By Turfmanphil
October 2 2005

Turfmanphil recollects the years 1977-1979 in Part 2 of 'The Wilderness Years'.He talks about some of the very few matches he managed to go to over that period as his career developed and he met his future wife.

The Wilderness Years- Part 2 1977-1979

 

 

In Part 1 I told you about my earlier Clarets supporting days and events leading up to December 1976! My whole world was now about to change with one of the biggest cultural shocks of my life so far.

 

I was 22 in 1976, an only child very much dependent on my parents still, and couldn’t yet drive a car let alone afford one! I had lived all my life in the Valley apart from three years away at University. The University was only 17 miles away in Manchester, and even then I still came home every two weeks to get my socks washed and support the Clarets at the Turf!

 

Imagine how daunting the prospect was therefore when I was offered a job in Brentford, Middlesex to work for Beecham Laboratories starting in Jan 1977

 

This was something I knew I had to do and break away finally from my mother’s apron strings, so one day in January, I found myself all alone in some strange bed-sit in Gloucester Road, London.

 

Of course I wanted to make an impression with my new employers and in those days I was far more nervous and unsure of myself than I am today. So nervous in fact a bloody great cold sore erupted on my face! I spent the next two weeks trying to impress my employers whilst continually dabbing my mouth with bits of tissue to mop up the bleeding, puss-ridden, and oozing sore. Eventually it gave up the ghost and fell off in my coffee about three weeks later! Story of my life!

 

Oh well I eventually settled down and got in with some mates and we shared a flat in Ealing for sometime before I moved to Harrow for a bit. I wont tell you who the bit was!

 

During all this time for most of 1977 I had to endure the awful realisation that I wouldn’t be able to see the lads play at the Turf  as I tried to settle down and think about  a new job, new mates and girls! In those days of course there was no such thing as a PC let alone internet so communication with fellow Clarets was not easy. There were also only two TV channels that featured footy, BBC and ITV. ITV had local regions doing the football so unless the Clarets played a London team I was scuppered

 

The Clarets in those days were in the old Division 2 so the chances of seeing a match anyway was limited  because then as it is now the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea got most of the airtime if not the other First Division clubs. The only difference was that if we played them we had a chance of beating them unlike today! [Well apart from Liverpool Reserves!!]

 

I was however in London and although I didn’t have a car the tube system and trains were ideal for getting to the grounds. In the 1976-77 Season, I only however managed to get to two games. One was at Orient and I don’t remember it much now.[Boy though would the name Orient Football Club mean something to me later in the 1980s! ]

 

I found the programme the other day up the attic at Mum’s. The match was played at Brisbane Road on the 19^th March 1977. Although I couldn’t swear what team actually played on the day, I can tell you the team on the programme read:

 

Stevenson, Newton, Brennan, Noble, Thomson, Rodaway, Cochrane, Smith, Fletcher, Flynn, Morley

 

I recognised also a few names in the Orient side John Jackson in goal, Alan Whittle, Derek Possee, Allan Glover but the one that stands out is Glenn Roeder!

 

I confess to cheating now as I can’t remember the score but I have just checked and heck we won 1:0!

 

The other game that year that I managed to get to was near the end of the season on the 14^th May 1977.What a dump this place turned out to be and thank god I didn’t wear colours! This was some god forsaken place in the east end of London in the middle of a huge industrial estate with intimidating housing estates! It looked like a bomb site and I’m sure if the war had still been on, the Germans would have said as they passed over in their Heinkels:

 

‘Heh Fritz, zer ist no vay ve should gebomben zat place, our gechappen already have!’

 

Have you guessed where I mean yet?

 

Yep, bloody Millwall and in those days in was at their original Den. I am now pretty sure that’s an abbreviation for Den of Iniquity!  Truly grim! These were the days of the bovver booted skinheads but Millwall took this one stage further and decided to wear full Klu Klux Klan gear with the hoods and slitty eyes!  Looked bloody odd with bovver boots as well!

 

The team on the programme for that day read:

 

Stevenson, Newton, Brennan, Noble, Robinson, Rodaway, Cochrane, Ingham, Fletcher, Flynn, Morley

 

Bloody miserable day all round, they beat us 2-0 too!

 

So that was it for the rest of 1977, and I know why!

 

In the summer of 1977 I met a girl called Janice P Simpson, Yorkshire lass from Glasshouses. She was a pre-registration student taking a Pharmacy Degree Course in Bradford and given a year to work at Beechams in the same labs as me!

 

Its clear I only had one thing on my mind for the rest of that year..Sex!! It soon also became clear that she didn’t like football and had never even been to a game!

 

I was not to know this at the time but she would become my future common-law wife! We are still together to this day and she still hates bloody football! Am I mad to fall in love with a girl from Yorkshire who doesn’t like football?

 

I must have been ‘shagged’ out by summer 1978 as on the 26^th August 1978 I finally convinced her to go to a match with me. On that day we played Fulham at Craven Cottage and we were still in the second division.

 

The team lined up as follows according to the programme:

 

Stevenson, Scott, Brennan, Noble, Thomson, Rodaway, Cochrane, Ingham, Fletcher, Kindon, Smith, Morley

 

Fulham had a goalkeeper in their team whose name you might remember as he also played for the Clarets. His name?-Gerry Peyton. Other names you might recall playing for Fulham were Les Strong, Terry Bullivant and Kevin Lock.

 

So then would my girlfriend be impressed about football, would I finally convince her about the errors of her ways? No such luck the game finished goalless and in the days when you could stand at matches she felt intimidated by the crowd as we tried to escape from the terraces after the game! That was it, she hasn’t been to a match since and is probably one of the reasons why my wilderness years were about to get even worse!

 

Something else happened in 1978. Beechams decided to move their Laboratories from Brentford to Leafy, Tory, Gin &Tonic swilling Surrey!

 

I now found myself surrounded by hooray henries in some god forsaken place called Leatherhead  having to get there every day by tube then train from South Harrow. What made it even worse was that Janice had to go back to Bradford for a year to complete her degree so again I was alone.

 

1979 was upon us and the decade was coming to a close

 

What would the 1980s hold for my beloved Clarets and were my supporting days numbered?

 

You will find out in Part 3 of ‘The Wilderness Years’