I remember that well. Palace were in mid-table towards the end of the season, but there was a fixture pile-up and they had games in hand. Played Wrexham twice in succession (might have been Sat/Mon) and won both.
Palace had been close in the previous couple of seasons but hadn’t quite made it. I think in 76-77 they and Wrexham both had something called a “cup run” which is a weird sounding thing, and the 2 Wrexham games were tacked on at the end of the season, and Palace won both. I think a draw in one of them would have sent Wrexham up in their place.
Was that in the days of Paul Taylor playing for Palace and England, wrexham having McNeill scoring all his goals and us having Buckley scoring 20 or more for 5 seasons in a row? Heady days. Imagine that now - a league one player playing for England! It has to be said that england could have done worse than calling up buckley as well. At his peak, he would have scored goals at international level.
Peter Taylor.I don’t think STM’s playing career reached those heights.
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Oops! Yes, of course. My memory must be going. Taylor was a very good player but, in terms of ability and effectiveness, buckley was his equal.
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Taylor was a good player, I saw him play a few times for Palace and Spurs. He played for England while in the third division. He had pace iirc, but I think I’d agree, in terms of skill The Buck was at least his equal. I think he’d left Palace by the time they were promoted.
Peter Ward was another who played for England while in the third division. He had one brilliant season but apart from that was nothing out of the ordinary.
I think the best player I saw in “our” division back in those days was Don Masson playing for Notts County in 72-73. He really was outstanding.
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In the 75-76 season there developed a bit of a race to finish as top scorer in England between Dixie McNeil of Hereford, Ronnie Moore of (4th division) Tranmere and The Buck.
Dixie made it in the end, by just one goal I think.
At one point that season The Buck had a spell where he scored 14 goals in 6 home games, and in one of those games he failed to score. He got 2 against PNE, 2 against Cardiff, 3 against Aldershot, and I get mixed up whether he nabbed 4 against Rotherham and 3 against Gillingham or was it the other way round? His blank was against Colchester, I’m 95% certain.
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Yes it was Rotherham where Buck got 4 and Gillingham 3. And yes you are correct it was George Andrews who got the goal v. Colchester.
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Cheers.
I wonder if we’ll ever see another Saddler get so many goals as The Buck did that season.
I don’t think we ever will. If any striker in future got to say 15 by January he’d be sold.
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Spot on
Well, yes, we did briefly have the fastest footballer in the League.
Tommy Watson was rapidish.
Totally agree JT magical days. Sometimes it seemed like no one could get the ball off Miah as he hugged the touchline then cut inside - georgie andrews heading the cross down for the buck or bernie the bolt to slot home…
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I can imagine that some of our younger fans might conclude that us old bastards have rose tinted glasses for the 70’s, however, he really was the bollocks.
Even though we spent most of our time in division 3, it was a privilege to have witnessed those years as a Saddler, and most of the eighties were even better.
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Louis Donowa
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Did he play for us in that game when we beat Peterborough 4-0? He had a couple of great runs from the half way line, great control and pace, I think that was the game.
I’d say more of a curate’s egg to be honest.
The decade started well enough - 79/80 saw us promoted out of Div 4 (basically where we are now in the pyramid) but as runners-up rather than champions as we should have been as we blew up in the run-in.
The next 2 seasons we diced with death by finishing in last position above the trap door. True it included the memorable Thank Givens Day which has gone down in our folk history, but the fact remains we were just 1 penalty save away from a quick return back to tbe basement.
It did then get much better - 6 consecutive “above the fold” finishes, 2 of which would have got us into the playoffs except they hadn’t been introduced then, culminating in our eventual promotion to L2 (now the Championship) after they were (ironically, if they hadn’t we’d have gone up automatically anyway).
This period also included the runs to the Milk Cup semis and FA cup 5th round with the 2 replays against Watford - although we never got past the 3rd round any other time.
However, both 88/89 and 89/90 saw us go down in last position (and our record sequence of consecutive defeats).
So 70s - 1 promotion (2 “play off” position finishes), 1 relegation (1 near miss), 3 memorable cup runs, Buckley hitting 20+ in 5 consecutive seasons - 9 years in D3, 1 in D4
80s - 1 promotion (2 “play off” place finishes), 2 relegations (2 near misses), 2 memorable cup rubs, Cross and Kelly managing 3 consecutive 20+ seasons between them - 9 years in D3, 1 in D2
Of course there was the excitement of SWAG and Terry Ramsden (and the back of Wheldon) - but then there was also the disappointment when all that turned sour.
I suppose it all depends on which rose tinted colour glasses you happen to be wearing to say which was the better of the two.
And how do they each compare with all the other decades? The 2000s weren’t too shabby …
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Louie Donowa….that’s a blast from the past! Quick but like a headless chicken.