Chris Oldnall has been following his home-town football club Kidderminster Harriers since the early 1960s and he has also been chronicling their fluctuating fortunes for around 60 years.
Here, Chris brings us his first taste of nostalgia on the Harriers in our new monthly feature ‘Harriers Heritage’.
This week I’ve joined an army of veteran Kidderminster Harriers’ fans to salute one of the club’s biggest matches in the Swinging 60s.
Memories of the game were sparked a few months back when a national football magazine shone a nostalgic spotlight on Brighton and Hove Albion’s old headquarters at the Goldstone Ground which staged its final game in April 1997.
The site is now a retail park – a far cry from November 16, 1968, when excited Harriers supporters trooped there to watch the side’s brave bid for FA Cup glory.
In those days Harriers were operating in the West Midlands League Premier Division while Football Leaguers Brighton were performing in the old Third Division.
The Aggborough underdogs were not expected to win – particularly when they fell 2-0 behind.
But they rallied superbly to draw 2-2 and earn a lucrative first round proper replay.
And, of course, the potential for cup giant-killing headlines was a real possibility.
As well as having other match day reporting responsibilities, I was also covering the Goldstone Ground tie for the then Saturday night Green ‘Un sports paper – and it was not all plain sailing.
The mists of time cloud the reason why, but there was no landline available for me to file my match report which involved making telephone calls midway through the first half, another at the interval plus one more during the second period and again on the final whistle.
There were no mobile phones or laptops in those days, but thankfully a knight in shining armour was in the press box – Richard Matthews who was reporting on the tie for a Kidderminster weekly newspaper.
With no crucial landline to get my reports back to Worcestershire he kindly volunteered to find a way to overcome my telephone communication difficulties.
Off he wandered in search of a public telephone box – and luckily there was one in full working order near the ground.
Each time he visited the phone box there was no member of the public inside and precious minutes weren’t wasted.
My report eventually got through and was on the streets in that night’s edition.
Richard, still a regular visitor to games at Aggborough along with his son Adam, can still recall his unexpected duties at the Goldstone Ground that day when Brighton forged a 2-0 lead in front of 9,244 spectators who, if they wished, could buy a match programme for one shilling (5p).
But never-say-die Harriers stormed back in style after the break to earn a second bite of the cherry thanks to goals from their legendary brothers Brendan and Peter Wassall.
The team was: Wilcox, Buxton, Cockcroft, Smith, Jewkes, Watson, Gilbert, B Wassall, P Wassall, Henderson, Taylor. Sub: Cocker.
A Wednesday night replay followed when a crowd of 8,442 crammed into Aggborough to see the gallant hosts lose 1-0 to a Kit Napier goal.
The only change to the line-up was Les Cocker replacing injured Colin Smith.
This time there were no problems with the phone – and Harriers soon put their cup disappointments behind them by dialing up enough points to win their league well ahead of runners-up Tamworth.
