As Mary Hopkins once sang "those were the days"
That era is embedded into my soul.
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1968/69#CardiffCity secretary Graham Keenor, #blackpoolfc manager Stan Mortensen and referee Clive Thomas question the bounce of the Ninian Park pitch pic.twitter.com/aYTzKYLhv9
— Football Past (@thecentretunnel) November 15, 2017
As Mary Hopkins once sang "those were the days"
That era is embedded into my soul.
Is graham keen or any relation to the great Fred?
Not me.
I started in 1970-71 season. bloody Johhny-come-lately, see.
I recall a home international at the end of that season, one of the keepers had the ball...
went to bounce it before booting it upfield...
and when he did - it stuck firmly in the mud.
Clive Thomas , what a pompous git he was , the bloke thought he was a celebrity , a good ref is one you don't see involved in the action too much , not him
Same can be said of Uriah Rennie , Graham Poll , Clattenburg etc
Here is Clive's most famous one:-----
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsZ2Qfuwc_Q
The game was eventually played on an absolutely freezing night and City won 1-0 with Toshack, I think, getting the goal. I would have been twelve at the time and there are two reasons why I particularly remember that game - first, it was as cold as I'd ever been at a game and, second, for what may well have been the first time at a City match, an opposition player really impressed me. Blackpool's Scottish midfielder Tony Green was excellent that night and eventually earned a big money move to Newcastle, but then had to retire from the game in his mid twenties after picking up an injury that, apparently, would have kept him out for about five weeks if it had happened these days.
There were two games postponed at Ninian Park in January 69. That one v Blackpool ,and Fulham too. the Fulham one was played iN March, we lost 2-0 and blew our hopes of promotion , along with a string of other poor results. The great Cliff Jones played for Fulham.
I was there , I'd been going since 1965.
When was the last time we had a game postponed due to weather at home?
Was it Leicester a few years back? Where the game that was eventually played was the infamous Gyepes rugby tackle, turning the stadium into probably the best atmosphere it’s witnessed?
That photo would have been taken prior to the scheduled fixture on the 18th January 1969 although I very much doubt that Clive Thomas would have been due to referee a league game involving City. The match was finally played on February 12th on a freezing night four days after our 'Match of the Day' appearance against Oxford. Like OBW I remember Tony Green being particularly impressive for Blackpool who had a strong team at the time including Alan Suddick, Jimmy Armfield and Tommy Hutchison.
For those interested the teams were:
City: Davies, Carver, Bell, Sutton, Murray, Derrett, Jones, Clark, Lea, Toshack, Bird. sub Phillips for Clark
Blackpool: Taylor, Armfield, Bentley, Craven, James, Alcock, Brown, Green, Suddick, Johnston, Hutchison.
Scorer: Toshack (43mins). Att:24,206.
the fact they are wearing welly boots says it all
Hate to say it but i was there. Cant remember f all about the game though!
I remember that particular game for a conversation l had at school the next day with a lad named Alun Lewis who was called up for a Lions tour some years later,a nice guy but zero allegiance to the City he had gone to the game and his comment to me was that Blackpool had been robbed and to be honest he was spot on.Got to say how random games bring memories flooding back
Back in the 80’s I’m sure City watered the pitch in order to get games called off
I can remember a bucket of sand being daubed down at half time. Wayne Nash and lads deserves some credit for getting the pitch back into shape I think.
I think that was the season when we played Blackpool at their place and Barrie Jones had his leg broken and effectively ended his career, he was never the same when he recovered.