Question for Cardiff City historians and know alls

[William Treseder]

Not quite - we were the first to replace a keeper for another keeper. Last game of the season a 0-0 at Maidstone.

Ward was named as sub and replaced Hansbury at half time . Ashurst manager reportedly frustrated at the lack of recruitment. This was in the days of 2 subs so naming a keeper as sub was odd to start off with.

I think Maidstone had to replace their keeper for an outfield player in the same game - making it the first game in the League to have 4 keepers.

Thanks for the reply. So Ashurst made the substitution in protest, rather than the performance of Hansbury ?

[the other bob wilson]

Thanks for the reply. So Ashurst made the substitution in protest, rather than the performance of Hansbury ?

My recollection of that substitution was that it was back in the days when you were only allowed two subs and nearly everyone didn't nominate a keeper among them. However, for the last couple of games of the 90/91 season, Len Ashurst wanted to reward Gavin Ward, who had been understudy to Roger Hansbury all season, without ruining the latter's 100 per cent everpresent record. The plan was to start with Hansbury and introduce Ward later - for some, reason, it didn't happen at Hartlepool in the penultimate match, but Ward came on in the final game which was the only home game we played against Maidstone that we didn't lose 5-0 .

[CCFCC3PO]

Thanks for the reply. So Ashurst made the substitution in protest, rather than the performance of Hansbury ?

It wasn't a performance thing.

It was also the first time both keepers had been substituted in an English League game. You never saw sub keepers in those days unless it was international or friendly matches. The Maidstone keeper picked up an injury.

All my Rothmans are at my parents place so I can't reference this, a lot of it is memory and Crooks mentioned in his Bluebirds book that Ashurst named Ward as sub out of frustration. The book was released 12 months after this game.

In those days you had 2 subs. Numbered 12 and 14. It could be that Gavin Ward was being rewarded, I remember listening to the game in a car park in Merthyr - we didn't have much money so didn't waste it on a pointless end of season game.

Rick Wright and Eddie May came along in pre-season (I think Wright was already paying the wages at the time of this game) and the next season was one of the best ever. Ward played a huge part in that, a really good young keeper.