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FOOTBALL PROGRAMMES from my personal collection |
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My oldest Wrexham F.C. Programme. Top right corner of the Racecourse Ground on the cover is the old wooden Mold Road Stand, where my father would take me to watch The Robins |
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Division Three Saturday, December 14th, 1963 Wrexham v Peterborough United |
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Wrexham were bottom of the League, and lost 2v3 with Ernie Pythian scoring both goals, in front of a 4,527 crowd. Wrexham had beaten Luton Town 2v0 (Arfon Griffiths and Mickey Metcalf the scorers) in their previous match, which had ended a run of 12 games without a win, 11 of them being straight defeats. In the Peterborough side was DEREK DOUGAN - the programme noted; 6ft 2 1/2 ins tall, this Irish International came to 'Posh' from Aston Villa. A personality who can play. "The Doug" is a maker and taker of goals, and at 24 years of age is due to grace the game for many years. |
Player / Manager Ken Barnes in his programme notes wrote; "What wretched luck befell DAVE MACKAY last Tuesday at Old Trafford and the sympathy of all the football world goes out to Dave, along with best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery." A year later, Mackay would break his leg again. |
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MY OLDEST WALES (away) PROGRAMME Denmark v Wales 21st October 1964
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This was Wales' first qualifying match in Group VII of the 1966 World Cup Finals. Countries in Wales' group were Denmark, Greece and Russia. Wales lost this game 0v1 in front of 22,800 people. Sondergaard scored the only goal of the game. Welsh group results were;
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Denmark 1 v 0 Wales Greece 2 v 0 Wales Wales 4 v 1 Greece Russia 1 v 2 Wales Wales 2 v 1 Russia Wales 4 v 2 Denmark | | |
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MY OLDEST TOTTENHAM PROGRAMME Wolves v Spurs 14th November 1964
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Wolves beat Spurs 3v1 but were eventually relegated from the First Division that season with Birmingham City. They were replaced by Newcastle United and Northampton Town. The latter had a meteoric rise from the Fourth Division, only to return there in quick succession. Spurs were sixth that season, below Champions Manchester United, runners up Leeds United, followed by Chelsea, Everton and Nottingham Forest in fifth spot. | |
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WREXHAM F.C CONNECTIONS Southend Utd v Workington 1965
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Personal note; The Southend team was managed by Penmon born Alvan Williams, who became manager at Wrexham in 1967. He took Terry Bradbury and Ray Smith with him. He also appointed John Neal as his first team trainer. All three appear on the team sheet. John later became Wrexham managed, laying the foundations for Arfon Griffiths to take the team into the then Second Division of the Football League, in 1977/78 | |
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REPRESENTATIVE MATCH Arsenal v Brazil XI 1965
Arsenal won 2 v 0 in this pre-World Cup friendly for the Brazilians |
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LONDON'S FIRST BIG SCREEN SOCCER PROMOTION Workington v Millwall 1966
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This Football League Division Three match was played at Borough Park, Workington, on January 28th 1966, and relayed to The Den, Millwall, for 'away supporters' to see the match 'at home'. This is the Millwall 'away' programme. | |
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MY FIRST LEAGUE CUP TIE Sheffield United v Burnley 5th October, 1966
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This was my second first class game. The first Football League match I ever saw was the previous season, also at Bramhall Lane, against Fulham. Bramhall Lane in those days had an open side to the pitch, as it was also used to play cricket! | |
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My second game in three days! Second Division Derby County v Millwall 8th October 1966
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We were on holiday with my uncle and aunt in Bakewell, and visited the Baseball Ground for Derby County's home game against Millwall.
Derby won 5v1. It was only their second home victory, but it took their unbeaten run to four games.
Derby completed the season in 17th position and Millwall 8th. Coventry City were Champions, Wolves were runners-up. Northampton and Bury were relegated | | |
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CENTENARY & GRAND CHALLENGE MATCH Queen's Park v British Amateur Select Celtic v Tottenham 1967
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 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR F.C. F.A. Cup Winners 1966-67 Back row; Jennings, England, Knowles, Clayton, Mullery, Kinnear Front row; Robertson, Greaves, Gilzean, Mackay, Venables, Saul, Jones
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MY FIRST INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL MATCH Wales v Northern Ireland 1968
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Personal note; My first International game. Played at Wrexham, Wales won 2v0. Pat Jennings, in my opinion, the best goalkeeper of all time, was magnificent. Daily Post wrote; A major reason why Wales did not get more goals than the two scored by Ron Rees (75 minutes) and Wyn Davies (87) was a superb display by Pat Jennings, the Irish goalkeeper. He earned the 'Man of the Match' rating from Welsh team manager, Dave Bowen. 'But for him, we would have had at least five goals'. | |
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MY FIRST TOTTENHAM MATCH Manchester Utd v Tottenham 1968 |
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Personal note; My father took my cousin Geraint and I to see Spurs for the first time. They lost 3v1 - Old Trafford went quiet when Spurs scored! After the game, in the car park, I approached Mike England, one of my heroes and asked for his autograph. He told me in no uncertain terms where to go! Fortunately, Jimmy Hill was on hand to restore my faith in human nature, and he willingly supplied his autograph!
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However, there is a happy ending to the Mike England story........... some 32 years later, in the year 2000 a colleague of mine, Ian Evans, a Spurs fan, who was well aware of my Mike England autograph story, saw the former Spurs and Wales Captain on the same flight as him. Ian kindly obtained Mike's autograph for me, although he did not relate the whole story to him! |
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SOUVENIR PROGRAMME Croeso '69 Investiture Match
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I am very grateful to Paul Holland, a Sheffield United supporter, for the following information: The game ended 2-0 to United, I don't know who scored but am working on that one - the line-up was: Wales: 1. Gary Sprake, 2. Peter Rodrigues, 3. Rod Thomas, 4. Terry Hennesey, 5. Mike England, 6. Ollie Burton, 7. Gil Reece (Ex-Blade), 8. Jones, 9. Wyn Davies, 10. John Mahoney, 11. Ronnie Rees. Manchester United: 1. Alex Stepney, 2. Tony Dunne, 3. Francis Burns, 4. Paddy Crerand, 5. Bill Foulkes, 6. David Sadler, 7. Willie Morgan, 8. Brian Kidd (Ex-Blade), 9. Bobby Charlton, 10. Dennis Law, 11. George Best. Sub: Don Givens (Ex-Blade). |
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**SPECIAL FEATURE ** |
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Remarkable vintage action from the game Manchester United v Welsh International XI (click here to view)
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I'm extremely grateful to Maldwyn Edwards of Bangor, who filmed the footage and kindly granted permission for its use here. Maldwyn converted it on to DVD, forwarding a copy to Manchester United F.C.. The club sent Maldwyn a letter aknowledging the DVD and have added it to their club archive. I would also like to thank Derek Davies for his kind assistance in liaising with Maldwyn on my behalf. KD
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European Cup Winners Cup Second Round, First Leg Wednesday, 25th October, 1972 Wrexham v Hajduk Split |
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Wrexham qualified for the European Cup Winners Cup by beating Cardiff City in the 1971/72 Welsh Cup Final.
ECWC Round 1 1st Leg; Sep 13. F.C. Zurich 1 v 1 Wrexham ECWC Round 1 2nd Leg; Sep 27. Wrexham 2 v 1 F.C. Zurich Wrexham won 3 v 2 on aggregate
19,013 of us saw Wrexham beat Hajduk Split 3 v 1 at The Racecourse with goals by Brian Tinnion 2 and Dave Smallman. Unfortunately, the Yugoslavian team scored an away goal, which was all important as Hajduk won the second leg 2 v 0 - 3 v 3 on aggregate, but Hajduk went through on away goals.
Hajduk beat Scottish side Hibernian 5 v 4 on aggregate in the third round, but went out to Leeds United in the semi final, 1 v 0 aggregate.
Milan were the eventual winners, beating Leeds 1 v 0. |
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Football League Division Three Saturday, March 3rd 1973 |
BLACKBURN ROVERS 1 V 1 WREXHAM |
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 I am very grateful to Dave Almond for donating this programme to my collection. Dave is a great Billy Ashcroft fan, and has set up the following brilliant blog about his hero!
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Sunday Football Football League Division Three 20th January 1974 kick-off 2.30 Walsall v Wrexham |
 "Admission to the ground will be afforded free to anyone who has purchased an Official Team Sheet, which will only be available at the turnstiles"
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The winter of discontent had hit the Football clubs. Wrexham were 5th with 30 points from 25 games, behind Bristol Rovers top, Bournemouth, York and Chesterfield. Walsall were 13th, but ran out 3v0 winners. On the Walsall team sheet was a certain Bobby Shinton, who would help transform the fortunes of Wrexham F.C. when he signed from Cambridge United for the 1976-77 season. |
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The end of the road........... |
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F.A.Cup 6th Round 9th March 1974 Burnley v Wrexham |
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Wrexham's magnificent cup run came to an end - through a deflected own goal.
Wrexham had beaten Shrewsbury 1v0 in a replay after a 1v1 draw in the first round, saw off Rotherham in the second round 3v0, beat Crystal Palace 2v0 at Selhurst Park, conquered Middlesborough at the Racecourse 1v0 in the fourth round, shocked Southampton 1v0 at The Dell, in the fifth, then that own goal at Turf Moor.
Travelled up to Burnley with some mates in my Ford Anglia, not knowing where Turf Moor was. Then, as if by magic on entering Burnley, we saw a 'Beadles Bus' from Newtown in front of us, and followed them to the ground!
We lost 1v0. | |
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"This could be the last time...." sang the Rolling Stones..... and it was! EUROPEAN NATIONS CUP Quarter Final Wales v Yugoslavia 1976 Wales have failed to 'qualify' for the finals of an international competition since then.
 Back row: Toshack, England, Evans, J. Roberts, Lloyd, Davies, Dwyer, Lewis, D. Roberts, Jones Front Row; Dr Jones, Griffiths, Thomas, Harris, James, Yorath, Mike Smith (Manager), Flynn, Mahoney, Phillips, Page, Lea (Asst. Manager) |
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F. A. Cup 4th Round Cardiff City 3v2 Wrexham 29th January 1977
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I am delighted that Cardiff City supporter, Dai Woosnam, has got in touch with this cup tie memory |
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May 18th 2011 Dear Ken, I see that you are a Racecourse fan from your site. I could talk a lot about games between the two clubs.
The best I ever saw was a tremendous encounter in the 4th Round of the FA Cup in January 77.
Wrexham - the better team throughout - had a great team then under John Neal. Mel Sutton (ex-City), Arfon Griffiths, Billy Ashcroft, Bobby Shinton, Graham Whittle, Mickey Thomas ... and a few others whose names will come if I think about it. Was Dai Davies playing in goal? No, I don't think he had arrived by then. Was John Roberts at centre half? I cannot recall.
I remember Billy Ashcoft equalising just as the game went into injury time, and then John Buchanan going straight down the other end and scoring the winner. 3-2. Heck of a game. Peter Sayer also scored for City. He had scored in the third round win over Spurs, pictured here.
Photo copyright; Football Echo | But I go back even further with Cardiff City. I never missed a game as a boy and youth ... even saw all the Welsh Cup home games like the time they defeated Knighton Town 16-0. I even recall the great Wyn Davies playing for Wrexham, before moving on to Bolton and even greater glory. He was - after John Charles - the best header of a ball that I ever saw. We have a good friend who is 87 and is a retired GP who has lived in the Wrexham area since starting married life there 60 years ago. We were over at his house on top of the mountain in Llanfynydd, just 3 weeks ago. He told me how sad so many Wrexham fans are these days, and how there seems no immediate solution.
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F.A. Cup Third Round Replay Tuesday 6th January 1981 Wrexham v West Ham United |
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 West Ham were the current F.A. Cup Holders. Both teams were in the Second Division. The Hammers had already reached the semi-finals of the League Cup. Wrexham's first game was a 1 v 1 draw at Upton Park, when the Hammers were awarded a dubious penalty to take the lead. Skipper Gareth Davis equalised for the Robins.
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The replay was a 0 v 0 draw at The Racecourse, resulting in those days in a second replay which was also held at The Racecourse. Dixie McNeil scored the only goal of the match in extra time, to give Wrexham a home tie against Wimbledon, which they won 2 v 1. Wrexham fell to Wolves 3 v 1 at Molyneux in the 5th Round. |
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F.A. CUP 4th Round Tottenham Hotspur v Wrexham Monday 12th February 1979 K.O. 7.30pm
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NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE FIRST DIVISION Newtown v Accrington Stanley Saturday November 5th, 1988 K.O. 3pm
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Newtown's programme notes stated; The club now has the Ground and Social Club equal to any in Non-League Welsh Football and the present Officials and Committee see the move into the Northern Premier League as a significant one in keeping with the progressive traditions of the Club. Chairman John Hughes wrote; Today it really does give me great pleasure to welcome our visitors from Lancashire to Latham Park. The name of Accrington Stanley does conjure up in ones mind the great traditions of Soccer and we hope that their visit to the area is a pleasant one. | |
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A Family Heirloom? |
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Blue Square Premier League Wrexham v Darlington 20th November, 2010 |
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"WREXHAM A.F.C. 1977/78" webpage serialised in The DRAGON the official match day programme of Wrexham F.C. |
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 Wrexham v Darlington programme cover, 20th November 2010 reproduced here courtesy of JJ Sports Promotions Ltd
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A Step Back In Time. |
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Ken, a long standing Wrexham supporter, took it upon himself to put together a scrap book of information, including match reports, paper clippings and photos profiling our 1977/78 campaign. Between now and the end of the season we will be profiling sections of that past campaign so that some of you supporters can relive one of the most memorable seasons in the club's long and distinguished history. You can check out Ken's collection here; www.penmon.org/page70.htm |
I am extremely grateful to Scott Smith of JJ Sports Promotions Ltd for the professional way in which he has profiled this webpage, featuring a month at a time in each Wrexham home programme, from and including the Darlington game. The programme itself is outstanding, and worthy of a club in the Premier League, let alone Wrexham in the Blue Square. Ken Davies
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