "cheap" in 70's lingo). Naturally, these were moulded-sole boots but I still yearned after the adidas screw-in studs that some of my peers at TBGS wore. There were stories of mysterious products such as aluminium studs and kangaroo skin being bandied about the changing rooms from the school-team boys. I looked at my moulded-sole plastic-uppers and wondered if that was why I was never picked for the first XI.

I had to go through the adidas holdall and adidas t-shirt stage before finally getting a pair of adidas screw-in boots in the 5th year.

And maybe that's the key: adidas were coooler trendier than Stylos, and strangely trendier than Gola (design-students may disagree), so maybe it was simply peer-pressure that lost us Stylo.

Gola made a comeback in street-fashion some years back and their website is full of classic-old styles: www.gola.co.uk/

Incidentally, Gola were owned by Roy Black from 1967 to 1973. I don't know who he sold Gola to in 1973 but that could have been the start of the company's decline. Anyway, his page on Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Keith_Black) suggests that family Christmases were a very entertaining time. Looking down his list of relatives, I am reminded of my proper place in life. I couldn't even dream of a birthday card signed "lots of love, The Right Honourable Baroness Oppenheim-Barnes, Privy Council of the United Kingdom". Or Aunt Sally as she'd probably be known within the family..

I'm one of society's moulded-soles and not one of its screw-in studs...



EDIt: PS - Jayz, can't you write the c-word without a smiley popping up holding a sign reading c**l in its place? I mean coool without one o...