Retro Football issue 3

Retro Retro

Football Football Bringing you football the way it used to be.

Issue 3 - July 2010 Free to football fans everywhere

Inside: Sir Alf Ramsey Tribute Farewell to Saltergate Belfast Celtic Leitch’s Great Grounds plus Photos Competitions and much more

England’s most successful manager Alf Ramsey celebrates with his team in 1966

GREAT PLAYERS + GREAT GAMES = GREAT MEMORIES

Popular, but contoversial Chelsea striker Peter Osgood in a match against Southampton, a team he later joined.

Memories in Black & White No.1

Retro

Football Bringing you football the way it used to be.

Welcome to the July edition of Retro Football.

As the World Cup enters its final stages, the subject still on most people’s lips is the dire performances of the England team. Whatever the cause of the shambolic displays this summer, there is an apparent lack of passion from many of the grossly overpaid stars of today.

So let’s get away from the disappointments of this summer for a while, as we take a look back to football’s great days, when most players played for the love of the game, not solely for its financial rewards.

Inside this issue we get an insight into the work of architect Archibald Leitch, the designer of many main football stadia We salve the World Cup wounds by remembering England’s greatest manager, Sir Alf Ramsey, and pay tribute to the past with a review of the short existence of trouble-stricken Irish club, Belfast Celtic.

Top this all off with our usual features and a look at the last ever game at Saltergate, home of Chesterfield, and I hope you will find much to interest you inside.

Enjoy the magazine.

Nick Smalley FMA Editor

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Dodgy 70s Haircut Competition Enter our competition and you could win one of two prizes of 10,000 computer games on DVD. Who is the player pictured and who is his famous TV personality daughter?

Email your answer to retrofootball@btinternet.com by 30th July 2010.

Two correct entries drawn at random will get the prizes.

Ian Winger from Penrith and Jane Cook from Dundee correctly named the former Newcastle and England star Malcolm MacDonald as the player in last month’s photo competition.

Ask the Editor: The Drunken Referee After seeing some poor refereeing at the World Cup, Claire Morrison of Torquay emailed to ask: “Is it true that a few years ago, a World Cup referee had been found to be drunk whilst officiating at a top level football match?”

The answer is yes, Claire, but not in a game at World Cup level. In a 1-1 draw between Naftan and Vitebsk in the Belarus Premier Division, Siarhei Shmolik, who had been a FIFA-listed referee since 1993, and had officiated in England’s 6-0 defeat of Luxembourg at Wembley in 1999, was seen to be drunk whilst in charge of the whistle.

Mr Shmolik was voted Belarus’ best referee the previous year, but those attending the league match watched in surprise and some amusement as he staggered around - staying mainly in the centre circle - clearly unable to keep up with play. Bernd Stange, the Belarus coach, who was at the game said later, “It was beyond my comprehension. He was making gestures like a clown.”

The referee refused to issue any yellow or red cards, despite there being some nasty tackles from both sides, then at the end of the match, he had to be helped off the pitch by another official, waving to the crowd as he staggered to the tunnel, as if he was a drunken uncle taking his leave of a family wedding.

Shmolik was taken to hospital by concerned Belarus FA officials, where huge alcohol levels were found in his system. Allegations were made that he had been on a Vodka binge just before the match, but Shmolik claimed that back pain had been the reason for his bizarre performance.

At a hearing, the Belarus Football Federation dismissed the bad back claims and the 43 year old was banned from refereeing for life.

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Got a question? Email it to retrofootball@btinternet.com

Sir Alf Ramsey

England’s Most Successful Manager

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Sir Alf Ramsey: England’s Most Successful Manager As England’s World Cup Team returned home from South Africa, following their poor Group Stage performances and a drubbing by adversaries Germany, many were asking if their displays were merely an aberration, a quirk of fate or, is it that Fabio Capello is no longer the right man for the England manager’s job.

Retro Football makes no apology for throwing fuel onto the fire, by reminding everyone of one of Capello’s predecessors. A man whose career began as a player, on to league management and finally, to the status of World Cup winning England boss in the national side’s golden era.

Dagenham-born Sir Alfred ‘Alf’ Ramsey is best known for winning the 1966 World Cup with England, the only manager to do so. Many professionals and supporters of the game consider Ramsey one of the greatest ever British managers.

As well as the England job, Ramsey’s career also included an eleven-year playing stint before embarking on a very successful term as manager of Ipswich Town. Known as a very proud character that worked his players hard in training, Ramsey was unlike most managers in that he allowed his players to refer to him as “Alf”.

Alf Ramsey began his professional playing career with Southampton in 1944. He was a great reader of the game, quickly establishing himself as a capable right-back, he caught the attention of Tottenham Hotspur for whom he made more than 250 appearances between 1949 and 1955, scoring twenty four goals. Most of these came from the penalty spot.

Earning himself the nickname, ‘The General’, as a further reflection of his success, during his playing career, ‘Alf’ earned thirty-two England caps, three of which were as captain.

Ramsey hung up his boots in 1955 and took on his first managerial role with Ipswich Town of the Third Division South. In eight years as Ipswich boss, he proved himself a shrewd and competent manager, taking the East Anglia minnows to the old First Division in 1962 for the first time in their history, and against all the odds. In a remarkable spell, Ramsey’s Ipswich were transformed from a struggling Third Division side to the leading club team in the country.

It was during his time with Ipswich that Ramsey began to develop a system of tactics that he later applied to the England team of 1966 and achieved great success. When so many managers and teams used natural wingers as an attacking option, Ramsey opted for more defensive minded midfielders who joined the attack not out wide, but through the middle of the field.

This revolutionary tactic proved to be very effective in both domestic and international football and was a reflection of Ramsey’s managerial capability and tactical astuteness.

After being appointed England manager in 1963, Ramsey’s first act was to predict the winner of the next World Cup in 1966... England. His confidence was not shared by many but Ramsey set about achieving his bold ambition just as he did at Ipswich.

The key to Ramsey’s success was his ability to get the best from his players. He achieved this by adopting a strict regime that did not offer special treatment to any player, regardless of their ability or status within the squad. As a result, in the lead up to the World Cup finals in 1966, Ramsey had 22 players that were performing at their highest level.

In preparation for the tournament, Ramsey appointed young defender Bobby Moore as England captain for the World Cup. This proved to be one of Ramsey's finest decisions and set the tone for the Cup itself.

Ramsey’s England were drawn against Uruguay, Mexico and France in the group stages of the competition. After a disappointing 0-0 draw in the opening game against Uruguay, England were soon on track for Ramsey’s prediction with 2-0 victories against both Mexico and France.

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As is usually the way with England though, just when things were looking up for Ramsey and England, injury struck, as influential striker Jimmy Greaves was sidelined. Secondly, Ramsey faced a battle with FIFA, who were calling for Nobby Stiles to be removed from the England squad after a vicious tackle against the French. In a statement of loyalty to his player, Ramsey pledged to quit as England boss if Stiles was removed. Stiles remained with the team and went on to play a key role en route to victory.

After a reasonably comfortable qualification round, England’s next opponents were Argentina.

Known for their rough style, the South Americans did not disappoint as captain Antonio Rattin refused to leave the field after being sent off. It was in this game that Ramsey decided to adopt his ‘wingless’ style and switched from a traditional 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 with Martin Peters and Alan Ball either side of Bobby Charlton and Nobby Stiles in midfield. It proved to be a masterstroke as it was Peters who set up Greaves’s replacement, Geoff Hurst, for the deciding goal in a 1-0 win. However, as an act of protest against the Argentine style of play, Ramsey did not allow his players to swap shirts after the game.

Having reached the semi-finals, it was becoming clear that Ramsey’s prediction was not as far-fetched as first thought. Despite coming up against the tournament's top scorer, Portugal's Eusebio, in the semi-final England triumphed 2-1, setting up a final with West Germany at Wembley.

What is probably England’s finest Multi Coloured Swap Stop: Ramsey wouldn’t allow the traditional shirt sporting achievement came on the exchange to take place after a brutal clash with Argentina in 1966.

30th July 1966.

In a thrilling encounter, Ramsey’s team overcame their German opponents 4-2 after extra-time just as he had predicted three years earlier. It was this match that defined Ramsey’s managerial career and demonstrated his tactical astuteness.

Playing 4-4-2, Ramsey’s faith in Geoff Hurst paid off, as the West Ham striker scored a hat trick, while Martin Peters, playing in Ramsey’s newly created midfield role, also scored. No England manager has ever come close to matching the success of Ramsey and it is for that reason that he is considered by many as the greatest England manager of all time.

Ramsey and England were not so successful two years later when they entered the next major championship. Hosts Italy won the European Championship in 1968 while England could only finish third. Ramsey was knighted in 1970, but in that year’s World Cup, after coming through a tough group stage that included Brazil, England were eliminated by West Germany in a rematch of the 1966 Final.

This marked a turning point in Ramsey’s career and the fortunes of the England team, as both plunged in the years following the defeat in Mexico. The rot firmly set in when the Germans beat England again in 1972, knocking Ramsey’s team out of the European Championships in Belgium.

It was becoming clear that the success of 1966 could not be matched and, after failing to qualify for the 1974 World Cup, Ramsey was sacked as England manager.

Ramsey went on to take on a brief caretaker-manager role at Birmingham City between 1977 and 1978.

After suffering from a stroke in his later life, Alf was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which would be the cause of his death in 1999 at the age of 79.

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Manchester City players show off the 1967-8 League Champion’s Trophy to their supporters.

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Memories in Black & White No.2

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The Other Celtic

Belfast Celtic’s Unhappy History Belfast Celtic, arguably the greatest club in the history of Irish football were formed in 1891 and from 1901 onwards the club played at Celtic Park in West Belfast. Their ground was just off the Falls Road, approximately half a mile from Windsor Park, home of their great city rivals Linfield.

Celtic Park was a huge oval shaped arena capable of holding 50,000 fans in its heyday, there were covered stands at each side of the pitch and banks of open terracing at both ends.

The club was named after Glasgow Celtic with the view of imitating the Scottish-based Irish club "in their style of play, to win the Irish cup and follow their example in the cause of charity."

Admitted to the Irish league in 1896, they won their first championship in 1901. The club moved into its own ground, Celtic Park, on the Donegal Road, later renamed Paradise. The ground had a capacity of 50,000 with 2,000 seated.

The club was controlled by the Barr family, and secretary Bob Barr is credited with having steered the club through the tortuous religious and political circumstances surrounding its formation.

Belfast Celtic was run on strictly non-sectarian grounds.

It dropped out of senior football, for no publicly known reason between 1915 and 1917 during World War I, but continued to have outstanding success as a junior club. It left senior football again in 1920, after an infamous cup semi-final when a man produced a revolver and fired shots into the crowd. This was during the Irish War of Independence, and in October of that year, British forces opened fire on players and the crowd at Croke Park, in Dublin.

The club was persuaded back into senior football in 1924, and its return marked the start of a glorious era for the club, which went on to win the league championship 10 times in 16 years and also the first post-World War II championship.

However, after 14 league championships Belfast Celtic eventually left football in 1949. After a match at Windsor Park against Linfield, one of the Celtic players was attacked by spectators and nearly killed. At the end of the 1-1 Boxing Day draw, Linfield fans poured over the barriers causing the Celtic players to literally run for their lives. Centre Forward Jimmy Jones was thrown over a parapet and kicked unconscious and ending up with a broken leg. Two other players were badly injured by the hoardes of opposition fans.

Although Linfield denounced the attack, Belfast Celtic’s directors announced 'enough is enough' and at the end of the 1948-49 season the club was wound up. The ground itself survived for many years as a greyhound track but has now disappeared beneath a shopping centre.

Celtic Park, West Belfast was the home of Belfast Celtic until security problems caused the club to close in 1949.

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Archibald Leitch

The Grand Designer of the Football Stadium Archibald Leitch was a Scottish architect, most famous for designing those grand old football stadiums that dominated the skylines of towns across Britain until recent years.

Born in Glasgow in 1865, Leitch's early work was designing factories in his home city, but moved into stadium design after being commissioned to build Ibrox Park, the new home ground of Rangers, in 1899.

Leitch's stadiums were functional rather than elegant, and were clearly influenced by his early work on industrial buildings.

His first project in England was the design and building of the John Street Stand at Bramall Lane, Sheffield, which provided 3,000 seats and terracing for 6,000 and was dominated by a large mock-Tudor press box.

Even after the Ibrox disaster of 1902, when 26 people were killed when a bank of terracing collapsed, Leitch was still in demand.

Over the next four decades he became Britain's foremost football architect. In total he was commissioned to design part or all of more than 20 stadiums in the UK and Ireland between 1899 and 1939, including those on our list below.

Many of his works have since been demolished for redevelopment (especially following the Taylor Report and the move to all-seater stadiums), most notably the Trinity Road Stand at Villa Park, considered his masterpiece, which was demolished in 2000.

Stadiums designed by Archibald Leitch

Anfield, Liverpool Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough Bramall Lane, Sheffield Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff Celtic Park, Glasgow Craven Cottage, London Dalymount Park, Dublin The Den, London The main stand and the pavilion at Craven Cottage, Dens Park, Dundee The Dell, Southampton and the facade of the Ewood Park, Blackburn Main Stand at Ibrox Fratton Park, Portsmouth (although the stand has Goodison Park, Liverpool been remodelled) still Hampden Park, Glasgow survive today; both are Home Park, Plymouth listed buildings. Leitch also Ibrox Park, Glasgow came up with the formula Highbury, London that, for every one person Hillsborough , Sheffield seated, two can stand.

Lansdowne Road, Dublin Molineux, Wolverhampton Old Trafford,Manchester Park Avenue, Bradford Roker Park, Sunderland Rugby Park, Kilmarnock Saltergate, Chesterfield Selhurst Park, London Somerset Park, Ayr Stamford Bridge, London Starks Park, Kirkcaldy Twickenham Stadium, London Tynecastle Stadium, Edinburgh Valley Parade, Bradford Villa Park, Birmingham West Ham Stadium, London White Hart Lane, London

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Farewell Saltergate The End of a Leitch Stadium

Saltergate is generally regarded as one of the longest serving football league grounds, having had its inauguration in 1871 and continuing in use until the end of the 2009-10 season. Although formally known by the name 'The Recreation Ground', 'Saltergate' replaced it in popular usage from the 1920s. The ground hosted its first game on 4th November 1871 with Rotherham providing the opposition. League football came to Saltergate in 1899 with Chesterfield Town's election to play in Division Two of the Football League.

The ground's main period of development occurred during the inter-war years, including the erection of a new main stand by Archibald Leitch. After the Second World War, development was more limited and Saltergate was the final league ground in England to acquire floodlights, with Chesterfield's first home game under lights not being played until the 1967-1968 season.

As the ground increasingly showed its age in the late 20th century, consideration was given to re-developing Saltergate, but these plans were ultimately abandoned, mostly due to practicalities.

In 2006, the club's fans voted to relocate from the Recreation Ground to the site of the former Dema Glass factory, near the Chesterfield - Sheffield bypass around a mile from the town centre.

Chesterfield F.C.'s final league fixture at the ground was held on 8th May 2010, ending in a dramatic 2-1 win against AFC Bournemouth following an injury time goal from Derek Niven, the club's longest serving player. Following the goal, there was a brief pitch invasion, which included a disabled man in a wheelchair.

Two of of the crush barriers from Saltergate's terraces have become museum pieces at the National Football Museum in Preston and theScottish Football Museum in Glasgow, representing two of the last-known examples of once commonplace barriers designed by the Scottish engineer who designed so many football grounds - Archibald Leitch.

Sunset over Saltergate

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Memories in Black & White No.3

Legendary Russian Goalkeeper Lev Yashin in action in the 1966 World Cup Semi Final at Goodison Park. Russia fell to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of West Germany.

Memories in Black & White No.4 Stamford Bridge as it used to be. This view of the packed stadium is thought to have been taken sometime during the Second World War.

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