BRADFORD CITY 1975-76 FA CUP QUARTER-FINALISTS
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
DON HUTCHINS scored five goals en route to the last time Bradford City reached the FA Cup quarter-finals 39 years ago. Middlesbrough-born winger Hutchins set the Fourth Division outfit on their way, scoring the only goal against Chesterfield in the first round.
Even though they were struggling for league form at the time, Bobby Kennedy’s battlers never looked back after seeing off the Derbyshire side.
It even proved to be the catalyst for the Bantams to win promotion from the League basement the following season, according to Hutchins.
Gerry Ingram, twice, and Joe Cooke were on target in the 3-0 win at Rotherham in the second round before goals from Cooke and Hutchins saw off Shrewsbury 2-1 away in round three.
Hutchins scored a brace in the fourth round as Non-League Tooting & Mitcham were dispatched 3-1. John Middleton got the other.
The fifth round draw wasn’t kind, however, as Bradford were handed a trip to First Division Norwich City.
John Bond’s Canaries warmed up with three-goal wins over both Leeds United and Arsenal, but Bradford had some serious problems which they needed to overcome, according to Hutchins.
“The week before the Cup game a few of our lads went down with the flu. Then a few of us came into training one day and Bobby Kennedy said to us ‘you lot have got the flu, too!’,” he said.
“He made out a few more of us had flu. The game got called off and put back to midweek. John Bond had said if we couldn’t put a team together, then we shouldn’t be in the Cup.
“That wound us all up a bit, but Norwich had a very good team and if it was a boxing match, they would have stopped it because they absolutely battered us.
“They were hitting the post and hitting the crossbar but we held out. Then Billy McGinley broke away and scored in the last couple of minutes.”
“It was just a case of getting out of our own box towards the end of that game,” added Hutchins, who had put Bradford ahead at Carrow Road before World Cup winner Martin Peters equalised.
Their quarter-final opponents, Southampton, would go on to pull off one of the major Cup shocks of the time by beating Manchester United 1-0.
But Hutchins insists that Jim McCalliog’s winner for Saints at Valley Parade wouldn’t now be allowed because of the illegal method of the free-kick.
“It was a dodgy free-kick – Peter Osgood flicked the ball up and McCalliog volleyed it home. Nowadays, the ball would have to travel its own circumference.
“They were favourites to win the game but we fancied our chances after beating Norwich. We didn’t fear them and we thought we had a chance. I think a draw would have been a fair result but we had a good run and nobody expected us to get as far as we did.” 1. David Hall: He settled in the Sheffield area, where he has worked as a salesman in the motor trade since retiring from football. 2. David Ratcliffe: Now an Australian citizen, he has managed Sydney Olympic, Wollongong City Wolves, UTS Sydney Olympic and Sydney United Pumas, and worked as a builder. 3. Gerry Ingram: He stayed on in the United States working in the construction industry and staging football camps. Is now retired, living in his native Humberside. 4. Peter Downsborough: He worked in a power station until 1999, then returned to his native Halifax where he was a school caretaker until retiring. 5. Ces Podd: Has managed the Saint Kitts and Nevis national team, been Bradford City’s community officer and ran his own salsa dancing company. Is now technical director for the St Lucia FA. 6. Ian Cooper: After managing Worcester City, he returned to Bradford. Became a joiner and works for the club on matchdays in their hospitality areas. 7. Joe Cooke: A fitness expert who nearly 30 years ago went into business with his wife Kathryn to open PJ’s Health and Fitness Village in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire. 8. Don Hutchins: Is now living in retirement having worked for 22 years in the paint industry, work-
ing his way up from a sales rep with Leyland Paints to regional sales manager. 9. Billy McGinley: Came through the ranks at Leeds United and settled in Crewe where he ended his career. Lives in Leighton. 10. Rod Johnson: After returning to England from finishing his career in the United States, he worked in insurance and has coached in Emley’s academy. 11. David Fretwell: After attending university in Bradford, he went into banking and became a building society branch manager in Cheshire. NOT PICTURED John Middleton: He went into the licensed trade in Yorkshire, running pubs in Otley, Apperley Bridge, Mexborough and now Rotherham.
Trevor Hockey: The son of a Welsh rugby international managed in the United States and then ran Trevor Hockey Soccer Camps in his home town of Keighley but died of a heart attack in April 1987. Graham Jones: A locally born full-back who went to work for the Yorkshire Electricity Board. Clive McFadzean: Is now based in Halifax where for the last ten years he has been the managing director of ABC Fire Protection. Bill Punton: Stayed on in Yorkshire and has settled in Leeds, where he is working locally. Warren Rayner: He still lives in Bradford and is self-employed, running his own airport taxi service. Garry Watson: He went into Non-League management with Guiseley and is now running his own carpet-fitting business in Eccleshill, Bradford.