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Question about the Golden days in the "old first division"!


BCFC OF SWEDEN

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13 minutes ago, BCFC OF SWEDEN said:

I think the team mostly was like this?

Shaw

Sweeney, Hunter; Merrick, Gillies

Whitehead, Gow, Tainton, Mann

Royle, Ritchie

 

But i wonder were did Collier, Rodgers, Cormack and Mabbutt fit in?

Because im also thinking of them like players who used to start?

Please help me to sort it out? Im confused!

COYR!!!

Gary Collier, a Center Back was sold to Coventry City for 325k after one season in the 1st division. There was a contract dispute and the club decided to sell...Collier was class, however had a bad game in his first match for Coventry and gradually disappeared from sight anywhere @slartibartfast seems to remember a lot about this

David Rogers was our player for a long time and was largely a sub or player who came n for an injury until the 79-80 season where he tended to be first choice CB

Peter Cormack was bought from Liverpool and played as a forward with Joe Royal for two/three seasons

Kevin Mabbutt was a forward and brother of Gary who started playing up front regularly in about 78 and was sold to Place when we ran out of money after relegation....KM scored a hat trick at Old Trafford in a City win...

The issue with the payers you mention is they played over a eight year period and changes over that amount of time were clear...

Other mentions should go to Ray Cashley, Bryan Drysdale, Mickey Brolly and a couple of others notably Tony Fitzpatrick who we paid a club record for and was just a bit pony....

@Nogbad the Bad and Slarti as above can probably flesh out a bit more for you.....Hope that helps  

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18 minutes ago, BCFC OF SWEDEN said:

Thanks a lot mate!

Two questions?

Geoff Merrick? I thought Cormack was a striker?

Merrick - He didn’t play a lot of the games I watched as an 8/9 year old.  I didn’t go every week though.

Cormack was a midfielder as I recall.

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27 minutes ago, REDOXO said:

Gary Collier, a Center Back was sold to Coventry City for 325k after one season in the 1st division. There was a contract dispute and the club decided to sell...Collier was class, however had a bad game in his first match for Coventry and gradually disappeared from sight anywhere @slartibartfast seems to remember a lot about this

David Rogers was our player for a long time and was largely a sub or player who came n for an injury until the 79-80 season where he tended to be first choice CB

Peter Cormack was bought from Liverpool and played as a forward with Joe Royal for two/three seasons

Kevin Mabbutt was a forward and brother of Gary who started playing up front regularly in about 78 and was sold to Place when we ran out of money after relegation....KM scored a hat trick at Old Trafford in a City win...

The issue with the payers you mention is they played over a eight year period and changes over that amount of time were clear...

Other mentions should go to Ray Cashley, Bryan Drysdale, Mickey Brolly and a couple of others notably Tony Fitzpatrick who we paid a club record for and was just a bit pony....

@Nogbad the Bad and Slarti as above can probably flesh out a bit more for you.....Hope that helps  

Can't add much...............Collier left Cov (after just TWO games) for Portland Timbers and spent rest of career in US.

Dave Rodgers was a fill in CB until Hunter left, to became first choice..........and we went down, not that I'm blaming DR at all , we just never kicked on, nor spend money (not that we had much ).

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34 minutes ago, REDOXO said:

Gary Collier, a Center Back was sold to Coventry City for 325k after one season in the 1st division. There was a contract dispute and the club decided to sell...Collier was class, however had a bad game in his first match for Coventry and gradually disappeared from sight anywhere @slartibartfast seems to remember a lot about this

David Rogers was our player for a long time and was largely a sub or player who came n for an injury until the 79-80 season where he tended to be first choice CB

Peter Cormack was bought from Liverpool and played as a forward with Joe Royal for two/three seasons

Kevin Mabbutt was a forward and brother of Gary who started playing up front regularly in about 78 and was sold to Place when we ran out of money after relegation....KM scored a hat trick at Old Trafford in a City win...

The issue with the payers you mention is they played over a eight year period and changes over that amount of time were clear...

Other mentions should go to Ray Cashley, Bryan Drysdale, Mickey Brolly and a couple of others notably Tony Fitzpatrick who we paid a club record for and was just a bit pony....

@Nogbad the Bad and Slarti as above can probably flesh out a bit more for you.....Hope that helps  

BD hardly played after being torn a new one by a young Peter Barnes away at Maine Rd .

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3 minutes ago, Sweeneys Penalties said:

IIRC Merrick filled in as Left Back after Drysdale was torn apart by Keith Weller at Ashton Gate. 

Merrick certainly and professionally gave up his position to Norman Hunter and did indeed become our regular left back .

 I thought , at the time , that it was harsh on Sir Geoff but the man never complained ( at least in public ) and I’m sure accepted the situation for the greater good . 

Sir Geoff Merrick , a gentleman.

:clap:

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1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

Merrick - He didn’t play a lot of the games I watched as an 8/9 year old.  I didn’t go every week though.

Cormack was a midfielder as I recall.

This sent me running for my books. With my (erratic at best ) memory , GM was always around the first team. Great partnership with Collier, then Rodgers  , then he moved to left back and in my mind that's where he stayed.
Seems we're both right, his appearances were....

79-80…. 39

78-79…..0

77-78…..37

76-77….39

It's that '0' that confused me, turns out he missed an entire season through injury. That seems to have escaped my memory completely.

As for Cormack . We used to catch the bus outside the Robins, an older chap used to turn up regularly and insisted in calling him Pat McCormack !

 

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Exactly,  correct in my recollection,  was surprised we signed Hunter as he played where Merrick as our captain did, however he was brilliant for us, anyone remember those free kicks he hit when he was teed up by someone...... merrick went to left back to replace Drysdale and Hunter partnered Collier in the middle until he left and then Rodgers took over at CB.

Did we lose 2-1 at Maine rd in the match referred to above, remember being in the away section and glanced down to see blokes with Man City belts or scarves stood with us, they went for us when the teams came out. Had to run for it and the police directed us to anither  part of the ground. Remember, was it Barnes and Denis Tueart 2 old fashioned wingers...

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2 hours ago, Sweeneys Penalties said:

other bit part performances came from Pertti Jantunen and Geert Meyer. Keith Fear also gets a mention

Geert Meyer the flying Dutchman, still remember the goal he scored from an almost impossible angle and the buzz around the ground when he got the ball.

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1 hour ago, Major Isewater said:

Merrick certainly and professionally gave up his position to Norman Hunter and did indeed become our regular left back .

 I thought , at the time , that it was harsh on Sir Geoff but the man never complained ( at least in public ) and I’m sure accepted the situation for the greater good . 

Sir Geoff Merrick , a gentleman.

:clap:

Well not quite true, a family member was very close to the club at that time and said that Merrick was not ever really happy with the move. Dicks tried to sell it to him by saying that England needed a left back at that time, but he never really seemed to buy that.

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2 hours ago, slartibartfast said:

Can't add much...............Collier left Cov (after just TWO games) for Portland Timbers and spent rest of career in US.

Dave Rodgers was a fill in CB until Hunter left, to became first choice..........and we went down, not that I'm blaming DR at all , we just never kicked on, nor spend money (not that we had much ).

Never realised that Collier's career stalled so quickly after leaving Ashton Gate - wasn't he tipped for England honours early on?

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2 hours ago, BCFC OF SWEDEN said:

But still confused about Merrick, Rodger and Hunter. Rodgers started with Hunter one season but were was Merrick then? Wasnt he our captain?

I always recall that Rodgers and Hunter formed an excellent central defensive partnership in the 78/79 season, both were hard as nails but had little pace (remember Norm would have been 35 or 36 by this time having signed for us at 33).  What Rodgers lacked in finesse he made up for in aerial power including a few set-pieces goals, not unlike Aden Flint.  Having Norm alongside him was great because had the class and guile to mop up the odd howler, I am sure that very few top flight strikers relished playing against these 2.

To find the answer to the Geoff Merrick situation I knew there were injury issues, but have just consulted The Bible - AKA the David Woods/Matt Stevens recent book "The Four Seasons" and, to quote directly (no copyright infringements intended) "Despite the absence of Geoff Merrick, who was to miss the whole season due to a pelvic strain suffered whilst on holiday in Sardinia, the League campaign opened with a 2-1 win at Burnden Park".  I knew he had injury problems, just forgot that he missed the whole of 78/79.  City ended the season in 13th in the top flight,  which was their best finish in the modern day era.  This was the season when we won 3-1 at Old Trafford with Kevin Mabbutt's hat-trick.

The problems and ultimate relegation of the 79/80 season sort of started when we lost both Hunter and Terry Cooper, although we actually had a decent start.  I remember we had central Roger Kenyon on loan (from Everton?) for a few games, but we never replaced the quality and class of Hunter, not to mention many other issues affecting the club at that time.

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19 minutes ago, Port Said Red said:

That must have been when Whitehead dropped into an attacking full back role then?

Yes, it was amazing that Alan Dicks turned our brilliant right winger into a left back, who actually did the job pretty well.  IIRC  he also played a few games in the centre of defence.  Funnily enough, Terry Cooper repeated the trick to devastating effect a few years later by turning winger Keith Curle (who was never anywhere near as good a winger as Whitehead) into a classy and pacey central defender who went on to play at the highest level and was, when signed by Man. City, the most expensive defender in the English game. He also went  on to play for England in the ill-fated Euros in Sweden 1992 but he was never a right back, which is where Graham Taylor played him.  But that is a story for another thread!

One reason that AD was able to do take Clive Whitehead out of the front line was the promising emergence of Howard Pritchard.

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1 hour ago, 1960maaan said:

 

 

This sent me running for my books. With my (erratic at best ) memory , GM was always around the first team. Great partnership with Collier, then Rodgers  , then he moved to left back and in my mind that's where he stayed.
Seems we're both right, his appearances were....

79-80…. 39

78-79…..0

77-78…..37

76-77….39

It's that '0' that confused me, turns out he missed an entire season through injury. That seems to have escaped my memory completely.

As for Cormack . We used to catch the bus outside the Robins, an older chap used to turn up regularly and insisted in calling him Pat McCormack !

 

Oops! sorry didn't notice that you had queried the lack of appearances in 78/79 for GM, it seems that he picked up a pelvic injury on holiday pre-season and that caused him to miss the entire season.  If have put a bit more detail in my previous post No. 24.

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20 minutes ago, chriskoi said:

What about Chris Garland did he not play for us in div 1 ?

With some success. Came back towards the end of the first year, scored 3/4 in the last few games to help keep us up. 2 in a home win over the newly christened Champions Liverpool. 

 

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