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| John Motson With Billy Meadows At Edgar Street In February 2012. |
Hereford United supporters will have many fond memories of Billy Meadows, who sadly died yesterday.
In 2014 Meadows gave an interview to 'the Reckless Guide To Barnet FC' Below is part of that interview (slightly edited)
Bill
was born in Bushey in 1942 during the height of the 2nd
World War the youngest of seven footballing mad brothers and sisters
– elder brothers Tony signed with Tottenham and John played with
some distinction at Watford - but grew up in Islington supporting The
Arsenal. “Fulham's Johnny Haynes was my favourite player though”
says Bill.
“The
great Ron Greenwood was assistant Manager at Arsenal, a friend of the
family and he also coached Harrow Schools. I must have impressed him
at County and District level because at 15 I signed for Arsenal.
Tommy Docherty was at the club at the time, it was incredible. I
stayed some 5 years trying hard to make the grade at left half.
Things didn’t work out, probably because of my youthful arrogance
and I became slightly disillusioned with football and took a break
for a couple of years”.
Dave
Underwood, later to become Chairman at Underhill, was another old
friend of the family and he persuaded Bill to pick up his footballing
career at centre forward in the team he was building at Hastings
United. “I learnt to jump, as I am only 5’10” and put my head
where it hurt. I lost teeth and broke my nose three times but I
scored goals” he said. “There was no sophisticated physios then
just a sponge and a queue at Casualty or wait until Monday to see the
Doc!“ he chuckled.
“In
1968 all of the London based lads were given free transfers. I knew
that Dexter Adams at Barnet had shown an interest in me so with all
the old arrogance I picked up the phone! ‘Hello Dexter, how would
you like to sign the best centre forward in the League?’ I didn’t
have to wait long until he replied ‘Hello Bill how is your leg
then?’ I had been suffering with a cartilage Injury and was
actually on crutches at the time and the wily old fellow new all
about it. He signed me in July though for £15 a week!”
“Dexter
was the finest manager I ever played under although it was only for a
short time and he knew how every one of his players ticked, he was an
incredible man.
Bill
made his debut as a substitute on 17th August 1968 in a 1-2 defeat
at Poole Town in the following line up in the old 2-3-5 formation.
Bill scored Barnet's goal.
My
great pal Ricky George, who had followed me from Hastings, was also
in that squad, along with Johnny Barr, Peter Jenkins and Gordon Ferry
- a fantastic bunch of lads and a truly wonderful footballing side”
In
1968-69 and following season it was the combination of Meadows and
Eason that terrorised the Southern League “In all matches I scored
39 goals in successive seasons”
I
told Bill that Les had said that he was his perfect partner and Bill
returned the compliment. “Yes Eason was the best. Could turn on a
sixpence and was so sharp with a great brain, I was just the idiot
who put his head in where it hurts” he chuckled. “A great memory
is when we beat Burton Albion 10-0 and Les and I got 4 each. When
people asked me how do you score so many goals, out came that old
arrogance again – ‘I shoot at every opportunity and hardly ever
miss. My nickname at Hastings was Billy the Shoot because that is
what I did, that’s how you score goals it is not rocket science is
it? Besides I didn’t have the pace of a Paddy Powell go past people
did I?” he laughed.
In
July of 1970 Bill’s contract was up for renewal and he asked then
Manager Tommy Coleman for a rise of £5 a week which was refused by
the Committee.
“Arthur
Bush at Hereford phoned me and said ‘Meadows on the list eh? How
much do you want to come to Hereford?’ I thought about it for a
few seconds and then the old Meadows front came out again and I went
for the jugular – two grand signing fee and 30 quid a week! I got
travelling expenses too!” Bill winked. “Ricky George joined me
just after Barnet had beaten Newport County in the FA Cup and Tommy
always suspected me of coaxing him to Edgar Street to share the 4
hour drive but that wasn’t true”.
Bill
then told me all about the great Hereford Utd games against Newcastle
and West Ham – he has all his press cuttings too. Harry Redknapp
tells the story of Bill’s “despicable and outrageous” verbal
wind up of Bobby Moore during the games. “Meadows had more front
than Sainsburys but Mooro took it all in his stride and never lost
his cool”. “We lost 3-1 at Upton Park in front of 42,000 with
1,000’s locked out. Geoff Hurst scored 3 breakaways and I scored at
the end” said Bill.