Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2009 9:11:02 GMT
This appears deep in that Book of Football article from the early 1970s:
I wonder if this is true or something of an urban myth?
Consulting the centenary history I'm sure this refers to the game at Mansfield on 12 September 1931, one of Mansfield's very first Football League games and an awful long way to travel for a Div 3 (S) fixture.
United had made an uncertain start to the season losing 7-0 at Crystal Palace and drawing at home with Bournemouth before going down 6-3 at home to Watford and 10-2 at Fulham (although a delicious typo in the centenary history records this as a 2-0 win).
The same reference source records that Lew Tapp made his debut in the following game at Mansfield.
Tapp, Taunton-born but possibly locally-raised, was signed from Newton Abbot and went on to make over 160 appearances for the club. This seems to suggest that, if nothing else, he was an inspired last-minute signing.
The cutting almost makes it sound like we signed somebody from the crowd in desperation. Perhaps, instead, he was grabbed off the platform at Newton Abbot as our train passed through? Or was he a player who was known to the club who signed a few days beforehand and went straight into the team?
Although it might not have been as as dramatic as initially suggested, the episode does have a slightly Webbish feel about it....
I wonder if this is true or something of an urban myth?
Consulting the centenary history I'm sure this refers to the game at Mansfield on 12 September 1931, one of Mansfield's very first Football League games and an awful long way to travel for a Div 3 (S) fixture.
United had made an uncertain start to the season losing 7-0 at Crystal Palace and drawing at home with Bournemouth before going down 6-3 at home to Watford and 10-2 at Fulham (although a delicious typo in the centenary history records this as a 2-0 win).
The same reference source records that Lew Tapp made his debut in the following game at Mansfield.
Tapp, Taunton-born but possibly locally-raised, was signed from Newton Abbot and went on to make over 160 appearances for the club. This seems to suggest that, if nothing else, he was an inspired last-minute signing.
The cutting almost makes it sound like we signed somebody from the crowd in desperation. Perhaps, instead, he was grabbed off the platform at Newton Abbot as our train passed through? Or was he a player who was known to the club who signed a few days beforehand and went straight into the team?
Although it might not have been as as dramatic as initially suggested, the episode does have a slightly Webbish feel about it....
Lew Tapp was a neighbour and friend of my late father, they grew up in the Wolborough Street area of Newton Abbot and as far as I can recall my father and grandmother telling me; he played for Newton Spurs and I'm pretty certain I can remember my father stopping to chat to him in my company during my childhood in the area around East Street.