Hancock’s heroics set up Valiants for famous cup success

HE’S too modest to put it like this, but keeper Ken Hancock was a Vale hero in their FA Cup win over Sunderland in 1962.

After helping the Valiants to a goalless draw at Roker Park he played through an ankle injury in the replay in Burslem four days later.

Ken went on to play for Ipswich and Tottenham, but was proud to play for a Vale side that included his Carmountside Secondary Modern school-mates Harry Poole and Terry Miles.

In fact Ken, who made 269 appearances for the Valiants, Harry, who made 493, and Terry, who made 401, were also part of the Vale side that won the Division Four title in 1958/59, the 60th anniversary of which is this season.

Ken said: “Harry was dynamite. He played well below the level he should have played at.

“And Terry was a bloody tenacious, hard-tackling, get-stuck-in type player.

“It was an extension of Carmountside, we picked up at the Vale what we’d had there.”

Ken, aged 80, Harry, 83, and Terry, 81, were guests of the club this week in the build up to Sunday’s Sunderland game.

Ken says his overwhelming memory of the first game at Roker Park was the incredible atmosphere.

He said: “It was overpowering. You ran on to the pitch and it was like someone slapping both ears at once. As we came out I actually stumbled and nearly fell over. I did a bit of a forward roll and carried on running.

“I always liked to wear a long stud, especially in the sloppier conditions, and I must have just caught my studs and went flying. I thought ‘I’m not going to land on my face and look a prat’, so I just ducked my shoulder and rolled over.

“I was told two fellas there said ‘bloody hell, he’s going to be hard to beat today. They thought it was my way of frightening the opposition.”

Ken injured his ankle in the first half of the replay. But with no substitutes allowed in those days - subs weren’t introduced until 1965/66 - Ken got through with plenty of grit and a little help from trainer Lol Hamlett.

He recalled: “You had no option. My ankle was badly damaged but ‘Lollipop’ strapped it up and away we went.”

Away they went to a famous victory.

Ken added: “It was billed as a David and Goliath job, but we just bowled up there and, if we got beaten, we got beaten. But don’t surrender as Roy Sproson said. Get stuck in and don’t give them anything.”