TalkingBull - Issue 131 - Magazine - Page 16
Deceived at
Deepdale
A salutary lesson from Andy Roberts.
Why kick-offs are not to be missed!
We asked the man on the turnstile what the
score was and he said 0-0. But just as we got
to the top of the steps, (which took a while as
it's a big ground) we saw the ball hitting the
back of our net at the far end, accompanied by
an ear-splitting roar.
I
have been a Bulls fan since 1967 (yes, I'm
that old). I live in Spain so I guess that
makes me an expat exile. Here is a true
story from back in the day.
It was Saturday 1st November 1975 (I googled
the date to be sure). Myself and two friends
decided to drive up to Preston (North End) in
my trusty Hillman Imp to watch us away in
Division 3 that day.
I had decided to go on to my original home
town of Bala, North Wales for the rest of the
weekend so the plan was for me to drop both
of them off at Wrexham so they could catch a
train back to Hereford. We made it to Preston
reasonably early, but by the time we got to the
ground, we had missed about 2 minutes of the
game.
Not the greatest of starts. Literally just walked
into the ground and 1-0 down already!
Anyway, we rallied; it was one of those
thrilling games...end-to-end stuff...and, at the
end we were happy with a 3-3 draw, especially
as Preston were riding high in the League at
that time and were unbeaten at home for a
year.
By the time we got to Wrexham, the 'Football
Pink' was on sale. (For the benefit of younger
readers this was a Saturday night special
newspaper on pink paper. which was the
earliest chance to get the final scores if you
didn't have access to TV or radio. 1975 was
long before the days of mobile phones and the
internet).
I bought a copy and one of the lads wanted to
know the Liverpool score so I told him. Then
the other wanted the Man Utd result. Finally,
one asked: "How did Hereford get on?"
Grinning, I read out the result: "Preston North
End three, Hereford United...what the..?...this
can't be right.... Hereford... FOUR!"
But...yes...it was correct. We had driven all the
way to Preston and walked into the ground
about two minutes after kick-off, totally
unaware we were already 1-0 up thanks to
Steve Davey’s second minute effort. There
were hardly any of our fans there that day and
we didn't hear a thing!
A good result turned out even better, even
though we didn't know until about two hours
later.
By Andy Roberts
TALKINGBULL—ISSUE 120—ONLINE