Jingle All The Way Back To 1968
Dec 21st, 2016 by 'holic
When you have seen as many Christmas fixtures as those of us who have left our teen years long behind, then you will have seen many that leave an imprint on your life. Who knows, you might be attending your first match against West Brom this Boxing Day and the 8-5 victory will never leave you.
In my earliest memories we would invariably play the same team home and away at Christmas. Most notable of these was in 1965 when Sheffield Wednesday whacked us 4-0 at Hillsborough on the day after Boxing Day. The following day we hosted them and won 5-2. No, we couldn’t make any sense of it either!
The first Christmas game that actually made the entire holiday came on Boxing Day in 1968. The visitors to Highbury were Manchester United, who earlier that year had become the first English club to lift the European Cup, or the Champions League as it has become today. This was the United of Law, Best, Charlton, and Brian Kidd, who would go on to spend two seasons saving the Gunners top flight status in the mid-seventies.
Arsenal themselves were in something of an upturn. The previous season they had reached their first Wembley final in my lifetime only to be beaten by a very controversial Terry Cooper goal for Dirty Leeds in the League Cup Final. A follow up trip was around the corner, but Swindon Town would ruin that day. However, the side that was about to lift the European Fairs Cup and their first double in the space of twelve months was taking shape.
Arsenal went into the match fourth in the League and with plenty of people tipping them for Championship success. Officially 62,000 were packed into Highbury. I can assure you it was many more than that. Turnstile operators of the day could get an adult and child through with only one click recorded.
United were adjusting to the loss of Bill Foulkes and Shay Brennan at the back, but their midfield and attack was formidable. Arsenal were without the injured Jon Sammels, for whom David Court deputised.
The first-half was a tense affair played out in front of a raucous crowd. The North Bank was as noisy an end as any back then, and an education in all manner of obscenities to an eleven year old! However I was at the other end, to the left of the clock looking at the pitch, where dad and his mates would gather in those days. There were a fair few Stretford Enders and cockney reds at our end, but they would remain mostly quiet on the day.
The match turned in the fortieth minute. Paddy Crerand, one of United’s combative midfielders alongside Nobby Stiles, pulled up with a muscle injury. United’s substitute was Carlo Sartori, a frail-looking attacker. They were unbalanced for the second-half and Arsenal took full advantage.
Arsenal took the lead from a wonderful piece of role reversal. John Radford, a six foot plus striker, got free down the left wing and when he crossed the ball it was met with a diving-header from wee Geordie Armstrong, the most versatile of wingers and the best crosser of a ball I’ve seen in my lifetime. One nil to the Arsenal some twenty-six years before that became an Arsenal anthem.
Just two minutes later Geordie found himself in space on the left and he crossed for Court to net another acrobatic header. The North Bank was a wall of noise, and for the first time I can remember hearing, roared out the Jingle Bells version that ended “Oh what fun it is to see United lose away, hey!” In truth we didn’t beat United often in the sixties. We were feeling relief and joy in equal measure.
With a quarter of an hour remaining the rout was complete when Geordie conjured up another cross from the left to repay Radford for earlier. The big Yorkshireman gave Alex Stepney no chance. 3-0, against the European champions, I don’t think I had experienced such excitement at a game before that. Crerand’s loss, plus the fact that George Best spent the entire game trying not to get near Peter Storey, was too much for the shell-shocked visitors.
There have been other memorable Christmas fixtures, and how many times will I write about the Lane in 1978, but that game ten years earlier will never leave me. I was privileged to see it.
Arsenal :- Bob Wilson; Peter Storey, Ian Ure, Peter Simpson, Bob McNab; David Court, Frank Mclintock, George Graham; John Radford, Bobby Gould, Geordie Armstrong.
United :- Alex Stepney; Francis Burns, Steve James, David Sadler, Tony Dunne; Nobby Stiles, Bobby Charlton, Pat Crerand (Sartori); Brian Kidd, Denis Law, George Best.
60 Responses to “Jingle All The Way Back To 1968”
He shoots
he scores
1-0 to the Arsenal
A fine memory, maestro. I wish I’d been there to see that victory. Gold dust.
It was, bath. A trio of flying headers from left wing crosses is what did it, I think. And the fact it was them! 🙂
Great recap of good old days Holic it’s price less this stuff! 🙂
Ahh… the Lane in 1978.
Classic example of the ‘Holic’s art. Wonderful description of one game, then a tiny, killer reference to another.
Thank you Guv’nor, for all the good work throughout 2016 and for the early Christmas present.
COYG
I was on the North Bank that day but it is only your recollection that reminded me -thanks Holic for this and the rest of your work through 2016. Happy holidays.
UTA.
Thank you P. Here’s to a very happy and healthy Christmas and new year for all of us.
Thanks Arthur. i had hoped to pilfer some news footage but the file is not there, and the only snap of the day I found wasn’t what I wanted. There is a great snap of David Court in mid-air heading his goal, but I couldn’t locate it in the time available to me.
🙁
You too, Noosa, my friend. 🙂
Thanks ‘holic, great to go back to happy memories after our last couple of games. This was probably the only home game I would have missed being on a five line whip to be in Bognor for Christmas with
parents, future wife & in-laws. If I remember correctly it was one of the few White Christmases. I think the 2nd half was on the radio, a big deal at the time. Happy Christmas to the Govnr & all who frequent this bar with such eloquence!!
Lovely stuff, ‘holic. My own memories, far less than yours on account of living o/s for the past 50 years, tend more to the bad days unfortunately. Most recently when I was in England in 2011 and had tickets for both the home loss 2-0 to Pool and a week later the 8-2 debacle at the Old Toilet … memories I’d happily flush.
Before that the only live game I saw was a pre-season tour match in Australia in the ’70s where people around us were fighting and my then gf was unimpressed by the guy streaming blood who tumbled down the bleachers between us.
And as for Highbury prior to 1967 I recall very little during an era of modest success, except playing sixpence a corner with total strangers while standing wedged against a railing barrier (no seating then). One memory does always come to mind, but it wasn’t a great Arsenal moment. I remember being as mesmerised by Sunderland’s immortal Len Shackleton as the Arsenal defence had been all game. And with just moments left in the match that great entertainer waltzed past a couple of ours into the penalty area, where he stopped, put his foot on the ball, pulled out an imaginary comb, pretended to adjust his hair while checking how much time was left on an imaginary watch. And to think that genius was on our books as a youngster, and we let him go to star with Newcastle and the black cats.
What nerve they have, Sheffield Wednesday, playing on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday or Friday. Ethically speaking.
Flint, lovely to see you again sir. I hope you are well, and wish you a happy and healthy Christmas and new year. Don’t be a stranger.
Thanks Chris. Len Shackleton? You have stories to tell that would enhance this site. 😉
Holic
I remember that game in 1968 so well. I went with a friend from school whose dad couldn’t use his ticket . I had never sat in the stand at Highbury before. He was a United fan and had just passed his driving test and we left a ridiculous amount of time to get to Highbury. There very early we saw a number of well known United players sell their tickets to Stan Flashman who positioned himself to the left of the entrance to the Marvle Halls. We were just thinking of going into the ground as it was about 2.40 when there was a kerfuffle and out of the crowd looking very hungover was George Best! He had obviously not travelled with the United team and I suspect had spent his evening with a young lady . He went on a superb dribble in the first minute and hardly touched the ball afterwards. Storey was a formidable foe.
Of the three goals I remember David Court’s best of all. I think Bobby Gould crossed it for him to head in.It was a great day and a wonderful memory. Thankyou for freshening my memory of some of the details Holic
What we could do with a few one-nils to the Arsenal at this point in time. Thank you ‘holic as usual for a wonderful history lesson.
We are stardust, we are golden …
Kind of you, ‘holic, but my ‘live’ football memories are sadly scant and quite possibly unreliable. For example I was about 12yo when I saw Shackleton and years later I wasn’t even sure I’d seen what he did. Then Shack died and everyone was recalling his antics and I thought, YES I was there and did indeed see that. Since 1967 my Arsenal memories are principally second-hand, press or TV, and in recent years here.
Now if you wanted an article on my ’60s rock n roll club you could have a flood of libellous anecdotes and incidents including names and dates, such as the occasion the Epsom jockeys (including some famous names) planned to burn the club down because we objected to them using the place to do business with their drug dealers. But somehow that doesn’t seem appropriate for a football forum. 🙂
Cheers H! Will never forget the swamp 23/12/78. Or Boxing Day 1983. Drove down from Leicestershire in me Mum’s Toyota 1000 for an early KO. And saw us prevail 2 – 4 thanks largely to ‘two goals of princely quality from Charlie Nicholas’ as described by the late, great Bryon Butler’, as I listened to his match report on Radio 2, driving back up the road.
Happy Daze!
UP THE ARSE!
Festive reminiscing. Great stuff H and some lovely posts above. My memory of Christmas fixtures is if several London derbies. Always a fun time to head out, especially as a kid. New hat, new scarf and full of festive cheer.
I once played in a charity game against David Court. He just jogged about the pitch effortlessly pinging 40 yard passes and landing them on a sixpence. What a nice chat.
Festive drinks and best wishes on the bar for everyone.
greetings Holic
As a regular if usually anonymous observer from Sarf Ostrava…always fascinated in the repartee.1965 i had a Christmas back in LON from Kenya. i went to Hillsborough by train with my uncle…i think it was 4-0 against us up there. Drafty trip back to Kings X as some farewelling Owls fan decided to lob a bottle through the train window. As a supporter of 60 years….i hope for better things to come
UTA
Spot on Malcolm,
I was at the home game too, and yet allowed myself to be persuaded it was the other way round. What the mind does as you get older, eh? 🙂
Thank you.
Morning H
Re Sheff Wed double header,i must admit it didn’t register at first when i read it,but having thought about it,was sure it was the reverse way round.
Anyway i had to double check,and went to the cupboard where i keep a lot of the old programmes,and sure enough found the one for Tuesday 28th Dec.
Dad was actually aiming to go to the away game with me and a couple of his friends,but decided against it as the weather wasn’t crash hot,freezing cold,and he didn’t want to go all the way there if there was a possibility it might be called off.
As it turned out,the result saved us a miserable journey home.
The contrast in the pitch conditions couldn’t have been further apart.
Up there it was rock hard and covered in patches of ice,which their players were used to,we were left floundering about just trying to stay upright.
Needless to say we got what we deserved,nothing. !!
3 nil at half time and game over.
Total reversal of fortunes in the return game,with the undersoil heating providing a much softer surface ,and we responded accordingly.
same scoreline at half time,but this time in our favor.
George Eastham scored a couple,with the extras added by Alan Skirton,Jon Sammels and Joe Baker.
Interestingly both sides made only 4 changes to the teams that played each other the day before,made of sterner stuff in those days.
We weren’t a particularly good side,languishing in mid table,and after that big win over the Owls,we then proceeded to lose at home to Fulham on New Years day,then at home to Liverpool a week later,followed by successive league and FA Cup 3rd round defeats away at Blackburn.
All of which i attended with my Dad.!!
Our only success in January was the last day of the month,winning 3-1 away at Stoke.
You needed plenty of intestinal fortitude,and a certain amount of forgiveness to follow the Arse in those days.!!
Epic stuff Holic. I’m off today and really enjoyed that along with my late breakfast. I remember everything from 71 on but had no knowledge of this game whatsoever. The day even had Besty in his pomp. For us just add Kennedy, George and Rice and you arrive at the XI that really put us on the map again. Just like Ozil, Sanchez and Mustafi are doing now…Tell me it’s so this Christmas !!?
I get goosebumps reading this H. You deserve it to be the fortunate man (or boy at the time) to have seen this libve in the stadium. I also have some memories of Arsenal at the time I was approx the same age. Can’t forget the 5 Woodcock bagged at Villapark beginning of the 80s and we kids made a big laugh out of how our “Le Coq” of those days sorted Villa out.
Lovely trip down memory lane, ‘Holic. And just the tonic after the last two games. George Armstrong was always on of my favourite players. Box-to-box winger before anyone had ever heard of ‘tracking back’. And could drop a cross on a sixpence with either foot.
Flint@9: 1968 was a white Christmas in London. First since ’64, though there would be another one in 1970. I guess global warming has put an end to them now.
Clive@21, Team for the away game at Sheffield Wednesday,1965:
Tony Burns, Don Howe, Frank McLintock, Terry Neill, Peter Simpson, Peter Storey, George Armstrong, Jon Sammels, Joe Baker, Alan Skirton, George Eastham.
Team for the home game the next day:
Bob Wilson, Don Howe, Terry Neill, Peter Storey, Ian Ure, Jon Sammels, Tom Walley, Joe Baker, John Radford, Alan Skirton, George Eastham.
Sterner stuff indeed.
Season greetings to all in the bar. A bowl of bishop on the bar for one and all.
Shame about Pardew.
Or not
https://media.giphy.com/media/3o7qDMlVquZI1axqQ8/giphy.gif
The dance or the sacking, Cynic?
Fat Sam is apparently the bookies’ early short-odds favourite to replace Pardew. Wales Chris Coleman, Birmingham City’s Gary Rowett and Roy Hodgson also in the frame.
To paraphrase Ann Widdecombe who doesn’t often get quoted here ‘ ‘There is something of the night about Pardew’
Palace sacked Pulis just before they played us. They are another club who are an ongoing soap opera.
Fat Sam looks a very sensible choice. It’s a club with no class so he can’t let them down
Pulis – found guilty of being a knobber and ordered to pay Palace a sum which reportedly could reach as much as £5m
Pardew – fired with a reported £5m payoff
Pulis will have effectively paid Pardew’s compo for being shit.
Merry Christmas, Pulis.
So Holic’s lovely nostalgia post,is sullied by the sacking of the odious Pardew,who of course as is well documented,showed his class at Upton Park after the Hammers scored what turned out to be the winning goal against us a few years back.
Sacked by West Ham,sacked by Newcastle,sacked by Palace.
I am sure somewhere, Arsene is allowing himself a wry smile.
Chris,
The news you wanted to hear!
http://gunnersphere.com/2016/12/tabloid-talk/arsenal-enter-race-for-leipzig-stars-signature/
Probably rubbish but who can tell!
Ann Widdecombe, roaring here TTG, you star. ?
Talking of back-to-back games, in our very first league season (1893-94) we beat Burslem Port Vale 4-1 on Christmas day at the Manor Ground in Plumstead and then lost 3-1 away at Grimsby the next day. Four days later, the 30th, we beat Ardwick 1-0 in Manchester and then two days later lost 2-0 at Anfield on New Year’s Day. On the sixth, the team was in Burslem for the return fixture against Port Vale. So that is four games in eight days and five in 13. But Woolwich Arsenal must have been used to travelling. The nearest league opponents were Small Heath in Birmingham.
Nice one TTG. There are also strong rumours suggesting AW has Reus and Griezmann in mind for Özil and Sanchez should contract negotiations falter. I’d be sorry to lose Alexis, but I’d take Reus for Mesut any day.
To put a degree of perspective on all these Arsenal rumours try counting the number of them that pop up following TTG’s link in #31. There’s literally no end of them.
Chris
Reus is brilliant but really a wide player and Griezmann is a replacement for Sanchez. Payet has been linked if Ozil leaves but he looks like a flat track bully to me although his rabona this season was sublime. I hope we keep Sanchez but much as I love Mesut he needs to show up in the big matches.
Reus is also very injury prone but I know you rate him highly. Maybe Sanchez, Forsberg and Payet would work but ideally I hope we retain our two superstars. The Totts have resigned a whole team on much lower terms and one or two of them could do much better for themselves!
My Palace mate is upset about Fat Sam probably going there because he plays a long ball game. I think beggars can’t be choosers . Their other option is Woy!
Lovely read. until you reminded me of that day in ’78!! Merry Christmas!!
What a fantastic read in a gloomy miserable time. Wasn’t born to even know of this and it is lovely to read us beat those jokers of manchester.
Welbeck and ramsey back in training but bad new is Mustafi out till the new year. I was hoping he comes back a bit early for gabriel is just not good enough.
Hope Santa brings in luck and victories to the Arsenal and to the rest of all of you, happiness and good health .
Portuguese team keeps the Ramblers’ spirit alive
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/2463341/portuguese-football-team-canelas-porto-ultras-opposition-scared/:
Pardew sacked. Must be the calendar catching up with is because it had been a bit quiet on the managerial sacking front.
Not sure about that, bt8b. Pardew is the 26th league manager to depart this season and the third in December.
Wish you all a very Happy Christmas and hope we prevail over West Brom in the battle on Boxing Day.
On the face of it, Fat Sam’s career record as a manager is inferior to Pardew’s: 36.4% win rate v 41.1% in all games (draws: 26.8% vs 21.5%; losses: 36.8% vs 37.4%).
Same story if you take just Premiership games managed. Fat Sam has average 1.28 points a game; Pardew 1.29.
However, Fat Sam is more consistent. His best season’s average was 1.53 points a game and his worst 1.05 points a game. The comparative range for Pardew is 1.72 points a game to 0.82 points a game.
His average for this season was 0.88 points. That would work out to barely 33 points over the full season — relegation numbers. Fat Sam’s worst-season average would have yielded almost 40 points — safety.
nice one ‘holic and ‘holics
makes me proud to be a gooner and a goonerholic
.
we all know other sides also have their history
but
let’s face it
fuck ’em
the classless shower
.
merry nearly christmas everyone
small sherrys and big stouts all round
.
.
UP THE MIGHTY FESTIVE ARSE !
ps
Ned – you are a fuckin machine
fuck alone knows how ye do it
Remember listening to the 1978 game at WHL on the radio in the family kitchen as a newly Arsenal obsessed Eight year old. My old man – a Spuds fan – was not amused on either count !
Did he ever say “Be a Tottenham fan” and if so I hope you replied fuck off bollocks, you’re a cunt?
Monks, cba.
My Reus reasoning is contingent on Alexis as a winger, TTG, and Reus replacing him on the wing. I don’t see the Sanchez centre forward idea working any more now defences have got used to it. Anyway I’ve always wanted OG up front. Not that Reus can’t be a #10, that’s pretty much where he plays for Dortmund these days and he has much of DB10 about him, imo. But you’re right about him being injury prone, which isn’t exactly encouraging!
I see Forsberg as the Özil replacement. He’s all energy with great vision and distribution skills, and like Mesut he takes all the attacking free kicks.
Griezmann would be an upgrade on Theo.
But please don’t get the idea I want Alexis out, I most definitely do not. Just looking at options if he chases bigger bucks elsewhere. Özil on the other hand is a different kettle of fish god…
Reus does miss a lot of games through injury, mostly of the sort that means he misses one or two games at a time, though he was out for 175 days earlier this year with Osteitis pubis, which seems (Trev, help!) to be something to do with his pelvis (or something nasty you can catch on a wet Wednesday night in West Bromwich). But it meant Reus missed the first 18 games of the season (all competitions). He has also had repeated problems with his adductors, which I guess are all connected.
This is a comparison of the minutes he has played vs Alexis’s in the three seasons since Alexis came to us from Barcelona.
Reus v Sanchez minutes played
This season: 360 mins v 1,940 mins
2015/16 3,282 mins v 3,289 mins
2014/15 2,256 mins v 4,356 mins
He looks an Arsenal natural, Ned.
I always think of Ol’ Red Nose taking a chance on van Nistelrooy despite the bastard failing a Manure medical and being out for more than a year with major knee problems before the transfer deal was finaliseddone. A proper cunt, but few injuries after the move.
#48
monks to you too !
?
Thanks for dropping in Dave. ‘Tis the season of goodwill to all men. Even ‘them’! 🙂
Happy X’mas all!
May it be a peaceful one.
😀
I’m off over to my daughter’s for the festivities. May I wish the Guvna and all Holics a wonderful. peaceful Christmas and superb 2017. May it go down as one of the great years in Goonerhistory!
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So we’re not getting Draxler. I can’t say I’m disappointed though.
howdy ‘hol
the mighty Kate on radio 2 at 5
iffin yer of a notion
?
Yuletide and other apptopriate season’s greetings ‘holic, and to all the usual suspects.??
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