Starting on 12th October 1963, though to the end of the 1970’s my attendance at County games grew. As a young boy I relied on my Dad to go to games with me, and then for the first half of the 1970’s I was away from home at University just about as far as you could get from home. So in reality my County days only really started apace from 1976 onwards. With an income to fund my travels, plus a car for the necessary transport, I grew into following the Hatters from that point.
In terms of the Competitions, there were no sponsorships in those days, and the renaming of the various Divisions was in the future. So Tiers 3 and 4 in the tables below are the old Divisions 3 and 4.
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HOME GAMES
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By 31st December 1979 I’d seen the Hatter at home on 81 occasions. The 70’s weren’t a particularly successful decade, and it showed in the home form, with only 38 wins, (47% of the games). The highlights of these home games were a 6-0 win over Hartlepool; and a couple of comprehensive cup wins, (over Morecambe and Bradford City). But beyond that there wasn’t too much.
The nadir of the home “performances” was the 5-0 home rout at the hands of Newport County, five weeks before the end of the decade. It was a game which saw a very youthful John Aldridge give a hint of his goal-scoring prowess as he picked up a hat-trick. It also marked the first game in charge for Jimmy McGuigan who must have wondered what he’d come into. He moved quickly to bolster the team with the, (then record), signing of Tony Coyle for £25,000 from Albion Rovers, Coyle made his debut in the last home game of the decade for me. It was a promising start as he contributed to a 4-0 win over Torquay. Maybe it was the dawn of good things to come? On the other hand maybe Torquay were taking it easy … they had an FA Cup game at Swindon 24 hours later!!
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| COMPETITION | P | W | D | L | F | A | Ave Crowd |
| TIER 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9,818 |
| TIER 4 | 74 | 35 | 22 | 17 | 104 | 69 | 3,752 |
| FA CUP | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 5 | 5,197 |
| LEAGUE CUP | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5,610 |
| TOTAL | 81 | 38 | 25 | 18 | 119 | 76 | 3,823 |
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For more information on the home games I saw in the 1960’s and 1970’s check HERE . There’s a page for each year, with a commentary about how the year went, together with any other County related stuff that I thought may be of interest
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AWAY GAMES
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I ‘did’ 22 away games in the 70’s. Without a shadow of doubt the highlight was a draw. Strange you might think. But it was the game written large in Hatters folklore when we came back from a 4-1 deficit in the last few minutes at Barnsley, courtesy of the fabled Les Bradd who notched the hat-trick that is still sung about to this day!! The other real memory is THAT game at Old Trafford, described fully in the post on the self styled Theatre of Dreams. I managed 5 wins on my travels – a sign of things to come for the next decade or so!!
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| COMPETITION | P | W | D | L | F | A | Ave Crowd |
| TIER 4 | 21 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 21 | 33 | 3,664 |
| LEAGUE CUP | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 41,761 |
| TOTAL | 22 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 23 | 36 | 5,396 |
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For more information on the away games I saw in the 1970’s check HERE . There’s a page for each year with a list of games that I went to. If I visited a new ground in that year there’s a link to an article which reflects my thoughts about the ground and any other memories it brings.
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ALL GAMES IN TOTAL
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I managed 103 games in the decade – 43 wins; 31 draws and 29 defeats. We had some decent goalscorers with Les Bradd; Stuart Lee and Eddie Prudham leading the way as we got 30 more goals in those games than we conceded. Of the 103 games, that stalwart of the late 70’s and early 80’s, John Rutter, (later Commercial Manager and also inducted into the Club’s Hall of Fame), appeared in all but 5 of the games I saw. He started 449 games for County, playing from 1976 to 1986.
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| COMPETITION | P | W | D | L | F | A | Ave Crowd |
| TIER 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9,818 |
| TIER 4 | 95 | 40 | 28 | 27 | 125 | 102 | 3,733 |
| FA CUP | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 5 | 5,197 |
| LEAGUE CUP | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 17,660 |
| TOTAL | 103 | 43 | 31 | 29 | 142 | 112 | 4,159 |
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All in all 86 players turned out in those games. As mentioned above John Rutter led the way with 98. At the other end of the list were but single substitute appearances for Jimmy Goodfellow; Sean Maloney and Gary Schofield. To check on who they all were click on ‘Played in the County games I saw in the 1960’s and 1970’s’.
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WHERE THE GAMES WERE
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Games seen on 17 grounds. Aside from EP it’s no surprise that 2nd in the list in the 70’s is Spotland. Click on the Ground name for my memories of the stadium when I first visited, together with any other thoughts which have come to mind as I have put this together. An asterisk, (*) next to the ground name indicates that it was my first visit on my County travels
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| Ground | Opposition | P | W | D | L | |
| Belle Vue | * | Doncaster Rovers | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Bootham Crescent | * | York City | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Edgar Street | * | Hereford United | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Edgeley Park | * | 81 | 38 | 25 | 18 | |
| Feethams | * | Darlington | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Gresty Road | * | Crewe Alexandra | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Leeds Road | * | Huddersfield Town | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Oakwell | * | Barnsley | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Old Show Ground | * | Scunthorpe United | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Old Trafford | * | Manchester United | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Plough Lane | * | Wimbledon | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Prenton Park | * | Tranmere Rovers | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Spotland | * | Rochdale | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Springfield Park | * | Wigan Athletic | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| St James Park Exeter | * | Exeter City | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| The County Ground | * | Northampton Town | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Vale Park | * | Port Vale | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 103 | 43 | 31 | 29 | |||
Dear Martin,
I too was at the Old Trafford cup game. Like yourself I’m still sore and never felt so robbed after a game. Willis refereed a home game a couple of years later. I managed to communicate with him shouting “I’ve still not forgiven you Willis” .To my surprise he replied from the players tunnel saying “I’ve not forgiven myself ”
Pity I have not kept data. Dad first took me in 1958 -a goalless draw against Exeter Since 1998 only watching them about 10 times a year since moving from Reddish to Congleton .Beforehand must have averaged over 30 games a year from 1964 to 1998 and 12 a year since. Watched all 5 (or was it 6) Wembley games.
An excellent read so far.
Best wishes
Dave
Hi Dave
Thanks for the comment. I think that anybody who was at Old Trafford that night will have the memory of Willis’ ‘performance’ indelibly etched on their memory. If you’ve not picked up on the Old Trafford page yet then there’s some grainy footage of the iniquity that unfolded!
Thanks for looking at the site
Martin
I was on my first holiday to Cyprus (where I now live) and landed back in the UK the day AFTER the United game having started to watch and support County the previous year (43 years service for me then). First match home win v Barnsley 23rd September 1977 (3-0).
Hi Tony
Thanks for having a look at the site. I’m not sure whether or not missing the United game might have been a blessing in disguise!! Even from 42 years distance the memory is still raw!
Looking back at my records the team for that Barnsley game was as follows – the names might jog some other memories. Mike Rogan: John Rutter; Chris Lawler; Alan Thompson; Derek Loadwick; Kenny Fogarty; Carl Halford; Steve Massey; Terry Park; Eddie Prudham; and Mike Summerbee (Halford; Lawler and Prudham got the goals).