THE CHELMSFORD CITY HISTORIAN
These 'blogs' will appear as often as I have something interesting to say or updates are available. It is currently my intention, time permitting, to publish a quarterly newsletter which will contain more in depth articles on the Club's history. If this does go ahead the first edition will be published in the spring.
I hope you are all enjoying this series. It has certainly been interesting for me to speak to the players and get an insight in to their careers both with City and at previous clubs. When speaking to Tony Butcher I found it amazing that he was able to recall things that happened so long ago. We would recall a game and whilst I was looking up the relevant info in my database Tony was telling me the score, who scored and other salient facts! All I ended up doing was confirming that his memory was correct! This series will continue until the end of the season at least. Please let me have your feedback on whether you are enjoying this series.
KEN 'BUSTER' WIGLEY
Ken was on my 'wanted' list as one of the players who made a league appearance for the club but with birth details missing. Purely by chance I found out that he worked in the same building as me, albeit a couple of floors above. After a couple of failed attempts to make contact with him before Christmas I eventually met up with him after the festive break and had a very interesting chat with him about his time at the Club in 1977 and again in 1980. Hopefully a detailed resume of our chat and another meeting we have planned will appear in the first edition of 'The Chelmsford City Historian'.
WANTED LIST
Which brings me on to the 'Wanted' List itself. Of the 1,100 or so players who have played for City in league matches the number whose birth details are missing is now down to 189. I am not going to list all 189 but hopefully this list can be whittled down step by step. So let's start off with a few relatively recent players. If anyone knows the whereabouts of Kevin Ahearn, Geoff Bailey, Terry Milbourne, Danny Moul, Matthew Schneider or Jez Millbank then I would be pleased to hear from them. That's six to start off with.
CITY GO OUT AGAINST OXFORD UNITED
So City's FA Trophy run comes to an end after Saturday's defeat against Oxford United. What a shame that the side failed to capitalise on their early superiority and put the visitors under some pressure. Still with the Club's recent poor FA Trophy record it was nice to have a season when some excitement was to be had on what is the only major competition where City have a losing record.
After the Oxford defeat City's record in the FA Trophy is:
p. 93 w. 39 d. 13 l. 41 f. 161 a. 156.
This season is the first that City have reached the New Year and still been in the FA Trophy since 1998. in that 1997-1998 season City beat King's Lynn 4-1 away in the 3rd Qualifying Round on November 29th and then lost 2-1 at Boreham Wood in the First Round Proper on January 10th. The King's Lynn game will be remembered as the game was segregated, the attendance was 1,016, and Chairman Peter Stroud was unable to return to the Directors box after visiting the City fans in their enclosure prior to the game. The Boreham Wood game will be remembered for the glaring miss by Lee Guiver that would have given us a replay.
Having been knocked out by Oxford United on January 30th represents the latest that City have been knocked out of the FA Trophy since 1997, when we lost 2-1 at Dagenham and Redbridge on February 8th. City won 2-0 at Crawley Town, out third win over the Sussex side that season, and then won 1-0 at Kettering Town when Neal Docking scored, he also scored both goals at Crawley, and Darren Williams in the City goal played a blinder. City travelled to Dagenham in the 2nd Round but a Kurt Davidson goal could not stop them going down 2-1.
Saturday's attendance of 1,347 was the highest for a home FA trophy tie since January 11th 1975 when 2,215 watched City lose 2-3 to Ilford in a 1st round tie. City's goals were scored by Eddie Dilsworth and Billy Kellock. The match was Sid Prosser's last as City Manager. the crowd was the 9th highest home crowd to watch a City FA Trophy game, with 42 home game shaving been played so far.
Although my records relating to penalties are nowhere near complete I can only find one previous occasion, prior to David Rainford's on Saturday, when a City player has scored a penalty and missed a penalty in the same game. This happened on Saturday September 12th 1997 when City lost 2-4 at Yeading in an FA Cup 1st Qualifying Round game. Darren Oxbrow scored for City as did Richard Cherry. Cherry's goal was a penalty and he also missed a penalty. he had quite a game as he was also sent off later in the game.
It doesn't fit into the above parameters but when Billy Kellock missed a penalty for City on Monday 20th October he missed the chance to join the list of players who have scored 5 goals for City in a match. City beat Banbury United 6-1 that night with Kellock getting 4 and Barry Dyson and Terry Price joining the scorers list. The match was a Southern League Cup 2nd Round tie.
If you can provide any feedback or answer any request for information then please e-mail me at chelmsfordcityhistory@googlemail.com.
