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A tribute to the great Geoff Merrick

Curr Avon

By Curr Avon
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Curr Avon

Curr Avon

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The following article, written by my friend Paul Gainey, first appeared online in the Bristol Post on 15th November; https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/bristol-city-centre-back-who-4703489 and in the print version yesterday.

 

The Bristol City centre-back wanted by Arsenal who became an Ashton Gate Eight legend

A tribute to the great Geoff Merrick, one of the club's best players and servants who should always be remembered.


Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, Bristol City had negotiated their own yellow brick road and found themselves in their own version of Oz – a promised land called the First Division in 1976.

Their promotion, confirmed by a nervous home 1-0 win over Portsmouth, was no less than the team deserved; as they had been the outstanding side throughout that 1975/76 season and proof positive that a successful team did not need superstars to shine.

There were no stars in the Bristol City squad – characters yes, but pampered stars with egos and demands to match? No. Bristol City’s path to success and recognition had come about via the qualities that manager Alan Dicks had demanded of the players from day one. Hard work, application, team work – and then some more hard work.

One player who relished whatever Dicks had cared to throw at him – and perhaps even ask for more - was defender Geoff Merrick. In an age when football’s hard men were genuinely that, Merrick stood out and stood alongside the best of them. Dicks liked what he saw in Merrick – a footballer as tough, uncompromising and desperate to win as he was.

A natural left-footer and an excellent leader on the field, Geoff could mark the most gifted opposition striker out of a match with his decisive tackles, heading skills and ability to read the game.

Merrick was in such outstanding form in the promotion season that legendary Bristol City striker John Atyeo said that he was the best defender he had ever seen.

I first saw Geoff on October 26, 1974, when City played Notts County at Ashton Gate; my first ever home game. Biggest cheer of the day came when he slid ferociously into a fifty-fifty tackle with Brian Stubbs and came away carrying the ball. He had clattered him with such force he remained mute for the rest of the game.

Football crowds always respond to good tackling. TV pundits never seem to mention it. Perhaps a swerving run or a sixty yard pass volley are more worthy of comment – they are artist’s skills, tackling is merely craftsmanship. Architecture is always more valued than engineering.

Shortly afterwards he launched himself into a flying header that took my breath away. All game he threw his battered body about the place with the same disregard a builder shows for a firm’s transit.

The energetic flying header, achieved horizontally, made Merrick look as though he had been abruptly hoisted upwards and then suddenly tugged sideways on some invisible zip wire.

With the agility of a gazelle, the predatory instincts of a lurking panther, and the heart of a lion, whatever his team needed, he could provide it. When about to play one of his razor sharp crosses, he leant over the ball like a crack professional snooker player on the first red of a maximum break. As club captain, there was a great calm about him, but his performances were pyrotechnical, with fizz and colour in nearly every challenge or forward run.

He could play the most remarkable pass, crunching tackle or acrobatic flying header, but still have the look of someone only vaguely satisfied with his work. It was good, he thought, but could be better.

We are never so impressionable as when we are young. Early devotions stay with us like first love, never forgotten. He was a boyhood hero from the moment I saw him, with his curly mop of blonde hair, Bristol accent and immaculate moustache of a Victorian cad.

He was compact and solid, a tidy brick wall, so he couldn't easily be bundled off a pass which made the certainty of his control of it more valuable. Although not that big for a defender, he possessed every attribute required for that role. He was strong, brave, tackled powerfully, had a certain muscular grace, great timing in the air and read the game well.

A rare Clive Whitehead goal early in the game on 20 April 1976 clinched the Portsmouth victory, who belied their already relegated status by putting up a mighty struggle, before Bristol City clinched their long awaited return to the top division of English football.

Promotion to Division One was an ideal birthday present for skipper Geoff Merrick, who turned 25 on 29 April. If anyone deserved that promotion it was him.

It was also the perfect reward for a dozen years loyal service since first joining the club as an associate schoolboy. And at the annual dinner of the Professional Footballer's Association he received another accolade. His fellow professionals voted him the best Second Division defender in his left-half position during that 1975-76 season.

To get to that pinnacle, he had had to overcome early adversity. While still a teenager he had suffered a serious knee injury in stretching into a tackle. He had barely recovered from that setback when he dislocated both elbows - one in a match at Sheffield United, the other in training.

He needed determination as well as ability to become so firmly established in the side for so many seasons, moving into the top ten of the club's appearance list with a final total of 433.

A born leader; with a league debut at 17 with a 4-2 win at Aston Villa in May 1968, he went on to become the youngest captain in the Football League, at the age of 20, when he led out his team at Blackpool on 22, January 1972.

His career went from strength to strength. He was referred to as the 'Second Division's Bobby Moore' due to his cool head under pressure and an ability to make things look so easy on the ball.

By the end of the 1971/72 season, he was an ever-present fixture, making the No.6 shirt his own. In the autumn of 1976, Norman Hunter was bought from Leeds by manager Alan Dicks and Geoff moved to the left back position.

The names of the Ashton Gate Eight on the hem of the shirt

Norman Hunter left after three years and Geoff reverted back to centre but he could not stop the club's decline on the pitch as they fell from Division One to Division Four in successive years. Two attempts from Arsenal to sign him were reportedly rejected by Bristol City.

Six years after the joys of leading his beloved club into the First Division and over thirteen years after making his City debut, Geoff became one of the 'Ashton Gate Eight', who selflessly tore up their contracts so that financially ravaged Bristol City could survive. Along with Jimmy Mann, Trevor Tainton, David Rodgers, Gerry Sweeney, Peter Aitken, Chris Garland and Julian Marshall, Geoff saved the club from financial ruin - an act which should never be forgotten. This season, the first team strip pays tribute to the Eight, by having their names printed on the inner back hem, with an Ashton Gate Eight logo on the reverse. Also, a monotone graphic of each player is pictured on the inside of the neck.

After leaving City, Geoff played in Hong Kong and South Africa, before seeing his playing days in the non-league scene back home. Geoff played for Bath City, Yeovil, Bridgwater and Minehead and hung up his boots in his mid-40s. He should be remembered as the Bristol-born captain who got City promoted to Division One and gave 15 years of his life to the club, not as somebody caught up in the mismanagement of a football club.

Years earlier, on 31 March 1973, City had played Sunderland while playing in Division 2. Geoff turned Dick Malone’s cross into his own goal on 35 minutes. A second mistake by Merrick when he attempted to head the ball back to keeper Ray Cashley only for Dave Watson to stretch out his boot and touch the ball over his head and into the goal. It was time for City’s team determination and grit to assert itself.

Spurred on by captain Merrick’s inspiring leadership, refusing to be defeated by his earlier mistakes, he rallied his side with a headed goal in the 59th minute and continually drove his players forward until the inevitable equaliser came from midfielder John Emanuel who rifled a shot into the top of the net from 25 yards on 89 minutes to draw the game 2-2. City showed they had come of age and this fighting spirit was to be the basis of their promotion-winning side three years later.

The determination and self-belief shown by Merrick on that day of a gritty and determined fight-back, made him the player he was and the man he is today: a fighter, and a true Bristol City legend.

 

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GrahamC

GrahamC

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Good article but I did find the chronology in it a bit weird.

It doesn’t really ever explain that Sir Geoffrey was pursued by Arsenal (along with TV Tom) whilst we were still in the second division, prior to the 4 glory years in the top flight.

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JackofromSanJavier

JackofromSanJavier

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Geoff had come back from Hong Kong and was playing for Bath, a couple of mates and I shared a cracking post match chat with him in the player's lounge at St George's Lane after they played at Worcester City in the Gola League.  I lived in Worcester at that time but I'd modelled my own game (poorly) on Sir Geoff, having admired his style over the years at the Gate.  He was extremely complimentary about BCFC, the fans, the lads he'd played with and his love of the game was so obvious.  I spoke to him about some of my favourite games (for some reason an Oldham away match/win was one of them) and it was brilliant to be able to spend an hour talking footy with him.  Legend?  Absolutely.  Gent?  Undoubtedly.  Role model defender to me?  100%.

The only downside to me imitating Geoff's tackling style was that when I chucked in one of his great trademark stopping challenges a few years later, I broke my leg.  

A tad embarrassing in a Lads v Dads charity game.  I know Sir Geoff wouldn't have let a bloody 12 year old past, either.

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Sleepy1968

Sleepy1968

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I watched the opening 76/77 game - Arsenal v City- on The Big Match Revisted via ITVPlayer last night. (I know its on youtube, but this is better quality.)  Brian Moore mentioned that Arsenal had been in for both Geoff and Tom Ritchie. I don't know whether that was during the 75/76 season or in the close season.

I can't really remember watch Geoff play, but I guess I did as my first game was in the 78/79 season.

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