So, a season which I’ve seen called Cardiff City’s worst since their promotion to the second tier twenty years ago this month limps to an end on Monday with a visit to Champions Burnley who need a win to pass hundred points in a campaign where they’ve clearly been the best team in the Championship.
As for Cardiff City, it’s very likely that we’ll finish twenty first out of twenty four. less than six points ahead of a club that have been docked that number late in the season – we’re not quite there yet I’d say, but we’re very close to being in a position where nothing but an improvement on 22/23 will save us from dropping into League One in a year’s time.
On a happier note, I’m grateful to blog reader Mark Adams who informs me that Ton Pentre won the SWFA Loosemore’s Senior Cup last weekend when they beat Pentyrch Rangers 4-1 at Pen-y-Bont – congratulations too to Pentyrch who made it all the way to the Final, despite being five divisions below Ton in the South Wales football pyramid.
Going back to Burnley, here’s the final seven decades quiz of this season- I’ll post the answers on here on Tuesday.
60s. This Cheshire born defender was one of those who had to take a step backwards to take two forward after he left Burnley without playing a game for them. Dropping into non league football he moved to a town which once boasted the oldest ground ever to have football played continuously on it. However, he did not play for the team, named after a Queen, which used that ground, he played for the town’s other team who wore the same striped kit as a team he went on to serve with distinction a decade later. His next move took him back into league football with one of Yorkshire’s smaller sometime Football League clubs which has had a chequered history in the near half a century since he played for them. Moving south, he won a title while wearing white and followed it up with a close promotion miss a year later, The following season saw him transferred to much more plush surroundings – he made it into the top flight with this team and it was then that he became only the second player to come up with a scoring achievement which I’m not aware of having been repeated since. Now approaching the veteran stage, he next wore those aforementioned stripes and he ended up playing more matches for them than any other club in his career. His final move saw him wearing stripes again and representing the place which could perhaps be called the home of England’s most famous culinary offering. Who am I describing?
70s. Small and busy, he was not as conspicuous as a follicly challenged colleague in Burnley’s midfield during this decade, but he still managed to stand out. When he moved on from Turf Moor, he kept on wearing claret and experienced the promotion he never managed at his first club before injury forced his retirement from the professional game at twenty nine. Can you name him?
80s. Sounds like an expression of exasperation when asked to genuflect further!
90s. A shame I’m not available initially to feature for Burnley (3,7).
00s. What’s the connection between too many right wing meetings, a row going on down near Slough and the Burnley midfield during this decade?
10s. Among others, he’s scored goals for De Pallieters, Les Rouches, OHL, ????????? (The ?rmy) and the Buddies during his career, he also made his City debut in a game against Bunrley during this decade, who is he?
20s. Caledonian yarn perhaps?
Answers:
60s. Chris Nicholl joined Witton Albion after leaving Burnley on a free transfer. Witton are based in Northwich and the town’s more famous club, Northwich Victoria, used to play at the Drill Field which was used by the club continuously between 1875 and 2002. Nicholl moved back into the Football League in 1968 when he joined Halifax and his form was good enough to get him a move to Luton Town a year later. Moving on to Villa in 1972, Nicholl managed to score all four goals in a game with Leicester in 1976 which finished 2-2. In 1978, Nicholl signed for Southampton and stayed at the Dell until 1983 when he was thirty seven and then there was time for another season at what could be called England’s Fish and Chip capital, Grimsby.
70s. Billy Ingham was known as th2 “ginger Pele” by Burnley fans during his eight years in he first team during which he played over two hundred league games, many of them alongside Bobby Charlton and Ralph Coates impersonator Peter Noble. Bradford paid £30,000 for Ingham in 1980 and he was part of a team which won promotion from the old Fourth Division during his two seasons with them before his injury enforced retirement in 1982.
80s. Neil Whatmore.
90s. Ian Measham.
00s. Paul Weller. The Jam’s frontman wrote the lyrics “too many right wing meetings” (Down in the tube station at midnight) and “there’s a row going on down near Slough (Eton Rifles) and his namesake played over two hundred and fifty league games in Burnley’s midfield between 1993 and 2004.
10s. Tony Watt made his City debut in November 2015 when he was on loan from Charlton. In a career which has featured many clubs and fostered a feeling he was not making the most of his talent, Watt has scored goals for, amongst others, De Pallieters (Lierse), Les Rouches (Standard Leige), OHL (OH Leuven), ????????? (CSKA Sofia) and the Buddies (St. Mirren).
20s. Scott Twine.