Somerset Cup Draw

Away Welton Rovers

My first ever City away match was a Somerset Cup Final (second leg) at Welton.

My first game was at Welton too, I was 19 days old I think (August 1989 - not 100% sure of the exact date).

Didn't we sign their entire team once? 1967?

Correct. Signed by Arnold Rogers who was previously manager at Welton. They were a very strong Western League team in the mid 60s.

I've just checked the Good Book. That 2nd leg of the Somerset final was played on 18.5.66 just a few weeks before the World Cup started. We played 77 matches that season with 23 in April and May!

My attendance at this will mean I’ll go 20 years since I missed us play in this illustrious competition - the last one was the infamous Brislington one.

Not seen us play at Welton in a competitive game before.

I think we signed 10 of that Welton team. One of them, John Allen, continued to watch City from the terraces for many years although I have not seen him for a while now.

Much later in his career, John Allen also scored against City in our shock 3-1 FA Cup defeat at Frome in 1984.

I haven't seen John Allen for a couple of seasons either. The other forward signed at the time from Welton was Ian Henderson - he might be described as a bit of a donkey these days but scored 46 goals in 75 appearances. Although I attended the second leg of the '66 final, I preferred to play football at Victoria Park for the first. But I can clearly remember hearing the boos of the angry crowd at TP when Ian MacFarlane was sent off after apparently striking Henderson.

where was the pitch at Victoria Park?

Henderson was about 6ft 7in and virtually all of his goals were scored from headers which never seemed to have much power but he had the knack of being able to direct them into the bottom corner.
Around this time we also signed another player from Welton, not one of the original 10. His name was Brian Owen. He was also a striker but very different from Henderson, short and stocky. When he got the ball he would get his head down and make for the goal, usually flattening anyone in his way. He was popular with the supporters and there was a lot of frustration that Henderson seemed the preferred choice.
Eventually Owen did play regularly but he left to sign for Hereford, it was said at the time for various financial carrots. Owen played in the Hereford team that famously knocked Newcastle out of the FA Cup and it was him who played the ball into the path of Ronnie Radford to score the famous goal that is part of FA Cup history.
He later returned to Bath but was a shadow of his former self.

comrade powell wrote:My first ever City away match was a Somerset Cup Final (second leg) at Welton.

That was the last time we played there in a competitive match. Seeing as Welton have been in the Western League for the entire duration of the SPC, it's surprising we haven't crossed paths since then.

Did I miss the ‘who will we get in the next round’ competition?

As a 12 (ish) year old I got taken to Welton to watch City reserves play them.  Must have been mid 60s.  Welton won 1-0 in front of 1,000 plus crowd.  Seem to recall the book 'Stars in Stripes' saying Welton were full time for a while around then. I've been told by several ex City supporters of the previous generation (to mine) that they stopped going during Arnold Rogers reign as it had "changed from a club to a business".  Perhaps Mr Rogers was ahead of his time!
Saw City reserves play them at TP, late 60s (?) and there were 800+ there.

tovid wrote:where was the pitch at Victoria Park?

I'm talking kick abouts on the high common or down the bottom where the children's playground is now. City legend Paul Gover was amongst my friends who played there regularly, along with those other legends Brian and Mike York!

I also remember those kick abouts especially when we had the luxury of steel goalpost erected on the top common ! I recall games of about 15 a-side which lasted a good three hours each evening during the school summer hols.......we even had scouts from the likes of Trowbridge Town turning up from time to time. Great days !!!

Agreed - great times. But not such happy memories of facing the fast bowling of the May brothers in near darkness on an uneven pitch with no pads on!