When Charlie Was Our Darling At City
Mar 26th, 2017 by 'holic
We are a week away from the first of two crucial fixtures against Manchester City in the month of April. Whilst next week we will be looking for three valuable points in our fading bid for a top four finish the second meeting will provide the opportunity to progress to a third FA Cup Final in four seasons.
Perhaps surprisingly it will be the first meeting of the clubs in the premier cup competition since 1971, a night this blogger will always recall with great pleasure. To put the fifth round tie into context we had been drawn away to the champions of 1968, the FA Cup winners of 1969, and the European Cup Winners Cup winners of 1970. In short City were firm favourites to progress.
Former Gunner Joe Mercer was the manager, and alongside coach Malcolm Allison had fashioned a wonderfully entertaining side at Maine Road. Like their neighbours who boasted the holy trinity of Law, Best, and Charlton, City had their own in Lee, Bell, and Summerbee. All three had been plundered from the lower divisions. Bell, nicknamed Nijinsky after the racehorse rather than the ballet dancer, had phenomenal stamina and was one of the best box to box midfielders I ever saw. Lee and Summerbee, from Bolton and Swindon respectively, were equally at home on the flanks or in front of goal.
Arsenal had won the European Fairs Cup in the previous season, our first trophy in seventeen years, and although we were locked in combat with Leeds United for the League title we really were given little hope of progressing. It was a very wet spring indeed. The fifth round tie was scheduled for a Saturday afternoon kick-off but for the second time in the competition that season an Arsenal tie was washed out by an absolute downpour which rendered the pitch unplayable.
On the following Wednesday it was played on a drenched and muddy pitch that looked like a skating rink under the floodlights. The grainy footage (see below) scarcely did justice to the conditions. Charlie George had missed much of the season after breaking his ankle with Everton goalkeeper Gordon West on the opening day of the season (of course he scored!).
His return was to lift the Gunners to the eventual triumph in the competition. In his comeback he scored in a fourth round replay against Portsmouth. He would go on to head the only goal against Leicester City in a quarter final replay. With one of the last shots of a remarkable season he would beat England goalkeeper Ray Clemence from twenty yards to secure an incredible double.
But it was at Maine Road that Charlie proved his greatness in the biggest of fixtures. A first-half free kick from the edge of the box put the visiting Gunners in the driving seat. His second was a hint of what would happen at Wembley nearly three months later. Strike partner John Radford sent Charlie skipping clear of the City back line and having slotted the ball past another England international goalkeeper, Joe Corrigan, Charlie gave us all a preview of his most famous celebration.
Colin Bell’s consolation strike wasn’t enough to spoil one of the biggest Arsenal victories in my lifetime. Charlie explained his celebration of the winner thus,
“As I laid on the floor, I was looking over to Malcolm Allison, Manchester City’s coach. Frank McLintock came in the dressing-room before the game and said: ‘I’ve been talking to Malcolm and Malcolm thinks you’re crap’. When the game started, I was the best player. That’s why I looked at Malcolm.”
Allison hadn’t said anything of the sort and was taken aback at the abuse Charlie aimed his way at the final whistle. Pure Mclintock genius!
A wonderful evening, and I have known ever since that I was lucky Mum and Dad let me stay up to watch the highlights that school night. Enjoy Charlie’s goals with contributions from him and the wonderful Jon Sammels who was also in the side that night.
43 Responses to “When Charlie Was Our Darling At City”
I was there wow was it so long ago.ah well i guess I’m a lucky guy.
Nice one, ‘Holic.
What would some of the Premier League prima donnas of today make of having to play on a pitch like that?
Last time we played City in an FA Cup semi-final was in March 1932. Cliff Bastin scored the only goal of the game. We lost the final 2-1 to Newcastle United, the infamous “Over the Line” final I mentioned in a previous drinks in which Newcastle leveled the score from a cross made after the ball had gone out of play over the goal line.
At least there was some ‘give’ in pitches like that, Ned. I wonder if today’s perfect surfaces aren’t half the problem with injuries, especially ones incurred in crunching tackles when the leg that is attacked gets caught in the surface with nowhere to slide to.
Now that’s a pitch. I miss those days.
Time flies. In those days there was no internet,unlike now when any news is instant.I was fortunate to tune to the BBC ws sports roundup and jumped with joy when I heard Arsenal had won.
I was a teenager then now pushing to nearly 6 decades.But my passion for the gunners has not diminished with time.
Hopefully Arsenal ca n conjure a results against all odds now. To do that Bould must coach the team how to defend .
Then we shall see.
Thanks GH.
A couple of months too early for me,
the 71 final is the first game I really
remember although my Dad assures
me he’d fully brainwashed me as a
Arsenal fan before then 🙂
A real sliding tackle special of a pitch,
reminds me of Sunday beerbelly
league days – happy memories 🙂
Great clip Guvna. Fantastic goals by Charlie on that quagmire. Maybe we should water the pitch a bit more?
And good to hear David Coleman. If I recall correctly, he didn’t push his own agenda in his commentaries, just described what he saw. The absence of a ‘co-commentator’ with a lorry-load of baggage was refreshing too.
Coleman was fantastic, no screaming for him just a simple ONE NIL! and that’s all you needed. It’s all in the emphasis, he also had the ideal voice for the job.
Great post – the youngsters in the crowd at both the Ethihad and the Emirates these days would not believe the state of that pitch !
My old dear still tells stories about me drawing hundreds of pictures of Charlie George with me crayons. “Charlie, Charlie – Charlie, Charlie”… what a chant (to be pronounced carefully). Charlie George, then Charlie Nicholas. Spoilt we were and now all we’re left with is a right bunch of proper charlies.
bath@7: Brian Moore still the master of that generation of TV commentators for me, and Peter Jones on the radio.
Thanks, Holic – lovely look back.
And thanks for your enquiry a couple of bars ago. Yes, things have improved greatly, thanks.
Is that really Jon Sammels talking right at the start of the clip. How can I remember watching people who look so old ?
How did Charlie run so far at that speed on a pitch like that and keep control of the ball ?
City did have a great side then indeed. I even made them the “other” team in my first Subutteo set to play endlessly against The Arsenal, such was the kudos to be gained by beating them.
And how considerate of Francis Lee to spend his playing career saving up enough money to build a whole company just to keep fans supplied with toilet rolls to throw on the pitch. ?
Yes, that is Jon, Trev. He’s been through a lot. I will always hold him in the highest esteem.
Ned, now i would agree with you re Brian Moore. It was a tough time for radio commentators transferring to tv. We can see it, FFS! ?
I have discovered that by manipulating the graphic equalizer on my surround sound system I can almost eliminate the commentators on TV football matches without losing the crowd atmos. This makes for a greatly improved watching experience.
Malaysian gunner @5 –
“To do that Bould must coach the team how to defend .”
I was treating a patient last week who is an Arsenal fan and a family friend of someone who sits in the Arsenal dugout on match days – no names for obvious reasons.
He told my patient that Bould used to organise set piece drills – both defensive and attacking – when he first moved up to his present position. That, however, soon stopped.
It seems, according to this source (sorry to go all Daily Mail) that they do not practice defending at all – something that is not hard to believe given so many defensive performances in recent seasons.
And Bould’s role on match days is to sit in the dugout – not to get up and interfere with the team during play.
Yep, loved Jon Sammels, Holic.
He got a lot of stick from the crowd at times – sadly, but some of those goals …….
I’d have gone a million miles ……
Never had Subutteo, Trev, but I inherited one of those table games with the spinning rods (can’t remember what they’re called) from a friend going o/s, which already had one team in Arsenal colours. The other team was in spuds colours but I repainted the shorts white and they became Real Madrid, the great team of my youth! Di Stefano, Puskás, Gento, Santamaria etc etc.
Now they were before my time, Chris.
Thanks ! You’ve made me feel quite young again ???
😀
It’s why I come here, Trev, to be with young people and share their interests. 😉
Holic,
That night was the first time we had got beyond the fifth round since I started supporting them. Citeh were a good team and I was convinced we would lose but Charlie was terrific that night. I remember that season better than this one even though it was nearly fifty years ago.
I wonder why?
Chris – was it Soccerette ?
I think it was just table soccer, TTG, I think it originated in America. From memory it was much more popular on the Continent where you could find one in every bar. Less so in UK, but some pubs had them in the ’50s-’60s. The Bull in Leatherhead (now sadly no longer) had a couple of tables.
It was called Fussball (as in he German)
Made famous again in “Friends” where Joey and Chandler play endless games while putting the world to rights.
I too was at that game –
also at Highbury for the previous year’s Inter City Fairs Cup final second leg versus Anderlecht – football somehow not as much fun these days.
As I remember Jon Sammels scored the decisive goal at the Clock End – I watched it all the way into the net.
For all that Arsene has done for Arsenal those of us with high mileage on the clock remember our club before Arsene “built the club from nothing”.
Weve always been a great club!
‘Holic@13: The days when good commentary was regarded as being an informed description of the game on the pitch rather than an exercise in manufacturing fake controversy and mangling the language are sadly long gone.
Chris@14: The other trick is to find a broadcast in a language you don’t speak. The commentary will make as much sense as one in a language that you do.
Trev & Chris@17-20: 🙂
Foosball is huge in the UK now. Even my local non league club has a table in the bar. It’s all over the place.
It has been popular for decades though (8.22 in)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2QRnF1KtiM
🙂
Premiership refs flash the yellows and reds less often than most of their counterparts in other European leagues.
Must be the sporting nature of the players…
http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2016/182/en/
First table-football table dates from the early 1920s — which is why even today the players are lined up in a 5-3-2 formation.
A UK patent for an ‘apparatus for playing a game of table football’ was granted to Harold Searles Thornton in 1923.
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=GB&NR=205991&KC=&FT=E
In his patent application, Thornton called the players ‘effigies’, but then he was apparently a Spurs fan.
That’s the kind of dartboard in the Indoor League that I know well from my youth. Rotation? Fuck that, bang away at the 20 until the bristles fall out.
Although the boards I played on did have trebles.
Imp Fail @23, Ned@24. – spot on.
Ned @27. – those monks are something else. ????
Video technology used in the France Spain friendly this evening,has resulted in 2 wrong decisions being corrected.
France goal,initially awarded by Ref,ruled out by video ,due to the player assisting in the goal being scored was narrowly offside.
That was missed by the linesman.
Spain 2nd goal incorrectly ruled out for offside,was corrected,as player was narrowly onside.
First correction took about 30 seconds to confirm,and the 2nd about a minute.
Both decisions were overturned by video official,Ref and lino none the wiser,until video ref told them.
Trial system seems to be working.
Spain the deserving winners of today’s game. Without video technology however they easily could have lost the game. The other incident was Koscielny suffering a head injury and nevertheless being encouraged to continue playing. How much the discombobulated state of his head contributed to the defensive disarray that allowed Spain’s second goal may be debatable but what was the point of sending him back out to play in his condition, head turban and all?
Working apart from the fact that a minute and a half was needed to work out the correct decision.
I’d rather have the controversy
Cynic
It took 30 seconds not a minute and a half and I rather wait then watch a team to win in a controversy.
Watching Chile, Alexis is unbelievable!
The France/Spain game really turned on the penalty awarded to Spain, which was marginal and probably would NOT have been awarded if it had been referred. After that France were playing catch-up and, the way it goes, ended up conceding a second.
Mbappe looked like a young Henry, well balanced and very sharp. Giroud looked reluctant to shoot and passed the ball a couple of times when scoring might have been easier. Kos injury didn’t look serious, fortunately. But why he continued to play on after receiving it when 6 subs were allowed beats me.
Must admit, Mbappe is a good name.
Years ago AW might have had the inside running for a French prospect like Mbappe, and he’d have been picked up for a song. Now he’s being touted as upwards of £100m.
The two decisions took a minute and a half, the second one was a joke.
If you want to ruin football as a spectacle, bring on the rubbish video replays.
Cynic
It not going to ruin football it will make the game fairer and cut out cheaters out the game too! I’m not willing to watch football if refs and cheaters get away with murder week in week out! Not blaming the refs there are human and prone to mistakes especially if the game is so quick these days.
Football is still the only sport in dark ages but one of the most richest and despite that nothing has been done up until now!
About bloody time!
Spot on, Arthur.
Too tired of being victimised by bad refereeing decisions not to go for video technology. Tradition has its place but not at the expense of fairness.
Monks of all trades, Trev.
Oops, don’t read this one Cynic! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>