I don't remember Gilliver scoring the first goal of the season at Ewood. He may have sorted the first goal of the season after we got relegated in 1966 but that game was at Derby County.I remember the Coddington penalties very well. He'd never taken one for us before. He started his run on at goal on around the edge of the centre circle and ran in like Jimmy Anderson. I thought " this one will either burst the net or end up in Darwen ". When he got to the ball he weakly side footed the ball straight at a bemused Palace goalkeeper who never moved !
For some reason the ref told him to take it again. I couldn't believe it when he did exactly the same thing with exactly the same result ! I've never seen anything like it before or since.
Later on the ref gave us another penalty ( he must have had us down as a home win ! ) and Eamon Rogers calmly scored that one.
The team that day -
Barton
Newton Wilson.
Clayton, Coddington, Hole.
Ferguson, Rogers, Martin, Gilliver, Connelly.
sub Ben Anderson.
It's amazing when you look at that team that they let Coddington get anywhere near the ball for that penalty.