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Post by clipper on Jul 20, 2011 9:33:43 GMT
Other than the 2 Man Utd and the Forest games I also remember Aston Villa coming to us at the start of the 84/5 season when Terry Austin scored a hat trick having just left Northampton, we won 4-3 if I remember correctly. Again it would be interesting to see sight of both line-ups that day. I think that may have been one of Andy Tilson's first appearances for us and he stood out as a class act, as was proved by his subsequent career playing at the very highest level.
There was also a game against Norwich City, probably around 87, from which I remember the late Jamie Cole scored a cracker from outside the box and Ruel Fox was playing for the Canaries.
Were there any other high profile opponents that I've missed?
Weren't most, if not all, of these friendlies arranged thanks to Ray Medwell's contacts? "The Razor" may not have been the most succesful manager we ever had but he certainly did a great deal for us and local football in general.
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Post by jeremy on Jul 20, 2011 11:09:39 GMT
Can't remember how these games came about now, it might have been to do with Ray. I believe our two games with Man Utd saw him forge a friendship with people there which saw him offered a scouting job which he held for about 25 years. There was certainly a massive Man Utd turnout at his funeral, 30-40 people I would think including Sir Alex.
It may be that Stuart Gray might have helped get Villa. A few years later he got them to open the Blackstones floodlights as he was a pal of the Villa reserve manager at the time John Ward. Stuart has scouted for most of the clubs John has managed or coached at in the last fifteen years or so.
I think in that Villa team that played us Tony Dorigo went on to have the best career, I think there was an Irish midfielder called Eamonn something or other who played quite a lot of first team football too.
Your mention of Terry Austin brings back memories too....joining us straight from the Cobblers where he had been top scorer the season before, seven goals in four pre season games against higher league teams, then when the real stuff started he just wasn't up for it. I think he scored three goals in about a dozen games and two of those were penalties! I remember talking to him one day and being quite staggered to find that he didn't like playing football that much, and enjoyed selling pensions to people rather more!!
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Post by clipper on Jul 22, 2011 8:35:20 GMT
I really don't think that any of us could quite blieve what we'd seen when Austin scored that hat-trick against Villa, it all seemed too good to be true and funnily enough, that's how it turned out when it transpired that he was actually bored with football. Presumably, that's why he quit The Cobblers when he did. Shame, as we looked like we had a really strong squad that season that should have swept all before them, bags of experience and some excellent young prospects, but it didn't happen quite as predicted.
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Post by jeremy on Jul 22, 2011 9:38:36 GMT
Agree Clipper - I thought we were going to be unbeatable that season and I think we ended up 5th in the UCL. Kevin Bird and Mark Heeley were as disappointing as Austin. The Birdman's legs had gone and Heeley was in a different world most of the time!!! The arrival of some of these famous names had rather damaged the spirit in the squad and had a very negative effect on morale.
I think that was the season you ended up managing the reserves while on crutches one Saturday night at Ampthill!
The only comparable strength of squad I think we ever had was in the first Southern League season when Steve Evans signed all sorts of big names including about five of the Grantham squad which had won the division the year before. I remember going to Clevedon on the opening day and being told by their people we were favourites to win the league at the first attempt. I think they ended up winning it and we finished 18th and all the 'superstars' (except Andy Furnell who just would not be shifted) had all followed Evans out of the door by October.
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