Jon
Admin
Posts: 6,912
|
Post by Jon on Jun 18, 2013 19:34:11 GMT
So our next cross-border friendly after Germany 1967 involved a trip to the middle of nowhere or should I say the middle of Wales - I suppose they come to the same thing really. Llanidloes is a place so far off the beaten track that even Barton Downs hasn't been there - or even if he has he probably won't tell us anyway. You may well ask what on earth - or who on earth - persuaded Malcolm Musgrove that embarking on an eight hour coach journey to the back of beyond just to play a pre-season friendly was a good idea. We would probably need a Chesterfield fan (or an ex-Chesterfield fan) in his mid fifties to work that one out. Note that forty years ago Dave Thomas was already reporting on the Gulls. HE 17/8/73 HE 20/8/73
|
|
rjdgull
TFF member
Admin
Posts: 12,231
|
Post by rjdgull on Jun 18, 2013 19:57:52 GMT
I didn't know DT went that far back, started to read his reports in the mid 1980s when he tried to keep a positive spin on things despite us having to keep applying for 're-election.... Amazing to think about that system looking back.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2013 8:19:27 GMT
Chesterfield fans of a certain age would indeed remember Mike Hughes from the 1960s. He was a Llanidloes boy. We may recall him more as a successful Yeovil manager who was part of the management team at Plainmoor in the 1970s.
Llanidloes is deep into the middle of Wales. Dave Thomas describes them as being in the Welsh League in the 1970s. That was something of a catch-all description for any Welsh club in those days. There were many Welsh leagues back then and Llanidloes were probably in the Mid Wales League. They later enjoyed their place in the sun as founder members in the League of Wales in the early 1990s before slipping away.
I understand Jon`s mate has seen a game down the road at Rhayader.
|
|
Jon
Admin
Posts: 6,912
|
Post by Jon on Jun 24, 2013 22:46:57 GMT
Chesterfield fans of a certain age would indeed remember Mike Hughes from the 1960s. He was a Llanidloes boy. We may recall him more as a successful Yeovil manager who was part of the management team at Plainmoor in the 1970s.Spot on - part of the ever-decreasing management team. If you look at the 1972/73 team pic, you can see Jack Edwards (manager), Fred Ford (assistant manager),Don Mills (trainer) and Mike Hughes (coach) as we looked to bounce back to the third division. As the belt tightened, Fred Ford was the first to go. He went on to set up a fantastic youth system at Oxford United. Then Jack Edwards was fired and replaced by Malcolm Musgrove, whilst the unsackable Don Mills was sacked in another cost-saving move. That left "just" Musgrove and Hughes until February 1975 when it was felt that a non-playing assistant was beyond the budget. Hughes was sacked and replaced by player-coach Lew Chatterley.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2014 18:47:01 GMT
Llanidloes is a place so far off the beaten track that even Barton Downs hasn't been there - or even if he has he probably won't tell us anyway. He has now. But not to see a game. Llanidloes had a single season in the League of Wales in the 1990s. Then they slipped down the pyramid before making it back to the second tier in 2013. In the northern half of Wales that's the Cymru Alliance. I've not previously encountered a football ground with a stone circle. Rather than being an antiquity I believe it is a gorsedd circle for eisteddfods and similar events.
|
|