Ronnie Radford
Hereford midfielder who won footballing immortality with a famous FA Cup goal against Newcastle
RONNIE RADFORD, who has died aged 79, scored perhaps the most famous goal in the history of the FA Cup, the 30-yard rocket which in 1972 helped non-league Hereford United defeat Newcastle United and pull off the greatest shock the competition had seen.
Hereford played in the Southern League, the fifth tier of English football. They had already come through seven matches, including three replays, during their march from the Cup’s fourth qualifying round.
Drawn in the third round against First Division Newcastle, who fielded six internationals in the first match, at St James’ Park, Hereford took the lead in just 17 seconds. They earned the right to a replay when the score finished 2-2.
Late January that year was especially wet and the game was postponed several times despite Newcastle basing themselves for a week at a hotel in Worcester. Their sharply attired players had to pop out to Cecil Gee, the gents outfitters, to stock up on shirts and pants.
The tie was eventually played on February 5, by which time the pitch at Edgar Street resembled Brown Windsor soup.
The visitors dominated the match, with Hereford’s goalkeeper Fred Potter making save after save until the Newcastle striker Malcolm Macdonald scored from a header with eight minutes remaining.
Radford’s moment had come. He won a tackle in midfield and played a one-two with Brian Owen. Despite the quagmire, the return pass sat up perfectly for Radford, who let fly. “I didn’t think about the distance,” he recalled. “I just thought, ‘I’ve got to hit this.’ It could have gone in the car park. But it didn’t.”
Instead, it sped like an arrow into the top left corner of the Newcastle goal. This provoked a pitch invasion by many of the parka-clad boys sitting in trees and even pylons around the ground, while Radford’s strike was memorably described for Match of the Day viewers by a youthful John Motson.
The match went into extra time, when Radford’s pass out wide helped to set up the substitute Ricky George for Hereford’s winner. They were the lowest-ranked side to have beaten top flight opposition in the Cup, and the first non-league club to have done so since Yeovil had upset Sunderland in 1949.
Their giant-killing led to the game being shown at much more length than planned on Match of the Day. Motson credited this with his being given a BBC contract, later remarking: “He changed his life, my life, the history of the FA Cup, with a goal that came out of nowhere.” Radford’s shot was voted Goal of the Season – the first time the award had gone to one scored in the FA Cup.
Over the years, the goal would be shown again innumerable times on television. The only person in the ground who had missed it was Radford’s wife Annie, who at that instant had turned her head to speak to their children.
Hereford’s reward was a tie against West Ham. Their manager, Colin Addison, felt they should have won the first match, at home, which ended goalless. As it was, they succumbed to a hat-trick by Geoff Hurst in the replay at Upton Park. Consolation came at the season’s finish, however, when they won promotion to the Football League.
Ronald Radford was born on July 12 1943 at South Elmsall, a mining village near Wakefield, West Yorkshire. As a teenager, he signed for Sheffield Wednesday, and was next at Leeds United with Norman Hunter and Terry Cooper. Yet he made no appearances for either club.
He had trained as a joiner, and as staying semi-professional meant that he could earn more, Radford moved in 1962 to Cheltenham Town. Aside from a year spent at Rugby, he remained there until 1969. He was then signed by Newport County, being voted their player of the season that year and scoring seven goals in 68 league matches before John Charles took him to Hereford.
Radford had continued to travel back and forth from his job in Yorkshire during the week. When Hereford turned professional after a second promotion in 1974, he again dropped down to non-league football to earn more as a carpenter than the weekly £25 wage on offer. He made 61 league appearances for Hereford.
As player-manager at Worcester City, Radford guided the club to second place in the Southern League but found he did not enjoy management. Stints at Bath and Forest Green Rovers followed until an Achilles tendon injury ended his playing days.
With characteristic modesty, Radford had denied he was the footballer on everyone’s lips when he returned to work as a carpenter after the Newcastle match. In 2010, the FA named an award for the season’s biggest shock result after him.
“It means a lot to be remembered for that goal against Newcastle,” said Radford, recalling how the revelation of his name had brought a beaming smile from the man fitting him for a hearing aid.
“I found that bewildering,” he mused. “I’ve never wanted to be famous; I still don’t feel famous now.”
Ronnie Radford and his wife Annie had two sons.