WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
We catch up with Stoke’s League Cup winners of 1972
STOKE, one of the 12 founding mem- bers of the Football League, have only won one major trophy in their long history.
They lifted the League Cup in March 1972, beating Chelsea 2-1 at Wembley after George Eastham scored the winner.
It ended their 109-year wait for a major honour and came during a season when they played an amazing 70 games.
They played 42 First Division games with 28 cup-ties, 12 in the League Cup, eight in the FA Cup and four in each of the Texaco and Anglo-Italian Cups.
They needed a replay to beat Oxford United and then another two replays to see off Manchester United but the longest tie came against West Ham in the semi-finals.
Stoke lost the first-leg 2-1 before winning the second leg 1-0. The first replay finished 0-0 before the third game saw them squeeze home 3-2.
Mike Bernard scored the first goal, following up after stand-in keeper Bobby Moore had saved his spot-kick.
“I spent 17 years in the game and that was the only goal that I ever scored with my left foot because it was only for standing on,” he joked.
“Bobby Ferguson got a bang on the head from Denis Smith and had to go off for 15 minutes and Moore was given the jersey.
“I had never taken a penalty before and Jimmy Greenhoff was our penalty taker but his nerves must have gone, so I just picked the ball up.
“It was only after the game when we returned to Stoke and were having a few beers that it sunk in I had taken a penalty.”
Bernard admits that Stoke didn’t need any motivation for the final after reading the London newspapers all week in the build-up to the game.
Terry Conroy put Stoke ahead in the fourth minute, then Peter Osgood equalised for Chelsea before Eastham scored the winner 17 minutes from time to secure the trophy.
“We had gone down to London for a week training and to get ready, but Tony Waddington didn’t have to gee us up because every night we got The Evening Standard.
“And every evening we were reading about the Kings of the King’s Road and how they were going to stuff these country yokels. So, come Saturday we were raring to go.
“We had played against Chelsea many times and my brief was to stifle Alan Hudson who I used to room with before England under-23 matches. I knew him well.
“I knew if I got close enough to him and got under his skin, I’d have him, which I did.
“Also, if Chopper Harris kicked George Eastham too often, I was told to go get his attention.
“So, I would go across and get him onto me. But that was Stoke. We were a team and we would help each other out.
“We were that pent up, we knew we could mix it with the so-called hard boys with some of the players that we had in our side.
“But we were also a good footballing side with George Eastham, Peter Dobing, and Terry Conroy, so we could play football. We weren’t fearing them,” he added.
1. Mike Bernard: The England under-23 midfielder was a League Cup runner-up with Everton. He ran a Chester pub, was Crewe’s commercial manager and became a painter and decorator in Wiltshire. He now splits his time between Portugal and the UK. 2. Alan Bloor: England youth international central defender who won a Watney Cup in 1973 and had a spell managing Port Vale before opening a carpet business at Longton. He then ran a news agency and did a sub-contracting driving job.
3. Mike Pejic: England international left-back who went into management and coaching, was a regional director for the FA and became a youth coach for Plymouth Argyle and Ipswich Town. He is European over-60 Taekwondo champion.
4. Jimmy Greenhoff: The forward won an FA Cup with Manchester United. He ran his own insurance business and then went to work for a pharmaceutical company and has done corporate hosting at Old Trafford. His brother Brian was an England international.
5. Gordon Banks: England’s World Cup winning goalkeeper coached at Port Vale, ran his own sports promotions business and then worked the after-dinner circuit. He died in February 2019 after battling cancer.
6. John Mahoney: The Welsh international midfielder went into management and coaching, and two of his daughters have played netball for Wales. He lives in Swansea whom he helped win promotion to Division One.
7. Tony Waddington: He took part in the D-Day landings, managed Stoke for 17 years and then took charge of Crewe Alexandra for whom he had played as a wing-half. He was an associate director at Stoke until his death in 1994 aged 69.
8. George Eastham: The midfielder was a non-playing member of England’s 1966 World
Cup winning squad. He won a landmark case that gave players freedom to move between clubs and went on to own a sportswear business in South Africa where he coached children.
9. Jackie Marsh: The right-back won a Division Three promotion with Stoke, his home-town club, in 1979. He retired after working as a sales rep and has also hosted executive boxes on match days for the club.
10. Terry Conroy: The Republic of Ireland international won a Watney Cup. He worked in insurance and as welfare officer for the FAI, but went back to Stoke to work in the marketing department and has been a match day host at the club.
11. Peter Dobing: England under-23 international whose father played rugby league for Salford. Was Stoke’s captain at Wembley. His career was ended by a broken leg and he spent many years in the pottery business. Is now retired and lives in Stafford. 12. John Ritchie: The forward is Stoke’s all-time leading goalscorer. He went into partnership with Dobing and ran his own pottery business in Stoke-onTrent until his death in February 2007 aged 65.
13. Denis Smith: The defender won promotion from Division Three in 1979 and had a successful management career before working as a radio pundit and a match delegate. He then returned to Stoke as a mentor for academy players.