Postcard From Birmingham, Part Five

Always Worth Saying, Going Postal
Star Trek-styled Villa Park
© Google Street View 2024, Google.com

There are two schools of thought, volunteer for everything, never volunteer for anything. I knew a chap sent to the South Atlantic. At Mount Pleasant airfield in what the Guinness Book of Records describes as the longest corridor in the world, lists appeared. He added his name to all of them.

Delivered the Christmas Mail to the South Pole. Was an ad hoc amateur commis chef to a Nimrod galley. Can’t compete with that, but I can help carry a wheelchair out of a van. Last time, I told you I’d stopped off in Birmingham only twice, once to see The Jam and another time for a football match.

What I didn’t tell you was that my second visit came after volunteering, in combination with a boxing club with a Transit van, to get a football-mad youngster in a wheelchair to a cup tie.

Beyond a good deed being its own reward another upside, in between heaving him and his chair in and out of the van, was paying my two pounds, squeezing onto the terracing and watching the game.

The downsides? Our VIP being bedecked in everything Wolverhampton Wanderers. The van having Wolverhampton Boxing Club (or words to the same effect) painted along both sides in big letters. And the fixture taking place at local rivals Aston Villa. Not to worry. As we’ve noted before, I was young and it was the eighties. However, wary of a faceful of broken glass, I did retire the goggle specs for an afternoon.

Now I come to look at a map, Villa Park is to the northeast of Birmingham city centre, on the Wolverhampton side of the metropolis. One assumes it graces the district of Aston. The railway line bringing my wife and myself on our recent day trip to the Second City passed closer to West Brom’s stadium at The Hawthorns but I don’t recall spotting it.

They don’t have floodlight pylons these days which doesn’t help. Rather a row of beams emerge from along the stand roof to illuminate both the Baggies and other Local XIs the length and breath of the land.

Those of you, and there will be some, who enjoy back-in-the-day Belfast roofs and floodlight porn should have been behind the Iron Curtain with me only months after the January ’83 4th round FA Cup tie in question. As with the Masai, Kikuyu and their bafflement when presented with a thing called a wheel, so the Comrades never invented the halogen bulb.

East of a wiggly line between Stettin on the Baltic and Trieste on the Adriatic, the pylons were massive, the (dim) bulbs uncountable. Despite a ban on taking pictures of such things, yellowing-at-the-edges proof rests in a photo album in my derring-do box. Yet another as yet unwritten niche article awaiting not to be read.

Back in the Birmingham of four decades ago, having done my duties at a kerbside in hostile territory I followed the crowd around a corner and found myself at the Star Trek-styled back of the Witton end of the stadium. These days the only part of the ground not rebuilt, albeit with seats rather than terracing in the lower tier of the visiting fans enclosure.

Not in a queue, more of a mass of people before the turnstiles with small amounts of space emerging from nowhere when somebody needed the toilet. With a big crowd and a big following travelling from nearby Wolverhampton, I missed some of the start of the game. Those behind me will have missed a lot of it, those behind them may have missed it all.

In these modern times of all-seater stadiums with numbered seats, online sales, tickets and (God forbid) e-tickets, the youth of today will be unfamiliar with the lock-out. The swing of the turnstile door as it’s slammed before your face. The long plod home.

Inside, the terraces were full. Once I’d squeezed closer to the front, I couldn’t move and had no chance of buying a pie or a programme or reaching the gents. I just, as per the custom, stood where I was on tiptoes and tried to see as much of the match as I could.

But what a match. More than decent, Villa won 1-0 thanks to a mis-hit strike from Peter Withe that separated the teams after bobbling over the line in the 21st minute. As a lower divisions fan, the bright lights were overwhelming. Not just those on the top of the pylons with the halogens arranged as As and Vs, there was also a glow from the pitch.

Villa were European Champions at the time having been crowned after a 1-0 victory in Rotterdam the previous May. The defeated Bayern Munich side included Paul Breitner, a World Cup Winner with West Germany a decade earlier and the legendary Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. There were some unlikely provincial league champions in the 70s and early 80s.

Step forward and take a bow, Nottingham Forrest, 77-78, Derby County, 71-72, 74-75 and Villa themselves in 80-81 which qualified them for the successful European Cup campaign the following season. Note to Gen Z and Millenials – only the champions of each country qualified in those days.

In Villa’s lineup for the FA Cup tie, Spink, Evans, Williams, Bremner, Shaw, Morley, Cowans and Rotterdam match winner Peter Withe (who put the past Bayern keeper Manfred Muller in the 67th minute) were European Cup medalists.

Then a straight knockout of home and away ties, Villa played only four teams en route to the final. Victories against Valur of Iceland and the respective Dynamos of Berlin and Kiev preceeded a tricky semi-final 1-0 aggregate win against Anderlecht.

Villa were also fresh from a European Super Cup win. Having lost 1-0 in the Nou Camp, they entertained Barcelona at Villa Park only three days previous to the Wolverhampton tie, securing the trophy on aggregate with a 3-0 victory.

Back in a blustery Birmingham, Wolverhampton had been relegated from the First Division the previous season after finishing bottom with 40 points. Top scorers with only seven a piece were Andy Gray and Mel Eves. Promoted the following May, catastrophe followed.

Successive relegations saw the Molineaux side having to apply for re-election (remember that?) to the Fourth Division by the end of the 1985/86 season. The captain of the sinking ship was Chairman Derek Dougan, a Northern Ireland internationalist who made 258 appearances for Wolverhampton when a player.

Eves and 27-year-old ex-Villa forward Gray played for the visitors in the cup tie as did two other former Villa stars, Gordon Smith and goalkeeper John Burridge. A character, it would be quicker to list the clubs Burridge didn’t play for rather than did.

By the time he signed for Wolverhampton, he was on his seventh. Although recollections may vary, it is my estimate he went on to represent a further 22.

Ever the showman, the Workington-born stopper’s warm-up included handstands and summersaults. As proof there’s nothing in the rules to say you can’t, he once ran onto the pitch in a Superman outfit rather than a football strip.

When on the books at Manchester City and aged 43 years 54 months and 26 days, Burridge became the oldest player to turn out in a Premier League match as a half-time substitute in a 1995 Maine Road goalless draw against Newcastle United.

Burridge is one of a remarkable run of West Cumbrian goalkeepers. Whitehaven-born Scott Carson made four appearances for England under Steve Maclaren and Fabio Capello. Clear Moor’s Tony Caig played over 390 league games and Whitehaven’s Dean Henderson currently stands between the sticks at Premier League Crystal Palace.

Burnley’s 21-year-old Cockermouth-born James Trafford has already been on the Wembley bench with the national team’s senior squad. When he completed the move from Manchester City to Turf Moor, James became the third most expensive British goalkeeper in history.

The most expensive? Jordan Pickford, no doubt distraught at being a native of Washington Tyne and Wear, but who does have a Cumbrian connection after playing for Carlisle United when a teen. Last time I saw him appear for what is my Local XI, he let in six. My youngest son sat beside me. This is not insignificant.

Nippy, athletic and keener than mustard, AWS Jr was part of the same youth set-up as James (who’s a year younger) and in the same team as Jared Branthwaite, subsequently transferred to Everton and who earned his first full cap during England’s 3–0 victory against Bosnia Herzegovina in March.

Jo White, now with Newcastle United, is a year younger. Our other old friends and acquaintances are scattered around the league pyramid. We wish them all well.

Not the tallest, Burridge was, at 5’11’, the same height as 1980s contemporary Ipswich Town number 1, Paul Cooper. Carson is 6’3′, Trafford, 6’6′. Nottingham Forest’s goalie is 6’8′. Don’t scoff, in the two seasons before this cup tie, Cooper and Ipswich Town finished second in the league twice and won the EUFA Cup.

Elsewhere in the Wolverhampton squad, Wayne Clark was ruled out after failing a fitness test on an injured back but is worth a mention as one of five Walsall brothers who played in the Football League.

Besides Wayne, Frank played for Carlisle United in the First Division. Derek also turned out for the Brunton Park Club although only for one match, spending most of his career at Oxford United.

Elsewhere, Kelvin played for home town Walsall and Allan was Leeds United striker ‘Sniffer’ Clark. On the other side of the border, my uncles by marriage was one of six footballing brothers. As a young man he turned out for Glasgow Celtic.

Towards the end of his career, and as a journeyman pro, he played for my local team and married my mother’s eldest sister. After retiring from the game, he and another uncle set themselves up as bookmakers. Different times.

In another diversion from the modern game, all of the players in the Villa Park fixture were from the home countries, with two all-English line-ups interupted by six Scots. One of the outstanding young English players was 22-year-old forward Gary Shaw, already a European Cup winner and Division One Championship medal holder.

On the cusp of a full England cap, the Solihull-born striker had represented his country at U-21 level and been included in Ron Greenwood’s provisional, but not final, squad for the previous year’s World Cup finals in Spain.

Holder of both the PFA Young Player of the Year and European Young Footballer of the Year awards, only months after the victory against Wolverhampton, Shaw suffered a knee injury at Nottingham Forest’s County Ground. His playing career never recovered.

After spells abroad and in the lower English and Scottish divisions, Shaw retired from the game aged 31 with a still respectable career tally of 71 goals from 218 senior appearances.

He became a youth team coach at Villa and worked for the Press Association before more recently helping with corporate entertainment on match days at Villa Park and working as a football statistician.

As this article was being prepared, Ason Villa released a statement announcing the sad news that Gary Shaw had died after a short spell in hospital following a fall at his home. He was 63.

Easy to recall, even by someone who only saw him play once, both because of the shock of blonde hair and the mesmerising flair and ability on the ball, Shaw shone in that boisterous, tough and lively cup tie four decades ago.

The next day’s match reports mentioned Shaw’s trademark flicks and that only gymnastic saves from Burridge kept him off the score sheet.

Always Worth Saying, Going Postal
Gary Shaw 1961-2024.
26 May 1982, v Bayern Munich
M. Antonisse
Public domain


Aston Villa v Wolverhampton Wanderers, FA Cup Fourth Round, Villa Park, Birmingham, 29th January 1983, 3 pm.

ASTON VILLA (1): Spink, Williams, Gibson, Evans, McNaught, Blair, Bremner, Shaw, Withe, Cowans, Morley. Sub: Walters. Goal scorer: Withe (21)

WOLVES (0): Barridge, Humphrey, Palmer, Smith, Pender, Dodd, Hibbitt, Rudge, Gray, Eves, Matthews. Sub: Coy.

Referee: Mr. K. Hackett (Sheffield).

Attendance: 43,000
 

© Always Worth Saying 2024