Bristol Rovers vs Sunderland? March 27th 1975 or 18 October 1975 1-0
The nearest big city to wells is Bristol, 20 miles to the north.
Dad had taken me and a car load of friends to to watch Bristol City versus Rovers as a birthday trip in late August, and I felt I was becoming a Bristol City supporter; but he also took me to a couple of Bristol Rovers matches during the same period. In my memory, the two Rovers games we saw were against Sunderland and Crystal Palace (with Hull as a possible), However, it is hard to find the exact dates when these games might have been.
I think the first league game I ever went to watch was at Mansfield, which would make the August 31st 1975 game versus Hull unlikely , even though it is in the school holidays. I think March 27th 1975 versus Sunderland is possible. This might have been in the Easter holidays. I certainly think I went to a Rovers game before I went to the City-Rovers game on 20th August 1975
I am going to stick with this theory. If correct, Rovers won that game 2-1 in front of a crowd of 13270. Eastvillle stadium is a big bowl of a stadium at the time, with a speedway track around the pitch. There are two large terraces at either end, and a few seats along one side of the ground. Away supporters take one end. We stand along one side of the ground , towards the end where the Rovers fan are stood behind the goal. The wall at the front of the terrace is very high. As an eight year old I can barely see over it. I notice that most of the children who are regulars, are stood on little stools. These stools are common at football grounds int eh 1970s, to allow children to see over the high walls.
I remember little about the game. Rothmans tells me that Alan Worboys scores twice, once with a penalty. For several seasons during the 1970s, Worboys forms a prolific striking partnership with Frankie Prince.
Eastville is in the centre of Bristol , meaning to get there Dad has to drive through some densely populated residential areas. It seems to take ages to get there. Dad isn’t keen on driving, which is one of the reasons, I think, that we end up going to watch Bristol City more often than Rovers.
Bristol City vs Bristol Rovers 30 August 1975 1-1
Dad took me to this game for my ninth birthday party. I was just about to start a new school year at Wells Cathedral School, but we took all my old friends from Stoberry School; we were all crammed in to the yellow Renault 6: myself, Mark Welch, Andrew Piper and two or three others whom I forget.
We stand in the enclosure in front of the old Grandstand; Dad is several steps behind us boys, who are squeezed in at the front. The crowd feels massive, the ground packed. Immediately behind us stood two older lads who eff and blind their way through the game, constantly predicting an outburst of violence from the East End terrace behind the goal to our right; the violence never occurs , despite the regular chants of ‘East End Aggro’ emanating from that section of the crowd. I have never heard such constant swearing as I do now from the two lads and find I it a bit difficult to process. I say to dad that there are boys swearing near us.
The game finishes 1-1, Paul Cheeseley scoring for City. Cheeseley briefly became a minor hero for me; his goals were crucial in helping City to promotion that season. In only the third game of the following season, he is injured in a challenge with Peter Shilton, then of Stoke, and badly injures his knee. His career was effectively ended there and then.
I became a Bristol City fan, even th0ough we had been to watch Bristol Rover before City. We ended up going regularly to City rather than Rovers, in part because they were promoted to Division One and therefore playing better teams, but perhaps as much because Ashton Gate was easier to get to from Wells than Eastville was. Dad hated driving to places he didn’t really know, and to get to Eastville meant driving across a large swathe of labyrinthine Bristol. Ashton Gate, on the other hand, is on the south side of Bristol. We drove from Wells across the Mendips on the Old Bristol Rd, through Dundry, and into Bristol.
Our journey passed by Chew Valley Lake. During the drought of 1976 this was virtually empty; you could see remains of the village that had been flooded when the reservoir was first created. For several years the water level in the lake was very low.
Bristol City were promoted in 1976 and over the next few years we went regularly to matches. ( We only returned to Eastville once, for a game against Hull City which we attended with a local vicar (and his son) who Dad had befriended. )
Arsenal vs Bristol City August 21st 1976 0-1, att 41,082
It is the first game of the new football season, and Bristol City are playing their first game away at Arsenal. Malcolm McDonald – ’Mighty Mouth’ has signed for Arsenal form Newcastle, for £300, 000. In the press, McDonald has been saying how he will score a hat trick against ‘Bristol’. No one gives Bristol City a chance, in this there first game for 75 years (??check ) in the top division.
We are not at the game. We are spending the afternoon at the ‘top of the garden’. This is our lovely little bit of garden on the lawn outside Jocelyn house. The top of the garden is a small patch of grass, and a flower bed, behind a box hedge. Mum and Dad have sun loungers. I lie on a towel and read.
It is the wonderful hot summer of 1976.
We would have spent the day as we did many that summer: sitting in the garden, going swimming, a walk with Jane down to the Corner shop to buy an ice lolly. Perhaps we would have played cricket in the playground with the Gillens.
The lawn is parched from the drought. Mum has tried to grow some lettuces, but they have gone to seed. On the bigger lawn outside Jocelyne House, there are two huge ceramic pots – Ali Baba type pots – that have buddleia growing in them. The buddleia are covered in butterflies. I kind of enjoy seeing and naming birds and butterflies. There are loads of tortoise shells, painted ladies, and peacocks. The challenge is to sport a red admiral, as these are apparently rare.
So, we have spent much of the day in the garden as we did for many days that summer. Dad had his radio on, and at 5 o’clock put it on for ‘Sports report’ on Radio 5.
I heard the Bristol City result and was secretly so happy. I didn’t give much away.
Tom Ritchie scored the goal for City. He was an integral part of the City team for many years: part of the team that won promotion, then with the club for our four years in Division one. When City were relegated, he had a relatively big money move to Sunderland, before being resigned by Terry Cooper; he played for City in all four divisions of the football league. I was at the game where he had to change his shirt – was it ripped? – and ended up wearing it back to front. A legend.
Bristol City vs Aston Villa April 2nd 1977 0-0
We went to this for Jeffs 8th birthday treat; the first football match Jeff ever attended. This was the first game I went to that season, the first that Bristol City played in the First division. I was very much a Bristol City supporter by now.
Dad’s brother, my Uncle Geoff came down, and he drove us. We may have squeezed six of seven people into the one car. I suspect the Gillen boys came with us.
There is a photo of Jeff wearing an enormously long red and white scarf knitted for him, for his birthday, by Grandma P.
Dad had bought seats in the Dolman stand. This stand had been built in 1970, and at the time was one of the best stands in the country; there were no pillars to block the view of the pitch. We were high up, maybe two or three rows form the back, so we had a good view but were a long way from the pitch.
Norman ‘Bite yer Legs’ Hunter had been signed by Bristol City in October 1976 , in the bid to avoid relegation back to the 2nd Division. This was my first view of him in the flesh, and I remember him striding out of defence with the ball, and my thinking that he could do more than juts kick people.
The game finished 0-0 and apart form the chance to see Norman Hunter, wasn’t particularly memorable – the only action I can recall is a long shot by Trevor Tainton that might have hit the bar – , but I enjoyed it and so did jeff. Dad was un-impressed, both with the game and the cost of the seats; tickets for the Dolman stand would have been the most expensive in the ground.
Dad always had the habit of analysing how much things cost, and commenting extensively on how expensive things were, what poor value, and what the profit margin must be for the retailer. This made you feel a little guilty about doing anything. Silently, I thought Dad was being a little unfair on Jeff by talking about the cost of his birthday trip.
I only sat in the Dolman Stand in one more game; on future trips, Dad would stand in the Enclosure, and, until we were 14, Jeff and I would stand in the Schoolboy enclosure in form of the Dolan stand. Entrance to this was only 50 pence, good value even by Dad’s exacting standards.
(If we ever went out for a meal , we always had to go through the profit and costs analysis, and Mum would also join in. We didn’t go out for meals very often; occasionally whilst on holiday in France, only rarely elsewhere. As pricing a multiple course meal was more complex than a ticket for a football match – you had to take into account, light, heat, ingredients, cooking time, chefs pay, waiters pay, maintenance of the establishment, rent, a small profit etc etc – so discussion of the costs might entertain the whole family for the duration of the meal, with no need to find other sources of conversation.
In these meals I would end up feeling so guilty about even being afforded the privilege of having any food at all. I felt like saying – but never did – ‘well I never forced you to take us out for a meal’.
On camping holidays in France , even buying sausages and chips from a van would get the treatment. One summer we were allowed to get chips from the van several times, so they must have passed the ‘value’ test. You would take a saucepan along to the van and they would fill it for you , so you did not need to but individual portions and there was no packaging cost. The chips were the best I had ever eaten too.)
Dad was an eternal pessimist and would get stressed about driving and having to park. This birthday trip would have no doubt been stressful for me. He did at least have Uncle Geoff to do the driving; Geoff gave the impression of actually enjoying driving , and was always much more chilled about the need to park.
Bristol City avoided relegation that season by drawing 2-2 in their final league game at Coventry.
1978 – 1981
In the next few seasons, we went more regularly to watch City. Bristol City had now opened a ‘Schoolboy enclosure’. This was a terrace, about 4 steps deep, that ran along the entire length of the pitch in front of the Dolman Stand, which, oddly, stopped abruptly twenty feet behind the pitch, and about twenty feet above the level of the pitch, so that there was space for this terrace. Entry to the School boy enclosure was restricted to Under 14s only, and cost only 50p. Even Dad couldn’t grumble about this price. Dad would watch the game from the enclosure in front of the Grandstand, whilst Jeff and I, and often the Gillen boys, would then walk round the back of the Open End to the other side of the ground. After the match, we would then walk back, against the flow of the away supporters who were housed in the Open End.
Some of the games we went to include these:
Bristol City v Aston Villa 26th August 1978 1-0 att: 23,493
Mr Gillen took myself, Jeff and the Gillen boys to this game, toward the end of the summer holiday. I have no idea why Dad didn’t come.
We stood in the Enclosure. Mr Gillen ushered us out of the ground a few minutes before the end of the game and we jogged back to his car, and were back in Wells in what seemed to be no time.
City won 1-0; they started the season 1978-79 season well and it proved to be the most successful of the four seasons in the top division.
Bristol City vs Liverpool 16th December 1978 1-0 Att: 28722
One of the parents at the junior school was a director of Bristol City. Mr West had two sons who went through the school. He was a chicken farmer who lived in East Harptree. Dad would occasionally be invited to watch the game from the Directors box. I recall watching one game from there, against West Bromwich Albion I think, bit on a few other occasions we were able to go to the Directors lounge before the game, and then walk over to the Schoolboy enclosure to watch the game. In one game, a rare victory over Liverpool, we were allowed to walk through the players tunnel, and then around the perimeter of the pitch on the inside of the ground to the enclosure.
We went to this game with Mr Gillen and David and Andrew Gillen. The winning goal was scored by Joe Royle, at the Open End, and in front of the Liverpool supporters. This was probably the high point of Bristol Citys four seasons in the top division. After the game, we went back to the lounge and were able to see some of the players as they came in for a post match drink. Mr Gillen approached Alan Kennedy, the Liverpool full back. “Did you enjoy the game?” asked Mr Gillen, enthusiastically. “Not really” came the dour reply. I thought: “how could he not enjoy playing football for Liverpool”.
The Liverpool goalkeeper, Ray Clemence, was a contributor to ‘Shoot’ magazine/comic, that I bought every week. In his column, the week after the game, he claimed that Joe Royles goal was a ‘fluke’ as he had sliced it. I thought this very unfair of Clemence. Sour grapes.
I have just watched highlights of the game on YouTube. The footage is just under 5 minutes long. I notice that the ground is full – the crowd was about 30000. The school boy enclosure where we stood is packed, as is the Open End where the Liverpool fans are stood. The pitch is muddy and badly cut up. The Joe Royle goal looks like a decent strike, although it does come off the outside of the boot and curve to his right, and this is what Clemence is talking about when he said he was a fluke.
The commentary on the You Tube clip is by Roger Malone; he reported on football for HTV West throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Occasionally he would get to commentate on a whole game, if the game was important enough to be recorded in full for TV. From Roger Malone, I first heard the words “aplomb”, as in “he finished with aplomb”, but his favourite word seemed to be “adroit”: as in “an adroit finish by Mabbutt”. In games he watched, players never scored goals, they always ‘finished’.
Bristol City v West Bromwich Albion, 17 April 1979 1-0 Att:
Dad was invited to the directors box again for the game against West Bromwich Albion on April 17th 1979. They were managed by Ron Atkinson. Many years before being sacked from his role as an expert commentator for using the “N” word, Atkinson had given opportunities to three black players: Cyril Regis, Brendan Batson, and Laurie Cunningham, ‘The Three Degrees’ as they were called. This was in an era when black players were a rarity.
WBA were challenging Liverpool for the title and had a reputation for playing flamboyant football; on this night, City severely dented West Broms title chance by winning 1-0. The goal was scored mid way through the second half by Kevin Mabbutt. Jeff and I, stood at the front of the school boy enclosure, went mad, jumping up and down for what seemed like minutes, with a joyous celebration that I don’t think I have ever matched since. After the game, we met Dad over at the Directors lounge. I cannot find any footage of this game on You Tube or anywhere else.
Kevin Mabbutt was a young striker destined for great things. He scored 29 goals in 129 appearances for City; when City were relegated, he was transferred to Crystal Palace, where he was a success, before a knee injury ended his career in his mid twenties. His younger brother, Gary, considered less talented, went on to have a long playing career, with Bristol Rovers and then Tottenham and England.
Their father, Ray Mabbutt, had played for Bristol Rovers, and wrote a book detailing how you could learn all the skills necessary to become a good footballer. Mum and Dad bought me a copy of this, which, thanks to Mr West, was signed by all the City players. I read the book from cover to cover and started practicing some of the skills, often on my own. I would kick a ball against the white washed wall by the garages. This wall had an extra row for stones at the rear, which meant there was a edge jutting out of the wall at about a foot high. If I could hit this edge with the ball, then it would be harder for me to control, so I tried to do this. I liked the way in the book that Ray Mabbutt said he was not a particularly talented player, but kept practicing the basic skills all his life, so that he was able to maintain a career as a professional footballer.
Bristol City v Nottingham Forest, 22 September 1979 1-1 Att: 22759
Forest had won the league in 1978 and were still on of the top teams in the league. Uncle Geoff was a big fan of Forest by now, employed by them as an official photographer, and he came down for this one. We got tickets in the Dolman Stand, unusually.
Jimmy Mann scored a long range equaliser for City. I thought it was a great game, Dad and Uncle Geoff less so.
Bristol City v Aston Villa 29 Dec 1979 1-3
Bristol City v Brighton and Hove Albion 1st January 1980 2-2
Bristol City v Derby County 5th January 1980 FA Cup 6-2
During Bristol Citys last season in Division One, we went to most of the games during the school holidays. In the Christmas holiday we went to three games in quick succession. Dad stood in the Enclosure and we walked round to the Schoolboy enclosure. Crowds were well down on previous seasons, so there was plenty of space. On the way back after the game, we always had to walk past the away fans as they came out of the Open End. The 6-2 FA Cup win against Derby was comfortably the biggest win I saw for Bristol City.
Bristol City v Bolton Wanderers 12th April 1980 2-1
Bristol City v Middlesborough 22nd April 1980 3-1
At the tail end of the 1979-80 season, as they fought a battle against relegation, City bought two foreign players – Geert Meijer, from Ajax, and the blonde Finn, Pertti Jantunen. At the time, foreign players in British football were still a rarity; Spurs had famously signed Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa following the 1978 World Cup, but overseas players were still a rarity, so it felt like a an exotic coup for City to sign two.
In his first game, against Bolton, Jeff and I watched from the Schoolboy Enclosure as Geert Meijer scored the winning goal, dribbling around the keeper before scoring form an acute angle. He there fore became an instant legend. However, he scored just one more goal and could not keep City up. Pertti Jantunen was apparently, the first Finn to play in the top division of English football. He scored one cracking goal in his eight appearances.
The attendance for the Bolton was just 13,584
For the game against Boro, the crowd was lower still, just 12,054, way down on the 20,000 plus crowds of previous seasons.
These two games were in the Easter Holidays. I don’t think we went to the final home match, a 3-2 defeat to Norwich on April 29th .
Bristol Rovers vs Bristol City, Friday 29th December 1981 1-0 Att: 12355
Despite Citys four years in the top division, Bristol was a back water for football really, and in the early 1980s, as City were relegated for three season in a row, and almost went out of business, was very much in the doldrums. Bristol Rovers yo-yoed between Divisions Two and Three. Their Eastville ground was crumbling , and in the late 1980s they had to vacate the ground, as the landlords wanted to sell the land to Tesco, who built a superstore on it. Throughout this depressing period, Roger Malone reported on the fates of the Bristol clubs with unfailing enthusiasm.
On 29th December 1981 Rovers played City on a Friday evening, in a game that was covered by HTV West, with extended highlights shown on the Sunday after the game. I went to the game with Dad, Jeff, and the Gillens. We took two cars. As usual it took some time to get through Bristol to Eastville, and then there was a long queue to get into the car park, which was a vast concrete yard, rutted and covered in puddles. We stood in the rain in the Open end at Eastville and watched Rovers win a dire game 1-0. I don’t think the Gillens came to many more games after that one.
On the Sunday I watched the ‘highlights’. Roger Malone consistently referred to the game as ‘The Big Bristol Derby’, desperate to sell a poor game that had been watched by a pathetically small crowd for a derby. The poverty of this game and others, as City fell down through the leagues, did not stop me going to watch games; in fact by the time we were in Division 4 the football picked up again, and we went more regularly. Now too old for the Schoolboy enclosure, we stood with Dad in the Enclosure in front of the grandstand.
Roger Peabody 