Saint And Greavsie

I have never been a great fan of football preview shows, but I made an exception for Saint and Greavsie, a wonderfully light-hearted programme which broadcast on ITV at Saturday lunchtimes.

The programme commenced in 1985 at a low point in English football. Following several events of hooliganism, culminating in the Heysel Stadium disaster, English clubs were now banned from European competitions, and football fans had a lower image than ever. If you were a Saturday regular you were very quiet about it! Not only that, but many grounds remained in a shocking condition, a result of which was the Bradford fire, and the crowds were boxed in with heavy policing and high fences.

The show was presented in an American talk show style with Ian St John as the straight man presenter and Jimmy Greaves providing the comic relief. There would be previews of the day's games, some features and interviews, and a look at the previous weeks' action. It was often like listening in on two old blokes in the pub reflecting on better days.

It was a big success and lasted until 1992, when it was taken off air - the reason being that Sky had won the rights to the new FA Premier League.

Here is an example of a show from 16 December 1989, which featured Howard Kendall's return to Everton as Manchester City manager, Charlton's ground sharing at Crystal Palace, and an interview with Stephen Hendry.

Going Live - 1984-1985

In an earlier entry, I discussed the first season of live league football, 1983-1984. The second year of the two year deal again saw 14 live games, seven on each of BBC and ITV, to be screened on Fridays and Sundays respectively.

 

Again I must point out how strange it is that this was at the time an exciting novelty, and that it was only ten league games and four FA Cup games, which compares to 154 Premiership games and 37 FA Cup live games that we see on the box this season.

 

Looking at the list of game shown, for obvious reasons, the channels have selected games by the bigger teams that they think will be of interest to neutral fans. Only three games do not feature either Liverpool or Manchester United, most games feature two 'big' teams and all have one. Three of the four cup ties are selected with a potential upset in mind.

 

The end of the season saw an all-time low in British football. The Bradford fire disaster and then hooliganism reaching its height at Luton, Birmingham and Heysel stadium which led to the English club expulsion from Europe. In these uncertain times, a TV deal had not yet been put in place for the next season, with disastrous consequences as we will see.

 

Friday 31 August 1984              Chelsea 0 Everton 1 (BBC)

Friday 12 October 1984             Tottenham Hotspur 1 Liverpool 0 (BBC)
Sunday 28 October 1984           Nottingham Forest 0 Liverpool 2 (ITV)
Friday 2 November 1984           Manchester United 4 Arsenal 2 (BBC)
Sunday 18 November 1984       Newcastle United 0 Liverpool 2 (ITV)
Sunday 25 November 1984       Sheffield Wednesday 2 Arsenal 1 (ITV)
Friday 21 December 1984         Queens Park Rangers 0 Liverpool 2 (BBC)
Friday 4 January 1985              Leeds 0 Everton 2 (FA Cup 3rd Round) (BBC)
Sunday 27 January 1985           Liverpool 1 Tottenham Hotspur 0 (FA Cup 4th Round) (ITV)
Friday 15 February 1985           Blackburn Rovers 0 Manchester United 2 (FA Cup 5th Round) (BBC)
Sunday 10 March 1985             Barnsley 0 Liverpool 4 (FA Cup 6th Round) (ITV)
Friday 15 March 1985               West Ham United 2 Manchester United 2 (BBC)
Sunday 31 March 1985             Liverpool 0 Manchester United 1 (ITV)
Sunday 21 April 1985               Luton Town 2 Manchester United 1 (ITV)

Backpass - Issue 33 - Orient v Chelsea 1972

If you are a fan of retro football, then I can strongly recommend the excellent magazine - Backpass. Some excellent articles and features hit the spot.

One suggestion I could make would for it to come with a DVD showing some footage referred to in the magazine, but not only would this add to production costs - and the price of the mag - but there would be some rights issues.

Fortunately we have youtube and the kind people who donate to it, and it is using this which gives me the first of my links.

In Issue 33 (Christmas/New Year 2013-14) there is a feature 'Great TV Goals of the 1970s' and refers to the FA Cup 5th round match 1972 between the glamorous Chelsea side away to the less glamorous Orient over to the other side of London. Match Of The Day was there, doubtless hoping for an upset, and got one with second division Orient coming from two down to win 3-2. Orient's first by Phil Hoadley being the great TV goal referred to.

Here are some highlights from that game, unfortunately in black and white and not great quality. Note the very 70s muddy pitch. This was the lead game on Match Of The Day followed by other cup ties Cardiff 0-2 Leeds and Man Utd 0-0 Middlesbrough.

In the next round of the cup, the quarter finals, Orient again drew a big London side at home, but this time lost to Arsenal 1-0.

Goals Of The Season 4 - Alan Mullery's Volley

The Goal of the Season 1973-74 was a cracking volley from Alan Mullery for Fulham against Leicester in the FA Cup Fourth Round on Saturday 26 January 1974. The game ended 1-1 and Leicester won the reply 2-1.

TV Legends (3) - Jimmy Hill

It was upsetting to learn that Jimmy Hill has been suffering from Alzheimers disease recently. Football in general owes so much to Jimmy, and especially to those of us who grew up in the 1970s, to whom Jimmy Hill was the face of Saturday night football – just as much as Brian Moore was the face of Sunday afternoon football.

 

I am not old enough to recall Jimmy’s role on The Big Match as an analyst and interviewer, although the clips on the various Big Match DVDs are fascinating. To me, my first recall was on Saturday night, after the usual evening of entertainment, such as The Generation Game, The Two Ronnies, Mike Yarwood, That’s Life etc. After the news, the familiar tune of ‘da-da-da daaaa di-da-di-da-da’ hit the screens and on came Jimmy's face to welcome us and introduce the highlights of two games of the day.

 

Jimmy presented Match of the Day from 1973 right through to 1988 before remaining as an analyst. After the 1998 World Cup, at the age of 70, his contract was not renewed (an early example of BBC ageism?) and he appeared on Sky for a few more years.

 

But Jimmy’s legacy to football goes far beyond his broadcasting career. He played for Brentford and Fulham and made his name as Chairman of the Professional Footballers Association, successfully campaigning against the maximum wage. He was chairman at Coventry where he oversaw the building of the country’s first football all-seater stadium. Perhaps, his biggest contribution to football was his campaigning for the three-points-for-a-win system – introduced in the English League in 1981 and finally reaching the World Cup in 1994.

 

Unusual for ‘know-it-all’ pundits, Jimmy is a fully qualified referee, famously appearing on the touchline as an emergency linesman in an Arsenal v Liverpool game in 1972.

 

And of course famous alongside Bruce Forsyth for his rather large chin. Interviewed in FourFourTwo, he said ‘I didn’t have a face for films but I had the legs for football.’

 

As a presenter and analyst, and experienced in all sides of the footballing business, Jimmy was never afraid to say what he thought, often offending but always honest.

 

Now 85, it is sad to hear how Jimmy is so unwell, living in a nursing home by the south coast. But his legacy is secure. It would be hard to name many people who have made a greater contribution to the British football business – but to many of us his face will always be associated with the Match of The Day theme tune and Saturday night footy on the box. 

My First Charity Shield

The Charity Shield is one of those events that we have fallen out of love with. Once the official curtain raiser to announce joyfully that the football season is back, now the season is well under way by the time we get to the Shield game. True, the Premiership hasn’t started but the Championship and the League is under way as well as the early rounds of the Champions League and the Europa League.

My first memory of the Charity Shield is 1977. The previous season had finished with a bang. Manchester United had spoiled Liverpool’s treble hopes by winning the cup final 2-1. Liverpool, however went on to Rome where they won the European Cup by beating Borussia Munchengladbach 3-1. Then a low point when, in the British Championships, England lost to Wales at Wembley for the first (and so far, only) time before losing also to Scotland at Wembley, the famous occasion where the Scots invaded the pitch and collapsed the crossbar. (See my post of 3 January)

In those days, there were no pre-season friendlies on TV and so we just had the long wait before the season could start again. There were other events to entertain us of course. The Silver Jubilee was a national celebration. Virginia Wade won Wimbledon. And England won the Ashes 3-0 with a young chap called Ian Botham making his debut. Even Roy Race went off to the USA and ended up playing American football.

So it was with a long yearning that us kids waited for the football season to start again. And when, on Saturday 13 August 1977, up popped Jimmy Hill’s smiling face to introduce us to the Charity Shield – yes, football was back!

The game saw champions Liverpool and cup winners Manchester United playing out a 0-0 draw, the main point of interest being Kenny Dalglish’s first game for Liverpool, and the fact that both captains (Emlyn Hughes and Martin Buchan) went to collect the Shield together – which at the time I thought rather odd.

Here’s a link to a newspaper report.

http://www.lfchistory.net/Images//newspapers/ian.beardsley/1977-08-13-charityshield.jpg

But that night us nine year old kids could go to bed and sleep a contented sleep. Football was back!

World Cup 1978 - Day Twenty-Five (& Last)

Sunday 25 June

As the coach arrived back into Hazlemere that Sunday afternoon, I grabbed my bag, sprinted down through Firs Close, across the busy Rose Avenue (minding the traffic, of course) and to my home in Firs View Road – it was world cup final day and I was not going to miss any of the atmosphere.

Much has been written about this game but from first to last I was enthralled by it all. The colourful spectacle in the stadium, the ticker tape parade that greeted the players, the delayed start over a Dutch player’s plaster cast, and at last the kick off at 7pm with the game shown live on both channels (we opted for ITV).

My sketchy memory is of a great game, end to end stuff, arguably the two most entertaining teams in the contest exchanging blows. Argentina leading through Kempes at half-time, but Holland coming right back in the second. A cracking headed goal by Nanninga late in the game equalising. Then suddenly, in the very last moments, Resenbrink shoots .. and hits the post!

Since that day I have read a number of times that, had the shot gone in, the ref would not have allowed it – he would have blown for a foul or offside or some reason. Well, we’ll never know.

Into extra-time, Argentina found a second wind, Kempes prodded the hosts in front to become the tournament’s top scorer, and then Bertoni made it 3-1 and sent the stadium into pure joy. That was it now – Argentina had won the world cup!

I had never seen such an exhibition of colour at a football ground – remember the drab English football stadiums of the 1970s – and had enjoyed the whole event. Commentators spoke ruefully about the lack of great games, the way the schedules were placed in the hosts’ advantage, the poor showing from Scotland – but we had also seen Argentina’s coming of age as a great team – Ardiles and Villa were soon to arrive at Spurs in a day when foreign players were very rare in England – and some cracking goals from Holland, retaining their title from 1974 as the world’s most entertaining team.

Now the contest was over and time for bed as it was back to school in the morning, although the summer holidays were not far away. Seven weeks before the start of the domestic season, two years to the next summer tournament, and four years to the next World Cup in Spain, in which I hoped to see England take part.

Day-by-day, the World Cup of 1978 was one to remember.

World Cup Final

Argentina 3-1 Holland

Kempes 37, 105, Bertoni 115 – Nanninga 82

Top scorers

Kempes (Argentina) 6 goals

Resenbrink (Holland) 5 goals

Cubillas (Peru)

Luque (Argentina) 4 goals

Krankl (Austria)

Thanks and acknowledgements to 'upthemaggies' and the following page.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/ITV/Argentina78.html