STFC vs Walsall Matchday Thread

[alanmayes]

Maybe Reg can help with this, is that pitch a result of us whacking on tonnes of sand to get a game on that season because of frost? my dad was telling me about a game vs QPR which they tried to get abandoned because it was compacted before the game and their boots wouldn't take.  Our guys had been prepped and wore basketball boots, or something like that.  The good old days eh!

Swindon vs. Arsenal, F.A. Cup Tie, 1970, Record Attendance 34,000

A national newspaper described the pitch as "sewage".  


Incidentally, the conditions didn't bother Alan ball, who may have been making his debut for Arsenal.

They dumped a lot of sand on that pitch in the seventies.  The pitch used to be longer and wider.

The pitch in the 70's had a lot of drainage problems and in the 74/75 season they had to dig up
the pitch and replace a lot in the autumn.It was in the shape of a large diamond and took up
almost the entire centre between the two penalty areas.Unfortunately,the turf didn't compact
and wasn't laid very well.In no time at all it turned to mud and sand was added on top.

This problem lasted until the summer of 77 hence the video of the Everton cuptie.During this
period our strikers - Eastoe,Anderson,Moss and Syrett managed pretty well,but it must have
been energy sapping to a lot of players.

I was lucky enough to be almost exactly in line with Kenny Stroud when he scored and it's one
of the best i've seen.Stroudy won quite a few awards that season for his goal.A few months
earlier he scored a screamer with a volley, from the left hand corner of the box against Brighton.

We went 4 - 0 up against Brighton that day,who were the league leaders and the ref abandoned
it with 20 mins to go.They couldn't believe their luck,but fortune smiled on us in the rearranged
match near the end of the season,when we beat them and deprived them of the championship.

[swindonbob]

Strouds goal was good, but Cox's was better!! A long range effort that fires into the top corner vs the touch, the vision and the finish of Cox's....no contest.

[nevillew]

Best goal I've ever seen was Mitchell v Watford. First time flowing movement from one side to the other, followed by a full length diving header.

Cox's wasn't bad mind.

I'll also go with Charlie Henry's Gillingham effort. Didn't Marlon Broomes hit a screamer for us as well ?

[Colin Todd]

Yeah Broomess goal was from about 40 yards dead straight into the top corner at the town end, out of nothing

[LucienSanchez]

Not sure if this has been posted if not...   http://www.walsall-mad.co.uk/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=429457

150 travelling fans? Really?

[Samdy Gray]

It really was the poorest away support I've ever seen at the County Ground. They just sat there in stoney silence for the first 60 minutes.

[THE FLASH]

It really was the poorest away support I've ever seen at the County Ground. They just sat there in stoney silence for the first 60 minutes.

I have to agree....Walsall isnt that far away is it?

[Colin Todd]

I commented on that during the game.  there cant have been more than about 50 of them which is pathetic given that even allowing for rush hour traffic you could do bescott to the CG in 1.5 hours.

I've done it in an hour on a saturday with a clean run.

Walsall fans: you're pathetic.

[jayohaitchenn]

They only had about 3000 at the game at the bescott. Considering at least 800 of them were Swindon fans... says it all really.

[Batch]

150 travelling fans? Really?

Only if 100 of them were in the home end.

It must be tough for Walsall to attract fans, what with Wolves, Brum, West Brom and Villa on the doorstep. But there is no excusing that piss poor turnout.

[Arriba]

if i lived in walsall i'd be saving all my money to move away from the shit hole.that shitty team would be last thing on my agenda

[bullethead]

How bleedin' weird, I was at that game when Stroud scored (only a youngster I hasten to add) but all these years I've recalled it as being at the Stratton Bank end! Everything about it was exactly as I recall except wrong end....did my old chap make me watch it with a mirror or something?
God, I wonder what other memories I have that are just plain wrong??

[pauld]

They only had about 3000 at the game at the bescott. Considering at least 800 of them were Swindon fans... says it all really.

Quite. We were commenting on the poor showing on Tues and my brother-in-law said "Huh, they've still brought more here than they got in the home game". Slight exaggeration, but I've been surprised by their poor turnout in both games, both in terms of numbers and "quality". Mind, we don't have much to shout about on that front either, despite playing some markedly better football on Tuesday, the atmosphere was lunar-like for the most part.

Cox's goal nearly made me soil myself in delight

[suttonred]

The pitch in the 70's had a lot of drainage problems and in the 74/75 season they had to dig up
the pitch and replace a lot in the autumn.It was in the shape of a large diamond and took up
almost the entire centre between the two penalty areas.Unfortunately,the turf didn't compact
and wasn't laid very well.In no time at all it turned to mud and sand was added on top.

This problem lasted until the summer of 77 hence the video of the Everton cuptie.During this
period our strikers - Eastoe,Anderson,Moss and Syrett managed pretty well,but it must have
been energy sapping to a lot of players.

I was lucky enough to be almost exactly in line with Kenny Stroud when he scored and it's one
of the best i've seen.Stroudy won quite a few awards that season for his goal.A few months
earlier he scored a screamer with a volley, from the left hand corner of the box against Brighton.

We went 4 - 0 up against Brighton that day,who were the league leaders and the ref abandoned
it with 20 mins to go.They couldn't believe their luck,but fortune smiled on us in the rearranged
match near the end of the season,when we beat them and deprived them of the championship.

  I remember that, snowstorm, and if i remember right a Mchale hattrick wiped from the records.

[Reg Smeeton]

Maybe Reg can help with this, is that pitch a result of us whacking on tonnes of sand to get a game on that season because of frost? my dad was telling me about a game vs QPR which they tried to get abandoned because it was compacted before the game and their boots wouldn't take.  Our guys had been prepped and wore basketball boots, or something like that.  The good old days eh!

The reason we've always had a soggy pitch is that it's set on a base of solid clay..a clue can be found more or less diagonally opposite the CG, back of Shrivenham Road....Marsh Farm.

 The whole area at the foot of Old Town has always been susceptible to turning boggy during high rainfall then baking hard in the summer, or at times of high wind.

 So the simple solution to a wet autumn and winter, was to chuck tons of Weston's finest on the pitch to soak up some of the water.  It always killed off the grass save for a few bits in the corners....come March, April the ground was often dried solid by winds, so you'd get the classic Div 3 game of, wind blowing the ball around and it bouncing around like a superball....recipe for a crap game.

It'd get seeded in the summer, and so the cycle would start again.

The QPR game referred to was in the last severe winter to hit Britain...1963.

The match was played on rolled snow...with blue lines...some of our players even wore gloves.

The crowd was down about 3,000 down average...probably out of towners not able to get in through snow 3 or 4 foot deep.

The Council eventually cleared roads using diggers and piled up the blocks of by then ice/snow on the bit of park by the Civic Offices....it was ace for building igloos.