[Archived] Wolves V Blackburn Rovers, Fa Cup Final, 7Th May 1960

[AllRoverAsia]

Absolutely brilliant renrag! Made my day.

[Mike E]

As daft teenagers we used to sing a song about Bryan Douglas on the away coaches. It was written by a girl from Higher Croft and went to the tune of Yellow Rose of Texas. I've never forgotten the the words, even though I sometimes have a job to remember what happened ten minutes ago

It's the Rovers Bryan Douglas that we are going to see

Nobody ever loved him, not half as much as we

You can talk about your Matthews and sing of Tom Finney

But the Rovers Bryan Douglas is the only one for me

There's been Matthews's and Finneys and Lofthouse's galore

John Charles and Billy Liddell, you can bet ther'le be some more

But Bryan is our hero and Blackburns proud of him

You can bet that when he gets the ball he's sure to bang it in

He's the best right winger that Ewoods ever seen

The best there is in Britain, he simply is supreme

He's sure to play for England, he's knocking at the door

And the Rovers Bryan Douglas will be ours for evermore

Come the sad day we say goodbye to Dougie, I hope we can get clued up fans to promote singing this song in tribute!

Edit- just asked my dad if he knew it. I spoke the first line and he reeled off the rest, no problem!

Shame there aren't more original chants like this around these days.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I'll just stray a bit more. One of his finest performances was at Old Trafford in 1962 or 63. We won at a canter 3-0 with most of the Utd defence having spent the afternoon chasing his shadow in midfield. Law and Charlton and co never got a look in. I used to have a series of cartoons from that Saturday's " Manchester Football Pink " , one of the frames was a brilliant caricature of Dougie running rings around various dizzy Man Utd players who were busy falling over in his wake.

[bazza]

In the early 90s we used to sit in Riverside near a couple called Ken and Margaret.

Margaret used to tell us about her schooldays. She and friends would be walking along the street when a young Dougie would be coming towards them kicking a tennis ball and inviting them to take it off him. Invariably, using the wall as a team mate he would bamboozle his way through them still controlling the ball.

The great Ferenc Puskas of Hungary also mastered the tennis ball as a child.

[blue kiwi]

While we're talking about Bryan Douglas......

http://streaming.britishpathe.com/hls-vod/flash/00000000/00049000/00049065.mp4.m3u8

cannot get this to play for some reason

[den]

Still works for me. Maybe someone else can help?

[AllRoverAsia]

While we're talking about Bryan Douglas......

http://streaming.britishpathe.com/hls-vod/flash/00000000/00049000/00049065.mp4.m3u8

Just look at the England side that day. Full of players who would be superstars if playing today providing modern coaching hadnt killed their natural football ability.

http://www.11v11.com/matches/england-v-france-27-november-1957-227027/

[den]

Everton - Rovers 1958

[Al]

Neither can I.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Everton - Rovers 1958

https://youtu.be/-6mPSBH46Tk

Some great play there but the camera work is a joke.

Great interception tackle by Mick McGrath to get Bill Eckersley out of trouble in that. I always thought Mick was very under-rated. I very rarely saw him have a bad game. He was never the star but a 7/10 player nearly every week.

[AllRoverAsia]

Neither can I.

You need a flash player

[Colt Seavers]

You need a flash player

like Duggie?

[knobblybottom]

Everton - Rovers 1958

The team that day was Leyland, Taylor, Eckersley, Clayton, Woods, McGrath, Stephenson, Douglas, Vernon, Macleod, Dobing and the gate was 75,818! I rememebr Stephenson - I thought he was handy player but he didn't stay long at Blackburn.

[Jock]

I've got memories of heading away long kicks from opposing goal keepers when I played full back. One or two times I got it wrong and saw stars ! I never did like heading those old footballs especially in the wet. The lack of heading ability let me down at the time but I still see one or two of the old centre halves I played with and they've suffered. One really awesome header of the ball has Parkinson's now, another one has lost the plot completely !

Can't be proved but doctors thought Neil Wilkinson suffered because of the old fashioned footballs.

[47er]

Wonderful to see that old footage. What a player Duggie was. If he'd played for a "fashionable"club he'd be remembered worldwide as a genius not just round here.

75000 for a 4th round at Goodison! Can hardly believe it.

You can steal everything but the memories Venkys.

[47er]

I'd completely forgotten that Goodison once held that many. Staggering.

[Stonesrick]

In both the final and the cup-tie at Goodison some really tasty tackles/fouls that went unpunished.

Mike Dean would have had a field day - 3 reds, 12 yellows!

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

The team that day was Leyland, Taylor, Eckersley, Clayton, Woods, McGrath, Stephenson, Douglas, Vernon, Macleod, Dobing and the gate was 75,818! I rememebr Stephenson - I thought he was handy player but he didn't stay long at Blackburn.

Alf Ramsey saw something in Stephenson. He took him to Ipswich where he won a Division 1 winners medal !

Can't be proved but doctors thought Neil Wilkinson suffered because of the old fashioned footballs.

I was reading the other day that Alan Gilliver is suffering from dementia now. He also thinks all the heading of the old balls is the cause.

Is it conceivable that heading the ball may be outlawed sometime in the future ?

[Mike E]

Alf Ramsey saw something in Stephenson. He took him to Ipswich where he won a Division 1 winners medal !

I was reading the other day that Alan Gilliver is suffering from dementia now. He also thinks all the heading of the old balls is the cause.

Is it conceivable that heading the ball may be outlawed sometime in the future ?

I doubt it, given how light modern balls are.

[oldjamfan1]

I doubt it, given how light modern balls are.

Even modern footballs can cause problems Mike http://www.nhs.uk/news/2016/10October/Pages/Heading-footballs-may-cause-short-term-brain-changes.aspx

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I doubt it, given how light modern balls are.

They're not that bloody light, I kicked one back for some lads the other day and I had to give it a good dig to shift it.

[Mike E]

Maybe something to do with the strong legs of a distance runner (funnily enough I've very rarely headed a ball as most of my footy has been 5 a side).

[m1st]

Now I've wiped the tears - thanks, JohnD for starting the thread - just a couple of contributions from this old beggar:

My Dad wasn't able to find regular work in Blackburn during the depression era so he moved to Blackpool. When he & my Mum got married in 1940, they remained there so I was the only Rovers' fan in my school during the Matthews/Mortensen era at Blackpool and the time when Johnny Carey got us back into Division 1. That meant we had even less chance of getting tickets for the 1960 Final than many who lived in Blackburn so we, too, had to watch the game on BBC TV.

I remember watching Kenneth Wolstenholme interviewing some of the crowd before the game and there was one old fellow [probably younger than I am today!] who confidently predicted in a broad Blackburn accent, "Wolves haven't a cat in Hell's chance today!" *shakes head sadly at the memory*

Bryan Cowgill from Clitheroe was, I think, the producer of Grandstand that day which was the programme on which the Final was shown and I remember David Coleman saying that he was a Rovers' fan. He'd devised Grandstand a couple of years before.

The other thing, a bit of trivia for younger readers, is that, apparently, Cat Deeley is Norman Deeley's grand-daughter. I admire Tyrone's objectivity on page 1 about Dave Whelan's accident; but it's not how I've, erm 'chosen to share' my memories of that day with the two Wolves fans with whom I've worked over the years!

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I broke my right leg twice and I'd like to think both were accidents/ clumsy tackles. The film I referred to was a sort of birds eye view of the incident, not from the usual angle that you see on this film and the newsreels of the day.. Dave Whelan came across to slide tackle Deeley and Deeley pushed the ball into space and tried to leap over the tackle catching Whelan's more or less static tackling leg a glancing blow with his trailing moving leg. It was all over in a flash.

I do remember Deeley coming back with Leyton Orient to Ewood a year or two later and getting roundly booed.

When I broke mine you could hear the loud crack, just like snapping a tree branch. I knew right away it wasn't good. We were playing on a Tuesday night and my first words to our trainer was - " Do you think I'll be OK for Saturday " ? ------- The foolishness of youth eh !