Freddie Goodwin.
Well-known member
There's always been rivalry between not just the clubs but the towns. As rival resorts and both chasing the conference trade (though hopefully not the Conference!) so planty of spice in these fixtures. My favourite, and one of my most memorable Albion games EVER, was on Boxing Day 1971.
A little background. Two seasons prev Bournemouth were relegated for the 1st time, having spent all their history in Div 3 (Sth) or Div 3. They appointed a young John Bond who completly changed the club. he changed the name from Bournemouth & Boscoombe Athletic to AFC Bournemouth, to make them top of the 'alphabet' league. he changed their red shirts, white shorts, to the AC Milan strip.
He built a team that stormed to promotion, along with a very good Notts County team which included Tony Hately. At the same time, Albion appointed a new young manager in Pat saward. he replaced Freddie Goodin who, along with his staff, had been poached by Birmingham. Goodwin had a good team but was based on some fairly old players.
Saward struggled, the team couldn't score, the football was dire. hre also changed the strip to all white and it just didn't look like watching the Albion. One of his few signings was peter O'Sullivan and he looked poor. As 70/71 wore on, Albion got better. The signings of experinced Bert Murrey & Willie Irvine helped greatly. Murrey was the 'People's player' and there were sponsored walks to raise the £10k to sign him. Saward was everywhere trying to raise funds.
71/72 Albion started the season with some optimism, and a new strip of blue & white stripes. The 'big' teams were Bourenmouth, Notts County & Aston Villa, who had gone from 1st to 3rd div in 2 years and failed to get promoted at the 1st attempt. This Div had, unlike today, much interest. Games would be on MoTD, the Villa v Bournemouth had a gate of over 40,000.
Albion's rise up the table was 'steady'. They worked their way through the chasing pack of teams like Rotherham, Chesterfield & Blackburn but didn't look likely to take one of the 2 promotion places.
The Bournemouth game was long awaited. Bournemouth had recently beaten margate 11-0 in the FA Cup with Ted MacDougal scoring 9 Mac D & Boyer where prolific and were just 2 of 4 or 5 of the team who would eventually play at the top level. Albion's previos home game had seen a gate of some 10,000 but Bournemouth was going to be big....
....Boxing Day, no public transport, yet 30,600 descended on the Goldstone. The Bournemouth fans, in their thousands, arrived early. When I arrived (and there was little segregation, Bournemouth had taken the (empty) north Stand. As the crowd built, by KO, they had the right hand half of the north and we had the left. It was packed solid, the atmosphere was electric and hostile with missiles flying and crowd surges. The police were in the middle and they brough dogs in, although they didn't stay long, driven mad by the noise.
The game was a cracker, end to end, tackles flying, non stop action and WE WON 2-0, Kit napier & John Templeman scoring. After the game I believe the Bournemouth fans found their coaches had all been bricked so a long cold ride home for them.
The return match had no less drama and a capacity crowd of 22,500 ast Dean Court. We drew 1-1 and eventually overtook both Bournemouth & Notts County to go up with Villa. It was my 1st promotion and one of my favourite seasons.
Albion won 12 away games, the only shame being that it was a very northern division with no london trips. We also had a knack of scoring late goals.
A little background. Two seasons prev Bournemouth were relegated for the 1st time, having spent all their history in Div 3 (Sth) or Div 3. They appointed a young John Bond who completly changed the club. he changed the name from Bournemouth & Boscoombe Athletic to AFC Bournemouth, to make them top of the 'alphabet' league. he changed their red shirts, white shorts, to the AC Milan strip.
He built a team that stormed to promotion, along with a very good Notts County team which included Tony Hately. At the same time, Albion appointed a new young manager in Pat saward. he replaced Freddie Goodin who, along with his staff, had been poached by Birmingham. Goodwin had a good team but was based on some fairly old players.
Saward struggled, the team couldn't score, the football was dire. hre also changed the strip to all white and it just didn't look like watching the Albion. One of his few signings was peter O'Sullivan and he looked poor. As 70/71 wore on, Albion got better. The signings of experinced Bert Murrey & Willie Irvine helped greatly. Murrey was the 'People's player' and there were sponsored walks to raise the £10k to sign him. Saward was everywhere trying to raise funds.
71/72 Albion started the season with some optimism, and a new strip of blue & white stripes. The 'big' teams were Bourenmouth, Notts County & Aston Villa, who had gone from 1st to 3rd div in 2 years and failed to get promoted at the 1st attempt. This Div had, unlike today, much interest. Games would be on MoTD, the Villa v Bournemouth had a gate of over 40,000.
Albion's rise up the table was 'steady'. They worked their way through the chasing pack of teams like Rotherham, Chesterfield & Blackburn but didn't look likely to take one of the 2 promotion places.
The Bournemouth game was long awaited. Bournemouth had recently beaten margate 11-0 in the FA Cup with Ted MacDougal scoring 9 Mac D & Boyer where prolific and were just 2 of 4 or 5 of the team who would eventually play at the top level. Albion's previos home game had seen a gate of some 10,000 but Bournemouth was going to be big....
....Boxing Day, no public transport, yet 30,600 descended on the Goldstone. The Bournemouth fans, in their thousands, arrived early. When I arrived (and there was little segregation, Bournemouth had taken the (empty) north Stand. As the crowd built, by KO, they had the right hand half of the north and we had the left. It was packed solid, the atmosphere was electric and hostile with missiles flying and crowd surges. The police were in the middle and they brough dogs in, although they didn't stay long, driven mad by the noise.
The game was a cracker, end to end, tackles flying, non stop action and WE WON 2-0, Kit napier & John Templeman scoring. After the game I believe the Bournemouth fans found their coaches had all been bricked so a long cold ride home for them.
The return match had no less drama and a capacity crowd of 22,500 ast Dean Court. We drew 1-1 and eventually overtook both Bournemouth & Notts County to go up with Villa. It was my 1st promotion and one of my favourite seasons.
Albion won 12 away games, the only shame being that it was a very northern division with no london trips. We also had a knack of scoring late goals.
