MEETING WITH CLUB REF PROGRAMME

[Pancho Regan]

11/10/69. Attendance: 17,380. Rovers 2 (Alan Slough og, Steve Briggs) Luton Town 0.
Ogston, Wilcockson, Gray, Flowers, Robertson, Haselden, Watson, Regan, Briggs, Johnson, Usher.

26/3/71. Attendance: 7,879. Rovers 2 (Stuart Robertson, Peter Kitchen) Aston Villa 1.
Glen Johnson, Branfoot, Adamson, Flowers, Robertson (sub Rabjohn), Haselden, Irvine, Kitchen, Gilfillan, Watson, Usher.

Lol John!

The most amazing, reliable and informative guy on this forum!

Many thanks indeed.

BobG

PS some good players in both those teams too - even though I was never a fan of Brian Usher. Bizzarely though, I always had a soft spot for John Haselden. Remember when he had to play up front for half a dozen matches or so? He couldn't stop scoring!

Thanks Bob, you're too kind!

The Luton game was just before I started going to Donny games. I seem to think Laurie Sheffield played for them and a few weeks later he moved back to Rovers. My first game was his first game back at home, against Bristol Rovers, and we won 3-1.

I was at that game against Villa. It was a Friday evening and I think they anticipated a bigger crowd. We were struggling and although we won the game we still went down. Villa were hot favourites to go up but ended up finishing 4th- only the top two went up and there were no play offs.

I liked Brian Usher but he was a frustrating player. John Regan, Steve Briggs and Stuart Robertson were big favourites of mine and then Kitchen and Elwiss.

Happy days- or perhaps not, because apart from a couple of seasons under Stan Anderson there were some lean times in the 70s.

I was on nights at Rockware and went to the Villa game before work.
We had Lew Chatterley on loan from Villa and I was gutted when they wouldn't let him play against them but we still managed to win in a very disappointing season.

Brilliant memories, thanks you guys for rekindling them.

My memory clearly plays tricks though, because I would have said the crowd against Villa was much bigger than 7,879! I do remember a great atmosphere though - one of those superb night matches at old BV.

And that line-up against Luton - the team around that time is one of the few Rovers line-ups I can always remember off-by-heart (except with Clish for Gray). I guess I was at that impressionable age when you're soaking everything in and some things get etched into your hard-drive!

 

[retford rover]

hopefully get back tonight on run down of meeting
sorry for the delay
paul

[The Red Baron]

Colin Clish was the regular left back but broke his leg early in the 1969-70 season. He returned around Christmas.

[idler]

The Luton game was the week of my 21st birthday. It was the last game that my dad ever went to.
We were expecting big things after the win against Luton.
How wrong we were.

[Sammy Chung was King]

I vote for a pullout with Sammy chung on the blower in every programme, anyone second it?.

[andysly]

I can remember walking to the ground that night telling my mates how rubbish Van Hooijdonk was. I think he scored at least three that night. 

The best bit was dear old Ken Avis trying to pronounce his name over the tannoy.

I was going to say similar, he pronounced it a different way every time he scored.