Nogbad the Bad

I knew the name but little else about Gordon, so really interesting to read the memories and appreciative views of a City player from just before my time following the club. RIP.

Not a bad idea to have a dedicated Spiring thread but a pity the comments on the QPR away thread are not included. @phantom is it possible to remove the string of Spiring comments from the QPR away thread and add them to this one instead?

That's true but I can't see any evidence of 'major' injury problems for Spiring at Liverpool or elsewhere which would have such a detrimental effect on him and his career. If you watched Spiring play for City you were probably as surprised as I was that Liverpool came in for him, and not surprised that he didn't thrive there. While major injury problems obviously can thwart a career there's no sign of that in Spiring's case, and of course there are equally occasions when the buying club gets a closer look at the player in training, in Spiring's case compares him with players like Keegan and Heighway, realises he'll never be in the same league, and accepts the signing was a mistake. I think that's almost certainly the case here, but agree to disagree of course!

This is where the Peter Spiring/Gerry Sharpe confusion in this thread originated. At least we didn't end up talking about daytime TV presenters!

Not so sure Haslam took a chance on him Oxo, the word used is 'rescued' , i.e. Spiring was rescued from an unsuccessful and injury hit time at Anfield - perhaps an unhappy time too - with Liverpool delighted to get an offer from relegation threatened (desperate) Luton which was more than they paid - thus saving face. Sounds like injuries may have hampered him at Liverpool, however looks to me that he simply didn't live up to expectations because he was fit to pass the medical to Luton, so doubts regarding his fitness wouldn't have been a consideration for Liverpool and they could have persevered with him had they still rated him. Bad luck with the toe injury at Luton that allowed Futcher to make his mark, but not a serious long term injury and again had Luton really rated him they would have kept him for div.2 rather than unloading him down the divisions to Hereford. Nobody higher than Hereford interested at that point (even a cut price return to AG perhaps?) suggests to me he was vastly over rated by Liverpool after maybe an eye catching month or 2 at AG, signed in desperation by Luton, and actually found his true level with Hereford. That's my take on it half a century on, and I imagine City couldn't believe their luck when the 60k Liverpool offer came in.

Yep, I can see there's been a Spiring/Sharpe mix up somewhere along the way! Real shame about Gerry Sharpe - I remember a big crowd turning up at AG for a reserve match when he attempted a comeback, but sadly his injury wasn't up to it.

He played League football with Hereford until he was 33, and Wiki has him down as still alive.

I don't remember hearing that before. He was at Liverpool for about a year, on the bench twice but no appearances, before he was moved on. I doubt he broke his leg (or certainly not badly in a Gerry Sharpe way) while at Liverpool or presumably Luton wouldn't have paid even more for him (70k) than Liverpool did to us. Also had 8 seasons at Hereford after Luton.

I thought he first became a regular after being brought in as Garland's direct replacement up front, but maybe he was thought of as a winger before that and then moved wide again after Gould was signed? Either way, somehow Liverpool were prepared to pay almost twice as much for Spiring as they had for Keegan some 18 months earlier.

Spiring must go down as one of City's best ever sales, the 60k we received from Liverpool was a fairly substantial fee in '73. Garland's replacement iirc and a career scoring rate of about a goal every 4 games for City. Can't imagine what Liverpool saw in him but he never played a first team game for them and was quickly moved on to Luton.

If it's still possible for him to represent England then Southgate should be on the case.

Nope, but I hope they all do well individually, and more importantly come out of the games unscathed.

Don't think that's likely as Meijer only scored twice in total for City. One of those I remember being early on in a home match (Brum?) when he somehow scored from what appeared from my spot in the EE to be an impossible angle near the corner flag between the Enclosure and the open End. So unless he came on as a sub. in the first few minutes in that game, scored immediately, and then scored again later in the game, I'm afraid it can't have happened.

Always going to be October, bar any setbacks, so he's a bit early but not much. McCrory's the only one we've been told definitely won't be back this side of Christmas.

The point is Bristol Live reported that Rovers have no current banning orders (compared to City's 34) Yet all those Rovers fans arrested in that one incident against FGR (inexplicably not named in the article btw) should currently be serving bans - at least one of them reportedly for 10 years. Rovers have had more arrests than City in each of the last 2 seasons for incidents of at least equal seriousness and Bristol Live have previously reported long bans for Rovers fans which would certainly still be active. Their statement that no Rovers fans are currently serving bans is contrary to their previous reporting and must be a nonsense. Very odd indeed.

On the face of it City fans are being banned for offences where Rovers fans committing the same - or worse - offences are not. Offences do sound similar for both clubs but presumably violent disorder - City 0 arrests last season, Rovers 4 arrests - is more serious than public disorder, and Rovers fans (presuming they are convicted) are apparently not facing bans for a more serious offence than City fans are being banned for.

We've got other fans from New Zealand, but particularly notable is another member of OTIB, @kiwicolin, who I believe lives in Bristol and has been a match attending City fan for some considerable time.

That's a really good number, for some reason I thought it would be less than half of that. No wonder they never seem to advertise for new members, they don't need to!

Funny how you can form a mental picture of regular posters through their posts, or sometimes their avatar, and in reality - hardly surprisingly - they could hardly look more different. Anyway, glad you and your brother had a great time PSR - if that's really you!

Yep, he's described as 'Bristol- based Martin', first line of of paragraph 5.

Not far off, Wealands.

On the edge of the East End that night, having moved under cover from my usual spot near the back of the open terrace by the enclosure, to get out of the wind and rain. Good view of the whole event and a mixture of shock and disbelief when the ball went in. Chants were uncomplicated in those days, often little more than the player's name 'Tommmmmmmmmmmm Rit-chie', 'Super-Cheese,' 'Sir Geoffrey Merrick,' etc. and Cash's usual chant of, 'Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay Cash-ley' was belted out like never before, over and over again, and the excited hubbub in the crowd continued for several minutes. Am I amazed it was 50 years ago? Well, actually no, I was 15 and that is a hell of a long time ago!

A bit of an exaggeration there - I have made many posts myself about GJ, mostly along the lines that the players should have gone, not him. That's by the by, my point above was there are plenty of other subjects apart from LJ where what could be seen as excessive interest is shown on here. Case in point is a 96 page thread on top of P1 atm, about the kit suppliers, almost twice the size as this LJ one. Plus that one isn't being unnecessarily bloated by posters feeling they have to answer accusations of being vitriolic...........

LJ was a prominent figure at BCFC for a very long time, and remains controversial, and if we are obsessed with him he is simply one part of a wider obsession we would all have to admit to share - Bristol City F.C. - an obsession that in itself would be seen as weird to those with no interest in City or football. I like the 'even for us' but I wouldn't see LJ as a particularly weird obsession on OTIB, a platform after all for Bristol City 'fanatics' who mostly have a long term addiction to City, leading to strong opinions on just about every issue that affects the club. LJ is one subject where we could be seen to take an excessive interest, but really it's par for the course for those so engrossed in the club they feel the need to visit (and comment on) this site most days, and let's face it it's not just LJ, the same charge could be levelled at numerous other threads on here too.