It’s a funny old game... the memorable day goal king Greavsie had fans flocking to Bridgend Town
AUGUST Bank Holiday Monday 1978 provided Bridgend Town with the biggest gathering in club history.
It was down to the magic associated with one of the finest footballers that England has ever produced in Jimmy Greaves – widely reported to be fighting against coronavirus in recent days – who was playing for Barnet in a Southern League Premier Division fixture against the Sky Blues.
Though the official attendance was later announced as a respectable 537 on a day that seems from a different existence right now, anyone present on the day knew that figure could be trebled.
Fans massed on the narrow Coychurch Road pavement; many spilled down onto the steps and into Jubilee Crescent, resulting in club committeemen taking around a hat for donations.
And with cars parked on either side of Coychurch Road, traffic grinded to a halt – 40 years later the queues returned, this time for the Asda supermarket.
However, given Greaves had scored 366 goals in 528 appearances for Chelsea, AC Milan, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham, it was surprising he failed to hit the back of the net at Coychurch Road.
Then in the twilight of a glowing career that saw 57 England caps from 1959-67 yield an astonishing 44 goals, Greaves had taken in non-league spells at Brentwood and Chelmsford City before Barnet boss Barry Fry persuaded him to sign for the Bees in 1977.
Greaves at 38 years of age was fighting alcoholism and despite Fry pleading with him to stay at Underhill, this was his final season at the club.
As for Town, they were building strength with shrewd managers in Dennis James and Lyn Jones.
In 1976/77, they finished Welsh League runners-up to Llanelli Town, and only lost 2-1 to Cardiff City in a Welsh Cup semi-final at a packed Coychurch Road.
A decision was then made to join the Southern League and during their inaugural season on the circuit of 1977/78, they finished runners-up to Watney Town in Division One (North).
That secured promotion to the Premier Division, but the 1978/79 season was being played against a background of a new Alliance Premier League being formed for the following campaign.
Though fans flocked to Coychurch Road on a never-to-be-forgotten day in August 1978, they didn’t see much Greaves magic, and he failed to score.
However, Barnet exited with a 2-0 victory, Derek Brown opened the scoring while they sealed victory over the Sky Blues with a goal from a free-scoring forward right out of the mould that made Greaves.
It came from another veteran performer, 37-year-old John Fairbrother, who in 352 Football League outings with Watford, Peterborough Utd, Northampton Town, Mansfield and Torquay Utd had scored 153 times.
As the season unfolded, Barnet established a mid-table spot that would secure them Alliance Premier League status for the following winter.
But Bridgend struggled and finished bottom with a record of P42, W6, D6, L30, Goals for 39, Against 90.
Given those statistics, however, the Sky Blues played out a satisfactory goalless draw during the Underhill rematch on February 3, 1979.
Once more Greaves failed to score while in goal was Kevin Blackwell, who became manager of Leeds Utd, Luton Town, Sheffield Utd and Bury and was Neil Warnock’s assistant at Cardiff
City. Bridgend also had two notable players in their line-up – former Cardiff City forward Jimmy McInch and Irishman Paul Bannon.
Glasgow-born McInch had played alongside Welsh international striker Derek Showers during his youth career at Ninian Park, and went on to figure 13 times for the Bluebirds from 1972-75 before Town signed him from Bath City in 1977.
Notts Forest product Bannon turned up at Welsh League club Ammanford during the summer of 1978, and scoring 16 goals for the Rice Roaders in rapid time encouraged Town boss Lyn
Jones in the autumn to snap him up.
Though he was dubbed a wayward character easily led astray, at the end of the season Carlisle Utd went on to sign him for £8,500.
In 140 games for the Brunton Park side, Bannon scored 45 times while from 1983-86 he was with Bristol Rovers (eight goals, 29 matches).
Eventually, he returned to his native Ireland, and won acclaim in netting the goal for Cork City that clinched the 1992/93 Irish Premier League title.
He died back in February 2016, aged 59.
At the end of the 1978/79 season, the winds of change blew through the
Southern League with the new Alliance Premier Division plucking 13 of their best teams – champions Worcester City, Kettering Town, Telford Utd,
Maidstone Utd, Bath City, Weymouth, A P Leamington, Redditch Utd, Yeovil Town, Nuneaton Borough,
Gravesend & Northfleet, Barnet and Wealdstone.
It led to the Southern League cupboard being left bare and with just two divisions in 1979/80 - Bridgend won Midland honours and Dorchester Town triumphed in the Southern bracket.
The Bridgend record read P42, W28, D6, L8, Goals for 85, Against 39 and a 62-point haul led to them finishing three points clear of Minehead.
The Sky Blues then faced Dorchester in a two-leg final for the outright Southern League crown, winning 3-0 win at Coychurch Road and 2-1 away for a 5-1 aggregate victory.
Exactly a year after the Greaves show-stopper, Town opened 1979/80 with a 2- 0 home win over runners-up Minehead – Graham Bennett and Chris Williams the net busters – and the pair became the main source of goals.
The following winter, Bridgend finished 11th in the Midland Division.
During 1981/82, there was more restructuring for the season ahead, but with Town only coming 13th in the Midland Division, they missed out on Premier Division status.
Their final Southern League campaign was 1982/83, and the Sky Blues came eighth in the Midland Division before the decision to return to the Welsh League for 1983/84.