[Albion] Sporting memories 1971 / 1972

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

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What a great front line Birmingham City had.

Trevor Francis, Bob Latchford, Bob Hatton plus Campbell and Gordon Taylor.

Interesting referee.....

 

[birthofanorange]

If it's sporting memories in general, mine was watching Mark 'the shark' Spitz, winning seven Olympic gold medals, in Munich '72.

 

[PeterT]

What a great front line Birmingham City had.

Trevor Francis, Bob Latchford, Bob Hatton plus Campbell and Gordon Taylor.

Interesting referee.....

Also Roger Hynd was as hard as they came - Bill Shankly’s nephew

 

[GREASED WEASEL]

Blimey, no, I'm struggling to remember back 50 years but I doubt I'd have gone (or been allowed to go) to two evening games so close together. Interesting to see from post #17 above that the referee for Geoff Sidebottom's game was a certain Mr Ron Challis!

Noticed that!

 

[el punal]

That was a cracking season, especially the two Rochdale games at the end, both of which I attended.
https://www.11v11.com/teams/brighton-and-hove-albion/tab/matches/season/1972/
I was at the Hillingdon Borough game and clearly remember Dave Bedford running around the perimeter before a game but didn't know it was this one.
The Bournemouth games that season were certainly more lively than in recent seasons!

Oh happy days! Loads of memories about this season. Me and my mate had been to a party in Bognor the night before the Bournemouth home game. We drove back to Brighton on the A27 before the match and passed all the Bournemouth coaches en route - with a toot and a wave, and then full on wanker signs those Boscombe fans certainly knew who we supported! The game was good as well.

Went to my first away trip as well that year. On the supporters club coach (zzzz) to Bradford City, again with my friend from the Bournemouth gig. It was like being with the Sussex Knitting Circle on that journey. Anyway, matey and me hit the nearest pub on arrival and drank copious amounts of Bradford’s finest. On getting to Valley Parade we were busting for a slash and we were directed to the bogs -“oop back o’stand”, which was just a brick wall built on the terraces. A couple of minutes later our dearly departed Bradford’s finest followed us down the terracing - now that really was taking the piss!
We lost that game 2-1, in fact it was our last defeat of the season and we went on a 12(?) match unbeaten run to the end.

The other two stand out matches were both at home. The wonderful last minute win against Rotherham with a Ken Beamish rocket and our final game drawing with Rochdale to clinch promotion before a packed Goldstone.

Happy days indeed!

 

[Robinjakarta]

Interesting to see from post #17 above that the referee for Geoff Sidebottom's game was a certain Mr Ron Challis!

I still bristle whenever I see that name. Challis, that is. Not Sidebottom, which was the butt (sorry!) of many a schoolboy joke.

 

[sams dad]

Stand out memories for me were the away matches at Oldham and Shrewsbury, both big wins for the Albion.
The 4-2 victory at Oldham was followed by an "incident" in the car park which resulted in an Oldham fan throwing a brick through the left hand side of the coach windscreen .
A hasty repair with a sheet of polythene was carried out and we set off home. It was a very cold day and the poor coach driver had to make many stops at the motorway services to thaw out!
We finally got back to Brighton at about 4.30am on Sunday.
I remember the game at Shrewsbury because a match that was goalless at half time finished as a 5-3 win with all 8 goals in a 26 minute spell in the second half.

 

[Bish Bosh]

Enjoyed reading the club's piece on that season. Never saw Bertie Lutton's equaliser at Bournemouth with everyone jumping up on the terrace and now I have. Only 50 years late!

 

[Lenny Rider]

Remember that season well - it was the season that I first started going regularly (pretty much every game) rather than the odd game here and there.

Looking back at 1972 wasn't so happy for Sussex - we finished second bottom of the CC, winning just two games. It was the start of a bit of a decline as we finished near the bottom for the next few years

It might be fogged by time, but didn’t we start well in the CC in 1976 until Tony Grieg went off for a 5 Test series against the West Indies?

 

[Sirnormangall]

Did you go to this game?

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I was there