TUESDAY 27TH AUGUST 1963 Attendance 10,000
LEAGUE DIVISION THREE AT FELLOWS PARK, WALSALL
WALSALL 1 (Fell) COLCHESTER UNITED 1 (McColl)
White; Palin, Sharples; Dudley, McPherson, Howells;
Meek, Matthews, Wiggin, Newton, Fell;
Ramage; Woods, Forbes; McCrohan, Rutter (capt.), Hunt (R.M.);
Hill, Hunt (R.R.), Stark, McColl, Wright;
Referee:- R.H. Windle, Chesterfield
Walsall started their season back in the Third Division with a new look team with newcomers White, Howells and Fell, but lost their opening game at Luton on Saturday by the only goal of the game. They were handicapped by injuries to Hodgkisson, who limped throughout that game and to McPherson who was carried off with concussion. Hodgkisson was missing tonight but McPherson was fortunately fit again.
The team still looks a shadow of those two great promotion seasons with the newcomers still settling
in and were quite lucky to pick up a point against a determined Colchester side.
Match report from Birmingham Post.
Despite the encouragement of an opening goal after only thirty seconds Walsall could only draw their opening home match against Colchester United at Fellows Park last night. Signed from Stoke City only a matter of hours before kick off Graham Matthews proved himself full of promise and combined well with winger Fell. But these two apart the attack held little threat despite some well carved openings.
Although the opening goal was claimed by Fell, the £10,000 winger from Newcastle, much of the credit for it belonged to the last minute signing from Stoke, Graham Matthews. Taking a pass from Dudley Matthews raced down the middle and drew the Colchester defence before slipping the ball across to the outside left who scored with a shot on the run.
All four of Walsall's new men were impressing with Matthews easily the smartest forward on the field
and carrying a strong shot. His speed and quickness of thought often proved too much for his own centre forward Wiggin. The game was almost half an hour old when Matthews almost doubled Walsall's advantage with a lob shot which Ramage did well to cover. It was completely against the run of play when Colchester drew on level terms through McColl.
A long dropping centre from outside right Hill found White at the wrong side of the Walsall goal and McColl had no trouble in heading into the net. Five minutes from the interval Stark was spoken to by the referee following a heavy tackle on Meek. This was the signal for an all out onslaught on the Colchester goal but the interval arrived without further addition to the score.
The second period could well have followed the pattern of the first with an early goal for Walsall when Fell missed the target by inches. For a time it was almost a case of Walsall shooting in but Colchester broke away for McColl to put just wide of an unguarded goal. Luck was on Walsall's side again when goalkeeper White managed to kick a shot from Hunt (B) wide of goal as he was falling backwards. White saved the day for Walsall two minutes from the end with a brilliant clearance from McColl's equally brilliant header.
THURSDAY 3RD OCTOBER, 1963
LEAGUE CUP SECOND ROUND AT FELLOWS PARK, WALSALL
WALSALL 1 (Newton) IPSWICH TOWN 0
White; Palin, Gregg: Dudley, McPherson, Howells;
Meek, Matthews, Wiggin, Newton, Fell;
Bailey; Carberry, Bolton; Thrower, Baxter, Dougan;
Stephenson, Colrain, Moran, Hegan, Blackwood;
Referee:- M.A. Fussey, Retford.
SATURDAY 5TH OCTOBER, 1963
LEAGUE DIVISION ONE AT ST ANDREWS, BIRMINGHAM
BIRMINGHAM CITY 0 EVERTON 2 (Kay, Temple)
Withers; Lynn, Green; Foster, Smith, Hennessey;
Hellawell, Thomson, Harley, Beard, Auld;
West; Parker, Brown; Gabriel, Labone, Kaye;
Scott, Stevens, Young, Vernon, Temple;
Referee:- H. P. Hackney, Barnsley
The Blues are struggling near the foot of the table after a poor start to the season, winning only three of their ten games so far. They are also out of the League Cup having been beaten by Norwich and also were recently thrashed 6-1 at White Hart Lane by top of the table Spurs.
Tonight's game showed little improvement against league champions Everton who were far too good for them. The visitors were unluckily knocked out of the European Cup by the powerful Inter Milan side loosing only 1-0 away and holding the Italian champions to a goal less draw at Goodison Park.
Tonight they did not need to extend themselves too much and goals from Tony Kaye and Derek Temple were enough to give them the points. Their defence led by Brian Labone looks particularly strong and Blues newcomers Alex Harley from Man. City and Bobby Thomson from Villa rarely got a look in.
SATURDAY 19TH OCTOBER, 1963
LEAGUE DIVISION ONE AT VILLA PARK, BIRMINGHAM
ASTON VILLA 2 (Hateley 2) ARSENAL 1 (McLeod)
Sims; Wright, Aitken; Crowe, Sleeuwenhoek, Tindall;
MacEwan, Woosnam, Hateley, Burrows, Ewing;
McKechnie; Magill, McCullough; Brown, Ure, Groves;
MacLeod, Strong, Baker, Barnwell, Armstrong;
Referee:- A. Holland, Barnsley
The match programme remembered an epic game between these two teams which took place in November 1932 when the great Arsenal side of that era were top of the league by two points. However Villa with a 5-3 win took over top spot but only briefly as Arsenal went on to win the league by four points with Villa as runners up. The star studded Arsenal side on that day was as follows:- Moss; Male, Hapgood; Hill, Roberts, John; Hulme, Jack, Lambert, James, Bastin;
Today's game was not quite of the same standard, but at least Villa, after a 4-3 defeat at neighbours West Brom. last week, came out on top. Armstrong was soon in the game for Arsenal troubling young full back Wright early on before Hateley got the ball in the net for Villa only to be penalised for hand ball. Ure, the big Scotsman, was lucky not to give away a free kick on the bye line when he pushed young Burrows to the ground, but the referee saw nothing wrong.
Both teams had chances but it looked as if the first half would be goal less until right winger MacLeod raced through a gap in the Villa defence, cut inside and hit a fine shot past Nigel Sims to give Arsenal the lead. Half time 0-1.
Wing half Tindall got in a fine shot early in the second half but McKechnie dived full length to save. It was puzzling to see why Villa had switched Ewing and Burrows at half time with Burrows moving out to the left wing. Burrows then went down injured and Brown sportingly kicked the ball out of play for him to receive attention. Soon afterwards Ure and Hateley were both lectured by the referee after a tussle which left the Villa centre forward needing treatment.
He soon recovered and used his heading skill to put Ewing through before being brought down by the Arsenal goalkeeper. Referee Holland immediately awarded a penalty and Hateley made not mistake from the spot kick after 57 minutes. Villa claimed another penalty soon afterwards when Hateley was brought down by Brown but referee Holland already unpopular with the Villa fans, waved play on.
To make things worse he awarded nothing to Villa when Sims was laid out in an Arsenal attack.
Villa were on top for quite a while before Arsenal fought back and after some defensive blunders Sims was called upon to make a great save from Armstrong. Then Sims had to complain about a poor back pass from MacEwan which nearly conceded a goal. After this period of sustained pressure from the visitors Villa managed to turn the tables with the winning goal.
The enthusiastic Ewing who chased what appeared to be a lost cause managed to intercept an attempted clearance and put Burrows away down the left. He sent across a perfect cross which beat the goalkeeper and left Hateley a simple task to side foot it into the net with only five minutes remaining.
On the 23rd October 1963 to celebrate the Football Association's centenary, a match was played at Wembley between England and a FIFA Rest of the World side. England came out winners 2-1 with Jimmy Greaves scoring the winning goal in the last minute. Dennis Law scored an equaliser for FIFA after Terry Paine had put England ahead. The game was notable for a brilliant goalkeeping performance by Lev Yashin of Russia. Here is the star studded FIFA side.
SATURDAY 26TH OCTOBER, 1963
LEAGUE DIVISION THREE AT FELLOWS PARK, WALSALL
WALSALL 1 (Palin) OLDHAM ATHLETIC 1 (Williams) Attendance 10,336
White; Roper, Gregg; Palin, Bennett, Wills;
Smith, Matthews, O'Neill, Newton, Fell;
Bolland; Taylor, Marshall; Frizzell, Williams, Seivewright;
Barlow, Bowie, Lister, Colquhoun, Whitaker;
Referee:- N.A.S. Matthews, Bicester
Goalkeeper Bolland was soon in action for Oldham, first taking a cross from Palin and then, following a corner, he saved a header from Newton with a brilliant diving save. O'Neill missed a great chance to put the Saddlers ahead when put through by Newton but the centre forward was slow in bringing the ball under control and his feeble shot was easily held by Bolland. Soon afterwards Matthews hit a low 25 yard drive which beat the goalkeeper but rebounded off a post.
After Palin had gone close with a 30 yard effort he put Walsall ahead from the penalty spot when right back Taylor handled the ball in trying to clear a high centre from winger Smith. This was in the 22nd minute and Walsall nearly made it two a minute later when O'Neill's point blank effort was blocked on the line by a defender. Walsall continued to dominate for the rest of the half whereas the Oldham forwards came unstuck on the edge of the penalty area against a firm Walsall defence.
Half time 1-0.
Two minutes into the second half and there was an amazing escape for Oldham when Palin ran through after a fine Matthews pass. The defenders waited for an off side whistle which never came and Palin lobbed the ball over the goalkeeper's head only to see his effort hit the crossbar and rebound into the keeper's hands.
Oldham now came back into the game and Lister went close with a header from Barlow's cross. Then Lister again was unlucky when his shot hit Wills in the face on the line and rebounded to goalkeeper White. Then Bowie headed the ball into the net from a Whitaker centre but the referee ruled that the Walsall goalkeeper had been taken out off the ball.
The visitors eventually got a deserved equaliser for their second half pressure when centre half Williams came upfield and was able to hit the ball into an empty net as White raced out in an unsuccessful attempt to reach a poor back pass from Roper.
MONDAY 28TH OCTOBER 1963 Attendance 3,000
LEAGUE CUP SECOND ROUND, SECOND REPLAY AT VILLA PARK, BIRMINGHAM
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 2 (McHale, Massie) PLYMOUTH ARGYLE 1 (Malloy)
Report from Birmingham Post.
This league cup second replay drew only 3,000 to Villa Park last night and the scrappy, at times boring, tussle hardly merited a larger audience. Huddersfield won because they possessed more skill in attack but they might have been caught at the post when a Plymouth rally threatened to wipe out the Yorkshire side's 2-0 lead. Now Huddersfield go to Workington for their third round tie and perhaps travel weary Plymouth are grateful they do not face another long journey. But Argyle always fought keenly and only their early inability to finish promising moves spoilt their hopes.
With O'Neill the former Villa inside forward, always prominent they managed more attacks than the Northerners but their shooting generally provided more danger to the supporters on the terraces than to the Huddersfield goalkeeper. When Huddersfield swept into the game they were well served by the former England winger O'Grady and his partner Massie. It was Massie who took advantage of a blunder by McAnearney to chip the ball past Leiper for Huddersfield's first goal in twelve minutes.
The rest of the first half play was pointless and the only time the crowd was heard was when West Bromwich referee, Mr W. Clements, took the name of O'Neill. Thanks mainly to an improvement by the Huddersfield forwards the second half had more entertainment value. McHale superbly pulled down a good long cross from O'Grady to hit Huddersfield's second goal after 72 minutes. And in a bright 15 minutes Huddersfield also hit the crossbar - White was the unlucky forward - and missed two simple openings.
When Maloy slammed home a fine shot for Plymouth in the 81st minute, Huddersfield might have been regretting those misses. Plymouth moving more briskly into the open spaces threatened to force the game into extra time but Huddersfield finally scrambled through to end a 300 minute tie.
SATURDAY 9TH NOVEMBER 1963 Attendance 11,961
LEAGUE DIVISION THREE AT FELLOWS PARK, WALSALL
WALSALL 0 QUEENS PARK RANGERS 2 (Lazarus, Graham)
White; Roper, Gregg; Palin, Howells, Wills;
Meek, Mason, O'Neill, Matthews, Fell;
Springett; Brady (P), Angell; Keen, Brady (R), Malcolm;
Lazarus, Bedford, Leary, Graham, McQuade;
Referee:- P. Bye, Bedford.
After a fine run of eleven games without defeat Walsall went down last weekend 3-0 to Bristol Rovers at Eastville, but they can take comfort in the performance of the many youngsters now entering the side. They lost again today against a strong Rangers side, who are struggling in the bottom half of the table. Walsall on the other hand are now in eleventh place.
Springett; Brady (P), Angell; Keen, Brady (R), Malcolm;
Lazarus, Bedford, Leary, Graham, McQuade;
Referee:- P. Bye, Bedford.
After a fine run of eleven games without defeat Walsall went down last weekend 3-0 to Bristol Rovers at Eastville, but they can take comfort in the performance of the many youngsters now entering the side. They lost again today against a strong Rangers side, who are struggling in the bottom half of the table. Walsall on the other hand are now in eleventh place.
Match report from Birmingham Post.
Walsall lost their second successive match despite doing sufficient attacking to have chalked up a five or six goal winning margin against far from impressive opponents. Even during their recent run of ten games without defeat, Walsall's need for a goal scoring centre forward was very obvious and the return of O'Neill after injury did little to lessen that need. In this game Walsall had at least ten chances that should have been converted into goals. The nearest they came to scoring was when Fell put a 20 yard shot against the far upright.
A goal from Lazarus gave Rangers the lead after 52 minutes. Receiving the ball well inside his own half the former Wolves player danced his way around four defenders before scoring. This inspired Walsall to greater effort but there was no improvement in finishing. Six Walsall men all failed to get the ball into the net from almost under the crossbar on one occasion. Five minutes from the end the Walsall defence presented the ball to Graham, who had the simplest of tasks to slide it past White.
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