Big Frank said Malcolm Allison thought I was useless ... but it was a wind-up!
ARSENAL CUP HEROES CHARLIE GEORGE AND EDDIE KELLY ON BEATING CITY IN THE SEVENTIES AND THE BIRTH OF THAT LEGENDARY LIE-DOWN CELEBRATION
Charlie George took an instant shine to the semi-final draw. Not only did he consider Pep Guardiola’s freestylers to be the most suitable opponents for arsenal but he always liked playing Manchester City.
Forty-six years ago, his goals beat City in the Fa Cup fifth round, when the teams last met in the competition and an iconic goal celebration was born.
‘That’s when i first did the famous lie-down,’ George recalls with glee. ‘it was p***ing down in Manchester like it normally does. i liked playing in the rain and the mud and Maine road was one of my favourite grounds. Before the game, Frank Mclintock pulled me out of the dressing room and went: “look Charlie, i’ve just been talking to [City’s assistant manager] Malcolm allison and he thinks you’re f***ing useless”.
‘Well, first-half, we get a free-kick. i took the free-kick, kept it low because Joe Corrigan’s in goal — he wasn’t the quickest for getting down — and we’re one-nought up, thank you very much.
‘Second-half, i pick the ball up on the halfway line, they keep backing off and i keep going forward and i smack it in the corner. Two-nought up, so i run back and lay down like that, on my back, looking at Malcolm allison.
‘after the game, i’m chasing him up the tunnel, swearing and calling him every name under the sun. he hasn’t got a clue what’s going on. Frank made it all up. he went to see Malcolm and apologised.’
Glass of Merlot in hand, George recounts the tales with a flourish.
eddie Kelly has heard the story countless times and chuckles. arsenal men need something to smile about at the moment.
They meet with a handshake and an embrace, a barrage of industrial language, some dressing room mimicry and references to dodgy hips and knees, thinning hair, failing eyesight and hearing.
George is missing a finger on his right hand, lost in a lawnmower accident when he was at Southampton during the twilight of his career. With his left hand he proves his two-fingered salute works well. More laughter.
he was arsenal’s original Cockney rebel. his long hair and anti-establishment tendencies did not go down quite so well with arsenal manager Bertie Mee or the Fa but he was adored by the fans and his heroics were central to Nick hornby’s Fever Pitch.
‘i stood up for what i thought was right,’ says George on the question of rebellion.
‘i stood up for my principles. i scored two at Derby in the Cup and ran 50 yards to give them the V-sign. i got done for that.
‘Their fans were going garrity. i was a bit sceptical when i signed for them but they loved me up there.’
He‘chinned’ a photographer in a game for Southampton and escaped with a £1,000 fine. ‘i thought they were going to crucify me,’ he says.
‘That night, John lennon got shot in New York and took all the front pages. Bless you, John.’
One england cap came complete with a row with manager Don revie, who pushed him out of position onto the left-wing and replaced him after an hour.
‘as i came off he went: “Shake my hand”,’ says George. ‘i told him to go f*** himself. When he left for the money in the Middle east, ron Greenwood took over and rang me to play for the B-team.
‘i said: “C is for Charlie, C is for class, stick your B-team up your a***”. That was the end of my international career.’
The ‘famous lie-down’ was back at Wembley in the Fa Cup final to celebrate one of arsenal’s most famous goals, a winner in extratime against liverpool to complete the Double in 1971.
‘it wasn’t the best goal i scored but it was the most important,’ says George. ‘i scored a few against Man City and one against Newcastle when i played a one-two off a defender and smacked it in.
‘There was a hat-trick for Derby against real Madrid (in 1975), four goals over two legs.
‘The best was out there, top-corner from 35 yards, a blinding goal that never got a mention because we lost 5-1 in extra-time.
‘i could strike a ball, that was the gift i was given. When John radford knocked it to me there was only one thing i could see. i struck it and it went in and i suppose it changed my life.’
George lives in islington, among his people, where he is accustomed to posing for selfies with fans and chatting about the old times.
When musician and arsenal fan John lydon, the former Sex Pistols frontman, spotted him drinking with mates in london’s West end, last month, he made a fuss and stuck £100 behind the bar.
‘When i was five i’d stand on a milk crate in the South Bank,’ George adds. ‘i joined as a schoolboy when i was 11. When i was older i’d stand on the North Bank with my mates. Then i’m scoring at Wembley.
‘Sometimes, anybody would think it was the only goal i scored but it was a great goal and it was iconic because it won us the Double and the last team to do the Double was that mob up the road.’ eDDie KellY’S Wembley goal was vital if less memorable, the first scored by a substitute in an Fa Cup final.
‘The worst goal ever in Fa Cup final history,’ quips Kelly of his equaliser, after Steve heighway had put liverpool ahead.
he challenged in the air, turned and nudged the ball past Tommy Smith but ray Clemence looked set to smother it until deceived by the run of George Graham, who promptly ran off to celebrate the goal as his own.
Only when Jimmy hill and commentator Brian Moore arrived at the post-match banquet at the Grosvenor house hotel, having seen the replays, did players discover Graham hadn’t touched it.
‘Nobody knew who’d scored and George was such a liar,’ smiles Kelly. ‘When Frank asked him why he claimed a goal he knew he’d
never touched, he said: “Who’d you rather kiss? Me or Eddie?”
‘John Radford says it was a tossup between him and George for man of the match and they gave it George because of the goal. Raddy’s still waiting for the trophy.’
Kelly played boys football with Kenny Dalglish in Possilpark and came to Arsenal at 15.
‘I was earning more as a milk-boy in Glasgow,’ he says, although he earned a few shillings extra helping to build the arena for Henry Cooper’s fight with Muhammad Ali in May 1966. The midfielder had a knack when it came to key goals. He scored the opener in the 1970 Fairs Cup final second-leg, when Arsenal beat Anderlecht on aggregate despite losing 3-1 in the first game in Belgium.
‘George Graham never claimed it either,’ says Kelly.
It was a first major trophy in 17 years for Arsenal and bonded the players who had come through the youth ranks, led by captain McLintock and coached by Dave Sexton and Don Howe.
Many are in close contact and were together at Howe’s funeral last year when McLintock spoke. ‘Frank was inspirational,’ says Kelly. ‘Such a winner. We thought he’d been playing in a different game after the first leg in Anderlecht. He’s in the dressing room going: “Wait ‘til we get this lot to Highbury”. It was his first trophy. We couldn’t get him off the pitch at the end. A great captain. He still gives you a buzz the way he talks about football.’
Kelly came on to score a winner against Stoke in the penultimate game of the 1970-71 season. Two days later, a Monday night, he was in the team at Tottenham when a goalless draw or a win would clinch Arsenal’s first title since 1953. ‘There must’ve been a hundred thousand there,’ says George.
‘We had to get off the coach and walk 200 yards to the main entrance. We ended up with more inside the stadium than them.’
Ray Kennedy scored the only goal and celebrations went through the night.
‘I was the only one who went home,’ says George. ‘We dropped them all off at the White Hart in Southgate and I stayed on the coach until Finsbury Park and got a 359 to Camden Road where I lived with my mum and dad. I went indoors and there was no f***** there. Everyone was out celebrating. I went to bed. Look at me, the ultimate professional.’ BOTH see Howe’s exit as the start of the end and blame Mee for dismantling the team too quickly, selling Kennedy to Liverpool and McLintock to QPR.
‘I heard Liverpool came to buy me,’ says George. ‘They wouldn’t sell me and they bought Ray instead.’
George flirted with Tottenham before joining champions Derby in 1975, Kelly joined Queens Park Rangers a year later and they hopped from club to club as the good times fizzled out.
Having won the title at the start of his career, Kelly ended it at the bottom of the Football League with Torquay, tempted out of retirement by former Chelsea midfielder Dave Webb.
‘I’d been running a pub in Leicester but Dave told the chairman I’d been playing in Cyprus,’ says Kelly. ‘Tony Currie was in midfield, a brilliant player but he couldn’t train because of his knees.
‘He was driving a taxi, so he came down on Friday and played on Saturday. We were the two slowest players in the league.
‘We were so rubbish it put me off. I never went to see a game of football for five years after Torquay.’
KELLystill lives in Devon having spent 15 years working in the doubleglazing business and watches Arsenal from afar.
When he starts picking through problems in Arsene Wenger’s team, he stops, realising the list is a long one. George is back inside the Arsenal family, leading tours at the Emirates Stadium. He recently reached the milestone of 70,000 visitors and says almost all are firmly behind Wenger.
‘I’ve seen some s*** teams at Arsenal,’ says George. ‘I was there when we got slaughtered by Leeds on a Thursday in 1966 in front of 4,554. On the North Bank, they were lighting bonfires and on the South Bank, a guy pulled a trumpet out and played The Last Post.
‘I’m a fan and I get the hump when we lose. But that mob down the road, they’ve got a good side and Dele Alli can go on to be a superstar but I don’t think they’ll win anything. They might finish in front of us for the first time in 22 years. Is that their season? I don’t think so. They will find it hard in a new stadium like we did.
‘Until they achieve what this man has achieved over 20 years, don’t come and talk to me.’