Post by Jon on Sept 7, 2023 23:07:48 GMT
So the FA Cup takes us to Wimborne - just along the road from Sturminster Marshall, the home of Panthers who first entered the FA Cup way back in 1874.
Wimborne first crossed our path when elected to the Western League in 1981. They beat Teignmouth and five others in the race to fill a single vacancy. Les Phillips' confidence that no team would leave was ill-founded as Brixham United pulled out as late as August due to financial problems.
A 2-0 win for us up there with a goal for my schoolmate Mitch Moore and an own goal. 2-2 at Plainmoor with Keith Bowker and Damien Keeley scoring.
We scrapped our reserves at the end of the season and by the time we re-entered the Western League, Wimborne had shifted East to the Wessex League.
Our youth team put them to the sword at Plainmoor during that brilliant 1983-84 FA Youth Cup run that finally saw us lose a marathon tie with Portsmouth. This was the first season of the "YTS scheme" and our team was based around our first batch of YTS trainees including Mark Loram, Gary Wright and Luke Young's dad. Sav Savva bagged a hat-trick with Martin Powell and David Fifield getting one each. 16 year-old Fifield had played 45 minutes in a 5-0 thrashing at Ashton Gate as our threadbare first team squad had run out of players.
Our most recent trip to Wimborne was for the very first game of the new Hodges / Nelson / McCall era documented in Nelson's book Left Foot in the Grave. A 6-0 win. Two each for Paul Adcock and Ellis Laight, one each for Paul Mitchell and Rodney Jack. Adcock's thirty yarder trumped Jack's 25 yarder. A United debut for Jon Gittens, warming up ready to elbow West Ham's expensive Romanian Raducioiu a week later.
Wimborne first crossed our path when elected to the Western League in 1981. They beat Teignmouth and five others in the race to fill a single vacancy. Les Phillips' confidence that no team would leave was ill-founded as Brixham United pulled out as late as August due to financial problems.
A 2-0 win for us up there with a goal for my schoolmate Mitch Moore and an own goal. 2-2 at Plainmoor with Keith Bowker and Damien Keeley scoring.
We scrapped our reserves at the end of the season and by the time we re-entered the Western League, Wimborne had shifted East to the Wessex League.
Our youth team put them to the sword at Plainmoor during that brilliant 1983-84 FA Youth Cup run that finally saw us lose a marathon tie with Portsmouth. This was the first season of the "YTS scheme" and our team was based around our first batch of YTS trainees including Mark Loram, Gary Wright and Luke Young's dad. Sav Savva bagged a hat-trick with Martin Powell and David Fifield getting one each. 16 year-old Fifield had played 45 minutes in a 5-0 thrashing at Ashton Gate as our threadbare first team squad had run out of players.
Our most recent trip to Wimborne was for the very first game of the new Hodges / Nelson / McCall era documented in Nelson's book Left Foot in the Grave. A 6-0 win. Two each for Paul Adcock and Ellis Laight, one each for Paul Mitchell and Rodney Jack. Adcock's thirty yarder trumped Jack's 25 yarder. A United debut for Jon Gittens, warming up ready to elbow West Ham's expensive Romanian Raducioiu a week later.