Bristol Rovers(H).11/09/48.

That's a lovely simple cover on that 1948 programme against Bristol Rovers. No fancy design, no wasted space, straight to business. You imagine that's because paper was in short supply and relatively costly. But it didn't stop clubs such as Spurs continuing with the same approach for many years to come.

We've discussed Hugh Cameron in the past and how he made that long journey from Clyde to Torquay at the age of twenty-one. We've also mentioned that Torquay later sold Cameron to Newcastle United where he would have been on the sidelines when the Mags won the FA Cup in 1951. He was later to join Bury but not before making a couple of first-team appearances against Liverpool and Blackpool. It's something of an oddly-portrayed lineup, but I've found the team for which Cameron made his debut for Newcastle United. Anyone who knows anything about their great cup sides of the fifties will recognise the names:

Goalkeeper: Ronnie Simpson
Full back: Alf McMichael
Full back: Bobby Cowell
Centre half: Bob Stokoe
Centre half: Frank Brennan
Wing half: Ted Robledo
Outside right: Billy Foulkes
Centre forward: Jackie Milburn
Winger: Hugh Cameron
Inside forward: George Robledo
Inside forward: George Hannah

Inside the programme there's an interesting observation about the Rovers way of playing: "I hear that Lambden favours the 1948 centre-forward new look - i.e. he doesn't bother so much about scoring goals himself as in making openings for his two inside men, which means that the whole line generally plays well up, with none dropping back as a fourth half".

Follis's notes really are worth reading. There's mention of a new attendance record - 14,014 against Exeter (13,676 according to later accounts) - and clarification of the law about "charging" goalkeepers. There's also mention of Joe Rae, recently signed from Celtic, and how it's been said "more than once with authority" that it takes Scots players at least three months to acclimatise to the tempo of the English game. Rae scored four times in twenty league games that season and had the honour of playing for Torquay United in the fourth round of the FA Cup. Checking Neil Brown's site it appears that Rae left us for Kilmarnock before joining Yeovil. But he did score twice against Exeter in front of that big crowd.