Jon
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Post by Jon on Aug 27, 2014 22:44:55 GMT
Can anyone remember our match with Port Vale featuring on MOTD? sites.google.com/site/motdlistings/home/1982-83Very accommodating of our back four to let Big Jim Steel stroll through unchallenged. Plus ça change. This was the last ever first team game for our no.4 Brian Wilson (aka Mr Nolan). The other defenders watching on are Graham Jones (6), Tyrone James (2) and Jimmy Holmes (3). Keeper Graham Horn. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2014 8:27:28 GMT
Can anyone remember our match with Port Vale featuring on MOTD? Very accommodating of our back four to let Big Jim Steel stroll through unchallenged. Plus ça change. This was the last ever first team game for our no.4 Brian Wilson (aka Mr Nolan). The other defenders watching on are Graham Jones (6), Tyrone James (2) and Jimmy Holmes (3). Keeper Graham Horn. Sorry, Jon, absolutely no recall of this whatsoever. I was living in Lancashire then and was very much out of the Plainmoor loop. You've got my thinking as to where I may have been that day. I'll go and check. Wherever I was, I'm sure I'd have made a point of watching on Match of the Day that evening. |
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Post by phipsy on Aug 28, 2014 9:30:12 GMT
Thanks Jon for putting the listings of Bbc listings from the newspaper.
I have been trying to get old copies of the radio times from the 50s without any luck.
Talking of F.A. Cup ties against non league opposition I remember going to Canterbury in 1964 and us walloping them 6-0.
They were confident of a win as they had ex Arsenal star Vic Groves playing for them.
This was the time when Robin Stubbs was in his heyday.
I wonder if this was our biggest ever away win in league or F.A.cup?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2014 10:31:49 GMT
Sorry, Jon, absolutely no recall of this whatsoever. I was living in Lancashire then and was very much out of the Plainmoor loop. You've got my thinking as to where I may have been that day. I'll go and check. Wherever I was, I'm sure I'd have made a point of watching on Match of the Day that evening. I've been to the programme boxes and, taking Stuart's advice, moved them around to ease pressure on the floorboards. Lo and behold I was at that Port Vale game; it was an Easter Saturday. Port Vale were chasing promotion. We weren't but may have been in a stronger league position when the TV decision was made. Colin Tartt was playing for Port Vale in those days. Felix once told me that Tartt became a PE teacher at a Derbyshire school where I was doing some work earlier this year. Our paths didn't cross because he retired in 2005. That must be true; it was in the Bradwell News at the time. |
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Post by teignmouth54 on Aug 28, 2014 20:36:02 GMT
Yes, I remember this edition of Match of the Day very well as it included a short feature on how Torquay United prepared for a home game on a Saturday evening.
My memory is helped by the fact that I recorded the feature in the early days of the home video recorder. Whether I still have the tape is another matter.
The clip began by showing Bruce Rioch taking the Torquay players for a leisurely walk along the pavement by Meadfoot Beach in the morning.
The players were supposed to rest in the afternoon and the cameras were at the home of Steve Cooper, where his wife enters the bedroom to wake him from his sleep. She brought a tray with a plate of beans on toast as his pre match meal. Her husband was still half asleep and only just managed to prevent the plate from sliding onto the bed cover! She also kindly prepared his clothes for the evening.
The match was important to Port Vale as they were third in the table and finished the season in that position. Torquay were sliding down the table and this was their fifth successive defeat!
Following brief highlights of the match the jubilant Port Vale manager, John McGrath, was asked whether his team would be able to celebrate their victory. He indicated that this was unlikely but suggested that he might be found on the hotel fire escape later in the night with a glass in his hand!
One of the reasons for the feature was the fact that Torquay United are the only football league club who has ever played Saturday night football on a regular basis.
The season started promisingly for Torquay and on 1st January 1983 their home record was W9 D2 L0 F26 A10. They reached the 4th round of the FA Cup but finished the season in 12th position with a home record of W12 D3 L8 F38 A30!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2014 21:43:02 GMT
The players were supposed to rest in the afternoon and the cameras were at the home of Steve Cooper, where his wife enters the bedroom to wake him from his sleep. She brought a tray with a plate of beans on toast as his pre match meal. Her husband was still half asleep and only just managed to prevent the plate from sliding onto the bed cover! She also kindly prepared his clothes for the evening. Ah yes, it's all coming back now! |
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Aug 28, 2014 21:56:27 GMT
Yes, I remember this edition of Match of the Day very well as it included a short feature on how Torquay United prepared for a home game on a Saturday evening. My memory is helped by the fact that I recorded the feature in the early days of the home video recorder. Whether I still have the tape is another matter. If you find that tape........ I am afraid I was at the age where it was compulsory to be in a pub on a Saturday night and it was years before I got one of those new fangled video thingies. As you say, we got off to a flying start and for the second year running we were top of the league as I headed off for uni. I think young Budleigh had stopped his scrap-booking by then, but if he hadn't he would have been scrawling "buggar" in red felt tip pen before Christmas came. |
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Aug 28, 2014 22:09:35 GMT
I wonder if this was our biggest ever away win in league or F.A.cup? 22-0 at Torquay Tramways (not very far away I admit!) on 20 March 1909. Other than that, the Canterbury game is equalled by a 6-0 at St Austell in the P&D League on 18 February 1911 and a 6-0 at Cardiff Corinthians in the Western League on 5 April 1922. Our biggest away win in the Football League is 6-1 at Newport on Christmas Day 1935 with two goals from birthday boy and TUFC legend Albert Clarke. |
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Aug 28, 2014 22:13:51 GMT
for the second year running we were top of the league as I headed off for uni. English Fourth Division 1981/1982 Historical league standings at 30th September 1981 Home Away Overall # Team Pl W D L F A W D L F A W D L F A Pts GD 1 Torquay United 7 4 0 0 8 3 2 0 1 4 3 6 0 1 12 6 18 6 2 AFC Bournemouth 7 3 1 0 5 0 2 1 0 3 1 5 2 0 8 1 17 7 3 Bradford City 7 3 1 0 13 6 2 0 1 8 4 5 1 1 21 10 16 11 4 Bury 7 4 0 0 11 0 1 1 1 3 5 5 1 1 14 5 16 9 5 Blackpool 7 4 0 0 17 2 0 3 0 3 3 4 3 0 20 5 15 15 6 Sheffield United 7 3 1 0 8 2 1 0 2 2 3 4 1 2 10 5 13 5 English Fourth Division 1982/1983 Historical league standings at 2nd October 1982 Home Away Overall # Team Pl W D L F A W D L F A W D L F A Pts GD 1 Torquay United 8 4 0 0 11 4 1 2 1 3 5 5 2 1 14 9 17 5 2 Wimbledon 8 2 2 0 8 4 2 2 0 7 2 4 4 0 15 6 16 9 3 Bury 9 3 0 1 8 3 1 4 0 5 2 4 4 1 13 5 16 8 4 Scunthorpe United 8 2 2 0 6 2 2 2 0 5 2 4 4 0 11 4 16 7 5 Colchester United 8 3 1 0 9 2 1 2 1 2 2 4 3 1 11 4 15 7 6 Swindon Town 8 2 0 1 2 1 2 2 1 5 4 4 2 2 7 5 14 2 |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2014 8:11:33 GMT
That's an impressive collection of clubs to be above in 1981/82. Sheffield United, Bradford City, Wigan Athletic and Bournemouth were ultimately promoted. We'd best not think about when we'll play their like again unless, of course, those are the clubs we beat as we storm to the 5th round of this season's FA Cup.
I'm older than Jon. I wasn't around Torquay to go pubbing after the games at Plainmoor which constituted that bright start. I was in South Wales at the time; I saw none of those first seven games. My first of the season was the ninth match at Blackpool. We lost.
I'd moved by the start of 1982/83 and witnessed two of those first seven matches; the draws at York and Chester. Here's a stark statistic: just 1,737 watched the season'a opener at Bootham Crescent.
Bruce Rioch was manager at the time and was attracting attention. I remember him being interviewed on national radio - it must have been Radio 2 in those days - the night before we played at Hull. That was our ninth game of the season. I was there. We lost 4-1.
Bury were in both of those early season leading groups. They didn't get promoted either time.
In 1982/83 the season started on 28 August. People may use that as evidence that we never used to kick-off until the nights were drawing in and the autumn leaves were starting to fall. Indeed there was certainly a run of late August starts in the early 1980s. But through most of the 1970s it was a week or two earlier. In 1968 we started on 10 August: the following year it was 9 August.
Late August was definitely the norm before WW2; our Football League seasons started on 31 August in 1929 and 1935 (and again in 1946). From 1947 the season moved forward a week which remained the case for a good twenty years. During this time our earliest start was 18 August in 1951, 1956 and 1962 (alas 1962 was several years too early for me as an Ernie Pym hat-trick saw off Exeter City).
The further shift forward to earlier in August appears to date from the late 1990s. Last season we started on 3 August against Wimbledon. I can trump that. I was at Sheffield United v Notts County the night before.
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Sept 1, 2014 21:38:50 GMT
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Post by dazgull on Sept 3, 2014 9:40:31 GMT
I can remember being at that match and believe the camera was on scaffolding underneath the popside roof at that time. Even though we were beat it was all back home to watch us on the tv for the first time!!
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