This article about Colin Addison and that FA Cup run in the 1971/72 season first appeared in The Times in 2007:
Colin Addison was
having a logistical nightmare. The player-manager of part-time Hereford
United was juggling his team’s once-a-week training night around a
mounting backlog of fixtures. To add to his problems, his team lived all
over the country. Ronnie Radford was in Cheltenham, Ricky George and
Billy Meadows in London, Alan Jones in Swansea, Brian Owen and Tony
Gough in Bath and Mick McLaughlin in Newport. “They had day jobs, so we
got together only one night a week. We played more than 70 games that
season,” says Addison.
With a string of replays in the FA Cup,
the Southern League side took care of Cheltenham, King’s Lynn and
Northampton to earn a plum third-round game away to First Division
Newcastle United.
Five thousand Hereford fans boarded special
trains and buses for the trip north. On a crisp winter’s evening in
front of 40,000 people at St James’ Park, Hereford kicked off and moved
the ball down the right with Owen. “He was a very aggressive player,”
says Addison, “and we were all shouting for him to ease the ball to
Dudley Tyler: ‘Pass it, pass it’. He decided not to take advice from any
of us and whacked it in the top corner from about 35 yards.” Hereford
were 1-0 ahead after 17 seconds. Game on.
Malcolm Macdonald
equalised for Newcastle and John Tudor put the favourites 2-1 ahead.
Then Addison scored with a 25-yard scorcher shortly before half-time to
make it 2-2 and, after a dingdong scrap in the second period, Hereford
forced a replay at home. “We couldn’t wait,” says Addison. “We didn’t
have the best of pitches and we could scrap if we needed to.”
Newcastle
headed south three times. The match was postponed each time because of
poor weather. “They stayed at Ross-on-Wye, in Hereford and in Worcester,
three different hotels in about three weeks. I remember bringing Joe
Harvey, the manager, back to my house when the game was postponed. It
was lashing down. Keith Burkinshaw, his coach, also came along. Keith
had a tea and Joe a whiskey. Joe was distraught that the game had been
called off.”
When the all-ticket fixture went ahead, more than
16,000 supporters squeezed into the Edgar Street ground. “We will never
know how many got in that day. One director came into a meeting and the
chairman, Frank Miles, said, ‘What’s the problem?’ ‘We’ve sold out of
tickets, Frank’, he said. Frank said, ‘Don’t worry about it, print some
more’, And we did.”
Both teams had chances before Macdonald rose
at the far post to head Newcastle in front. “You could hear the groans
of the crowd and a lot of people thought that was it. It was 1-0 to
Newcastle with eight minutes to go.”
Then, out of the blue,
Ronnie Radford scored an equaliser that was voted the BBC’s Goal of the
Season. “That goal has got better as each year goes by. I always
remember the ball getting knocked up and I was in an area where I could
compete for it,” says Addison. “Then I heard the big Yorkshire voice
come out with words to the effect of, ‘Get outta the way lad’. He took
control of the situation, pulled the trigger and the rest is history.”
One-all
and extra time. Roger Griffiths had been substituted. He had played 70
minutes with what turned out to be a hair-line fracture in his leg. They
made them tough in those days. Ricky George came on in his place and,
in the 103rd minute, scored the winner in Hereford’s dramatic 2-1
victory. “I came home shattered, physically and mentally. We could have
gone to about 20 different parties that night. Instead, my wife and I
just stayed in.”
Four days later, Hereford were at home to West
Ham in the fourth round. They had their chances in a goalless draw and
then went to London for the replay on a Monday afternoon because of
power strikes. It was their 10th match in the competition that season.
Although the Bulls played well, West Ham won 3-1 with a hat-trick from
Geoff Hurst. The dream was over. As Ricky George says: “Geoff Hurst
saved his hat-tricks for the big games.”
1 Roger Griffiths
A full-back, he worked in the maintenance department at Sun Valley Foods. He died at the age of 61 in July last year.
2 Billy Meadows
A London-based striker, he managed Barnet and signed a 38-year-old Jimmy Greaves. He is a London taxi driver.
3 Dudley Tyler
A winger, he joined West Ham the following summer. A salesman for a plastics company, he has retired and lives in Hereford.
4 Ricky George
A winger, he lives in London and works in the media, writing a column on non-league football for The Daily Telegraph.
5 Arthur Bush
The
Hereford vice-chairman was a local businessman with interests in news
agencies and hairdressing salons. He died in February 2001 at the age of
90.
6 Frank Miles
The club chairman had a carpet business.
He helped the Bulls win election to the Football League at the end of
the season and progress to the Second Division. He died at the age of 72
in November 2005.
7 Ken Mallender
A defender, he worked for Nike. Retired, he lives in Hereford.
8 Colin Addison
The
player-manager was a former Arsenal midfielder. His managerial career
took him to Spain where he was one of 39 managers sacked by ruthless
Atletico Madrid president Jesus Gil. He commentates for BBC Wales. He
still gets a Christmas card from Atletico each year.
9 Alan Jones
A central defender, he is a prison warden in Swansea.
10 Mick McLaughlin
The other half of the Welsh centre-back pairing lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and owns a shipping freight company.
11 Tony Gough
The team captain, he was a midfielder. A county golfer for Somerset, he was a draughtsman in Bath. Now retired.
12 Peter Isaac
The
club trainer, he was also the physio-therapist and laundryman. A
goalkeeper at Northampton in the 1950s, he is 72, retired and lives in
Hereford.
13 Fred Potter
A goalkeeper, he built motorways for George Wimpey. Now retired, he lives in Kidderminster.
14 Ronnie Radford
A midfielder, he is a retired carpenter and lives in Wakefield.
15 Brian Owen
A striker, he worked in the building trade and retired to Padstow in Cornwall.