Whickham's Vase glory remembered

The programme described Richardson as a "personable extrovert", adding sotto voce (as they say) that the volume of his encouragement said much for the state of his vocal chords.

A quarter of a century later, only the curls have disappeared.

At 62 he's still in football management, still both personable and extrovert, still passionate, still noisy and still mesmerised by the Wembley experience.

"I remember consciously telling myself to take it all in and still couldn't. I don't think we really understood, " he says.

"I still say to people that all that standing around on cold football grounds, all the knockbacks, were worth it for that one moment of leading your side out at Wembley."

So why have so few North-East managers shared the thrill, and still fewer seen their skipper lift the trophy?

"We just aren't good enough at every level, " says Richardson, now manager of Gateshead in the UniBond League. "Realistically there should be a Northern League team in the Vase final every season, two in the semifinal, but they're knocking one another out in the early rounds.

"One of the most ridiculous things is all these big club academies, the biggest waste of time and money I've ever known in football.

"When you had youth teams you'd expect five out of ten to get through to the reserves at least.

Now it might be one out of 60 and we're not getting the players from professional football.

"Newcastle United send us 18year-olds who couldn't kick my arse. The closest they come to intensity is when they run into one another.

"Some might have the technical ability but what they lack today is mental toughness."

Half of them, he says prodding his chest, haven't a heart as big as a pea. What he looks for, adds Richardson, is proper players - a phrase he employs duly and repeatedly. "I just wish that round here I could find some."

ARIGHT-HALF, he spent four years with West Brom after leaving school but came home at 19 without making the first team and with nine months of his contract remaining.

"Me and the manager had a few words. They came back for me but I wouldn't go. That's life."

Instead he joined Ferryhill Athletic when the Northern League, he's quick to add, had proper players - "no-nonsense players, hard but not dirty" - too. "Every team had cracking players who nowadays would be professionals, but then they could make as much money from two jobs as they could as a pro."

Among his best remembered opponents was the late Doug Raine, a granite wing-half with Stanley United who doubled as the local bin man.

"He was the hardest man I ever met on a football field, him and Cyril Gowland. I could look after myself, no doubt, but those guys didn't kick from you behind, they looked you in the eyes when they kicked you. Lovely lad, Duggie."

After Ferryhill he spent 11 successful seasons with Spennymoor United, a couple of miles westwards, with the talented likes of Peter Joyce, Ralphy Wright, Graham Defty and Kenny Banks - "the best footballer I ever played with."

Though the Northern League remained notionally amateur, some of them, he supposes, could earn as much on a Saturday afternoon as by working a five day week.

Following a season with Whitby Town, he became player/manager at Ferryhill, was sacked for the only time in his career - "I think they regretted it" - and in 1978 joined Whickham, a few miles west of Gateshead.

"I didn't even know the FA Vase existed, " he insists, but the following season the young team he built reached the semi-final.

"It wasn't the greatest squad I've seen in my life, but it was an honest squad and we scored lots of goals." Two years later they were on the way to Wembley.

IT was the old stadium's first allseated event, the standing terraces at either end closed for the occasion. The referee was Ray Lewis, he of Great Bookham, the crowd around 12,000.

"There may only have been 12,000 but the noise from the tunnel was unbelievable, " Richardson recalls. "If that doesn't get you going, I don't know what ever will.

Alan Scott, Consett fireman, pulled a goal back after 16 minutes. Soon afterwards, Willenhall goalkeeper Steve Newton was taken to hospital after colliding with Whickham's Billy Cawthra, forever Big Billy. Star centre forward Gary Matthews donned his jersey.

Ronnie Williamson - "superb in midfield, " said the following Monday's Echo - equalised after 57 minutes. Big Billy, formerly with Fort Lauderdale, scored the winner after 12 minutes of extra time.

George Cook, the captain, collected the trophy from Sir Matt Busby. Five thousand awaited their return next day. "It was overwhelming, we couldn't get near the clubhouse. We'd only expected a few hundred, " he recalls.

A few weeks later, he and seven of the victorious side moved to Newcastle Blue Star, vase winners three years previously.

There are those with whom it still rankles.

"There are a million and one stories told about what I did and didn't do, still people up there who hate me, but you can't expect players to win the FA Vase at Wembley and play for the same money.

"Wee were making £6 players £10 players and £4 players £8 players. There was nothing wrong with that but because we went to Blue Star we were treated like second class citizens in some quarters."

Subsequent posts included Gateshead, who in an earlier spell he guided to fourth place in the Conference, and Bridlington, with whom he also won the Vase.

"There was a lot of difference.

Bridlington had some really good players, 6-4 to win the trophy after the second round. We were just little Whickham, no one really fancied us. That was the really special one; there's never a time like the first."

GATESHEAD have fallen on hard times, too, near the bottom of the UniBond premier division and playing at the 12,000 capacity International Stadium before crowds which barely reach three figures.

They'll never succeed, he says, until they find a home of their own - a move towards which talks are under way.

"Gateshead council are very good to us, but at the International Stadium we can't even control the price of a hot dog. There's not even a photograph of the side."

Most of his side live in south Yorkshire. "I just wish there were some good players gannin' round up here, but we aren't getting any from the professional level and the game's suffering all the way down.

"Suddenly we are having to pay silly money for very average players.

There's us, Whitby, Blyth and Bishops in the Unibond and we need at least 60 players of a decent standard. There aren't ten. I had to go down to Yorkshire, no alternative, I just want to put a bit of quality back at our level."

Enthusiasm undimmed, selfbelief sustained, he still hopes to return Gateshead to the Conference - "I still work hard, I still feel I have one good team left in me" - accepts that he'll never again lead out a side at Wembley.

"It's been 25 years and sometimes it seems like yesterday.

People can say what they like about me, but they'll never take that away."

Permanently, properly, proud.

Handle with care

FOR auction but probably not under the hammer, a table napkin souvenir of the 1905 FA Cup final - Newcastle United 0 Aston Villa 2 - goes on sale next week.

"It's basically just printed tissue paper, how it's survived for over 100 years is beyond me, " says John Wilson, of Middlesbrough based auction house Methuselah.

The game was at the Crystal Palace, the crowd 101,117. The Magpies compensated amply by winning the first division for the first time, the championship clinched with a 3-0 victory at Middlesbrough in which Jock Rutherford was one of the scorers. Clearly the lad is even older than all these years we'd supposed.

Among much else, the auction - Marton Hotel and Country Club, April 26, 1pm - includes a programme from the 1911 FA Cup tie between Crook Town and Lincoln City, described as "delicate but perfectly readable." Then again, aren't we all?

THE sap rises, cricket beckons, the splendid Jack Chapman faithfully sends the Fosters Northumberland and Tyneside Senior League handbook. "It may lack the diaphanous daffodil appeal of Wisden, " says Jack modestly, "but nonetheless offers the promise of summer."

It's a remarkable and wonderfully comprehensive effort for all that. Particularly we are taken by the record of West Indian professional Wesley Thomas's match for Blaydon against Lintz in 1988 - 111, 1027 off 9.3 overs - and by the Instructions to Umpires.

"Umpires are required to be thoroughly familiar with the laws of cricket, " it says. Probably it helps.

Jack's also a bit chuffed because a copy of his centenary history of Blaydon CC, £4 when it was published in 1991, has just sold on e-bay for £20.

He's hoping inflation's here to stay - "We've another 500 in the pavilion loft."

DEAR old Doghouse CC, of which the column remains a vice-president, have sent their tails-up fixture card, too. The list of players includes Ray Gowan, who at 62 still commutes from Leeds to Esh Winning to manage the village football club and is hoping for a bit of cricket on Teesside. "They can't do without me, " he insists.

SIMILARLY sipping the first of the summer wine, Steve Smith notes - as doubtless has many a sub-editor - that Onions and Mustard are together in Durham's side at Canterbury this week while Kent include a Cook.

Hampshire have a Lamb in the field, which could also be tasty. Steve's now perusing his Wisdens for another savoury selection. Readers may care to add to the menu.

THE Stokesley Stockbroker draws attention to a leader in the Guardian headed "In praise of Accrington Stanley", a reminder that Ashington - who joined the old Third Division North with Accrington but didn't last as long - were due tomorrow to play West Auckland in their final match at historic Portland Park.

Colliers chairman Jim Lang reveals, however, that the departure date - and the town centre development necessitating it - has been delayed. "We'll certainly be there at the start of next season."

Ashington were kicked out in 1929, after eight seasons, the ground later home to speedway and greyhound racing as well.

"We might seem a long way from the Football League now, " says Jim, "but they said that about Accrington Stanley, didn't they?"

. . . and finally

THE Welsh international who won caps while with ten different clubs (Backtrack, April 18) was the ubiquitous Dean Saunders.

Brian Shaw in Shildon today seeks the identity of the five postwar footballers who've played for England in three different decades.

England expects an answer when the column returns on Tuesday.

Published: 21/04/2006