1982 Soccer Six event

[upthemaggies]

Another gem from @magpies_history https://twitter.com/magpies_history/...79774585659394

Anybody know how we got on in this tournament? All I can find is that Birmingham City won it, the first in what would become a popular event on "Sportsnight" (BBC1) in the latter half of the decade when English clubs were banned from playing in Europe.

[jackal2]

1982 was before I really got into football but I remember watching it on TV in the later 80s. Some teams would send first-teamers and others would treat it lightly and send reserves, and unsurprisingly the clubs that sent their best players tended to win.

[upthemaggies]

1982 was before I really got into football but I remember watching it on TV in the later 80s. Some teams would send first-teamers and others would treat it lightly and send reserves, and unsurprisingly the clubs that sent their best players tended to win.

Going by the programme, we sent a very strong team but others apparently didn't.

[60YearsAPie]

I think 1982 was the first year of this six-a-side tournament and was restricted to clubs from the Midlands.

Later in the decade, with new sponsors, teams from the top two divisions competed in what was a popular televised event before Christmas.

Cloughie's lot won it in 1987.

[60YearsAPie]

Here's the 1988 Final, when that lot over the river lost to Charlton.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWsJ...MSFProductions

[upthemaggies]

I think 1982 was the first year of this six-a-side tournament and was restricted to clubs from the Midlands.

Definitely the first. The location (Birmingham NEC) might account for the fact it was only Midlands clubs involved/invited or maybe it was originally planned or hoped to be a regional heat.
Curiously, of those other seven clubs involved, only two of them had finished higher than Notts that season (Fword and Cov).

Villa would have almost certainly been invited and only declined because they were in the European Cup final a day prior, with Derby taking their place. It would have been held on the same day as the FA Cup final replay between Spurs and QPR, at the same time if it was at night.

[jackal2]

Going by the programme, we sent a very strong team but others apparently didn't.

That's a VERY strong team indeed to send to an experimental six-a-side tournament! Maybe Jimmy just treated it as an alternative training session!

Like I say, this was a good seven or eight years before I started watching Notts and I feel kind of sad that I didn't see the team of this era in live action. I've watched the footage of various games on YouTube but my knowledge of the Sirrell era is all second hand.

On the other hand, I feel even more sad for younger people who missed the live experience of the Sirrell, Warnock and Allardyce days and have seen little other than struggle, with the Munto season as the only exception (and that was a temporary and strange-feeling kind of success).

[cher1]

Going by the programme, we sent a very strong team but others apparently didn't.

What a team. It's funny isn't it, as you read the names in your head, it's Rash, Killer, Rayo and so on. Never their actual names. So engrained in the memory. Thank you.

[Elite_Pie]

What a team. It's funny isn't it, as you read the names in your head, it's Rash, Killer, Rayo and so on. Never their actual names. So engrained in the memory. Thank you.

Agree, those names provide a great trip down memory lane, and it made me think of our best starting six. The formation would probably be 2-2-1 or 2-1-2 but I would be ahead of my time and play 2-1-1-1 with Mick Leonard in goal (although if the goals were smaller it might be worth telling Killer to play there and just lie down, because there wouldn't be much goal left to aim at!). I assume 6 a side is more passing than physical, so my back two would be Pedro and Benjy. Gordon Mair would have to start because he had the touch and passing ability, Rach would be good in the number 10 role (probably number 5 role in this format), with McCulloch up front. It's hard to leave Ray O'Brien out, but his trademark tackles might not be welcomed.

That would leave Killer, Rayo, Goodwin and Christie as subs. Bearing in mind what we have now and in the last few years, that subs bench is something we can only dream of.

[magpie_mania]

What a team. It's funny isn't it, as you read the names in your head, it's Rash, Killer, Rayo and so on. Never their actual names. So engrained in the memory. Thank you.

Agreed. I have often thought that I can name every player in a 1970's photo but can't remember half of them from last season! Much as I love watching now, with very few exceptions there isn't the connection with the players like there was then.