Something in my memory is niggling away.
I’m sure I once heard that we were the 1st league team to substitute a goalkeeper for no other reason than he was having a bad game.
Can anyone shed any light on this, or am I talking bollux ?
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Something in my memory is niggling away.
I’m sure I once heard that we were the 1st league team to substitute a goalkeeper for no other reason than he was having a bad game.
Can anyone shed any light on this, or am I talking bollux ?
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.
I remember when you were allowed one substitute but only because of injury. Jimmy Scoular would be red in the face screaming at the player he wanted to drag off to go down and feign injury. I bet they got a smack from him in the changing room for not going down quickly enough!!
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 .
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.
I remember Phil Dwyer having to go in goals at some point during a game as our keeper got injured.
Lindon Jones has a go in goal in that match as well following an injury to Andy Dibble, we lost 4-2 at Bradford in 82/83 - in what was a very strange game in that it was played on a midweek afternoon in a rugby league stadium (Odsal Park - I think there was a problem with the floodlights there, but I could well be wrong in that).
Actually I think I got that wrong about that match being played at Odsal because it was before the fire at Valley Parade. Thinking a bit more about it, the game was played at Valley Parade in the afternoon because the floodlights had been damaged by strong winds.
The 90/91 last game v Maidstone was just to give Gavin Ward a game. It is correct Hansbury had played in every game and the manager didn't want to spoil his 100% appearance record .Not sure if it was a protest or not, but I doubt it. Ward has played a few games the previous season. I think that's all there was to it. Basically he wanted to give Ward a game but didn't want to spoil Hansbury's ever present record.