Merthyr Imp
Vital Football Hero
28th February 1970 – Scunthorpe United 2 Lincoln City 1 in Division Four
Scorers:
Scunthorpe – Nigel Cassidy (2)
Lincoln – Ray Gaston
The attendance was either 6,857 (the press at the time and Rothmans Football Yearbook) or 7,130 (the Nannestad’s Official History and at least one website).
Teams:
Scunthorpe:
1. Geoff Barnard
2. Graham Foxton
3. John Barker
4. Barry Lindsey
5. Steve Deere
6. Don Welbourne
7. Kevin Keegan
8. Nigel Cassidy
9. George Kerr
10. Terry Heath
11. Angus Davidson
12. Graham Rusling
Lincoln:
1. John Kennedy
2. Graham Taylor
3. George Peden
4. Phil Hubbard
5. Ray Harford
6. Jim Grummett
7. Gordon Hughes
8. Ray Gaston
9. Rod Fletcher
10. Bill Taylor
11. Dave Smith
12. Tom Brooks
Striker Ray Gaston, on a month’s loan from Oxford United scored for City on his debut and went on to play three more fairly undistinguished games before returning to Oxford. Aged 23, he had won a Northern Ireland cap 18 months before. After being released by Oxford later in 1970 he returned to Ireland, for a time playing alongside later Imps striker Brendan Bradley for Finn Harps. Gaston had come into the side instead of Bobby Svarc who had just had a rare (for that season) and brief run in the first team following the sale of Jack Lewis to Grimsby.
Rod Fletcher, Gaston’s fellow striker was in the middle of a run of 11 games without a goal although he finished the season as top scorer with 17 goals.
Tom Brooks, on the subs’ bench, had deputised for Ray Harford for a long spell earlier in the season.
Gordon Hughes returned to the side following injury, while midfielder Trevor Meath had just had a knee operation a month after suffering an injury at Chesterfield which ended the season for him and to my mind put paid to any chance City had of a late promotion challenge.
The result came after a run of three draws, two of them at home, with City having gone into the game in 11th place. The defeat saw them slip to 12th, and although form improved later it only resulted in a final placing of 8th and the departure of manager Ron Gray.
Scunthorpe were 9th before the game and remained there, going on to finish 12th. Their side included the 19-year-old Kevin Keegan who played in all 46 of their league games that season in an advanced midfield role. However, the real thorn in City’s side in those days was Nigel Cassidy who scored both their goals in this match and had also got a couple at Sincil Bank the previous October, in fact he finished with a record of six goals in a total of four games against City for Scunthorpe. He was their current leading scorer with 16, midfielder and later City player Terry Heath was on 13 and Keegan had 9.
As well as George Kerr, who of course went on to have two spells in charge of City, also on the pitch were three members of the ‘Ron Gray Soccer Academy’ of future managers and coaches – Ray Harford and the two Taylors.
Scunthorpe manager at the time was former Norwich City manager Ron Ashman who had been linked with the City job when Ron Gray was appointed in 1966.
The match kicked off at 3.15pm which was a time adopted by a few clubs in those days. I think the reason they did it was so as to be able to read out the full-time scores from elsewhere at the end of the match.
I always felt it was a cop-out to leave the name of the opposition off the front of the programme – Chesterfield used to do the same. There was a mention in it that the club had been required to post warning notices around the ground for a month following the throwing of objects onto the pitch during an FA Cup replay.
I can’t say anything about the game itself as I don’t have any match reports and I remember nothing of it at all!
Scorers:
Scunthorpe – Nigel Cassidy (2)
Lincoln – Ray Gaston
The attendance was either 6,857 (the press at the time and Rothmans Football Yearbook) or 7,130 (the Nannestad’s Official History and at least one website).
Teams:
Scunthorpe:
1. Geoff Barnard
2. Graham Foxton
3. John Barker
4. Barry Lindsey
5. Steve Deere
6. Don Welbourne
7. Kevin Keegan
8. Nigel Cassidy
9. George Kerr
10. Terry Heath
11. Angus Davidson
12. Graham Rusling
Lincoln:
1. John Kennedy
2. Graham Taylor
3. George Peden
4. Phil Hubbard
5. Ray Harford
6. Jim Grummett
7. Gordon Hughes
8. Ray Gaston
9. Rod Fletcher
10. Bill Taylor
11. Dave Smith
12. Tom Brooks
Striker Ray Gaston, on a month’s loan from Oxford United scored for City on his debut and went on to play three more fairly undistinguished games before returning to Oxford. Aged 23, he had won a Northern Ireland cap 18 months before. After being released by Oxford later in 1970 he returned to Ireland, for a time playing alongside later Imps striker Brendan Bradley for Finn Harps. Gaston had come into the side instead of Bobby Svarc who had just had a rare (for that season) and brief run in the first team following the sale of Jack Lewis to Grimsby.
Rod Fletcher, Gaston’s fellow striker was in the middle of a run of 11 games without a goal although he finished the season as top scorer with 17 goals.
Tom Brooks, on the subs’ bench, had deputised for Ray Harford for a long spell earlier in the season.
Gordon Hughes returned to the side following injury, while midfielder Trevor Meath had just had a knee operation a month after suffering an injury at Chesterfield which ended the season for him and to my mind put paid to any chance City had of a late promotion challenge.
The result came after a run of three draws, two of them at home, with City having gone into the game in 11th place. The defeat saw them slip to 12th, and although form improved later it only resulted in a final placing of 8th and the departure of manager Ron Gray.
Scunthorpe were 9th before the game and remained there, going on to finish 12th. Their side included the 19-year-old Kevin Keegan who played in all 46 of their league games that season in an advanced midfield role. However, the real thorn in City’s side in those days was Nigel Cassidy who scored both their goals in this match and had also got a couple at Sincil Bank the previous October, in fact he finished with a record of six goals in a total of four games against City for Scunthorpe. He was their current leading scorer with 16, midfielder and later City player Terry Heath was on 13 and Keegan had 9.
As well as George Kerr, who of course went on to have two spells in charge of City, also on the pitch were three members of the ‘Ron Gray Soccer Academy’ of future managers and coaches – Ray Harford and the two Taylors.
Scunthorpe manager at the time was former Norwich City manager Ron Ashman who had been linked with the City job when Ron Gray was appointed in 1966.
The match kicked off at 3.15pm which was a time adopted by a few clubs in those days. I think the reason they did it was so as to be able to read out the full-time scores from elsewhere at the end of the match.
I always felt it was a cop-out to leave the name of the opposition off the front of the programme – Chesterfield used to do the same. There was a mention in it that the club had been required to post warning notices around the ground for a month following the throwing of objects onto the pitch during an FA Cup replay.
I can’t say anything about the game itself as I don’t have any match reports and I remember nothing of it at all!
