Frank Nouble 3 wrote:

Justanordinaryfan wrote:George Waters is very much alive and well (& very fit looking), as is Keith Tennant who both live in my street .

That's nice to hear.
Its only a typo mate but its Walters.

Much appreciated that news

Jeez and there’s me always thinking It was Waters !!

Both into their 80s now and good friends - Keith always tells me that the George was the footballer out of the two lol

With the forum being very quiet later tonight or in the morning I will add the most famous player to wear a County shirt and albeit not a County player but for Exile and anybody who supports Merthyr their most famous player also, as its an interesting read.

Cheers

ps still a bit upset at missing that pen on Tuesday.

John Charles?

ref23 wrote:John Charles?

I may have to say the second greatest player for Merthyr now as I cannot find any appearance record for him albeit he was player Manager at the end of his career,

Nothing coming through on the forum so lets talk about the most famous player to put on a County shirt.

After the second world war Trevor Ford joined his local club Swansea in the old division 2.

His career mainly in Division 1 (Premier) would see him make 411 appearances resulting in 206 goals.

Trevor only played 16 games for the Swans before Villa came in for him, scoring 9 goals for the Swans.
He played the last 9 league games that season for Villa scoring a goal a game 9 in 9.

After 3 seasons scoring 60 goals in 120 appearances he was transferred to Sunderland for a World Record fee of £30K.

For the following 3 seasons they were always mid table but from what I read he didn't get on with the Great Len Shackleton
who it says was very jealous of him even deliberately not passing to him.
Stan Anderson & Billy Bingham who also played with him at the time stated
the same (both in my autograph collection thankfully)
Despite this he managed 67 goals in 108 appearances.
He demanded a transfer and Cardiff came in for him costing a record £30K for the club.
Playing 96 times and scoring 42 goals he wrote his memoirs and naively in the book admitted taking payments from Sunderland
over the then Maximum wage (different times for sure)
He was suspended by the Football league Sinie Die and the only way he could continue playing was abroad.
He joined PSV in Holland playing 53 times and scoring 21 times.
In 1960-61 his suspension was lifted and he came home to Wales and joined the County making just 8 appearances but still managed 3 goals also.

Trevor played for Wales 38 times and scored 23 times only matched later by Ivor Allchurch then beaten by Rushie and Bale albeit it took them twice as many appearances to better his tally.
Trevor is buried in Oystermouth Cemetery Swansea having past away at 79 years of age.

I certainly cannot think of a greater player to grace a County shirt that would surpass Trevors footballing record.

Hope you enjoyed the read folks.

Cheers, Frank. That bloke was a goal machine.

Unbelievably naive of him to be so open about the payments. I wonder if there was any comeback on Sunderland?

Thanks for the details mate, that was interesting. To be honest his was not a name that I associated in a big way with the County. Seeing that as you say, he only played 8 games for us that is now understandable.

What is also interesting is that he was suspended for the 1958 World Cup. John Charles who played there, considered him to be his hero. Can you imagine the two of them up front at that World Cup. Wow. We got to the quarter finals anyway. Beaten eventually by some South American side. They had a 17 wonder kid at the time playing for them. Some player apparently. Wonder whatever happened to him.

JonD wrote:Cheers, Frank. That bloke was a goal machine.

Unbelievably naive of him to be so open about the payments. I wonder if there was any comeback on Sunderland?

Morning JonD

Reading the Wiki page they also received a heavy fine.
Got a feeling the max was £30 per week. To up his salary he did work for the chairman who was probably a millionaire of the time

pembsexile wrote:Thanks for the details mate, that was interesting. To be honest his was not a name that I associated in a big way with the County. Seeing that as you say, he only played 8 games for us that is now understandable.

What is also interesting is that he was suspended for the 1958 World Cup. John Charles who played there, considered him to be his hero. Can you imagine the two of them up front at that World Cup. Wow. We got to the quarter finals anyway. Beaten eventually by some South American side. They had a 17 wonder kid at the time playing for them. Some player apparently. Wonder whatever happened to him.

Morning mate.
Quiet evening so was reading up on John Charles after REF23 reminded me he finished playing at Merthyr.
The great gentle giant never played in that quarter final due to injury in previous game, but by all accounts his brother Mel another star of the time played Centre half and kept Brazil at bay.
Really going off on a tangent Mel Hopkins the Spurs full back played a blinder and I remember him playing for Bradford PA against us in their last season before going out of existence.
They had numerous Ex First Division stars in their side but they were rock bottom of the league.

Dreadful outside.
Just got drowned doing my morning run.
Anyway you will need to be around my age to remember Bradford PA's last season 69-70 playing us.
They had finished bottom the 3 previous seasons but got re elected.
Previously to that they had been reasonably successful mainly due to a certain young centre forward called Kevin Hector who went onto far better career. 45 goals in his last season at PA. 113 in 176 appearances some scoring that.
Probably the biggest legend for Derby County
In that final season they had the following players.
Mel Hopkins Spurs and Wales
Ray Charnley Blackpool and England.
Tommy Henderson Ex Leeds
Les Massie Ex Huddersfield
Graham Carr (Alan Carrs Dad)
Laurie Brown Ex Arsenal.
Bobby Ham ex West Brom

And they still finished rock bottom

We beat them 5-1 at home.
Braces for Ray Mabbutt and the great Ronnie Radford plus one from Andy White (cracking little winger)

1 all draw away, Mabbutt scoring for us.

Loving this thread. So much knowledge many have. Frank, I am so enjoying your stories. Trevor Ford, I knew he was good but, what a scoring record! Wherever he was. Tynanesque! Been doing a bit of voluntary work recently (I live near Exeter). One of the lads I deal with loves his football and told me he likes to be called by his middle name “Tynan”. My ears pricked up. “How did that come about? I said. “Oh my Dad is a lifelong Plymouth supporter, He named me after his all time hero, won’t mean anything to you, Tommy Tynan. “ Well, needless to say I did explain that I had a little knowledge of the lad Tommy.

Frank Nouble 3 wrote:

pembsexile wrote:Thanks for the details mate, that was interesting. To be honest his was not a name that I associated in a big way with the County. Seeing that as you say, he only played 8 games for us that is now understandable.

What is also interesting is that he was suspended for the 1958 World Cup. John Charles who played there, considered him to be his hero. Can you imagine the two of them up front at that World Cup. Wow. We got to the quarter finals anyway. Beaten eventually by some South American side. They had a 17 wonder kid at the time playing for them. Some player apparently. Wonder whatever happened to him.

Morning mate.
Quiet evening so was reading up on John Charles after REF23 reminded me he finished playing at Merthyr.
The great gentle giant never played in that quarter final due to injury in previous game, but by all accounts his brother Mel another star of the time played Centre half and kept Brazil at bay.
Really going off on a tangent Mel Hopkins the Spurs full back played a blinder and I remember him playing for Bradford PA against us in their last season before going out of existence.
They had numerous Ex First Division stars in their side but they were rock bottom of the league.

Bradford Park Avenue, I remember the name well! my early sixties memories include watching the names of teams come out of the teleprinter on BBC Grandstand. County never did as we always had a 3.15 kick off in those days and Grandstand was usually finished by the time we did.

Thinking of the other teams that have gone - Third Lanark, the original Airdieonians and Clydebank. Thankfully most of the English clubs who had gone from the EFL are just outside the top tier. York, Hartlepool, Torquay, Stockport, Chester, Aldershot, Wrexham and a few others. We could make up a league there.

Handolucifer wrote:Loving this thread. So much knowledge many have. Frank, I am so enjoying your stories. Trevor Ford, I knew he was good but, what a scoring record! Wherever he was. Tynanesque! Been doing a bit of voluntary work recently (I live near Exeter). One of the lads I deal with loves his football and told me he likes to be called by his middle name “Tynan”. My ears pricked up. “How did that come about? I said. “Oh my Dad is a lifelong Plymouth supporter, He named me after his all time hero, won’t mean anything to you, Tommy Tynan. “ Well, needless to say I did explain that I had a little knowledge of the lad Tommy.

That's very kind of you Lucifer.
Some great reads on Wiki and Google in general, does help if you are that generation as well.
9 Division 1 goals in 9 games is something else for Villa.

pembsexile wrote:

Frank Nouble 3 wrote:

pembsexile wrote:Thanks for the details mate, that was interesting. To be honest his was not a name that I associated in a big way with the County. Seeing that as you say, he only played 8 games for us that is now understandable.

What is also interesting is that he was suspended for the 1958 World Cup. John Charles who played there, considered him to be his hero. Can you imagine the two of them up front at that World Cup. Wow. We got to the quarter finals anyway. Beaten eventually by some South American side. They had a 17 wonder kid at the time playing for them. Some player apparently. Wonder whatever happened to him.

Morning mate.
Quiet evening so was reading up on John Charles after REF23 reminded me he finished playing at Merthyr.
The great gentle giant never played in that quarter final due to injury in previous game, but by all accounts his brother Mel another star of the time played Centre half and kept Brazil at bay.
Really going off on a tangent Mel Hopkins the Spurs full back played a blinder and I remember him playing for Bradford PA against us in their last season before going out of existence.
They had numerous Ex First Division stars in their side but they were rock bottom of the league.

Bradford Park Avenue, I remember the name well! my early sixties memories include watching the names of teams come out of the teleprinter on BBC Grandstand. County never did as we always had a 3.15 kick off in those days and Grandstand was usually finished by the time we did.

Thinking of the other teams that have gone - Third Lanark, the original Airdieonians and Clydebank. Thankfully most of the English clubs who had gone from the EFL are just outside the top tier. York, Hartlepool, Torquay, Stockport, Chester, Aldershot, Wrexham and a few others. We could make up a league there.

Evening mate.
Awful here still so a couple of Cobras in the Murgals (Old 3 salmons) then a nice takeaway.

Expect you could make up a full league plus more.
Workington, Halifax, Gateshead, Boston, Darlington, Southport, Bradford PA all going along again.

Lots more but leave it to others to add if they want.

Its been a couple of months since my last dialogue on this thread so another miserable day outside and another loss yesterday so lets cheer up and talk about another County great.

Roddy Jones who spent all his career in league football with the County.
Its a privilege to state that Roddy has been a good friend for a few decades now.
In total 323 appearances and 71 goals.
Roddy in all those years never went full time but stayed a part timer for the County.
He was inducted into County Hall of Fame in 2009.
Always a lifelong fan as well and one of the Few ex players who would come along to watch the boys.
Following and watching Liverpool comes into the equation as well especially Rushie.
County had some characters in those days, the likes of Willy Brown for one.
Heard yesterday that Rod is struggling these days getting about.
Wish him well and great memories of his older brother the late Chris (Stove)
20 + odd years Circuit training up to 3 times a week with them both.
Brilliant memories of good times not that long ago.

Cheers and hope you enjoyed this read.