Today's quiz question is; why are Barnet Football Club in the FA Cup record books?
Well let us wind back to Saturday 21st November 1970, FA Cup 1st Round: Barnet of the Southern League Premier 6-1 Newport County from the 4th Division. That was actually 50 years ago this weekend and it is still the competition's joint record win by a non league club over league opposition. Barnet hero Ricky George scored a memorable FA Cup goal for Hereford the following season against Newcastle United (you might have seen it on TV a couple of times) but that is not the reason he is famous around here – he scored a brilliant hatrick for Barnet that afternoon!
Barnet were riding high in the league thanks to bucket loads of goals from double act “Lou and Les”, Adams and Eason of course, and the wing play of Paddy Powell, under the command of Gerry Ward; a great team which should have won trophies; but the explanation has always been that the club committee never provided the back up of another 4 or 5 class players when injuries struck. 15 players made double figure appearances in all competitions that season, many over 50 each, but Ben Embery, Gordon Ferry, Jimmy Lye and Barry King played in over 60 games. Only a very few were professionals too while others were holding down day jobs! It was a great time to follow the club and that afternoon was so exciting, especially for a 10 year old.
Newport on the other hand were struggling in Division 4 and failed to win any of their opening 25 league games, they eventually had to apply for re-election, for the third year in succession to the league. However the “old boys network” was fully operational then and they remained a league club for a while longer.
One of the quirky courtesies of the day was; if the visitors shirt colour clashed with the home then the hosts would revert to their away colours. It did for this match and Barnet played in red shirts but for some reason Newport played in white, their away colours! Perhaps they forgot their normal kit? Nearly 3,000 turned up to witness a wonderful afternoon which was around double our average league gate.
McClelland, Lye. Jenkins, Embery, Ferry, Ward, King, Cray, Powell, Adams and George.
This line up was the strongest we could muster apart from the notable exception of an injured Les Eason. Roland Cray admirably took his place in the number 10 shirt. It is an iconic line up for sure.
It wasn't just a win on the day but a thrashing. The Bees were 4-1 up after 20 minutes. Going down the slope, I was on the West Bank straining my neck to see. The six goals came from Paddy Powell, Lou Adams, a deflected own goal from a Cray shot plus of course three from Ricky George, his finest hour in a Bees shirt.
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| RICKY GEORGE Or is it Steve McQueen? |
Ricky told me, “Before the game Tommy Coleman told me he had been thinking of dropping me for my lack of goals recently and more so for my lack of actual shooting! “Pull the trigger today Rick don't be scared.” I liked Tommy we got on well.”
He continued “Their player manager was a left back, Bobby Ferguson, and Paddy tore the poor guy to shreds. My first goal was from the edge of the 18 yard box, it flew into the top left hand corner. The second was a curler, I struck it so well.
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| RICK'S SECOND GOAL |
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| COLIN PADDY POWELL'S FINISH |
My third in the second half, and the sixth Barnet goal, was a run at the defence and I rounded the keeper and crashed it in point blank, what a feeling. There is a photograph of it somewhere in the archive. Scoring a hatrick for my home club in the FA Cup, its an emotional memory I can tell you and my proudest day as a Barnet Boy."
Sorry mate I can't find that picture anywhere, although I know I have it, Ed.
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| SO HERE IS ANOTHER ONE |
It was said that the performance grabbed the attention of John Charles and was the catalyst for Ricky's move to Hereford straight after the game, but it wasn't exactly like that. The fact is he was still at Underhill in March scoring goals.
“Billy Meadows then called and said Hereford want to sign me, they have the money too! I spoke to Tommy who was unsure at first but relented, As he shook my hand he said “Good luck mate, see you in 9 months!”. To be fair we wasn't far out with that comment!.
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| TOMMY COLEMAN (right) |
To add some lovely irony to the story, the Newport County number 11 that day was a certain Ronnie Radford. “We walked off the pitch together and what seemed like next to no time Ronnie and I became comrades at Edgar Street and we would share in another FA Cup history maker”. Ricky then rather generously told me, “Ronnie's name quite rightly became part of football folklore as The Giant Killer. Although perhaps with a little help from me and of course John Motson.”
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| RONNIE RADFORD AND RICKY |
Barnet went on to beat Slough Town away in the 2nd round thanks to a rare headed winner from Les Eason and then drew Colchester United at Underhill in the 3rd Round.
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| A RARE EASON HEADER AT SLOUGH |
We lost to a seventh minute Mick Mahon goal in front of nearly 5,000, although we were the better side on the day, all the press reports said so. Colchester drew Rochdale in the 4th round and won after a replay then famously beat the mighty Leeds United in the 5th round. It could have been us!
By the way the joint record I mentioned earlier. For your information Derby County 1-6 Boston Utd on 11th December 1955 FA Cup 1st round replay is the other. Thank you to Jonathan Lang for that research,
Reckless November 2020
One of the first games I went to - didn't realise it might never get that good again!
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