A Len White screamer, Hamburg at EP, and missing a 7-1 win at Bradford

The next part of John Snellgrove’s wonderful series takes us back to 1965-66

Jul 02, 2024

Tuesday 2 July 2024

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Good afternoon!

Stop what you’re doing, and enjoy the latest nostalgic article from John Snellgrove. Actually, if you haven’t done so already, start off with Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. You can then enjoy Part 4, which takes us back to the 1965-66 campaign. John unfortunately misses an incredible away day in West Yorkshire, but he does see his first County trophy, before getting up close and personal with a few international stars, as the World Cup takes centre stage in England…

EURO 2024 – DAY 19

5pm: Romania v Netherlands 🇷🇴🇳🇱

8pm: Austria v Turkey 🇦🇹🇹🇷

Here’s a list of the best places to watch today’s games…

Bask (SK1). All the action on two 75” screens.

Nelson Tavern (SK1).

Crown (SK2). Buy a pint of Helles today and you’ll be in with a chance of winning 52 free pints! There’s also a special menu throughout the Euros.

Armoury (SK3).

Reddish Working Men’s Club (SK5). There’s four screens in the games room, a new projector in the lower games room, and a screen in the middle room where families and children can enjoy the match. Check out the Special Offer Wheel which will be offering a variety of great deals before, during and after each game.

Crown Inn (SK6).

Marple Tavern (SK6). Food served at half-time such as burgers, hot dogs, pizza and chips.

Railway (SK6).

Steelworks (SK6). Games shown downstairs (sound off) and upstairs (sound on).

Shady Oak (SK7). Food served during the games from the matchday menu. Pick up a loyalty card to receive a discount on certain drinks.

Three Tunnes (SK7). Buy a pint of Helles today and you’ll be in with a chance of winning 52 free pints! There’s also a special menu throughout the Euros.

Cross Keys (SK8). Bitter £2.30 a pint all day. Plus, discounts on certain lagers between 12pm and 6pm.

Railway (SK9). TVs in every room, and outside. Discounted doubles on spirits and 10% off four pint jugs.

Flute & Firkin (SK12). Call 01625 879181 to book a table, and quote “The Scarf My Father Wore” to receive 10% off your first round of drinks. (Not applicable for walk-ins.)

Friendship Inn (SK13). Five big screen TVs with surround sound, including one outside in the beer garden.

Today’s edition is sponsored by Bridge Computer Services. A big thank you to Mark. He’s usually open Monday to Friday, but starting this month, he’s trialling opening on Saturday mornings – the last one of each month. I’m sure many of our readers work Monday to Friday, but if you’ve been having issues with your PC or laptop, you can drop it in on Saturday July 27 (before County’s friendly at home to Stoke) for Mark to have a look at. Give him a call on 0161 408 3201 or email info@bridgecomputerservices.co.uk.

Finally, I’m currently walking every street in Stockport to raise money for mental health charity Mentell. If you’d like to make a donation to help me reach my target, please click here.

Total distance so far: 158.42 miles

Total steps so far: 254,782

Total raised so far: £1,909

Total completed streets so far: 347 (Click here for the full list, which includes reports and photos from every day of the walk.)

Further information on the walk can be found by clicking here.

Des Junior

Another season dawned. I had only planned to give this season a brief mention, but then looking back, I realised it probably deserved an article to itself. Certainly there was an air of optimism around. Things were definitely happening. New players appeared to be an upgrade on previous years.

There were so many I really liked: Len Allchurch and Johnny Price on the wings, Keith Allen, Billy Haydock, and two of my favourites David Shawcross and Norman Sykes. Promotion must have been a shoe-in. Well, that was until the games started. An opening day defeat at Chester followed by a 3-1 reversal at home to Notts County, who looked far superior to us, was a shock to the system. This was not meant to happen. Still, a 3-0 victory over Halifax seemed to have steadied the ship.

A few weeks later, in September, came one of those days of total frustration which still rankles nearly 60 years later. A trip to Bradford City was planned, only for education to get in the way. I was changing sixth form, to Xaverian in Manchester, and had to go along for an interview in the morning. It finished too late for me to get to Bradford so I had to make do with the reserves losing 3-2 to Bangor City. As for the first team, they won 7-1 with Len White scoring a hat-trick.

I can’t go back in time to be at Bradford that memorable day, but the following weekend, I was treated to one of the best goals I have ever seen. A Len White volley from outside the penalty area at the Cheadle End, to seal a 1-0 win at home to Barnsley. My memory is probably playing tricks but I will not let anybody disillusion me. Good job there weren’t any videos in those days, so in my mind the goal just gets better and better as the years roll by. After the victory at Bradford, over 15,000 turned up at Edgeley Park for that one.

The only consistency was the unbelievable inconsistency. Big wins followed by depressing defeats. Still, November arrived and an FA Cup victory at Tranmere was rewarded with an away trip to Southport in round two.

Now, Southport were not one of my favourite teams as they always seemed to have the whip hand over County. We still headed off to Haig Avenue for the game on what I remember was a wet and dismal Saturday. I don’t know why I was worrying, County went 2-0 up. Oh joy of joys! Yes, I’m sure you can guess what happened next. County went 3-2 down, but there was relief with four minutes to go when the cool and unflappable Dave Shawcross equalised with a penalty. A replay, and not just that, a home tie with Ipswich Town for the winners in round three. A team I had never seen County play in a competitive game, league or cup.

Ipswich feature high in my football memories. Firstly, a 5-0 defeat at Old Trafford in 1962, with a hat-trick from Albert Quixall who would later play for County, likewise Sammy McMillan, also in the United side that day.

But best of all, my best friend at school was an Ipswich supporter and had been persuading me to go and watch them. So on condition I had a haircut (no other worries about two 14-year-olds going to watch a football match in a place they had never been to before!) I was allowed to go with him to watch them play at Stoke. The train trip was worth it as the Division One game ended 9-1 to Stoke. I was not asked to go again!

It doesn’t take a genius to work out what happened in County’s replay. Southport won 2-0. I’d have to wait another 30 years to tick Ipswich off my list. That list contains only four clubs now: Newcastle and Chelsea (no chance as yet), and Bromley and Salford (no excuses offered, I just didn’t manage to get to the games).

I did see my first County trophy in 1965-66 – the Cheshire Senior Cup. Definitely treated more seriously than now. Nobody was really bothered by the early rounds but suddenly we were in the semi-final against the mighty Altrincham. We travelled to Stalybridge more in hope than expectation but amazingly an overhead kick by Malcolm Abbott took County through to the final.

Abbott didn’t play in the final. County were taking this seriously, with a team full of first-teamers. A 2-0 victory brought the trophy home. My lasting memory, though, is of the Northwich trainer, who we were convinced had a wooden leg as he ran on to treat one of their players.

I’ll share one more game with you before I go, a friendly against one of the top German sides, Hamburg SV. Up front for them was the mighty Uwe Seeler, one of the greatest forwards of all time. Just a few weeks later he would be playing for Germany in the World Cup final. Despite a strengthened County team, Hamburg ran out 5-1 winners.

The season was over (County finished 13th) but there was the small matter of the World Cup to look forward to, and we had tickets for the three matches at Old Trafford. It will appear hard to believe in these high security days when you can’t get anywhere near players, but Portugal trained at the home ground of Cheadle Rovers (which is where Cheadle Town now play).

What I still find astonishing is that you could just walk in and watch them. At the end of training anyone could walk onto the pitch to get autographs. As you can see from the next photo I spared no expense on getting a good quality autograph book.

That’s rather embarrassing when I look at it now, offering such tatty pieces of paper to be signed by world class footballers. I still remember walking off the pitch next to Eusebio with no security keeping you away.

One final strange tale from that World Cup. Many years later I had a boy in my class at Norris Bank. A really good footballer called Hernan Villaneuva, whose grandfather was part of the Chile squad in 1966.

Give Mark a call if your laptop needs a new screen

If your laptop needs a new screen give Mark a call at Bridge Computer Services. One of Mark’s clients had a broken screen recently. The following day the laptop was fitted with a new screen and delivered back to the client.

Based in Romiley, the business also provides computer workshop and callout services to residential and business customers across Stockport. Their callout and workshop engineers are trained to fix computers, laptops and servers on site (where possible) as well as setting up new computers and wireless networks, plus maintaining existing networks and removing viruses.

Visit bridgecomputerservices.co.uk for further details.

Photo of the day

Chester City Walls

Nothing to do with County, but The Scarf My Father Wore readers will know I like to share little bits and bobs from my daily travels now and again. I do enjoy stumbling upon a football sticker, and I came across this Bromley one today, on my stroll around the city walls in Chester. That looks pretty fresh to me (and Bromley haven’t played at Chester since 2017-18) which suggests one of their fans has come up to Cheshire for a pleasant summer stroll with their friends or family, but not without giving their football team a cheeky plug. I like that. Bromley, incidentally, are gearing up for their first ever season in the Football League. County could get them in the League Cup.

Today in SK

🎬 Cinema

One film at The Savoy Cinema (SK4) today. Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 (15) at 7pm. Click here for tickets.

🍺 Food and drink

10% discount on food for NHS card holders at The Shady Oak (SK7). Food served until 7.30pm.

Bitter £2.30 a pint all day at The Cross Keys (SK8). Plus, discounts on certain lagers between 12pm and 6pm.

If you’re simply in the mood for a couple of pints today, pop along to one of our featured venues such as Bask (SK1), The Crown (SK2), The Dog & Partridge (SK2), The Armoury (SK3), Reddish Working Men’s Club (SK5), The Crown Inn (SK6), The Marple Tavern (SK6), The Railway (SK6), The Steelworks (SK6), The Three Tunnes (SK7), The Railway (SK9), Flute & Firkin (SK12) or The Friendship (SK13).

100 random grounds that County have played at

#53 – Bramall Lane, Sheff Utd

Last visit: August 2004, in the first round of the League Cup.

County, of League One, took the lead after just two minutes against their Championship opponents, as Luke Beckett’s cross was deflected into his own goal by Jon Harley. Chris Morgan headed an equaliser before half-time, which was the end of the scoring during the 90 minutes. The Blades ended up winning 4-1 after extra time to book their place in round two.