There’s no football this weekend after our recent debacle at home to Bolton so, just to keep things ticking over before the Swansea “who are you”, here’s a quick trip down memory lane, or as it’s me, down fuzzy memory lane.
The starting point was actually the vast number of posters (i.e. more than three ) on this site who said that at least we wouldn’t get beaten by Everton, our bogey team, and M. Salut himself, who may not have mentioned Everton but who did say his dreams of a 40th anniversary trip to Wembley had crumbled into dust, or words to that effect.
Combining these two took me back to 1963-64, nine years before I went to Wembley and God knows how many years before Everton became bogeymen. At that time we were a second division team achieving crowds of 35-40,000 as we battled with the likes of Man City, Northampton, Rotherham and, of course, Leeds United to get into the first division.
As 1964 started we embarked upon as good a winning streak as I can remember. We beat Northampton in the Cup in our first game of the year and then had league wins over Bury, 4-1 at home, and their close neighbours and rivals Man City, whom we beat 3-0 away. The next two games were at home and resulted in a 6-1 4th round cup win over Bristol City, where 46,000 turned up, and a 6-0 win over Swindon Town a week later. An away game at Cardiff almost ended the run as we only managed a 2-0 win but it set us up for the next week, when we had the mighty Everton at home in the cup.
The powers that be decided the game would not be all-ticket and 62,851 people turned up, the season’s biggest official attendance. The place was heaving. I must have been 12 years old and probably went with my cousin who was about a year older yet I never felt in danger.
And that’s about it. I remember sitting in the straw at the edge of the pitch at the Fulwell end as we roared our team to a magnificent 3-1 victory but little else. We were knocked out in the next round after drawing away at Man Utd, where only 61,000 attended, and replaying at Roker and then Huddersfield, but we made amends by winning promotion.
The next season we played Everton by right. We beat them 4-0 at home and drew 1-1 away.
Bogey team? What Bogey team?
I think it all start ed when we were relegated at Goodison on that night that brought shame upon Jimmy Hill, Everton played their hearts out to beat us and the late kick off at Coventry allowed Coventry &Bristol City to play out an effortless draw. Although probabley imagined I thought Everton were complicit in the outcome. Even the last game at Roker seen us relegated and Everton were there again, more Jonas that bogey but they are a bit like shite hawks than vultures
Is this all we North Eastern people have to cheer about bloody old memeories of when I teams were decent
Yes.
If you think this is bad read “the beautiful game is over” by John Samuels. Here’s how the introduction begins:
“What is happening in football today is almost entirely predictable. The dominance of a few clubs, the take-over of Manchester United, the foreign ownership of English clubs, the influence of the media, the significance of foreign managers and the headhunting of talent are all the result of the globalisation of the football business and the impact of free market forces. Unfortunately as a result of these economic forces the results of domestic football competitions have also become quite predictable. The rich clubs are becoming richer and the less rich becoming of little importance. The winning of major competitions is now largely over for clubs from the Midlands, North East and most other parts of the country. Success for them is now judged as avoiding relegation, or at best, finishing higher than seventh place in the premiership.”
Then it gets pessimistic.
And it was published five years ago!
John Mac
I think I like my wrists as they are, I won’t be reading that!!
There are some good bits. How can you not like a book with this in:
“Even Tony Blair claims to have been a football fan in his youth. (he is said to have watched the legendary Newcastle Utd player Jackie Milburn and to have sat behind the goals at St James’ Park to watch his hero play). There are only two things wrong with this story: Tony Blair was only 4 years old when Jackie Milburn retired from football; and at that time there was no seating behind the goals at St James’ Park”.
I remember murdering them 3-0 at the final league game at Roker Park – Chris Waddle scored a free kick, Paul Stewart a penalty with Allan Johnston (who hadn’t really made too much of an impression at this point) getting the third. We beat them 3-1 away that season as well.
I also remember the 01/02 season over festive period when Claudio Reyna inspired an otherwise lacklustre side to a 1-0 win in the snow. That statement is reflective of that particular season, the American probably kept us up that year.
If we beat the Toffees it’ll almost match Bradford City for shock value. Not quite but almost. A Chelski fan on a forum reckoned them beating Bayern and Brcelona was a bigger shock than the Bantams getting to Wembley and beating Prem teams in the process. As if? Just hope Swansea are feeling distracted next week. As for EFC the bogey thing is particularly pronounced under Moyes….getting sick of it now
I was at the cup game, in the Roker End, so had the perfect view of Nicky Sharkey, (all 5’7″ of him) with Brian Labone at his back on the half way line, getting up to a high ball and powering a perfect header out to Brian Usher on the right touchline.
Happy days!
have to admit i was one of the fellas that said everton are your bogey team, but as an everton fan i come in peace i kinda like you guys and wish you well but not at our expense when we come up and get our usual 3 points in a couple of weeks. hope you boys can do us a favour and tank some of the teams around us like arsenal tottenham and the red neighbours i might even call you my second team…. am i losing my marbles no you have a good side just wish they would believe it.
You didn’t have to add anything after the first two sentences. Fuzzy memories are best.
A bit later in the 60s we were 0-2 down away from home to them in the League Cup and came away with a 3-2 win. Then we did the double over them in our relegation year of 1996/7. Take these results out mind you and the rest is a trifle embarrassing! Starting from your FA Cup win of 1964, our record against them in all competitions is W16 D11 L31