What was your first away ground? | Page 5 | Vital Football

What was your first away ground?

I take on board that Merthyrs evidence strongly indicates he didn't play , but I will don my deerstalker and continue to investigate......

You'd think Maurice Burton might have mentioned it in his match report if Botham did play in that game!

Looking into it a little further - I mentioned the possibility Botham might have featured for Scunthorpe against City in a Lincolnshire Cup game, and the two clubs met in that competition during 'the period under review' as follows:

2 August 1980 at Sincil Bank (won 2-1)
18 August 1981 at Scunthorpe (drew 2-2)
11 August 1982 at Sincil Bank (lost 1-3)
5 August 1985 at Sincil Bank (won 2-0)

The trouble there of course is the time of year - you'd think Botham would have been too busy playing cricket in the month of August. Phil Neale certainly was (although he'd left by the time of the 1985 match).

I thought perhaps Botham might have played in some sort of testimonial match, and Phil Neale's Benefit Match on 19th September 1984 when a City Xl played a Watford Xl, seemed a strong possibility - but there again the Echo report makes no mention of him.

Related to the above, Ian Botham, writing in Phil Neale's testimonial year booklet produced in 1984, says: "I remember the last time I faced Phil on a football pitch. He was playing full back for Lincoln reserves and I was at centre forward for a Scunthorpe Xl."

Odd he says 'a Scunthorpe Xl' rather than Scunthorpe reserves. But could that fit in with anyone's memories?