Reply With QuoteGod, my eye sight these days. Yes I remember Steve Norris, I saw him play for us at Doncaster in the FA Cup.Originally Posted by KintoreMagpie
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Ah the good old days of football and common sense when Notts and Fword were at home on alternate Saturdays and it was possible to watch Notts Reserves at 3 pm on a Saturday.
Notts in the early 60's were in the Football Combination and played the likes of Arsenal, Spuds, West Ham, Chelsea , Fulham, Leicester ,QPR , Leyton Orient,Cardiff City; etc and our noisy Nottinghamshire neighbours .
A fair sprinkling of internationals appearing in these games and great for autograph hunters at Nottm Midland and Nottm Victoria stations as these teams frequently travelled by train. I recall 15 y.o.Mick Channon appearing at ML for Southampton Reserves.
The demise of regular Saturday afternoon reserve team football was attributed to cutting costs and reduced full time professional squads, resulting in midweek games with teams bolstered by junior professionals, apprentices and YTS players
Lincoln City, Grimsby and S****horpe Reserves used to play in the old Midland League against the likes of Arnold , Ilkeston, Heanor, Alfreton, Long Eaton Utd etc. Kevin Keegan recalling his dislike of playing for Scunny Reserves and being launched over the pitch barrier by hairy a*d miners in those teams lol.
The three clubs,Notts , Stags, Chesterfield, morphed with several Yorkshire Clubs forming The North Midlands FL for reserve teams of professional FL clubs.
Notts then joined the Central League and under Mick Walker and Warnock's reign, more than held their own against the big Northern Clubs
Always remember the game at ML v Fword Reserves when Anthony Thompson's robust challenge saw Lee Glover carried off with a fractured leg. Archie Gemmill was their coach and had a right strop.
The next time Thompson got the ball Brett Williams tried to smash Tommo who neatly side stepped the challenge and Williams ended up in the dug out !
Last edited by SinceSept1959; 09-10-2024 at 01:32 PM. Reason: Spelling error
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God, my eye sight these days. Yes I remember Steve Norris, I saw him play for us at Doncaster in the FA Cup.
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Geoff Hurst lining up against Notts reserves.
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Central league was first split into two divisions in 1982. We never finished top of either until after the Premier League clubs formed their own reserve league in 1999. The Central League was then regionalised and we won the East section in 2016...
Central League East Division 2015-16
Pos Name Pld W D L GF GA Pts
1 Notts County reserves 14 10 4 0 43 8 34
2 Chesterfield reserves 14 10 2 2 33 14 32
3 Hartlepool United reserves 14 7 2 5 26 26 23
4 Rotherham United reserves 14 6 1 7 22 30 19
5 Gateshead reserves 14 4 4 6 26 28 16
6 Doncaster Rovers reserves 14 3 2 9 16 37 11
7 Grimsby Town reserves 14 1 7 6 16 22 10
8 S****horpe United reserves 14 1 6 7 14 31 9
Reserve
Watched many good reserve games late 80's early 90's worth mentioning reserve games were free to season ticket holders.
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Yes good spot.
Geoff Hurst lining up against Notts reserves.
There were a couple of West Ham Res v Notts Res programmes on heebay a few weeks ago. Consective seasons with the Hammers winning 11-0 and 8-1 respectively. Circa 1964/65/.
Geoff Hurst played as a LH in one of those games and then as a striker in the other notching 5 goals.
Of course there are a number of Notts Res programmes currently listed including Man Utd v Notts Res in 1958/59 which has attracted one bid at £9.99 and will be closing shortly .
Some nostalgia and old (famous) names on there.
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Remember a crowd of over 2,000 for a home game against Sunderland res, think we won 2 1 or maybe 2 2, Eric Probert missing a penalty 🤔
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Begs the question, did Duncan Edwards, Jimmy Greaves, Ian St John, Bobby Charlton or Gordon Banks ever play against Notts for the reserves? (and if so, at Meadow Lane?)
I think pretty much all of the other mega stars of the 1960s, 70s and 80s faced Notts in first team games at some point in their career. Denis Law scored against us for Huddersfield, Jack Charlton played against us for Leeds in the 50s, Martin Peters for Norwich, Roger Hunt for Bolton, George Best and Bobby Moore for Fulham, Alan Ball for Southampton.
Not quite a mega star, but one of the most fascinating characters of the 60s was Peter Knowles who would be another one that could have only faced Notts in a reserve game.
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This one is probably unanswerable, but I wonder which Notts player made the most reserve team appearances for the club. Paul Manns seemed to be with us a while without playing many first team games.
I had a season or two when I used to watch the reserves (the Warnock years) and also the youth team when the likes of James Walker and Michael Johnson were coming through - also an entertaining young nutter called Darren Harmon. I remember us playing Arsenal in the FA Youth Cup in 1990 - my memory says we won 2-1, but not sure if that’s just wishful thinking. Interesting to see that their side included Ray Parlour and Paul Dickov.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/286017914628?
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I remember looking forward to Gordon Banks playing against us for Stoke in the League Cup (31 October 1972) but he had the car accident when he lost his eye 9 days earlier.
Interestingly, talking about the greats playing against us, we beat Stoke 3 - 1 then in the next round we lost 1 - 3 to Chelsea and Peter Osgood scored for us (og).
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