Let's have a bit of nostalgia...

London Road Nostalgia

Alun Thomas looks back at Posh-Wrexham encounters of the past

As a boy growing up in the Peterborough area, it was inevitable that I would spend time watching football at London Road. It was there that I saw my first two Wrexham matches. The first was on January 4th, 1969, the day before my 12th birthday. A little background info is in order. It was only three years since Wrexham had finished 92nd in the League, while Posh had only been a League club since 1960. They were firmly established as a Third (Second to younger readers) Division side when, at the end of '67-8, they were found guilty of financial irregularities and demoted to the Fourth. Having finished fifth in the Third before demotion, Posh were expected to return as Champions, but they were having a lousy season and ultimately finished 18th.

Within 20 months they would sink to the foot of the League following an 8-2 thrashing at Sealand Road, of all places. But in 1969 the Messiah, in the unlikely shape of Noel Cantwell, was still cutting his managerial teeth at Coventry. In the 1968-9 League Cup, however, Peterborough had added to their burgeoning reputation as giant-killers by defeating two First Division (ie. Premiership) sides at home: relegation candidates QPR and FA Cup holders WBA, who fielded Tony 'Bomber' Brown and 'Guadalajara' Jeff Astle! Posh eventually went out to a single Jimmy Greaves goal at White Hart Lane. (Boys at my school who were attending the Spurs game were allowed to leave early on the afternoon in question in order to travel down to North London. About 400 were looking forward to skiving off, when it transpired that the early finish depended on production of a match ticket. For 395 of us it was back to the Industrial Revolution and Pythagoras' Theorem). 

Anyway - the game. 6,312 were there to see Albert Kinsey hit the post before new Posh signing Tommy Robson scored twice in the first 20 minutes to put his side in the driving seat. Wrexham were level by half-time, however, thanks to two own goals. Frank Noble headed an Arfon Griffiths corner past his own keeper and Brian Wright, pressured by Griffiths, followed suit. A generally forgettable second half saw Wrexham hit the post again (Eddie May) before Ian Moir cut in from the right to beat Welsh international keeper Tony Millington (making his 100th League appearance) at the near post. It was ironic that Posh manager Norman Rigby had just spent £24,000 (quite a hefty sum in those days) on wingers Robson and Mike Hellawell, only to find his side undone by the visiting wide men Griffiths and Moir. 

WREXHAM: Reeves, Ingle, Bermingham; Davis, May, Bradbury, Moir, Beanland, Charnley, Kinsey, Griffiths. 

Two things stick in the memory about that game. Ray Charnley had a header disallowed at the far post as the ball had supposedly gone out for a goal-kick just before he made contact. Banana shots were still a novelty, let alone banana headers! The Noble own-goal was kicked out from behind the line, the ref seeing that it was in. In both cases, the officials' decision was accepted without protest, something it's possible we'll never see again. But then, this was an era before overpaid Premiership nancy-boys, when saliva was aimed at pitch not opponent, you had to commit GBH to force the ref to wag a friendly finger, and diving in the box was practised by only the most liberated of married couples - although Robson later turned it into an art.

My last memory of Robbo, whose bandy legs made the Hibbitt brothers look knock-kneed, is him aged 40 playing for my local side Stamford in the 1984 FA Vase final at Wembley. With Stamford 3-2 down to Stansted, Robbo burst into the penalty area in the last minute. We could almost see the referee pointing to the spot, but Robbo, to his eternal credit, didn't go down - his legs just gave out.

By Easter the following year, there had been some changes. Posh had sacked Rigby and in came Jim Iley as player-manager, but results had not noticeably improved. The only major change was the departure of the rotund Millington for Swansea.

John Neal had replaced Alvan Williams as manager at the Racecourse and a Wrexham revolution was under way. Charnley had gone and in came Ray Smith, a big striker who would end up at London Road a couple of years later as Iley launched a policy of signing ageing players for whom Peterborough would be a swansong, like former England winger Eddie Holliday and even David Pleat! Having said that, Smith's career record of 125 goals in 333 league games is a fair testament. Former Man United keeper Dave Gaskell had arrived, along with Brian Tinnion, Tommy Vansittart and ex-Villa man Bobby Park, another who was to, erm, grace London Road as a Posh player. Wrexham's substitute was the on-Ioan Phil Boersma.

Oh yes - the game. In front of 4,280, Wrexham's promotion boat was severely rocked by a home side keen to add to their 'goals for' column in order to qualify for the new Watney Cup. They led at half-time through a Jim Hall goal, doubling the advantage shortly after the break thanks to the Wrexham-born Peter Price. Albert Kinsey halved the deficit before an action-packed last 15 minutes yielded four goals. Hall struck twice more and Robson made it 5-1, Arfon Griffiths notching a penalty with three minutes remaining. 

WREXHAM: Gaskell, Ingle, Mason, Davis, May, Vansittart, Tinnion, Park, Smith, Kinsey, Griffiths. Sub: Boersma. 

A word about Peter Price. A red-headed, heavily-built but mobile striker in the Hartson mould, his record of. 62 goals in 114 league appearances for Posh earned him four Welsh Under-23 caps and there was talk of a full international call-up. Price left London Road for Portsmouth and ended up at Barnsley, returning briefly to Posh in that writing-on-the-wall saddest of moves - on loan to your former club. 
In his book Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby details his spell watching Cambridge in the late 1970s. He describes Jim Hall (then partnering a young Alan Biley upfront at the Abbey) as 'looking and moving like a 45-year-old'. I've got news for Nick. Hall looked and moved like that in the late-60s as well - but he still scored 122 goals in 298 appearances for Peterborough and 172 in 445 as a career total, before becoming a teacher. In fact, Jim Hall is one of the few players to have had an entire song dedicated to them. To the tune of The British Grenadiers, it went like this:

Some talk of Tony Hateley, and some of Jimmy Greaves, of Charlton and Wyn Davies, and such great names as these. But of all the centre-forwards who ever kicked a ball, there's none so good, there's none so great, as United's Jimmy Hall.

Note the Wyn Davies reference.
But there were to be no more meetings between the two clubs until the champagne (non-alcoholic, allegedly) Posh side led by Cantwell won the Division 4 Championship in 1974. Me? I played local league football for 20 years until the '90s and haven't been to London Road since the '70s for Wrexham matches. Viva nostalgia! £RP

PS. My thanks to Posh 'archive man' Matt Hill (one real helpful dude!) who confirmed these memories by providing me with microfiches of Peterborough Evening Telegraph reports of the two games in question.