The good old Days by Alvis Williamsonson

Everyone remembers them days of Joe Royle and the “punch-me” season when we got to the Argos Cup final and two FL Cup semi finals when we lost both times to Man City, but I like to go back to a time which you may not be too aware of. A time before all you people were obsessed with your home computing and sex, a time when a man had a light ale on a Saturday night in preparation for work the following Monday. I'm talking of course about that game against Hucknall Albion in the FA Cup in 1954, it was at the same time that there was that great Czechoslovakian Golden team that beat England at Wembley.



20,000 people flocked onto the Rochdale Road End to see Hucknall



It was the days when people took the FA cup seriously and we had a crowd of 29,637 attend the game with about 20,000 of them crammed into the Rochdale Road End banking. The Latics team at the time had greats like Jimmy "Jack Russell" Marwood who would use his foot for a hammer during the week to help with his training technique, Roy "the Sherif" Hopley who got his nickname from his love for Westerns and who can forget the great Scottish right half Gordon Jock!!


Gordon Jock



The match began with a classic punt forward from the Olhdam centre half Gill Henderson, a melee appeared them Jock came rushing in to give the ball a good belt from the mud it was stuck in and put the Athletic club 1-0 up. Hucknall Albion had a great chance to get back into the match after Athletic keeper Bill Shakespeare dropped the ball after being headbutted by the Hucknall centre forward Alf Swift who failed to convert the chance. Back in those days men were real men so Shakespeare just got up counted his teeth and shook Swifts hand. More blood was to follow just before half time when Henderson clips a young hooligan around the ear for blowing bubblegum onto the pitch (Danny Dyer take note). At half time the score was 1-0 and all the players enjoyed a half time Spam and Lard Butty with an Orange all washed down with a pint of Ale. Jock was a star from over the border they had plenty of World class players back in those days, before joining Oldham for £6 and a Hornby Train-set he made a name for himself at Third Lanark where he averaged a goal every other game. He was the start for Athletic on this occasion when he blasted two goals in as many minutes before blasting home a stunner from 30 yards that was too hot for the goalkeeper to handle, the score ended 4-0 to Athletic and Gordon Jock took the ball back to his home in Rutherglen, Lanarkshire where he worked for the rest of the week down a coal mine, because men were men back then; no fancy Dan's like Chris Killen and Keigan Parker.