Reminiscing !

[graingrover]

Fourth Division days also brought a trip to London in the FA Cup .

[graingrover]

Goalscorers !

[Pancho Regan]

Great stuff mate!

[Filo]

England International in Rovers line up 

[roversdude]

Balderstone ?

[ScillyRover]

England International in Rovers line up 

Chris Balderstone, cricket. Played in two test matches if I recall.

[scawsby steve]

Fourth Division days also brought a trip to London in the FA Cup .

Sorry to be pedantic, Graing, but it wasn't the FA Cup, it was the League Cup.

I was there that night. We played great for an hour, then Dennis Peacock shit his pants and the flood gates opened.

[Avsuptem]

I was there too. Drove to White Hart Lane in my Morris Marina. The only ticket I could get was in the home crowd. Nearly got my head kicked in when I celebrated our first goal. Pat Jennings saved a twentyfive yard screamer from Chris Balderstone that would have put us 3 - 2 in front. After that the flood gates opened.

[Wiltshire Exile]

Fourth Division days also brought a trip to London in the FA Cup .

Sorry to be pedantic, Graing, but it wasn't the FA Cup, it was the League Cup.

I was there that night. We played great for an hour, then Dennis Peacock shit his pants and the flood gates opened.

Final score, Steve?

[RedRover45]

Fourth Division days also brought a trip to London in the FA Cup .

Sorry to be pedantic, Graing, but it wasn't the FA Cup, it was the League Cup.

I was there that night. We played great for an hour, then Dennis Peacock shit his pants and the flood gates opened.

Final score, Steve?

7-2

[Wiltshire Exile]

Fourth Division days also brought a trip to London in the FA Cup .

Sorry to be pedantic, Graing, but it wasn't the FA Cup, it was the League Cup.

I was there that night. We played great for an hour, then Dennis Peacock shit his pants and the flood gates opened.

Final score, Steve?

7-2

Many thanks, RedRover!

[richtherover]

One of my favourite Rovers games. We went toe to toe for the first hour and at 2-2 conceded a comical own goal. After that it was just shooting practice for them. London papers the following day said "You lucky Spurs". Dutch Uncle has done a great write up on this elsewhere. Fantastic memories.

[Donnywolf]

Lucky Lucky Spurs and as Avsuptem says Jennings not only saved the Balderstone rocket shot he had the audacity ( skill ) to catch and hold it .

Truly something to stick in the memory

[scawsby steve]

One of my favourite Rovers games. We went toe to toe for the first hour and at 2-2 conceded a comical own goal. After that it was just shooting practice for them. London papers the following day said "You lucky Spurs". Dutch Uncle has done a great write up on this elsewhere. Fantastic memories.

One London rag said that if the keepers had been switched, Spurs would have been out of the cup.

[ForsolongaRover]

I went as well. Such matches were surprisingly well attended in those days, possibly due to big clubs playing full-strength teams. I knew Spurs scored a hatful, but I had erased the memory of the exact number.

I'm sure it's been mentioned before, but Chris Balderstone famously turned out for Rovers in an evening match after spending the day on the cricket field playing for Leicestershire.  I don't think it was that much of a story at the time. He seemed a big man for a winger, but he was not unlike Harold Wilcockson, very light on his feet.

[timdrfc]

Great memories of going to this game didn’t John Duncan get 4 of the Spurs goals?

[Dutch Uncle]

I think I have put this up before, but here is my story of that match:

It may seem strange but by far my favourite Rovers defeat was one where we lost by five clear goals. It was however a very special occasion as it was the first time Rovers ever reached the quarter final of a national cup competition.

I had recently left the country for a job in Aachen in what was then West Germany, and I travelled back specially for this match played which was played at White Hart Lane on 3 December 1975,

I started from Aachen-Hauptbahnhof and from Aachen to Ostend I boarded the famous Vienna-Ostend express for the last three hours of its marathon journey, followed by a boat to Dover. I remember fantasising that the train was the fabled Orient Express and we were about to murder Spurs. Actually I was partially correct in that the train actually had through coaches which were part of the real Orient Express and which joined my train in Vienna. Also it could be said we murdered Spurs in everything but the score.

I stayed with a college friend, a lifelong Sours supporter. In riposte to his pre-match banter I suggested to him how could anyone respect a team with a player called (John) Pratt.

Rovers played Spurs off the park for nearly an hour and my friend was deathly silent. An early Rovers lead thanks to Alan Murray was cancelled out by Pratt. Silly me for challenging the fates. The Daily Telegraph report I still have reported:

‘If Pat Jennings had not been at his most agile and Les Chappell not put the ball in his own net Tottenham might not now be in the semi-finals of the League Cup. These may seem strange observations to make of a match Spurs won with their biggest score for more than four years, yet it cannot be stated too emphatically that Jennings made world class saves at crucial periods during a game Tottenham won not nearly as easily as statistics suggest’.


Approaching the hour the score was 2-2 with Kitchen inevitably having scored our second, when a bizarre own goal by Les Chappell from the most acute of angles turned the game on its head. Immediately afterwards Jennings made a world class save (he had an absolute blinder throughout), and Spurs suddenly believed they could walk on water. Four more goals followed in 20 minutes, John Duncan scored a quickfire hattrick and the final score was possibly the most misleading I have ever seen – even my friend agreed. I was so proud of my team.

[Colin C No.3]

A nice thread mate. Certainly brings back memories!

[ravenrover]

I went as well. Such matches were surprisingly well attended in those days, possibly due to big clubs playing full-strength teams. I knew Spurs scored a hatful, but I had erased the memory of the exact number.

I'm sure it's been mentioned before, but Chris Balderstone famously turned out for Rovers in an evening match after spending the day on the cricket field playing for Leicestershire.  I don't think it was that much of a story at the time. He seemed a big man for a winger, but he was not unlike Harold Wilcockson, very light on his feet.

There was a big feature on it on Look North? Video ( film in those days) of Chris being brought to the game in an open top sports car a Stag if I recall correctly. The young chap who brought him back became a local ref

[drfchound]

I went as well. Such matches were surprisingly well attended in those days, possibly due to big clubs playing full-strength teams. I knew Spurs scored a hatful, but I had erased the memory of the exact number.

I'm sure it's been mentioned before, but Chris Balderstone famously turned out for Rovers in an evening match after spending the day on the cricket field playing for Leicestershire.  I don't think it was that much of a story at the time. He seemed a big man for a winger, but he was not unlike Harold Wilcockson, very light on his feet.

There was a big feature on it on Look North? Video ( film in those days) of Chris being brought to the game in an open top sports car a Stag if I recall correctly. The young chap who brought him back became a local ref

Raven, the bloke (Phil) who brought CB from Chesterfield that night was a very good mate of mine.
He worked for Whelmar Homes and had gone in Tony Philips’ car.
He was reported three times for speeding but a quiet word by TF got him off.
Sadly Phil had a bad stroke a few years ago and is still in a bad way as a result of it.

[richtherover]

The game was against Brentford and finished 1-1. Balderstone was not out overnight and completed his century the following day. He also took 3 wickets. Not a bad 24 hours!