Peter Kitchen

[Dagenham Rover]

This is a reply from Peter Kitchen on his facebook page in response to a question asking why he didnt play for one of the top sides and he would have been worth millions now. I have his permission to copy n paste his reply

Peter Kitchen
Dave Wiffill thanks , it’s a long story & a number of reasons, here are the headlines- bad timing & bad luck, poor Managers, playing in struggling teams etc. Having just forced myself into the 1st team at 18 at Donny in Division 1 with 6 goals in 13 games, Donny got relegated & the Manager Lawrie McMenemy got sacked. His replacement bombed me & brought his own young players in & I lost my place in pecking order & lost 2 seasons re establishing myself again. When I was doing well with over 20+’goals in 4 consecutive seasons, I was priced out of the market. Bobby Robson at Ipswich tried to sign me in 76/7 & offered & £28k but Rovers asked for £50k. Bobby told me he couldn’t pay more or even promise me a game in the reserves as he had Whymark, Mariner & Woods in 1st team & Brazil, Gates, Geddis & Turner in reserves. I agreed a deal at O’s 2 weeks later & shook hands on this so felt I couldn’t go back on my word when I learnt Spurs had matched O’s offer. At the O’s I was again priced out having scored 29 goals & was Championship leading scorer. Norwich offered £140k & Terry Venerbles at Crystal Palace offered £110k+ Neil Smiley in a deal valued at £150k, O’s asked for £250k. I moved to Fulham for £150k + a player valued at £50k. I scored 5 goals in 17 by end of season & fell out with Manager who I disliked immensely & it became personal so I couldn’t settle. I scored 30+ goals in reserves the following season but couldn’t even get on bench & Fulham were bottom of table & were relegated. After then I became disillusioned with footbal. I moved to Cardiff for £120k which was a really good club but we weren’t a good team & over 2 years struggled to stay in Championship & I cancelled my contract after 2 seasons when we were relegated in 82 & Thats when I came to HK. Over most of my career I played in struggling or unfashionable teams, so the team rarely got the success, headlines & chances were often limited . I ought to have moved to a bigger club earlier in my career but didn’t get the opportunity. There were no agents & at times I had been naive but we learn from adversity. I look back on my career with pride for being prolific at Donny (120+ goals / 228 games ) , Orient (62 goals/130 games) & quite good at Cardiff (30goals in 70 games) & a favourite with the fans at these clubs.

[NickDRFC]

Absolutely love Peter Kitchen. Last game for Rovers was a decade before I was born but my dad talks so warmly about him and he wishes me a happy birthday every year on Facebook. Top player, top man.

[roversdude]

Probably the main reason I got into Rovers, strange when having a kick about on the field, there were Lorimers, Bremners, Keegans etc and then one scrawny Kitchen

[Surrey Rover]

No way was a price tag of £50000 pricing someone of Kitchen’s ability out of the market. The fee Orient payed for his transfer at the time was rumoured to be in the region of £40000 and I, like many others, felt we’d given him away.

Just twelve months later Liverpool paid Celtic £440000 for Kenny Dalglish so by comparison Kitchen was worth at least £100000 in my opinion.  Undoubtedly he could and should have played in the First Division.

[Draytonian III]

He scored the first ever Rovers goal I saw, legend, end of

[BillyStubbsTears]

Kitch, Big Bren and Windy Miller were the front line when I started attending regularly. We've rarely if ever had a better front 3 since, relative to the standards of the day.

Kitch should definitely have made the top division.

Bren did, playing over 200 top flight matches for Stoke and was capped by Ireland.

Miller played over 250 matches for Blackburn, mainly in the top half of Div 2.

In 75/76, they scored nearly 60 league goals for us between them.


What a trio.

[Silkscarf]

Same here, though unfortunately my first season was Kitchen’s last at Rovers. We should have done better that season. Huge disappointment to then see him go, but typical of following Rovers. One of our legends for sure. I couldn’t believe he only went to Orient. Ipswich, based on their manager and what they achieved, would have been more the mark.

As I watched peering over the concrete wall at the front of the popside, Kitch, Windy Miller and Big Bren all looked very similar to me with those 70s taches and haircuts, just different heights and gaits.

[roversdude]

Silkscarf - that was my place too whichever way we were kicking, then up to the bar at the top of the stand to get a bottle of pop off my dad

[Lesonthewest]

Those 3 had everything a manager could wish for, a player who could cross a ball, a player who could head a ball, & a player who could finish anything that dropped in & around the six yard box.

[tyke1962]

I remember the front three of Kitchen , O'Challaghan and Miller well from our 1970's encounters with Rovers , that was some front three back then and a mystery as to why Rovers never got promoted from the old fourth division back then .

I wonder how long you'd be able to keep that trio together at Rovers today ? , not long I'd imagine as they seemed to play for Rovers for years back then .

I remember going to Boundary Park to see us play Oldham Athletic in the old second division around 1987 , plastic pitch if memory serves me right and big Brendan played centre half , must have dropped back in to defence in the latter stages of his career .

He still scored the winner for Oldham that day from a corner !!! .

It's just a revolving door today with players isn't it ? .

Nobody other than Copps or Bobby Hassell for us ever seems to stick around long enough for fans like ourselves to feel an emotional attachment to them .

The players obviously make more money today but whether they will be  remembered as fondly as Peter Kitchen by the fans in the future is debatable I guess .

[rossorog]

A fantastic player always a buzz of excitement when he got on the ball anywhere near the box

[Silkscarf]

Silkscarf - that was my place too whichever way we were kicking, then up to the bar at the top of the stand to get a bottle of pop off my dad

Excellent! I’d sometimes wander up to the Rosso End. Then in front of the cowshed in the second half! It seemed a massive and impressive ground, but it was the only one I’d been in.

[Filo]

Silkscarf - that was my place too whichever way we were kicking, then up to the bar at the top of the stand to get a bottle of pop off my dad

Excellent! I’d sometimes wander up to the Rosso End. Then in front of the cowshed in the second half! It seemed a massive and impressive ground, but it was the only one I’d been in.

That old pop side in all it’s glory could hold 10k

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Can only echo what  others have said. It was mainly Kitch, O'Callaghan, Miller, Laidlaw, Peacock who got me excited as there was always the hope and expectation we would score goals. Trouble is, we conceded plenty too.

I recall Kitch being on the transfer list for quite some time (guessing at his own request) but it didn't seem to affect his performance.

There was a season, was it 75/76? When we came the closest to getting in to the top 4 only to fade badly after that brilliant 2-1 Friday night win at home v Huddersfield in March, going on to lose badly at Southend, Watford and Bradford?  which killed us off. The season we had Woodcock and Ian Bailey on loan.

I think we knew then it was highly likely we would lose Kitch and O'Callaghan.

Kitch wasn't always the most pleasing on the eye with his scruffy demeanor, hunched shoulders etc and I guess that might have been a factor why the bigger clubs didn't take a punt on him. It was pleasing though that he did get the chance to showcase his great talent and skill at a decent level.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

I remember the front three of Kitchen , O'Challaghan and Miller well from our 1970's encounters with Rovers , that was some front three back then and a mystery as to why Rovers never got promoted from the old fourth division back then .

I wonder how long you'd be able to keep that trio together at Rovers today ? , not long I'd imagine as they seemed to play for Rovers for years back then .

I remember going to Boundary Park to see us play Oldham Athletic in the old second division around 1987 , plastic pitch if memory serves me right and big Brendan played centre half , must have dropped back in to defence in the latter stages of his career .

He still scored the winner for Oldham that day from a corner !!! .

It's just a revolving door today with players isn't it ? .

Nobody other than Copps or Bobby Hassell for us ever seems to stick around long enough for fans like ourselves to feel an emotional attachment to them .

The players obviously make more money today but whether they will be  remembered as fondly as Peter Kitchen by the fans in the future is debatable I guess .

I remember fondly my first trip to Oakwell as a spotty 14 year old (ish) looking forward to a great match which didn't disappoint as I think it ended up 1-1. Pretty sure we had Kitch and O'Callaghan up against Mick McCarthy and Nick Pickering. We had Windy Miller on the wing while your scorer was Millar I think.

Great crowd, great atmosphere but the only dodgy thing was our horrible away kit of yellow shirts and brown shorts! 

[Fur Calf]

My overriding memory of the great Peter Kitchen is scoring a goal at the Rosso end where he got in the penalty box and dribbled his way past 3 or 4 players before slotting the ball in the goal (i can't remember who he scored it against), fantastic skill.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

My overriding memory of the great Peter Kitchen is scoring a goal at the Rosso end where he got in the penalty box and dribbled his way past 3 or 4 players before slotting the ball in the goal (i can't remember who he scored it against), fantastic skill.

He did many magical things like that didn't he. Overhead kicks, the lot. I recall beating Workington at home 6-3 in which he did one of those tricks by dummying the keeper, dipping his shoulders, waiting for the keeper to dive the wrong way, then just rolled the ball into the net.

[tyke1962]

I remember the front three of Kitchen , O'Challaghan and Miller well from our 1970's encounters with Rovers , that was some front three back then and a mystery as to why Rovers never got promoted from the old fourth division back then .

I wonder how long you'd be able to keep that trio together at Rovers today ? , not long I'd imagine as they seemed to play for Rovers for years back then .

I remember going to Boundary Park to see us play Oldham Athletic in the old second division around 1987 , plastic pitch if memory serves me right and big Brendan played centre half , must have dropped back in to defence in the latter stages of his career .

He still scored the winner for Oldham that day from a corner !!! .

It's just a revolving door today with players isn't it ? .

Nobody other than Copps or Bobby Hassell for us ever seems to stick around long enough for fans like ourselves to feel an emotional attachment to them .

The players obviously make more money today but whether they will be  remembered as fondly as Peter Kitchen by the fans in the future is debatable I guess .

I remember fondly my first trip to Oakwell as a spotty 14 year old (ish) looking forward to a great match which didn't disappoint as I think it ended up 1-1. Pretty sure we had Kitch and O'Callaghan up against Mick McCarthy and Nick Pickering. We had Windy Miller on the wing while your scorer was Millar I think.

Great crowd, great atmosphere but the only dodgy thing was our horrible away kit of yellow shirts and brown shorts!

I remember it well , 1977 i believe .

I remember it because we stood as kids on the West Stand terraces and there were hundreds of Rovers fans who joined us in those pre segregation days on that terrace .

No bother at all as I remember .

I think we equalised in the last minute in as you say a 1-1 draw .

[BillyStubbsTears]

I remember the front three of Kitchen , O'Challaghan and Miller well from our 1970's encounters with Rovers , that was some front three back then and a mystery as to why Rovers never got promoted from the old fourth division back then .

I wonder how long you'd be able to keep that trio together at Rovers today ? , not long I'd imagine as they seemed to play for Rovers for years back then .

I remember going to Boundary Park to see us play Oldham Athletic in the old second division around 1987 , plastic pitch if memory serves me right and big Brendan played centre half , must have dropped back in to defence in the latter stages of his career .

He still scored the winner for Oldham that day from a corner !!! .

It's just a revolving door today with players isn't it ? .

Nobody other than Copps or Bobby Hassell for us ever seems to stick around long enough for fans like ourselves to feel an emotional attachment to them .

The players obviously make more money today but whether they will be  remembered as fondly as Peter Kitchen by the fans in the future is debatable I guess .

We didn't get promoted because we usually conceded more than they could score.

[Silkscarf]

Can only echo what  others have said. It was mainly Kitch, O'Callaghan, Miller, Laidlaw, Peacock who got me excited as there was always the hope and expectation we would score goals. Trouble is, we conceded plenty too.

I recall Kitch being on the transfer list for quite some time (guessing at his own request) but it didn't seem to affect his performance.

There was a season, was it 75/76? When we came the closest to getting in to the top 4 only to fade badly after that brilliant 2-1 Friday night win at home v Huddersfield in March, going on to lose badly at Southend, Watford and Bradford?  which killed us off. The season we had Woodcock and Ian Bailey on loan.

I think we knew then it was highly likely we would lose Kitch and O'Callaghan.

Kitch wasn't always the most pleasing on the eye with his scruffy demeanor, hunched shoulders etc and I guess that might have been a factor why the bigger clubs didn't take a punt on him. It was pleasing though that he did get the chance to showcase his great talent and skill at a decent level.

It was 25/3/77, I remember that occasion very clearly. Huddersfield fans filled the away end and chanted ‘Udders’ a lot, which amused me. The sea of blue and white looked impressive, just like at a big ground.

[RoversInSpain]

Remember an over head scissor kick goal from Kitch. April ‘77. We played Scunthorpe and Halifax at home in consecutive days. Won both 3-0 and I think it was v Scunny.
Also think we played 4 games in 7 days.

[scawsby steve]

If there had been agents then, I'm convinced that Kitch and my old mate, Derrick Downing, would have played for top flight clubs.

[ravenrover]

Am I thinking of the right Decka, was on Scunnies books?
If it is he was a quality player

[scawsby steve]

Am I thinking of the right Decka, was on Scunnies books?
If it is he was a quality player

No, RR. He played for that great Middlesborough team that Stan Anderson managed before he managed us. That team had players like Laidlaw, McMordie, Hickton, and O'Rourke. They hammered us 4-0 at Belle Vue in 1966.

Dek then moved to Leyton Orient. He finished his career with York, and then Hartlepool. After retiring, he became the manager of the Main Line nightclub.

He still lives in Arksey. 

[Avsuptem]

I saw him score a wonder goal at Brisbane Road. He took a long ball on the full at the edge of the rh side of the goal area, some how managed to control it in the air perfectly and booted it from mid air past the keeper and into the net.

[arkseyrover]

if I remember rightly Derrick did play for Rovers reserves as a non contract player and he was on the wing outside the awesome Alick when he had his first game after returning from Australia. Was a huge crowd there to see it (4000+?)

[ravenrover]

Am I thinking of the right Decka, was on Scunnies books?
If it is he was a quality player

No, RR. He played for that great Middlesborough team that Stan Anderson managed before he managed us. That team had players like Laidlaw, McMordie, Hickton, and O'Rourke. They hammered us 4-0 at Belle Vue in 1966.

Dek then moved to Leyton Orient. He finished his career with York, and then Hartlepool. After retiring, he became the manager of the Main Line nightclub.

He still lives in Arksey. 

My mistake, turns out I was thinking of Dek Charnley another great talent but a bit too fond of the contents of a pint glass

[Colin C No.3]

Kitch had Mike Elwiss as a strike partner too for 2 or 3 seasons in the early 70’s.

There was two years between them (Kitch being the elder) & it’s interesting how their two careers panned out.

When Elwiss broke into the side as an 18 year old from the youth team in the 71/72 season he scored 2 goals on his debut at home. I can remember him scoring so early in games that if you weren’t in ‘position’ by the time kick off came you’d miss his first goal!

They played together in 73/74 season the highlight of which was the never to be forgotten fixture when we drew Liverpool in the FA Cup at Anfield the then current League Champions.
 Liverpool took the lead with a goal from Donny born Keegan (was he really turned down by Rovers because he was deemed to be too small or is that an urban myth?), Kitch then restored Rovers lead only for Keegan to score again but Big Bren scored to make it 2-2 & in the dying minutes Rovers hit the woodwork robbing them of a famous victory.

Elwiss left Rovers in 1974 for a then record fee for the club of £70,000 to PNE. He’d scored 30 goals for Rovers in 97 appearances (figures gleaned from Tony Bluff & Barry Watsons excellent book ‘Donny. The Official History Of. Elwiss played for Preston for 4 seasons before moving on to Crystal Palace for £200,000 (no sell on clause for us of course!). He played for them for 2 seasons helping them to gain promotion to the First Division in his 2nd season but a persistent knee injury put paid to his footballing career in 1980.

Kitch on the other hand stayed at Rovers for another 3 seasons before a £40,000 move to Orient. He’d scored 90 goals for Rovers in 228 appearances. He was top scorer for Orient in his first season with 21 league goals plus 7 in the FA Cup which saw them beat Chelsea & Middlesbrough on the way to the semi final.

Our kid met up with Kitch last seasat a game & Kitch was telling him about his career. He said that after the Middlesbrough game (in which he scored) he met up with Bobby Robson who had tried to sign him before he moved to Orient. Kitch said Ipswich offered £35k for him & Robson said he couldn’t offer anymore because the club had just bought Paul Mariner & Mick Mills. Rovers wanted £70k so the deal broke down. Bobby Robson told Kitch he had followed his career since & told him he was the finest footballer he’d never signed.

Kitch moved onto Fulham after just 2 seasons at Orient signing for a fee of £150k (again no sell on clause!) but when Fulham changed managers Kitch fell out of favour & was dropped to the reserves where he scored 31 goals but was never called back into the first XI despite Fulham languishing at the foot of the table. Kitch moved onto Cardiff in 1980 for £100k. He scored 21 goals for them in 67 appearances.

Two fantastic Rovers strikers who happened to come along in the same era, both Donny born & products of the youth set up at the time which also produced Stan Brookes & Steve Uzelac.

I doubt we’ll be ‘blessed’ with two better locally born strikers playing together again.

They were both a joy to watch.

[scawsby steve]

Kitch had Mike Elwiss as a strike partner too for 2 or 3 seasons in the early 70’s.

There was two years between them (Kitch being the elder) & it’s interesting how their two careers panned out.

When Elwiss broke into the side as an 18 year old from the youth team in the 71/72 season he scored 2 goals on his debut at home. I can remember him scoring so early in games that if you weren’t in ‘position’ by the time kick off came you’d miss his first goal!

They played together in 73/74 season the highlight of which was the never to be forgotten fixture when we drew Liverpool in the FA Cup at Anfield the then current League Champions.
 Liverpool took the lead with a goal from Donny born Keegan (was he really turned down by Rovers because he was deemed to be too small or is that an urban myth?), Kitch then restored Rovers lead only for Keegan to score again but Big Bren scored to make it 2-2 & in the dying minutes Rovers hit the woodwork robbing them of a famous victory.

Elwiss left Rovers in 1974 for a then record fee for the club of £70,000 to PNE. He’d scored 30 goals for Rovers in 97 appearances (figures gleaned from Tony Bluff & Barry Watsons excellent book ‘Donny. The Official History Of. Elwiss played for Preston for 4 seasons before moving on to Crystal Palace for £200,000 (no sell on clause for us of course!). He played for them for 2 seasons helping them to gain promotion to the First Division in his 2nd season but a persistent knee injury put paid to his footballing career in 1980.

Kitch on the other hand stayed at Rovers for another 3 seasons before a £40,000 move to Orient. He’d scored 90 goals for Rovers in 228 appearances. He was top scorer for Orient in his first season with 21 league goals plus 7 in the FA Cup which saw them beat Chelsea & Middlesbrough on the way to the semi final.

Our kid met up with Kitch last seasat a game & Kitch was telling him about his career. He said that after the Middlesbrough game (in which he scored) he met up with Bobby Robson who had tried to sign him before he moved to Orient. Kitch said Ipswich offered £35k for him & Robson said he couldn’t offer anymore because the club had just bought Paul Mariner & Mick Mills. Rovers wanted £70k so the deal broke down. Bobby Robson told Kitch he had followed his career since & told him he was the finest footballer he’d never signed.

Kitch moved onto Fulham after just 2 seasons at Orient signing for a fee of £150k (again no sell on clause!) but when Fulham changed managers Kitch fell out of favour & was dropped to the reserves where he scored 31 goals but was never called back into the first XI despite Fulham languishing at the foot of the table. Kitch moved onto Cardiff in 1980 for £100k. He scored 21 goals for them in 67 appearances.

Two fantastic Rovers strikers who happened to come along in the same era, both Donny born & products of the youth set up at the time which also produced Stan Brookes & Steve Uzelac.

I doubt we’ll be ‘blessed’ with two better locally born strikers playing together again.

They were both a joy to watch.

Great post, CC3. Point of order though; we were actually 2-1 up at HT at Anfield. Keegan equalised in the second half.

[Sprotyrover]

Started going to Rovers 1973 , Kitchen was a true Hero, it’s a pity we leaked goals like a sieve in 75/76
Our Strikers were awesome.