Shepshed’s 1982 FA Cup
THE EARLY rounds of this year’s FA Cup are a timely reminder that 35 years ago the national spotlight was briefly on Shepshed Charterhouse. On Saturday, November 20, 1982 Shepshed were drawn against Preston North End, a club steeped in history, in the fi
WHEN the football-loving Brindley family arrived in Loughborough in the mid1960s our initial focus was watching Loughborough United at Brown’s Lane.
They usually got battered every week – once twice in the same day as they sought to save costs travelling to the Lincolnshire coast – but my dad Maurice and I were still very sad when they went out of existence in the mid 1970s. A couple of years later dad told me that a friend of ours, Dick Cooper, whom we knew as a former captain of Loughborough Town Cricket Club, had taken over as manager of Shepshed Charterhouse, who were in the Second Division of the Leicestershire Senior League.
There wasn’t too much apart from local loyalty to attract anyone to The Dovecote – facilities were sparse and the players used to change across the road at the Black Swan – but the football was entertaining and got better and better.
The club was being backed by ambitious businessman Maurice Clayton, who owned Charterhouse, the textiles company, and with Cooper opening his remarkable contacts book, which also brought top cricketers to Park Road, they were soon on the march.
Title followed title with Shepshed regularly outnumbering home crowds with their enthusiastic away following.
It’s fair to say they weren’t the most popular club in Leicestershire because they were paying their players – but they were certainly the most progressive.
On one famous day in 1979 they were within a disallowed goal of reaching Wembley after a thrilling FA Vase semi final against Billericay Town.
Charterhouse successfully pulled back a 2-0 deficit from the first leg and had the strike by local boy Mick Hollis counted in extra time they would have booked their place at the national stadium. Instead the Essex side won the replay 2-0 a few days later.
Three successive Senior League Division One titles were followed by winning the Midland League and promotion into the Northern Counties East League.
By this time Shepshed were managed by Frank Wignall and his assistant Ian Storey Moore. Both were former Nottingham Forest and England stars and Wignall had recently been managing Qatar’s national side.
The cup run began with a 3-1 success at Denaby United in the first qualifying round, followed by a comprehensive 4-0 drubbing of Alfreton Town.
But, for me, the most interesting game was the third qualifying round tie at Goole Town.
I was sports editor of the Goole Times, so this was a remarkable draw as far as I was concerned.
Northern Premier League Goole were higher placed in the non-league pyramid but, to my delight, Shepshed took them apart and won 2-0.
The fourth round tie – the only one Charterhouse played at home that season – was, like the Vase semi-final, switched to Loughborough University and attracted a four-figure crowd.
Again they faced higher league opposition in King’s Lynn and were made to work very hard for a 2-1 victory that put them in the hat with Third and Fourth Division teams for the big draw.
They could scarcely have landed a better pairing than with Preston, who had won the First Division title and FA Cup twice each in their proud history and were England’s original ‘invincibles’ being unbeaten in both competitions in 1889.
Having names such as Wignall and Moore on the touchline and former Forest defender Sammy Chapman in the heart of the defence meant the national media did give Shepshed a fair amount of attention – although noth- ing like the coverage such a tie would have attracted today.
Although still in a relatively lowly league, Charterhouse were a genuinely talented side who travelled to Lancashire certainly expecting to give mighty Preston a game.
Wignall was even able to leave a former England international out of the starting line-up. Kevin Hector, a goal machine at Derby, reportedly wasn’t greatly amused!
My Dad, who was Shepshed’s Mr Scoop for many years, had the joy of being introduced to the great Sir Tom Finney in the Preston boardroom – but that was as good as it got.
With goalkeeper Colin King being taken off injured, Shepshed were soon 3-0 down and there was no way back despite a consolation goal from big Denis Jenas.
Around this time Denis used to bring his young son to watch him play – Jermaine later became an England international after learning the game at The Dovecote academy!
The match ended 5-1 to Preston but Shepshed’s success story continued for several years, culminating in a brief moment when they topped the Southern Premier League.
But even the biggest of names were unable to take them any further.
Martin O’Neill and his sidekick and fellow former Forest legend John Robertson were in charge for a few months until Clayton decided O’Neill wasn’t putting in sufficient time and effort.
I reminded Clayton of that judgement many years later after he had relinquished the reigns and O’Neill was established as one of the best managers in the modern game.
But that was just a small blip during a ride many of us thoroughly enjoyed.
Getting a local team into the Football League and playing at Wembley proved bridges too far but I’m not sure that’s the point.
Thanks to the efforts of a small number of volunteers, most notably former Echo managing director Peter Bull, the club is still very much alive and kicking – and that’s surely more important.
A second appearance in the FA Cup first round in 1996 when Shepshed Dynamo, as they are now called, lost 6-0 to Carlisle was probably an even greater achievement.
Wignall and Moore both attended Maurice Clayton’s funeral a couple of years ago and, of course, my dad Maurice also passed on in 2015.
It was whilst clearing out his old house in readiness for a forthcoming move that these memories were rekindled…