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Only County Visit:	Saturday 15th November 1986
Competition:	FA Cup – (Round 1)
Result:	Caernarfon Town 1 – 0 Stockport County
Attendance:	1,748
Away Trip:	41
Away Day:	136
County Line-up	1 Gary Walker; 2 Clive Evans; 3 Ian McKenzie; 4 Levi Edwards (12 Ian Stevens); 5 Trevor Matthewson; 6 Wayne Stokes; 7 Andy Hodkinson; 8 Wayne Entwistle; 9 Vernon Allatt; 10 Neil Bailey; 11 David Mossman
Manager:	Colin Murphy
County Visits:	1

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MURPHY RETURNS … BUT ANOTHER DEBACLE

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The trip to The Oval, home of Caernarfon Town, was yet indeed another one.  It has to be put into some context.

Season 1986/87 was the very first in which automatic promotion and relegation between Division 4 and the Conference operated.  And faced with this challenge County had made the worst possible start, and heading into this game there would have been long odds at the bookies on the Hatters not competing in non-league the following season. 

Jimmy Melia had come in, amidst a blaze of publicity, and demonstrated palpably that the managerial ability which had seen him take Brighton to the Cup Final only 3 years previously had either decided to leave him on the trip up to Stockport or, more likely, was a flash in the pan.  He lasted 14 games, until his inevitable departure.  It was the 10^th reverse in those league games, in which only 6 points had been garnered, and a paltry 5 goals scored. 

His replacement wasn’t in place for the next game, (a loss at Aldershot), but during the week preceding the cup-tie a “Second Coming” had been announced.  12 months had passed since Colin Murphy had departed for Saudi Arabia, but he was prevailed upon to return, and salvage what he could from what looked to be like an end to Football League membership.  The fact that he did was a miracle – it was to be a further 25 years until the miracle couldn’t be repeated.  His first game back in charge was the trip to Caernarfon.

Five days prior to the game I had gone on what could be termed a scouting mission.  Far from it though – it was just a game to go to.  Sat in the hills just above Ashton, Mossley is one of the six non-league clubs in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside and in the late 1970’s they were by a distance by far the best.  For a small town with a population of just over 10,000, and playing in the Northern Premier League, they provided absolutely supreme entertainment. 

On the far side of Manchester the word was always about Altrincham, and they certainly surpassed themselves in a number of FA Cup runs.  I remember seeing them take on Spurs in an FA Cup game played at Maine Road.  But with this success came a degree of arrogance and a seeming entitlement to league status which grated more than a little.  On any number of occasions they were denied this through the “old boys” act and, whisper it, these failures were quietly celebrated amongst those who followed not only Mossley, but the Uniteds of Ashton and Hyde and indeed little old Droylsden. 

Mossley, managed by the legendary Bob Murphy who sadly passed away a couple of years ago, were far superior on the field, and one of my great “non County” memories going to watch Mossley at Moss Lane for an FA Trophy game and seeing them hand out a sound 5-1 thrashing to their supposed betters.  Players like Davy Moore and Eamon O’Keefe, (later with Everton), were born entertainers but for me the key was always the incomparable Leo Skeete.  He was simply, and I will brook no argument on this, the finest non-league footballer I have ever seen.  He was a colossus in a great team which reached the FA Trophy final in 1980. 

But 6 years later this great team had broken up and on Monday 10^th November 1986 the terraces at Seel Park were not-overly populated as the Lilywhites hosted Caernarfon in an NPL game.  A 5 mile drive from my house gave me the chance to see the forthcoming FA Cup opposition and to weigh up the chances of progress.  It ended up as a 1-1 draw and I went home reasonably content that the banana skin would be avoided.

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So it was off to North Wales, and we made it a weekend, stopping over in Conwy, (note the Welsh spelling!), for a couple of nights.  A gentle drive over to Caernarfon, enjoying the Snowdonia scenery en-route, and we parked up outside the ground a good two hours before kick-off.  Julie said that the game wasn’t for her and went off to investigate the retail offerings. 

The ground was complete vacant apart from one guy who I engaged in conversation to pass the time.  It turned out that he was some kind of official, and purely out of interest I asked him what kind of security would be in place.  Remember that football hooliganism of the old school was still around from time to time back in the mid-1980’s. His reply surprised me when it came back as “none”.  I metaphorically raised my eyebrows, knowing that this was the sort of game which would attract some of the more “lively” of the County following.  And as it transpired the eyebrows were right.  But more of that later,

The ground was a typical non-league enclosure, and if truth is known not too dissimilar to Seel Park where I had seen Caernarfon only days earlier. A small main stand, covered terracing of a sort behind one of the goals; uncovered terracing at the other end and an open side which was naught but a grass bank.  Unquestionably a venue for a cup upset……

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1986/87 was the first season that two substitutes were allowed in the FA Cup.  Quite whether that message had filtered through to Edgeley Park is open to question because only one was named on the teamsheet.  Maybe it was a manifestation of the amateurism of the admin at County in those days .. or maybe not.  But whatever the case, the arrival of the team didn’t inspire a great deal of confidence.  Filtering off the team bus came a motley assortment.  Not the standardised uniform of club tracksuits or similar, just a complete rag-bag.  One in a donkey jacket definitely, and Levi Edwards carrying his boots in a Tesco carrier bag.  Levi, (pictured left in his Hyde days), was what I’d term as a journeyman. 

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Looking up the records he turned out just under 50 times with quite a few of those as sub.  He always seemed to be the sub when a trip to some far flung place was on the cards.  Indeed, I remember going down to a Saturday morning reserve team game at EP and was surprised to see him turning out, knowing that he’d been on the bench somewhere down south only 12 hours previously.    The whole thing didn’t bode well and so it proved, both on and off the field

Caernarfon took the lead around the half-hour mark, through the magnificently named Austin Salmon, and throughout the rest of the half it was quite clear that crowd “unrest” was brewing.  Half time came and it erupted.  Behind the goal to the right of the Main Stand there was, shall we term it, an encounter.  In researching the book I uncovered a picture of the disturbance.  Maybe some of the characters involved will recognise themselves from a distance of nearly 35 years!! 

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Some of the more adventurous made their way over the pitch and charged down the tunnel to the dressing rooms from whence they were finally ejected by a phalanx of the local “Heddlu”.  Clearly the Club Officials who had been confident that no security would be needed had rethought the matter and called in these re-inforcements.  Order was finally restored; the second stanza started, progressed and concluded without County troubling the scoresheet.  It was another ignominious exit at the hands of non-league opposition.  The giants slain.  As I write this the roles are now reversed.  In four days time we will go to Yeovil as David to the Glovers Goliath.  Even in those dark days in the 80’s this fall from grace could never, ever have been envisaged.

I met up with Julie outside the ground, and she regaled me with the tale that, sat in a café on one of the main streets, the genteel Saturday afternoon shoppers had been disturbed by what turned out to the same characters pictured above, who had taken their toll.  “Frightening” she said and I could well believe it.

Murphy had returned, lost his first game.  Could he turn things round in the league?  The record books answer in the affirmative.  It was a miracle without a shadow of doubt.  Lincoln took the drop, and bizarrely he left County at the end of the season and went and guided the Imps to an immediate return.  But one of the things that is forgotten is that going into the last game of the season it could have been Burnley that tasted non-league.  If it had been a bitter rivalry that existed throughout the early 90’s might never have happened.

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I wrote a piece in The Tea Party (Issue 28) entitled “Getting it In Perspective ….Again” which reflects on the day at Caernarfon. It was originally written back in 1993 in the context of the success that we were experiencing then and how things had changed since the game at The Oval

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November 2018

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VISITS

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Day	Date	Competition	Tier / Round	Opponents	Res	F	A	Crowd	Away Day
Sat	15/11/86 (Highlights)	FA Cup	Round 1	Caernarfon Town	L	0	1	1,748	136

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ON MY JOURNEY WITH COUNTY AROUND 180 GROUNDS

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Previously – MAINE ROAD Next stop – SINCIL BANK