RIP Freddie

[viperblue]

I just heard that Freddie Goodwin as died aged 82.
He was in charge during the great days of Latchford,Francis & Burns etc
Wonderful times at Stans
Kro

[aKROKiwi]

The football his team played made us happy.

He was a centre half for Manchester united like Steve Bruce.

He was better than Steve Bruce.

Thanx Fred. Your team made a 14 year old colonial happier and more excited than he's ever been before or since.

[kropotkin56]

Yes, there were some amazing memories. Cullis had got the Blue playing some good football, but towards the end of his stint we seemed to be spinning our wheels. And then Fred Goodwin arrived. I still recall Trevor Francis's first appearance (I think as a substitute?) and looking at this slight little ****ager and thinking - who IS this kid? And then, not much later, just when he turned 17, seeing him score all 4 goals against Bolton. Magic.

And FG also brought in some pretty tasty older players to complement the youngsters. Roger Hynd, who was about the size and shape of a large refrigerator, just for starters. If only we could have kept them all, but once Bob Latchford left you got the sense of there never being a chance of our turning into a really big team. But it was fun while it lasted!

KRO

[spionkop]

His team gave me some of the happiest times of my life. The holy trio of Francis, Latchford and Hatton with Gordon Taylor rocketing down the wing and,as kropotkin56 has said, complemented by the immense Roger Hynd in defence and the skills of Alan Campbell in midfied. Sadly that team hit the buffers on a horrible night at Maine Road when we lost the F. A. cup semi-final and Latchford was sold and the greatest football era of my life ended.
Thank you Mr. Goodwin for those happy days, you were a football rarity - inrelligent and most of all a gentleman.
Regards

[bolt]

I was there too Kroptkin when Francis scored 4 and the FA semi at main road to. I think the Coombes family had decided to sell the club at that time and when Latchford and Francis had gone there was little Freddie could do about that the fact that Brian Clough could have also been our manager at that time shows what a great team Freddie had put together. In recent times it was the pinnacle of blues teams funnily enough Villa had some great young players in there team as well i.e. down the pub who's the best Gray or Francis bit of a no brainer really but they did have Brian Little who was a talented player, a golden period for rivalry Birmingham football and and for Freddie Goodwin great memories thanks Freddie

[viperblue]

I personally think we lost that semifinal at Hillsborough when bryan & caulderwood were dropped in favour of
Page & Pendrey ( both married to Coombs' daughters I believe)
destroyed the spirit of the team

[bolt]

I was there too VB Francis had the audacity to nutmeg Bremner who was a great player ,in fact that Leeds team was awesome .To swop Caulderwood for Pendry was a bad decision












that s team was awesome

[kropotkin56]

To swap anyone for Pendry would be a bad decision. All credit to him for being a devoted Bluenose - but what a godawful player . . .

[aKROKiwi]

I saw the game at Hillsborough and I still have the programme; we could have got back in the game when Francis hit a screamer at the bottom corner but Gary Sprake made an amazing save. I was gutted. George Smith played his ring off that day

BTW I think mentioning Malcolm Page in the same sentence as Pendrey is rather harsh on Malcolm; one of our greatest ever players - showed the same commitment to the cause as Pendrey and was seven 5hitloads better!