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First County Visit:	Wednesday 20th August 1980
Competition:	Football League Division 4 – (Tier 4)
Result:	Bradford City 1 – 1 Stockport County
Attendance:	3,660
Away Trip:	18
Away Day:	28
County Line-up	1 David Lawson; 2 John Rutter; 3 Steve Sherlock; 4 Martin Fowler; 5 Tommy Sword; 6 Steve Uzelac; 7 Oshor Williams; 8 David Sunley; 9 Les Bradd; 10 Chris Galvin; 11 Tony Coyle:; (Sub not used: 12 Andy Thorpe)
Scorer:	Oshor Williams
Manager:	Jimmy McGuigan
County Visits:	15

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THE INIQUITIES OF MR KETTLE OF RUTLAND

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The two might be only 9.9 miles apart but whatever the humour and match memories there might be there can simply be no comparison. Both West Yorkshire; both at the time struggling Division 4 Clubs but the events of 11^th May 1985 must always overshadow any other.  It’s more than hard to rationalise that a catastrophe occurred in a place I’d visited frequently, and which could so easily have happened at any number of other games prior to that fateful afternoon.

As it turns out Valley Parade was a fairly regular port of call for me in the early 1980’s. Not only for County trips, but being but a short hop over the hill, and marital status still lying in the future, there were many occasions that Steve Painter and myself popped over to watch a midweek game.  The County visits generally saw me stationed amongst my own in a small covered terrace, either behind the goal or alternatively along the Midland Road side.  The latter was surely the smallest, and indeed narrowest piece of terracing on any Football League ground. 

Devoid of steps it was no more than a track along one side, separated only from the pitch by a small fence.  Certainly never a good view, especially if an early arrival, and therefore grabbing a place at the front, couldn’t be guaranteed.

But on my trips with Steve we generally partook of the Main Stand facilities.   My own prose cannot do justice to the stand. Let Simon Inglis, (in the first edition of the Football Grounds of England and Wales – published 2 years before the disaster), take up the tale:

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“Imagine watching football from the cockpit of a Sopwith Camel.  That is the view from City’s Main Stand.  There are 22 verticals at the front, with cross struts in between each, plus more supports further back.  The roof is black, with railway station-like, pointed boards lining the gutters.  The seats and paintwork are red and amber, the perimeter fence white, and it really only needs a roundel on the side to complete the biplane illusion.  Underneath the seats are flaps which open to reveal piles of accumulated litter”  Inglis continues, “So many apparent disadvantages, yet this is one of my favourite stands; quaint run-down and uncomfortable certainly, but homely”.

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These words were written a couple of years before the disaster, but how prescient was the note about accumulated litter under the seats, which turned out to be a major factor in the spread of the fire. Also stark in my memory is the rabbit warren at the back of the stand, leading to toilets and tea-bars, all of which were cul-de-sacs.  No exit from those as many of the victims found to their cost.  A dark gangway to the street behind.  Once away from the action it was a pretty dark foreboding place.  It might have been that but it was a traditional ground, and no-one entering through the turnstiles over the years could have ever contemplated what transpired. Certainly, as subsequent visits to Valley Parade have taken place it’s always been with the thought…”there but for the grace of God …”

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The whole place is different now.  Huge stands have replaced the Main Stand; as well as what was a magnificent uncovered Kop and the Midland Road lean-to.  Behind the goal where I stood many times a double decker stand provides a decent view… but only if the top tier is accessible. 

I pause to reflect at this point, and consider the football ground disasters which have sadly happened during my time.  Ibrox in 1971; Valley Parade; Heysel only 18 days later; and Hillsborough.  Putting aside the politics of these it always seems to me that Valley Parade is almost put to one side in the furore which, rightly or wrongly, surrounds Hillsborough.  But it shouldn’t be.  Ordinary men and women; boys and girls went out for a game that afternoon and didn’t return home.  In all the thousands of games I have watched never, ever, have I set out apprehensive of what might transpire.  We have a right to expect safety.  All of these disasters have led to changes for the better, but for me much of what has been put in place has gone over the top, and to be perfectly honest sanitised the match-day experience.  But maybe that is the price to be paid.  I always make certain on visits to Valley Parade now that I have time for a little quiet reflection.

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In the context of all this it might seem inappropriate to recall a couple of incidents from my County trips, but here goes anyway.

That first trip back in 1980 saw a 1-1 draw, one of the 5 stalemates, added to a couple of victories with which the Hatters started the 1980/81 campaign.  There had been progress in the League Cup, with a visit from Sunderland due the following week, which eventually led to a mighty triumph at Roker Park in the 2^nd leg.  Things looked rosy.  A couple of weeks later we were 5^th in the table, but that was as good as it got, that season anyway.  What seemed to be the perennial struggle saw an eventual finish of 20^th, just about avoiding the cap-in-hand visit to the League AGM to apply for re-election.

19 months later a midweek trip beckoned, but without this one was without any hope never mind expectation.  The Bantams sat 3^rd in the table, pushing for a promotion, which would ultimately happen a few weeks later.  County say 29 points behind, in 17^th spot.  So, not much to be buoyed about on a wild night crossing the Pennines.  I’m no meteorologist.  I can tell you if it’s sunny; wet; windy and certainly, with advancing years, when there’s a nip in the air.  Quite what the various categories of wind constitute I leave to the guys on the telly.  All I can say about March 10^th 1982 was what seemed to be a hurricane blowing.  With unerring accuracy it was making its way down the pitch in a straight line from the Kop to the Bradford End, under which were huddled that hardy band who had travelled from SK3.

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County ended up playing with the wind in the first half.  Whether by design, or Bradford winning the toss and backing themselves to last out to half time and then take advantage of tiring Hatters, could only be discovered by rolling back the mists of time. 

Whatever the case it worked to the Hatters advantage .. well temporarily at least.  A history making night, undoubtedly, as a clearance from County keeper, Brian Lloyd swept on by the mild zephyr, (aka howling gale), caught the sodden surface just right and rocketed past the City custodian.  The only recorded instance of a County keeper scoring from open play.  1-0 to County, and to use a phrase so associated with all these years of travelling – that was as good as it got.  With the elements in their favour the Bradford forwards found it a lot easier, and the home side rifled 5 past goalscorer Lloyd without any further efforts from the County forwards troubling the Bantams defence.  Well .. I suppose the match did go to form….

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The descent into non-league has led to no trips to Valley Parade since February 2011.  The last of these was shrouded in controversy.  A County side battling, as it turned out unsuccessfully, to stay in the League went to Bradford in desperate need of points.  Four words sum up that afternoon – “Robbed by the referee”. 

Over the years there’s been many officials who have rightly derived opprobrium from the County faithful.  Willis at Old Trafford in 1978; Elleray’s disgraceful display at Wembley in 1994, and even down at non-league level individuals such as Stockbridge; Huxtable and Marsden have all incurred wrath.  Most of those will be about individual one-off decisions.  But the man in black at Valley Parade that afternoon has consistently over many years proved himself singularly inept.  It really does beg the question of how these guys are rated, and by inference how they stay on the list. 

We ended up with 9 that afternoon, led 2-1 until lateish in the game, but it felt inevitable that as more and more time seemed to be added on it was a case of playing until Bradford got the winner.  Which of course they duly did … deep into time added on.  The referees display that day was beyond description, and even the Bradford forums, ecstatic at the theft of the three points, described it as “erratic”.

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To the denizens of lower Division football, I ask a simple question.  Has, and if so how many times, Mr Trevor Kettle of Rutland made a complete mockery of a fixture?  As I write in December 2016, this is a guy who has been on the League List for 13 years or so.  He gets the odd Championship game, but for someone on the National list for so long it surely tells the tale that he has got nowhere near the likes of Clattenburg; Webb; Oliver etc etc etc

He should have been disposed of many years ago.  Our first encounter was a home game against Oxford in early 2006.  A feisty affair, with both sides desperate to avoid the drop into non-league led the wags in the crowd to come out with the expected cries of “Lost your whistle Kettle”; “Things are reaching boiling point”; “Are you sure you’re plugged in?” plus plenty more assorted kitchen implement parallels.  Before dropping out of the League we had the misfortune to have Kettle in charge 9 times, and he never got any better; nay he got worse by each and every sighting.

Crafting the previous couple of paragraphs I wondered whether it was just me.  Turning to old friend Google emphatically says not.  A very simple search using the three words “Trevor Kettle useless” delivers the following headlines spread countrywide, and this is only on the first two of what are pages and pages of the stuff:

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“Trevor ******* Kettle” – Barnsley Forum 2012

“Trevor Kettle is a useless ****” – Walsall fan Twitter 2016

“Please don’t ever let him near Loftus Road again” QPR Message Board 2016

“Trevor Kettle with another terrible decision, THE most arrogant referee I ever came across”  -Shrewsbury Forum 2016.

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Don’t believe me?! Check these two clips on You Tube. Firstly Wimbledon v Accrington where he blew for half-time when a shot was almost in the net. Then Luton v Bradford where he gave Bradford a dubious penalty in the closing minutes. Watch out for the Luton no 8, (Nicholls), conducting the crowd in their abuse!!

There’s plenty more where that came from. But just notice how many of these are current at the time of writing.  Nearly 6 years have elapsed since our paths crossed but his incompetence is clearly growing exponentially.  All of which comes as plea from me.  One of my friends at County is Peter Tyldesley.  He refereed at the very top level, domestically.  Indeed his very last League Game was the derby match at Old Trafford when Giggs made his debut.  Talking to him about the art of good officiating Peter is absolutely certain that it comes down to “applying the rules in a common sense way by ensuring that you man manage the players well”. 

Neither part of that sentence could be applied to Kettle. Those suits in the stand who do the assessments of referees seem to me to just look at whether rules are applied, not whether the application demonstrates common sense and / or good man management.  If they had Kettle would be doing public parks games and no more.   I’m just glad we won’t meet him again, although there was a scare a month or so ago when it was rumoured he was making his way to an FA Cup 1^st round game between County and Woking.  Fortunately those in power diverted him to Bolton.  We were spared….

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Enough of appalling officials.  No tale of Valley Parade would be complete without reference to the somewhat fractious relationship between the two sets of fans throughout the mid and late seventies.  Younger followers have probably been brought up on the legendary spats with Burnley and Stoke.  Those years earlier numbers might have been fewer but in terms of intensity on more than a couple of occasions the battles on the terraces and in surrounding streets and once on the pitch as a game was abandoned at EP, were more than sufficient to interest Old Bill.  But it’s probably best to leave those tales back there!

And just a final thought.  I indicated in the preface to this site that I, and indeed I believe the majority of footballing travellers up and down this land, refer to grounds by their traditional name.  The accountants can put in place deals which lead to a change of name.  These are of course in many cases a necessary outcome of sponsorship deals.  But the nature of these is but temporary and the names change with monotonous regularity.

Not more than half a dozen miles from where I sit typing this Boundary Park was renamed the “SportsDirect.com Park” in 2014.  I never heard a single Latics fan refer to it as that.  It was Boundary Park and nothing else.  Other ground renaming deals are no more than accounting artifices designed to hoover in, (and hide), the funding of the great and good, (or so they imagine themselves), in the heady heights of the Premier League.  The City of Manchester Stadium anyone….. But Bradford have got the stadium renaming down to a fine art. 

It may be Valley Parade to you and me but starting in 1995 there has been a succession of name changes.  “The Pulse Stadium at Valley Parade”; “The Bradford and Bingley Stadium”; “Intersonic Stadium”; “Coral Windows Stadium” and latterly the “Northern Commercials Stadium”.  I imagine that’s brought a fair few bob in, but the place is simply no more and no less than Valley Parade and that’s the way it should be, not only in West Yorkshire but also the length and breadth of the land.

December 2016

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VISITS

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Day	Date	Competition	Tier / Round	Opponents	Res	F	A	Crowd	Away Day
Wed	20/08/80	Football League Division 4	Tier 4	Bradford City	D	1	1	3,660	28
Wed	10/03/82	Football League Division 4	Tier 4	Bradford City	L	1	5	3,941	55
Wed	28/08/91	Rumbelows Cup	Round 1 – 2nd Leg	Bradford City	L	1	3	3,806	213
Sat	25/04/92	Barclays League Division 3	Tier 3	Bradford City	L	0	1	7,099	233
Tues	15/09/92	Barclays League Division 2	Tier 3	Bradford City	W	3	2	5,070	241
Tues	02/02/93 (Highlights)	Autoglass Trophy	Northern Quarter-final	Bradford City	W	4	3	2,790	252
Tues	26/04/94	Endsleigh League Division 2	Tier 3	Bradford City	W	2	1	5,720	279
Sat	08/04/95	Endsleigh League Division 2	Tier 3	Bradford City	W	2	1	3,927	299
Sat	10/02/96	Endsleigh League Division 2	Tier 3	Bradford City	W	1	0	5,290	317
Sat	09/08/97 (Highlights)	Nationwide Football League – Division 1	Tier 2	Bradford City	L	1	2	14,312	360
Sat	08/08/98 (Highlights)	Nationwide Football League – Division 1	Tier 2	Bradford City	W	2	1	14,360	386
Tues	25/09/01 (Highlights)	Nationwide Football League – Division 1	Tier 2	Bradford City	W	4	2	12,940	451
Mon	28/03/05	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Bradford City	L	1	3	7,263	527
Sat	24/11/07	Coca-Cola Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Bradford City	D	1	1	13,837	591
Sat	26/02/11 (Highlights)	npower Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Bradford City	L	2	3	15,332	670

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ON MY JOURNEY WITH COUNTY AROUND 180 GROUNDS

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Previously – THE SHAY Next stop – LONDON ROAD