The Big Match Revisited ITV4

Watch it every week,totaly different game to what it is today,they seem to have so much more room back then

Very true mesi....

Completely understand that the quality was less but slide tackles, crunching tackles, nobody feigning injury. Players clattering into each other and getting straight up.
The pitches were like swamps due to I believe most teams training on the same pitch. Either a mud swamp or sand everywhere. The goalkeepers 6 yard box being like a grave that's been dug.

Watching the kids faces in the crowd just mesmerised watching their heroes who they no doubt tried to copy when at school.

Fabulous to watch.

Litter strewn across Old Trafford, don't get that anymore.

Standing at the footy.....still the best

Was there any grass on the pitch? Don't agree about the quality - you actually had to contend with tackling in those days. None of this poncing about just defending areas. Heading also used to be a skill.

Very true dd....the lad who scored in the Palace V Sunderland game (was it Whittle?) looked like a real old school winger, as did Peter Taylor who ran his socks off.

Heavy ball as well. Keepers kicks just making the halfway line

a 70's team v a today team 0-10

Entertainment 70's team v today 10-0

Rico-Dangleflaps 22 Nov 25 12:19 
a 70's team v a today team 0-10


That is based solely on the differential between modern day training facilities and regimes diet etc rather than ability......give the 70's team the benefit of the modern day regimes available to the prima donnas of today and see how they get on.

70's team all 12-14st...today all 10st whippets.

Seriously, do you think modern players would be better than the great players of that era? I doubt it. They wouldn't cope with being kicked all the over the park for a start off.

depends on which rules you use, under modern day refs they'd be playing with 9

Keepers with no poxy gloves

Keepers with no poxy gloves

strangely enough i watched a match last nite on yootube..fulham v hereford 1976 when best and marsh were playing for fulham.

Fulham only avoided relegation from the second tier by one point that season Rico, with all those big names there as well. Was entertaining to watch though.

Horatio - Alan Whittle was a very good player , he deserved to play more for Everton but they had such a good side in the late 60s early 70s he struggled to get in the starting line up, when they won the title in 1970 he played just 15 games but scored 11 goals, an invaluable contribution.  He was sold to Palace for 100k in 1972, quite a big fee at the time.

The so called hatchet men of the 70s would be kicking fresh air today.
Would get ripped a new 4rsole.
Everything was better in the past!

Terry Paine played aswell..he made 808 league appearances...never injured

DixieDean60 22 Nov 25 14:49 
Fulham only avoided relegation from the second tier by one point that season Rico, with all those big names there as well. Was entertaining to watch though.

Horatio - Alan Whittle was a very good player , he deserved to play more for Everton but they had such a good side in the late 60s early 70s he struggled to get in the starting line up, when they won the title in 1970 he played just 15 games but scored 11 goals, an invaluable contribution.  He was sold to Palace for 100k in 1972, quite a big fee at the time.



Thanks DD.....he looked more than decent....Great info

I watch it most weeks......first time i see the games as they were not shown in scotland.....standard of play is terrible...lol, seems to be little pattern to most teams plays other than lump the ball forward into space or a winger driving to the line to cross in...

having said that its really enjoyable.

one other thing, you can see just how small folk were back then, and how unfit some players look...there was a palace player today, looked about 5 feet in height and five feet round...

I saw that aberdonia......was he number 4.....He looked like a slightly less portly Jockey Wilson

Some players also looked like they'd be suitable for a freedom pass! Amazing how times change

sounds like man utd now

John Robertson carried a bit of a kite but his 0-20 was immediate.
Great thread.  Can only add one thing.  Many fans of our age in the 70’s said much the same things as us now!
For me great players would make it in any era.
The programme is worth it just to see and listen to the great Brian Moore again.

horse racing link to fat football players, micky quinn

really good goal scorer, ran at about a goal every two games through his career

Re fitness then and now. Here's the England 1970 team song for the Mexico World Cup. Count the chins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ-EutNDgZQ

On tactics, one of the YouTube football analysis channels is planning to cover the 1966 final at Christmas. Trouble is, I've forgotten which one! Should be worth a watch.

World Cup Final?

The tactic that mattered most was Charlton marking Beckenbauer and Beckenbauer marking Charlton.  Imv.

I was on the opening credits/highlights of this programme about 3 years ago, amongst about 20, 5 second clips
It's changed now
A clip from 1981 of a crunching tackle in an FA Cup tie

Aberdonia/Horatio - the portly C Palace midfielder you refer to is i believe Phil Holder, maybe Slippy Blue could confirm if looking in. Not a bad player as i recall.

Franny Lee carried a bit of timber, didn't stop him scoring goals though.

In the 80s/90s Jan Molby would have had the speak your weight machine groaning but he was a top player, great passer of the ball.

Very true.

Aberdeen striker and a legend at Aberdeen, Joe Harper was a fatty......loves a bet did Joe and still does.....I bumped into him many a time in the 80s mid weekday afternoon in a bookies

King Joey and Fergie fell out......Fergie won...

I can understand them falling out. Fell out with John Blackley ( I believe ) when he was at Hibs, that didn’t end well either.
Didn’t come across as a likeable person.

The toffees signed Joe Harper from Aberdeen in 1972 and funnily enough he effectively replaced the aforementioned Alan Whittle.

He came with a big reputation but never really got going (12 goals in 43 games spread over more than 2 seasons)  Missed a penalty on his debut which was not the best of starts Signed for Hibs after leaving Goodison and scored a hat trick in the Scottish League Cup final v Celtic but they still lost 6-3

Guess who scored a hat trick for Celtic that day Honcho ?

some great chants from the sunderland crowd.your gonna get your f,,,,,heads kicked in,we"ll see you all outside,your goin home in a f..... ambulance and howay the lads..The best and most telling however was "geordie aggro".

This shows that in them days for all the local tribal hostelry there was fans did get behind both north east teams and there wasnt the nastiness there is now.loads of lads went to newcastle one week then sunderland the next.they worked all week at the pit together and shared the support for both teams.

Ade was a big laddie

I remember it well Dixie.  Scored one header that came off his forehead like a rocket after a misdirected Jinky shot!
A story about your namesake went the rounds under the news.
One of Stein’s greatest emerging players was a George Connelly.  He sclaffed one in against Leeds in the famous Euro Semi Final 1st leg.  As a young 15 year old he was brought on to the pitch at half-time during a big match to entertain the crowd, so he had great individual skills.  Played really well for Celtic for a number of years in a number of positions, famed for his long ball passes, in behind for Dalglish and Macarena to feed on, etc.  He had several sort of walkouts where he would remove himself from the club.  Even now we don’t really know what his issues were but the story that gained most traction at the time was that said Dixie Deans had been involved on a personal level.  Connelly was some player who could have been even greater.  Still alive I think.

Worth pointing out that back then a team could only make one substitution during the game, and that may have only been permitted if a player was injured, as opposed to a tactical change which now can be made 5 times.
Imagine George Best on a modern day pitch (laden with grass)
He'd still be able to run rings around defenders, nutrified with **** and beer, no need for a nutritionist, personal trainer, trickcyclist and a myriad of other support staff.
Only support he'd require was a taxi from the nightclub to the ground.
feck1n genius

Ade still is a big lad Rico !  A real cult hero at the Gills during two spells and of course with a number of other clubs supporters no doubt.

Honcho, i recall that Leeds semi final very well. I was still at primary school and would listen to every radio commentary i could. It must have been the school easter holidays as we were visiting my grandparents in Pocklington, Yorks. That side of the family were Leeds fans so we had the match on Radio 2 and i was standing in front of an electric fire and was so engrossed in the game that i didn't realise holes were burning in the back of my trousers from the heat as i had been stood there so long. Thankfully my uncle noticed before full combustion occurred but the trousers were a gonner. mum was not too pleased

I have fond memories of those days, anything football related would be devoured, books magazines tv shows etc. It's where i got my obsession for football trivia from.
Shame about George Connelly, not the first to allow personal issues to stop him becoming a bona fide legend.

Leif, i would love to have seen George playing in the modern era. the most naturally talented, balanced player with the ball i have ever seen.
If he could do the things he did on sh1theaps in the 60s and 70s god knows how good he would have been on today's billiard tables.

Rodney Marsh told a story that himself and George best went to play for Tampa Bay Rowdies in the 70's and returned to play together again for Fulham.

They were togging out in the dressing room first game back for Fulham and Rodney said to George WTF's wrong with your ankle as he could hardly get his boot on because it was swollen so much  and George told him to STFU as he wanted to play so badly he didn't want anyone else to notice.

His ankle was swollen so much.

There was only one overweight pupil in my infants school - a lad called Paul Woods. Mr Gutteridge used to give him hell about his weight, and one day Woods finally answered back: "But Francis Lee is fat."

"That is muscle," growled Mr Gutteridge. "Not fat."

Hmm. Maybe.

By the way, if Liam Brickwood is reading this, you still owe me one million pounds over the result of the Celtic v Leeds semi-final.

Phil Neal holds the Liverpool club record for consecutive appearances, playing 417 matches in a row in all competitions between October 1976 and September 1983.
This remarkable run included:
365 (or 366) consecutive league matches, which is also a club record.
An appearance in every minute of every league and cup game for six full seasons.
Playing through injuries, including a fractured cheekbone and a broken toe, at times wearing different sized boots to do so.
Neal's streak ended after he sustained an injury in a match against Manchester United in September 1983. He would return shortly after and go on another run of 127 consecutive appearances.

My active football watching ended in the early 60s , but Cloughie was my absoute idol , was at Ayresome when he scored 5 against Brighton . Hadnt realise that he actually picked the Boro team in those days and that his training regimen in early managerial days focused almost solely on skills , shadow games , 6 a side , one touch , in the days others ran laps ..He had John McGovern run 20 yards to dribble round the corner flag , then do it again without the ball .' Which was quickest John ? '- 'Without the ball Boss '.  'Yes ,  thats why you ...kin pass it .'

cracking story p47

I have been watching The Big Match revisited for 5 or more years now and, at last, public appreciation on this thread of how good football was to watch in the past!

Yes, long ball, poor pitches, late tackles, lots of running and much else frowned upon today BUT it was exciting and full of thrills and spills. The players were grown men, not over-grown schoolboys trying so hard to get their opponents into trouble.

After years of modern football with its stupid and pointless ball keeping and packed defences, why a modern coach has not tried two proper wingers and moving the ball from back to front quickly using the channels or the wings I do not know. Teams of today would be much caught out by being run at.

I note that this season we have seen the re-introduction of the 'long throw', so perhaps there is hope yet!

Why, though, people pay the massive prices of today to watch so much dull play in Premier League games I do not know - if they started demanding some excitement instead of solely being concerned with their side winning at all costs, perhaps the game would revert. At my gym, though, the younger lads refuse to even watch games from the 1960's to the early 1990's. Instead they say they prefer the tactical and dull games of today because 'it makes them think' - more like makes them sleep, I say to much derision!

Last night I found on YouTube a Match Of the Day from March 1975. It as Arsenal v West Ham in the FA Cup 6th round. Played on a Highbury pitch that was unplayable due to monsoon rain, it was still a great spectacle. I was there that day, as West Ham won 2-0 and the excitement was added to because of the pitch conditions. There was still great skill (by Trevor Brooking especially), hair raising tackling, flare=ups...and non-stop excitement.

Perhaps I am just being an old f*rt, though!!!

You have nailed it The Knight.

Great story too 47.  Hadn’t heard that one before.
I liked McGovern’s quip that he’d work his rss off for Clioughie, run all day for him but “go for a pint with him” - not likely!

Agree Horatio.  How can anyone disagree who witnessed the era?   How many of us remember the mammoth efforts made to clear pitches of snow and ice to get games on.
Now their postponed early doors to stop the poor, modern day youth from ruining their designer shoes as they travel to the match! 

It is the brilliant atmosphere that is so evident watching these re-runs that makes us all so nostalgic i think. Everything is so sanitised and clinical these days.
It's difficult to articulate to more recent generations how much more enjoyable going to the match was in those days when they are so used to modern day facilities.


And of course it is so much more expensive in real terms to watch your team now. It's between £9 and £16 in general for a ticket for youngsters at Gillingham and then you have to add on travel, programme etc.  When i was a teenager in the 70s i could get a return ticket on the train from my village, terrace admission, programme and a bag of chips on the way home all for the princely sum of £1 !  Happy days indeed.

Dribbling another major thing has almost disappeared. Sheer speed and passing the only options to beat defenders these days.

On the down side, I have several times, as a teenager, been in crowds where you were so crammed in, standing, that moving anywhere was a huge problem.  Felt the warm sensation of urine running down my jeans one at least one occasion, and it wasn’t mine!    Sad to say also, and I can’t remember exactly where, I was lifted off my feet going down exit stairways, and carried with the swaying mass, for many seconds at a time.  You just had to breathe in and wait for your feet to touch down again.  Scary stuff.  Safety, in particular, much better today.

If anyone has experience of huge crowds at Ibrox, Hampden or Celtic parks c early seventies I would love to see their reports.

Getting out of the North Bank at Highbury in the late seventies was pretty scary when the crowd topped 50,000. The helpless sensation when the crowd surged and took you off your feet I remember well: the pressure demolished a wall in front of a terraced house towards the tube with a small front garden - I was underneath a pile of bodies.

Bobby Charlton once told a story about his first England international at Hampden.  Old hand Billy Wright apparently saw he was nervous and told him to look at the Scottish fans ( in excess of 100,000 in these days ) as they cheered their hero’s onto the pitch.  “They’re so tightly packed that they can’t move their arms upwards and just have to roar open-mouthed.  They look just like baby birds in a nest stretching for worms from their returning mother” said Wright.  Bobby said it calmed his nerves no end.

Plenty of stories about one of the best showman and gamblers ever, the legendary Stan Bowles...

In my earlier post I referred to being at Highbury for the 1975 FA cup game between Arsenal and West Ham. Well, picking up on later point I do have to say that crowd safety and comfort was not high on the agenda at any club in days gone by.

That day at Highbury, the West Ham fans behind one goal repeatedly fell forward on mass when something exciting took place. I was with my dad and we were caught up in a lot of the crowd surges. And then at the Vila Park semi-final when West Ham played Ipswich we had a terrible experience, as we were repeatedly crushed agist the crowd barriers at the Holt End. Apparently some turnstile operators had started taking £1 off West Ham fans who were ticketless for an all-ticket game and then letting them in. It led to a very dangerous situation and the police, not for the first or last time, simply failed to act. Thank god those old barriers were up to such a massive crowd because there would have many many deaths had they given way.

So, not everything was better in the past - although all-seater stadiums have killed atmosphere and were a real knee-jerk reaction to the tragedy of Hillsborough. To end though, I still survived those days in 1975 at Highbury and Villa Park and became wiser about where to stand in future years. Sadly, today's manic health and safety laws are not allowing people to learn from experience - but that is a society thing and a much bigger issue than the pleasure of watching 'The Big Match Revisited'!!!

anyone see last weeks ? tackle by Frank Lampard on Roger Davies ( or maybe Kevin Hector ) was absolute stonewall penalty these days , just a corner given.

morpeth,,yup. I believe it was Hector...

But watch the Arsenal v West Ham game I mention.

Surely the most obvious penalty of all time when Bonds back-passes to Mervyn Day, the Hammers keeper. Ball sticks in the mud and Radford of Arsenal beats Day to it, just inside the area, by about two seconds!

But Day continues with his reckless slide and completely takes out Radford (who was injured as a result and went off later on). Ref waves play on!! Incredible.

And in the background you can see Taylor of West Ham laughing to Bonds because it was the most blatant denial of a penalty ever - and I'm a West Ham fan!! LOL...

The good old days...

Nov 24, 2025 -- 11:18PM, The Knight wrote:

morpeth,,yup. I believe it was Hector...But watch the Arsenal v West Ham game I mention. Surely the most obvious penalty of all time when Bonds back-passes to Mervyn Day, the Hammers keeper. Ball sticks in the mud and Radford of Arsenal beats Day to it, just inside the area, by about two seconds! But Day continues with his reckless slide and completely takes out Radford (who was injured as a result and went off later on). Ref waves play on!! Incredible. And in the background you can see Taylor of West Ham laughing to Bonds because it was the most blatant denial of a penalty ever - and I'm a West Ham fan!! LOL...The good old days...

certainly an eye-opener re change in whats construed a foul