ISSUE #8
JUNE 20
A KICK IN THE PAST
FLEETWOOD TOWN FOOTBALL CLUB OFFICIAL FORMER PLAYERS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER
LATEST NEWS
the final third
CATCH UP ON THE LATEST FLEETWOOD TOWN FPA UPDATES
a gallery of images from the last three months of meetings
Birthdays We have some birthdays coming up: JUNE: Frank Cygal (45 on 11th), George Ellerby (61 on 12th), Ben Lavelle (57 on 12th), Dave Warburton (46 on 15th), Harold Wilkinson (74 on 17th), Alan Kennerly (61 on 19th), Geoff Barnes (81 on 19th), Brain McManus (74 on 20th), Stephen Crainey (39 on 22nd), Lee Garrett (40 on 25th). JULY: Bobby Grant (30 on 1st), Ben Andrew (75 on 5th), Matty Hughes (28 on 17th), Stuart Beech (42 on 19th), Stuart Robinson (66 on 20th), Derek Lancaster (71 on 26th), Ron Kennedy (83 on 30th), Tony Monks (71 on 31st). AUGUST: Jim Betmead (72 on 5th), Gordon Griffith (81 on 6th), Ronnie Bellwood (90 on 11th), Kevin Thomas (A) (76 on 13th), Don Gair (81 on 16th), Stuart Murdoch (70 on 17th), Chris Coll (39 on 20th), Bobby Cuthbertson (68 on 21st), Barry Nicholson (42 on 24th), Rob Thomas (70 on 27th), Bob Harris (33 on 28th), Phil Hendrick (71 on 29th), Andy Mangan (34 on 30th).
Cancellation of events Due to the coronavirus outbreak, we have had to regrettably cancel not only our monthly meetings at Poolfoot but also our planned golf day at Fleetwood golf club (6th April) and our visit to Brian House children’s hospice in Bispham (13th May). The monthly meetings will begin again once it is safe to do so and the other events will be re-arranged in due course
BACK ON THE PITCH: The Former Players definitely turned up in their numbers to the March meeting at Poolfoot Farm
New members August of this year will see us mark the third anniversary of the formation of the Former Players Association. Whist there were just a handful of members who appeared and enrolled at the first meeting at Poolfoot, numbers have grown impressively since. We remain keen though to bring more members on board. If you should know anyone personally who has played for any of Fleetwood FC, Fleetwood Town or Fleetwood Freeport, please do let them now about the FPA. We are happy to enrol any player who has appeared for the club in any season. It is a fantastic opportunity to become re - acquainted with old team mates and learn about players from different eras of the club. A limited edition FPA member’s badge will be given to each new member on a one per person basis to maintain their exclusivity. All new members will also receive a copy of the quarterly newsletter. Membership application forms are available from Tony Collier (FPA secretary) who may also be contacted for further information. The association remains free to join.
IS THAT ME?: FPA member Roy Whitehouse reading some memorabilia, and probably looking for a picture of his younger self.
FIRM GRIP : Secretary Tony Collier presents a signed FTFC shirt to Harold Wilkinson.
Change of contact details If you should move house, change your e mail address or phone number(s) would you please let Tony Collier (FPA secretary) know your new contact details please. Stuart, Phil or Tony may need to contact you and your current home address will be also used to post out future editions of the FPA newsletter “A kick in the past”. Please help us to keep in touch with you.
Front cover: Ronnie Bellwood posing for a picture on the elite pitch at Poolfoot Farm.
2
FLEETWOOD TOWN FORMER PLAYERS ASSOCIATION
REMEMBER THE DAYS: FPA members soaking up the glorious sunshine at Poolfoot Farm, whilst watching the first team train back in March. FLEETWOOD TOWN FORMER PLAYERS ASSOCIATION
LOOKING BACK : Tom Scott and Mike Whitehead looking back at their playing days in a historic newspaper.
3
DAVID WASSALL & PETER CHILVERS W
e were greatly saddened to lose two of Fleetwood’s former players. Dave Wassall (‘Wassy’) passed away on 7th March at the age of 76. Dave started his career as a junior at Blackpool before carving out a non-league career at Burscough, Lytham and Blackpool Mechanics, from whom he joined Fleetwood in the summer of 1973. He made his debut in a 1-0 defeat at Macclesfield Town on the opening day of the 1973/74 season. A prolific goal scorer everywhere he played, he scored 28 goals in 66 first team appearances for Fleetwood before departing for Netherfield in September 1974. In spite of poor health in recent years, Dave was a proud member of the FPA. His former team mate,
fellow FPA member and close friend Derek Lancaster said “Wassy was a fantastic player who could and should have played at a much higher level. He was also a really good bloke and a great friend.” Peter Chilvers died on 2nd May aged 88. Peter joined Fleetwood from Preesall FC in the summer of 1949 and following his Fleetwood first team debut away at Chorley in the Lancashire Combination on 14 September 1949, went on to play 221 first team games for the club, scoring 47 goals, before his retirement in 1960. Peter was a genuinely two footed player who was comfortable on either flank and was a mainstay of our teams throughout the 1950s. He lived in Fleetwood almost all of his life and he worked in the fishing
industry as a bookkeeper for a local trawler company, Wyre Trawlers. Former team mate and FPA member Don Gair said of Peter “He was my hero when I was a teenager watching Fleetwood in the mid-50’s and it was a huge privilege to get the opportunity to play alongside him as a young player breaking through into the first team.” Whilst not a member of the Association, Peter’s son Leo said “He was never able to join the FPA due to dementia/Alzheimers. “He would have loved meeting with his former team-mates.” Very sadly, Peter’s wife Pat also passed away later on the same day as her husband. Both are survived by Leo and daughter Judith, to whom we pass on our deepest condolences.
DAVID ‘WASSY’ WASSALL FLEETWOOD YEARS: 1973 1974
PETER CHILVERS FLEETWOOD YEARS: 1949 1960
4
FLEETWOOD TOWN FORMER PLAYERS ASSOCIATION
5
RONNIE REFLECTS ON LAST NINE DECADES WORDS: PAUL COLLIER
In this feature, former defender Ronnie Bellwood looks back on his playing career and working life.
R
onnie Bellwood is the senior statesman of the Fleetwood Town Former Players Association and will soon reach the magnificent milestone of his 90th birthday. He is a native of the once thriving fishing town and a lovely man for whom the words self–deprecating were surely intended, that’s for sure. He was a player of the 1950’s when football was a very different game to the contemporary one we know now. Ron made his debut in the Lancashire Combination League in April 1951, at Barrow reserves, in a goal starved game. It was his sole appearance in the first team that season but he played in a further 147 league games during the next 12 seasons. Ron’s thoughts returned to those days of 60 years plus. “I had just come out of the army and Taffy Jones, a Welsh international, was manager here (Fleetwood). “I played in one of the junior matches and he just asked me to come in and sign for them. “I have lived in Fleetwood all of my life and I have seen the football club go down and I have seen it come up again.”
6
When asked what it was like at Highbury six decades ago the former defender recalled: “I can remember coming off the dock in my dock clothes and running across the field to play. “Players were already getting ready to go out.
“Percy Ronson at the time was on the docks but he had no trouble getting off for matches but I did and had to work right until the last minute. “I can only remember me and Percy on the docks. Jack Ainscough was a Post Office engineer, Bill Tuson was a plasterer and George Mcintyre was in the air force.
When questioned about training Ronnie declared: “Here we trained Tuesday and Thursday evenings apart from myself, I trained every day on my own. “I had a lot of problems actually when I was playing. “I wanted to do my own thing, that sounds a bit big headed doesn’t it? “A lot of the training that you got wasn’t good enough for me to be quite honest and wasn’t adequate. “We did a lot of laps and that is what annoyed me, running around you know. It was tedious and wasn’t doing us any good. “When we asked for a ball they would say do some more laps! “Everybody wanted a ball but their philosophy was that if you didn’t get a ball you would be hungry for it when you did get a ball but it didn’t work for me. “I think sometimes they would get us running backwards instead of getting us to turn quickly like they can do today. “Nobody ever complained about the training though because it was easy.” Asked whether he ever had problems getting time off from his day job on the docks Ronnie replied with indignation: “I worked for a
FLEETWOOD TOWN FORMER PLAYERS ASSOCIATION
person called Walter Carmel and he was a swine to be quite honest. “He was keen on Blackpool and he liked a little bit of publicity and he’d never let me off, never would he let me off (to play games). “Eddie Johnson, the then Fleetwood Chairman, talked to him but he wouldn’t let me off at all. “All the people that I worked with at that particular firm all would have done my job for me and he still wouldn’t let me off. “This was a man who was supposed to be sporting wise you know and all that sort of thing. “I was annoyed at that and missed a lot of games.” Ronnie declared a surprising admission that he had always felt that he was lacking in confidence in his playing career. “I can’t really think why I was under confident because I used to spend hours in the back street with a football. “I used to think to myself that there was something wrong with me and why can’t you do better?
“There was no such thing as psychiatrists then but it followed me all my life.” Outside of football Ronnie reflected on more than three decades of being employed on the docks which meant 4am starts and sometimes earlier. He remembered: “It was very hard work but it never bothered me because I was fit. “Sometimes you would start at 2 o’clock in the morning. “If a ship came in and it had a lot of fish, maybe from Iceland, it took a longer time to unload them. “The fish was laid in the market until 8 o’clock and then they started the sales. “That’s when the merchants came that I worked for later on and that’s when the filleting started. “There were good filleters and bad filleters and I don’t think that I was very good. Actually, I was not bad as I never cut myself once. “My dad always used to say keep your hand behind the knife. A lot of them (filleters) got cut, slashed wrists and everything, terrible isn’t it?
RONNIE CUTTING THE TWO-YEAR FPA ANNIVERSARY CAKE BACK IN AUGUST 2019
“I only did it periodically but people who were skilled at it were really good at it, very fast.” Ronnie not only worked on Fleetwood docks but was a driving instructor too. “He recalled: “I used come off the docks at 8 o’clock, have a little bit of a sleep and then go to the driving instructing. “I did that for 35 years, a long time, and my wife did it as well. “People used to ask me if I got nervous and I would reply ‘only when they don’t pay!’ “I remember my first car was a Morris Oxford which cost me about £300.” While Ronnie closes in on a landmark Birthday he remains a popular member and regular attendee at the FPA meetings. He does though think that he has lived had a charmed life. “All the people I worked with have gone, everyone one of them, not one alive. “In those days on the docks they had a hard life.”
7
MEMORABLE MATCH STEVE MACAULEY'S MOST MEMORABLE MATCH FROM HIS CAREER
FLEETWOOD TOWN 5 BRIGG TOWN 1 NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE DIVISION ONE 29TH APRIL 2006 Fleetwood’s team that day: Banks (GK), Nay, Pryers, Gray, Macauley, Beech, Openshaw, Milligan, Stevens, Bell, Allen. Subs – Robinson (Allen), Denney (Stevens), Hone (Not used). Fleetwood’s goalscorers: Allen (2), Milligan (2 - both penalties), Bell.
S
teve Macauley, FPA member, was an excellent central defender who played for the club both at the beginning and end of a distinguished career. His stints at Highbury were sandwiched between a ten year stay at Crewe Alexandra and further spells at Macclesfield Town, Rochdale and Bamber Bridge. The game which is the most memorable for Steve was his last one for Fleetwood Town. Prior to the home match against Brigg Town, the final one of the 2005/06 season, Fleetwood had a possible, though unlikely, chance of achieving promotion from the Northern Premier League Division One. For this to be become a reality, it required rivals Kendal Town to lose at home to Shepshed Dynamo and Fleetwood to beat their visitors. Additionally, the home side required a five goal swing in their favour. In the 33rd minute of the game Richie Allen stooped to head in at the far post from a Jamie Milligan corner. Fleetwood’s lead was then cancelled out by headed own goal by Shaun Gray. The teams went in level at half–time to learn then that Kendal were losing 1–0 to Shepshed. Ten minutes after the restart a buoyed up Fleetwood
8
regained the lead when Jamie Milligan converted a penalty following a handball decision. News reached the 523 supporters that Kendal had doubled their lead and on the 75 minute mark Fleetwood striker Andy Bell lifted the ball over the advancing Brigg goalkeeper to make the score 3-1. In the 85th minute Allen scored his second goal of the game. He received a pass from Lee Pryers and fired through a packed penalty area. Meanwhile, Kendal had pulled a goal back against their visitors from Leicestershire. This meant that Fleetwood required another goal to secure promotion. In the final minute of an emotion charged match, Brigg conceded a corner which was duly taken by Milligan. It resulted in Steve Macauley crashing to the ground. The referee awarded a penalty which the Brigg players vehemently protested about and defender Lee Cochrane was duly sent off. The resulting spot kick was coolly converted by Milligan and the five goal swing had been amazingly achieved. Kendal Town’s game though was still in progress with a further four minutes to play.
FLEETWOOD TOWN FORMER PLAYERS ASSOCIATION
FLEETWOOD TOWN CELEBRATING PROMOTION IN 2006
The agonising seconds crept by before news reached the Highbury faithful that Shepshed Dynamo had held on to their slim lead and Fleetwood Town were duly promoted to the Northern Premier League Premier Division as a result. Thereby followed scenes of elation as the Fleetwood fans poured onto the pitch to celebrate with the players. Steve recalled: “We were down and out really. It was late on and there was a penalty incident. “I have to say and I can say with hand on heart diving in the penalty area is something I never did apart from that time. “I got the lightest of touches, a little hand in the back and subsequently hit the floor and we got a penalty from it. “It was the tiniest amount of contact but enough I thought to warrant a penalty.” When asked about the jubilation after the game Steve remembered: “When you are
thirty odd I think you pretty much take a backward step and let the young guys do the celebrating but it was great to see. “If I am honest I had half an eye on the coaching side of things so it is always nice to gauge people’s reactions and things. “Without sounding big time, beating Brigg was not one of the biggest things I had done in my football career. “So although it was great and lovely, it always is to win things certainly as unexpectedly as that one. “It was something where you almost think let the young lads enjoy it as it wasn’t majorly a time for us.” Steve was not at peak fitness for the match and declared: “I had an injury and I was injured in that game. I shouldn’t really have played, I had a calf strain and was literally limping through things but they were probably just using me as experience.
“I remember thinking that I can’t keep doing this. My body was kind of like slowly letting me down which was frustrating. “Also memorable is the fact I think I’d had a season where I had picked up little bits of knocks here and there. “It was really the realisation that my career was coming to an end because my brain was a lot quicker than my legs were at that time. “It was the first realisation after that season that probably it was time to call it a day. “I remember thinking to myself that I’m done. I think your brain plays tricks on you. “I think you want to tell yourself that you are still okay but actually then when you do start picking up little niggles, ones that that you would shake off as a youngster can take you two or three games. “That’s obviously the body telling you that you are slowing down.”
FLEETWOOD TOWN FORMER PLAYERS ASSOCIATION
9
A FEW WORDS FROM STUART MURDOCH D
ateline 10th March 2020… It’s a great atmosphere, the final whistle has just sounded and we have secured a very good point by drawing 2-2 with Portsmouth at Fratton Park. The talk as we leave the ground is about our prospects for the remainder of the season and how we have a great chance of being in the play-offs, if not gaining automatic promotion. Fleetwood Town aiming for the Championship and then… We all know what happened next. By the following Saturday, all football had been postponed and by the Monday our lives had been turned upside down. Unprecedented times for all of us. Memories of previous battles for the older ones amongst us naturally, but for those who were born post 1945
this is probably the first time our freedom has been denied. Being told we cannot go out except to exercise for 30 minutes (too long for some of us!), not being able to work, see our loved ones, socialise or even buy loo rolls! It is all for an exceptional cause of course, to help our magnificent NHS to keep as many of us alive as possible. I am sure you have been like me, trying to make the best of your lot. I’m very lucky, I have a small garden, but I can get outside, and the weather has been good. I have a bike and have managed to get out most days - we soldier on. I have managed to contact some of you, and I know Phil and Tony have been busy making contact too. Everyone I have spoken to has been in good spirits considering
the situation, but I know you are all looking forward to the day when we can meet up again. Even so it is amazing how proficient people have become with modern technology. I can now use Zoom, WhatsApp and Kahoot and even take panoramic photographs with my mobile phone! So, we wait and try, and do as we are told, which is not easy at our stage of life and yet look forward to when things change. We can then all sit around, talk rubbish about how good we were and how nothing is as good as it used to be! It will be great to see you all again just as soon as it is safe to do so. Take great care, look after yourselves and all your loved ones. My best wishes to you all.
GET TOGETHER W
e have recently received a kind invitation from our good friends at the Blackpool FC Former Player’s Association for our own FPA members to attend their next informal “get together” at Bloomfield Road. Whilst it is not known exactly when their next meeting will take place due to the ongoing corona virus situation, the gathering will be on the last Thursday of a specific month. The meeting will run from 10am until 12 noon in the club’s 1953 suite. A mini tour of the stadium and changing rooms at Bloomfield Road will also be available during this time span. Blackpool FC has close ties with friends at Fleetwood Town and there are dozens of players over the years who have played for or watched both clubs. The future meeting would be an ideal opportunity for members of both FPA’s to meet up and share memories of times gone by. Further details will be announced in due course. Please note that the Fleetwood Town FPA monthly meetings at Poolfoot will resume again just as soon as it is safe for them to do so.
FTFC FPA OFFICIALS WHO TO CONTACT AT FLEETWOOD TOWN'S FPA Chairman Stuart Murdoch Email: stuart.murdoch@fleetwoodtownfc.co.uk Phone number: 07921 934775
Vice-chairman Phil Brown Email: phil.brown@besutilities.co.uk Phone number: 07976 054398
Secretary Tony Collier Email: tonycfpa@outlook.com Phone number: 07931 415844
10
FLEETWOOD TOWN FORMER PLAYERS ASSOCIATION
11