TOTAL FOOTBALL 1950s STYLE
FA CUP, THIRD-ROUND REPLAY, JAN 12, 1955: BRADFORD CITY 2 BRENTFORD 2 VALLEY PARADE. ATTENDANCE: 7,963
FooTBALL as an artwork: possessing the feel of a charcoal etching, or an LS Lowry painting, Bradford City versus Brentford at Valley parade in January 1955 is captured in beautiful two- tone simplicity.
It was a cold Wednesday afternoon — the Yorkshire Post match report refers to ‘Arctic’ weather. It was a half-day perhaps, as Wednesdays used to be, and there are 8,000 shivering souls down the slope from Manningham Lane.
They are present for an FA Cup third-round replay played out amid snow, smoking chimney stacks and cooling-tower vapour, with advertising hoardings promoting ointment, beer and crisps. everything a fan could need.
Bradford City were a Third division (North) club then, as were Bradford park Avenue.
Brentford were in the Third division (South) alongside five clubs today in the premier League — Southampton, Brighton, Watford, Bournemouth and Crystal palace.
Following a 1-1 draw at Griffin park the previous Saturday, the replay at Valley parade ended 2-2, after extra time. It is to be hoped some of the players showed the composition skills of the photographer at Valley parade, although the Yorkshire Post reported ‘plenty of incident to keep the 7,963 hardy spectators arguing, but very little football’.
It did add that this was not the fault of the players: ‘on a bonehard ground, covered by an inch or so of fine snow, foothold was precarious and every kick a gamble.’
Bradford went 1-0 up, then 2-1 down, before a local 17-year-old, Martin Bakes, scored a late extratime equaliser. City also missed a penalty, but given Brentford had no fewer than three goals disallowed for offside, the result looked a fair one. The gate receipts — £919 — were published in the newspaper’s results section.
The draw meant a second replay at a neutral venue decided by the toss of a coin. Bradford won and chose elland Road.
The game was to be played the following Monday and both teams arrived in Leeds. But the Arctic weather was still around and the referee called the game off at noon citing ‘grim and dangerous’ conditions.
Bradford rang Newcastle United to see if they could get the game moved to St James’ park but were told it was under nine inches of snow. It was an interesting call as the winners of this tie were drawn at Newcastle in the fourth round.
A thaw had begun in the South, so both clubs agreed to move the second replay to Arsenal’s home, Highbury, three days later.
There, Brentford won 1-0. on a Thursday afternoon fewer than 6,000 turned up — gate receipts £673. They saw a player with a comic-book surname, Billy dare, score the only goal. It was a shot from 25 yards, dare was named man of the match by the visiting Yorkshire reporter and was soon sold to West Ham.
Brentford banked £5,000 for dare but only after they went to St James’ park in the fourth round. Newcastle, a First division club who had won the FA Cup in 1951 and 1952, had pedigree and were clear favourites.
But it was 0-0 at half-time and the 47,000 at St James’ park — receipts not published — were presumably agitated until Bill Curry gave the Magpies the lead.
George Stobbart, a Geordie playing for Brentford, equalised and Johnny Rainford equalised again for the Londoners at 2-1 down. When George Hannah made it 3-2 for Newcastle, there had been five goals in 29 minutes.
Newcastle went on to win the Cup again that May — it remains their last major domestic trophy. They beat Manchester City in the final, Hannah again scoring the third goal.
City had beaten Sunderland in the semi-finals. Wembley was that close to staging a NewcastleSunderland final.
For Brentford, the 1955 Cup run confirmed their improvement. They had just been promoted to Third division (South) and were content to finish mid-table. They made some money from the Cup and dare.
Bradford City avoided the drop by two points but were relegated to the new Fourth division in 1961 and stayed there until 1969. A year later Bradford park Avenue lost their place in the Football League to Cambridge United. Football in the city was in decline.
The local Hey Brewery — the middle of the three advertisement hoardings in the photograph — had gone by then too. The Hey family business dated back to the Industrial Revolution.
It was also a Bradford company, Robinson’s, who manufactured ‘Wonderful Kurem ointment & Blood pills’, described by them as ‘the greatest discovery on earth’.
Funnily enough — or not — when Bradford City’s hooligans assembled in the early 1970s, they named themselves The ointment Squad. Some of them went to prison.
More innocently, the year after the photograph was taken, Brad- ford staged the World Crisp eating competition, sponsored by Seabrook Crisps, the advert on the right of the image.
Having begun production in Bradford in the 1950s and been sold door-to- door initially, Seabrook are cooking still. And after Saturday’s 2-0 win against Chesterfield at Valley parade, Bradford City are still in the FA Cup.