‘To score one of the goals that helped them back. Yeah, it’s quite a story.’
IN THE latest instalment of the My Time At Town series, fans’ favourite Jamie Paterson reflects on two contasting spells at The Shay.
It began on Saturday, January 9, 1988. Around 3pm.
Nottingham Forest beat Halifax 4-0 on the day, but a 14-year-old Jamie Paterson had seen enough.
“My uncle Russell Black played for Halifax, he joined them from Sheffield United when Billy Ayre was in charge,” Paterson says.
“My first memory of going was to watch him play against Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup tie, and I fell in love with the club on that day.
“The stadium was dilapidated, the old stadium with the track around it.
“I don’t know what it was but something gripped me on the day.
“Nottingham Forest brought about three or four thousand fans. It was basically mayhem.
“There were police dogs guarding all the away supporters. I think at half-time they managed to scramble onto the pitch and a few fights broke out.
“It was FA Cup fever I suppose, and my uncle was playing who was my hero when I was a kid.
“He invited me down for a trial, I was playing at Celtic as a schoolboy but he said ‘why don’t you try your luck in England?’
“So Halifax signed me on a YTS scheme, Gerry Brook was the youth coach.”
So began a two-year apprenticeship and an introduction to the realities of life at The Shay, before his first-team debut at Manchester United at the age of 17.
Paterson says the 199293 campaign was his breakthrough season at The Shay. But the Scot had established himself in a side fighting desperately to avoid relegation from the Football League for the first time in the club’s history.
And it all came down to the final day against Hereford.
“We played pretty well, we created lots of chances, but we just couldn’t score,” he recalls.
“We hit the bar, we hit the post, the keeper was making magnificent saves.
“The Shay was a full house on the day and you could just sense that it was slipping away.
“A very, very good friend of mine, Derek Hall, got the winner. He was a previous Town player and we used to get on great.
“When he scored the goal, he put his head down and just walked back. It’s not a goal I believe he wanted to score.
“It was devastating. Mick Rathbone, one of the best football people I’ve ever come across in my whole life, had taken over just after halfway through the season. Unfortunately he didn’t keep us up but god did he try.
“As a manager and as a friend, he was a great person to be around, and the boys absolutely gave their all in every single game.
“But unfortunately it just wasn’t to be. No matter how well we played we just couldn’t seem to get the win we needed.
“It was a real eye-opener going out of the Football League
GLORY DAYS: Paterson (left) after scoring for Town at
Kidderminster in 1998 as they clinched promotion. Right: In action for Town at The Shay against Leeds in a pre-season friendly.
because people were talking about the club going to fold, it was the end of Halifax Town’s existence, and the hardcore support might drop to 200300.
“So all these stories were going round, but they survived under great people on the board at that time and we soldiered on.
“We thought we could bounce back straight away but we were going into unknown territory.
“We probably underestimated it a little bit and it took us a while to get back.”
And after spells with Falkirk and Scunthorpe, Paterson returned to help Town do exactly that.
“I’d looked at the squad, I’d looked at some of the players George (Mulhall) had assembled and I knew they were very, very good footballers at that level.
“It just felt right.”
Paterson says the signs were there right at the start of the 1997-98 campaign that something special was going to happen.
Even the departure of experienced defender Peter Jackson to Huddersfield as manager 10 games into the season didn’t stop The Shaymen.
“At that stage, we thought ‘if we lose Jacko, how are we ever going to replace him?’ but again, Sir George worked his magic and got Brian Kilcline, who was demolishing houses I believe, I think he was headbutting the walls, and came out of retirement,” says Paterson.
“Killer was a different kind of player to Jacko but they had professional qualities. And he was just a breath of fresh air.”
When asked whether it was the right players or the right manager that made the difference for Town that season, Paterson says: “It was a culmination of both. You never, ever really heard George raising his voice.
“He was old school, but he wasn’t old school in his mannerism as previous coaches I’d known such as John McGrath and Billy Ayre. They were very forceful in their voices, but George didn’t have to raise his voice. He would sit you down, one-on-one, he would speak to you face-to-face, he would explain exactly what he wanted you to do, or he would sit down and say ‘look, this is where you’re going wrong, this is where you’re going right’.
“He was just a brilliant oneon-one coach, and that was to all the players. I’m sure they’d all say the same.”
Paterson was named Conference Player of the Season, and crowned the campaign with a spectacular goal as Town sealed the title with a win at Kidderminster.
“Super Geoff got one off his shin and then I scored a screamer.
“I think I got about 18 that season but I could have got 30 if I hadn’t passed to Geoff!
“But that was special. When we got relegated against Hereford, my ambition was to help Halifax back into the Football League. And to score one of the goals that actually helped them back. Yeah, it’s quite a story.”
Paterson played for Town in the Football League but left to join Doncaster Rovers in 2000.
Paterson played for Halifax more than any other club in his career, and says his connection with the club runs deep.
“The bond for me was in my first game when I went to watch my uncle playing. I bonded with the club straight away.
“I wouldn’t have changed a thing for the world. When I speak to people and they ask me ‘who was your favourite club’, I always say Halifax was my first love.”