[Albion] Bobby Smith and that 1964-65 season

[wolfie]

I seem to remember the Darlo game was on a Monday night. Waited apprehensively all day before catching the bus to the match. Electric atmosphere. 31000 for a Div 4 match was unheard of. The first goal was our hundredth for the season, the majority scored at home. I saw all but 5 of them - missed the Chesterfield game with shingles. Picture outside the west stand at the Amex shows Norman Wisdom with the team before that match when he performed his version of GOSBTS on the pitch. I can also remember queuing up outside North Road Baths one evening before the season started when someone turned up with an Argus saying we had signed Bobby Smith. Still the most sensational signing I can remember. Think Shearer, having not long ended his international career, leaving Newcastle and signing for a League 2 side. 20000+ there for his first game v Barrow saw him score twice.

 

[Hiney]

Full scans of handbooks from the 50s, 60s and 70s on my website

handbooks — SEAGULLS PROGRAMMES

www.seagullsprogrammes.co.uk

 

[Weststander]

Full scans of handbooks from the 50s, 60s and 70s on my website

handbooks — SEAGULLS PROGRAMMES

www.seagullsprogrammes.co.uk

A vast and packed Chicken Run . Presumably the 36,747 Fulham game?

 

[Robinjakarta]

Brighton 3 (Smith 2) Barrow 0. His debut and my first clear memory of us and the Goldstone. He sure could play a bit with a surprisingly deft touch for a big man. Too big if I remember correctly when he returned for training for the following season, and he moved on to Hastings United? Great while it lasted, though!

 

[AZ Gull]

A vast and packed Chicken Run . Presumably the 36,747 Fulham game?

I doubt it, seeing as that handbook was published about six months before that Fulham match!

 

[attila]

I was 6. Went to my first game with my dad that year. Absolutely loved the noise and surroundings, but when my dad said ‘That’s Bobby Smith’ ‘he might has well have said ‘that’s The Man In The Moon’.

It took me a season to really understand what was going on, why the ticket he tore off the green season ticket pack each week admitted us to a world of colour and frenzy (a first team game) and the next week to a quiet kick around (a reserve game).

Soon I started memorising the names of the players, and one was Tony Blackburn. He had appeared in some charity match or other and I thought he was one of the team.