One Game at a Time: Freaky Saturday
Huntley & Palmers Works XI (A) March 14th
The season with no basis in sanity continues to baffle and amaze.
Two weeks ago, a defeat at Rotherham had the doom spirallers back in their droves to castigate the lack of squad depth, the Boards failure to find a bottomless pit of investment, Luca Ashby-Hammondâs parents for conceiving not one, but two goalkeepers and sending us the wrong one and any number of other irrational consequences that meant our season was over.
The mood was improved by a scrappy win over hapless Doncaster Rovers, but as ever what the footballing gods give with unexpected injury time equalisers they take away with the excision of the potential ideal left sided combo of Harding and Sorinola, that proved so effective in shoring up the fine win over Cardiff City. Two more injuries, meaning Jack Mackenzie was going to have to do another full shift early in his belated start to his Argyle career, and the bench was once again populated with players who this time last season were still doing their homework.
As Pink Floyd never sang, all in all it needed another wall at the Brick.
And yet.
Just over two hours later and, courtesy of another Pepple double, again in the dying embers of the first half, things were looking up. Literally. Mackenzie managing a solid seventy minutes with only the second worst handball by a Scot not seen by a referee, after Zac Ruddenâs goal at Home Park against Orient (third if you count non Argyle ones, and include Joe Jordanâs handball that resulted in Scotland getting a penalty to eliminate Wales from going to the 1978 World Cup finals), and a comedy against the post clearance by Will Aimson (once a green etc etc) to let Malachi get his second assist for Caleb Watts saw Argyle wrap up a three nil away win at Wigan.
Boateng was immense and had a shout for assists on all three goals after his jump distracted Mr Tickle and his unfeasibly long arms to put Peppleâs first on a plate. Seb Campbell came off the bench for a five-minute debut cameo. Pepple now has fourteen in all competitions and eleven in his last twelve games.
Shine on you crazy Diamonds. Pink Floyd did sing that, I am certain.
That, combined with a combination of other results meant the play-off race that we were apparently out of a fortnight ago, is now very much back on for a team that doesnât seem to understand they have too many injuries to be able to keep this run of form up. Indeed, on current form they are the second-best side in the division, behind the redoubtable Lincoln City who may or may not have converted the errant Barcelona fan who turned up to watch Sonny Bradleyâs boys win at Singed James Park.
Which leads us to why the sale of almost 3000 tickets for Saturdayâs trip to the Select Car leasing Stadium doesnât seem so rash anymore.
Reading sit just above us in the table, three places and two points clear. Now in their first full season after the Dai Yongge disaster years, the club is currently apparently losing a million pounds a month for its former Why Come owner Rob Couhig, a fact that has resulted in him reacting to a broken hip by suggesting his ownership may not be for the long term. In the middle of a run of away games that saw them claw an unlikely three points from Luton having trailed after eighty minutes, they lost at Mansfield while we were winning at Wigan, and after our visit, two of their next three home games feature Cardiff and Lincoln City. They also have trips to Huddersfield and Stevenage in that spell. Admittedly our next four are all against teams above us currently, but we are in a run of form that few thought possible when we propped up the table.
When thinking about trips to Reading there are only three games that really stand out. Argyle hit the three-goal cushion at Wigan a little later than they did at Elm Park in the 85/6 6 season, but anyone who was there that day remains scarred by the collapse to a four three defeat to our then as now promotion rivals. Despite that calamity, both sides were promoted at the end of the season.
Trips to Reading are however not too fearful, sitting in the top 25 of all grounds visited by Argyle for results (The bible that is GOS strikes again). These include the famous one nil away win by Dave Smiths side a couple of seasons after the four-three collapse, when Ciderman was following his half time routine of getting the tea ready for his side, and so was blissfully unaware that Gary Peters had put through his own goal to give Argyle the interval lead. It was only after the game that he was made aware his side had actually won and not drawn.
2005/6 saw Argyle grab an opening day win with a late Nick Chadwick goal in a season where Reading were to win the Championship and only suffer a single defeat at home all season. I believe it still rankles.
So rather than focus on matches we all know and recall to some extent I thought I would, given the attention being focussed on some of the individuals in the squad, on a player whose short career, and sadly, life, reflects on how football has changed.
Robin Friday only played for just over four seasons as a professional, only played for two clubs, and yet has been voted the greatest ever player for Reading winning Player of the Year three times in three seasons. He died aged thirty-eight, most likely from a heart attack brought on by a heroin overdose. His biography is âThe Greatest Player You Never sawâ although a few hundred Argyle fans, me included, saw him at Ninean Park at the end of the 76/7 season in an ultimately fruitless win for Argyle as they fell back from the then second division, following a late Terry Austin goal.
By then Friday was on the decline. The following season, following a spell in prison for impersonating a police officer whilst shaking down people in Leicester Square who might be in possession of drugs, Cardiff and Friday agreed to go their separate ways.
As a youth he was multi-talented, a fine cricketer and a decent boxer. His older twin Tony reckoned he was a better goalkeeper than a striker, with incredible reflexes, but despite being scouted and trialled by Palace, Chelsea and QPR (he was part of the youth team squad that accompanied Chelsea to their sixty-seven FA Cup final defeat by Spurs) he was not signed by any of them. Reading came across him at first when he played for a Borstal side against their youth team during a fourteen-month spell for various offences. He played a few times for their youth side, but then went back to his Acton home and became an asphalter whilst banging in goals for sundry Isthmian League sides including Walthamstow Avenue, Hayes and Enfield.
In 1972 he almost died after falling from a roof onto a metal spike that pierced his buttock, went up into his stomach and narrowly missed his lungs. Remarkably his was strong enough to pull himself up off the spike and recovered to be back playing in three months.
Reading boss Charlie Hurley, who had followed his career since his Borstal days, signed him as an amateur for ÂŁ750, which allowed Friday to keep working and occasionally playing for Hayes for whom he had scored forty-six goal in sixty seven appearances. In the same period he had also been sent off seven times.
Friday trained as he played, and Hurley had to rein him in after three players limped out of one training session. Hurley registered him with the Football League, and he was outstanding in his debut at Northampton, before scoring his first Reading goal in his next game at Barnsley. He was signed as a pro on a salary almost half of his wages as a roofer as asphalter and made his professional debut in a four one victory over Exeter, scoring twice.
The following season Friday continued to dominate the clubâs performances, but also to push the boundaries with his behaviour. Hurley was aware he was taking drugs and attempted to keep him on the straight and narrow. Friday also had a reputation for drinking, and one local pub banned him on no fewer than ten occasions.
His importance to the team however trumped his erratic behaviour which ranged from stealing angels from a graveyard, to put around a sleeping director in a coach back from an away game (when chastised by Hurley he returned them), to smuggling a swan into his hotel room.
In his first full season Friday wowed the Reading fans and was voted player of the year. His antics continued, once kissing a policeman after scoring at Rochdale âbecause he looked cold and lonelyâ.
The following season Reading won promotion from the fourth division, but Hurley was seeing signs of Fridays off field antics affecting his performance. In one game however the World Cup referee Clive Thomas was in charge and witnessed Friday receive a long diagonal ball on his chest which he then powered into the top corner of the goal over his shoulder, only turning to see it go in after the shot was taken. Thomas said it was the greatest goal he had ever witnessed, which was no mean achievement having refereed at the highest level, the likes of Pele Eusebio and Charlton. Friday simply shrugged and said âyou should come here more often. I do that every week.â
Promotion however meant Friday and his teammates expected to be rewarded and, when the directors reneged on their promises Fridays performances suffered. Other clubs were sniffing around, but only Cardiff had made an offer. Friday was using drugs regularly (his wedding which was covered by Southern TV even had a wedding gift of a chunk of marijuana) and degenerated into a brawl with the guests stealing the presents.
His form suffered and after a game at Mansfield where he was subbed, the local paper noted that when he left the field so did all the attendant scouts and managers who had trekked to see him. Friday broke into his opponents dressing room and left them a âgiftâ in their bath.
Transfer listed, the only club to return and bid for him was Cardiff City, but Friday didnât want to move from London. Hurley however told him he would be released if he didnât move, and so in December 1976 Friday boarded a train to Cardiff using only a platform ticket and was arrested at Cardiff Station by British Transport police. Cardiff Manager Jimmy Andrews came to his recue and with a few days was regaling his former boss about how good Friday was after he ran Bobby Moore ragged for Fulham, scoring twice and caressing the former England skippers nether regions to unsettle him (a common Friday trick). Hurley finally interrupted Andrews and said âYouâve only had him four Days Jimmy. Give it a few months.â
Friday himself hated the distance from London, travelling back regularly, often stealing a ticket by pretending to be an inspector and knocking on locked train toilet doors, then stealing the ticket when it was shoved out under the door for inspection. He begged Hurley to take him back to Reading.
His reputation grew at Cardiff, including a 1996 single by the Super Furry Animals which featured Friday on the sleeve flicking the vâs at former Argyle keeper Milija Aleksic in a game against Luton. Aleksic and Friday had clashed several times, and after a late challenge by the striker Aleksic angrily refused his apology. Friday then stole the ball from John Faulkner after the free kick, rounded the keeper and scored, before flicking the vâs at him as he returned to the restart.
The song, which in its live version has over a hundred uses of the f word, holds the record for the most uses of the word in a single. The band issued the iconic artwork in tribute to Friday after his death and contained this tribute from the authors of his biography.
âThis record is dedicated to the memory of Robin Friday, 1952 to 1990, and his stand against âthe manâ.
Robin Friday was a nonconformist and lived every second of his life with an intensity that burned for all to see. Friday not only flicked V signs at goalies who stood no chance against his prowess, but he flicked V signs at anyone who tried to tame him.
He was the superstar of the suburbs, the one who made George Best look like a lightweight.â
Friday had returned to Cardiff at the start of the 77/8 season but his court appearance in London and subsequent sentencing meant he had to wait until later in the season to play. In that game he was sent off for kicking a young Mark Lawrenson in the face. He only played one more time professionally, in a heavy defeat at Bolton, before the club released him.
Returning to London, Friday was the subject of a petition of over three thousand Reading fans demanding the club re-sign their hero.
Then Reading Manager Maurice Evans told the striker if he settled down he could be playing for England within three or four years. Fridayâs reply was to ask the managers age, and, when told, said âI am half your age and lived twice your life.â
Friday was a maverick, who arrived on the footballing scene at the same approximate time as our own Paul Mariner. At a time when our own rule breaking folk hero Jock Morrison is having his own health battles, Friday too was from an era where personality was not something that was coached out of players.
His short life was a waste in so many ways, but he remains the most popular player in Readingâs history. Sadly, there is little footage of his career, including of his wonder strike against Tranmere, but for those of us of an age, he was a hell of a player.
This weekend though we will have to content ourselves with the Unpronouncables Derby as Kevin Ehibhathiomh takes on Aribusitamunoipirim Emmanuel Pepple.
As they say in Reading, crumbs!!!!
COYG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Huntley & Palmers Works XI (A) March 14th
The season with no basis in sanity continues to baffle and amaze.
Two weeks ago, a defeat at Rotherham had the doom spirallers back in their droves to castigate the lack of squad depth, the Boards failure to find a bottomless pit of investment, Luca Ashby-Hammondâs parents for conceiving not one, but two goalkeepers and sending us the wrong one and any number of other irrational consequences that meant our season was over.
The mood was improved by a scrappy win over hapless Doncaster Rovers, but as ever what the footballing gods give with unexpected injury time equalisers they take away with the excision of the potential ideal left sided combo of Harding and Sorinola, that proved so effective in shoring up the fine win over Cardiff City. Two more injuries, meaning Jack Mackenzie was going to have to do another full shift early in his belated start to his Argyle career, and the bench was once again populated with players who this time last season were still doing their homework.
As Pink Floyd never sang, all in all it needed another wall at the Brick.
And yet.
Just over two hours later and, courtesy of another Pepple double, again in the dying embers of the first half, things were looking up. Literally. Mackenzie managing a solid seventy minutes with only the second worst handball by a Scot not seen by a referee, after Zac Ruddenâs goal at Home Park against Orient (third if you count non Argyle ones, and include Joe Jordanâs handball that resulted in Scotland getting a penalty to eliminate Wales from going to the 1978 World Cup finals), and a comedy against the post clearance by Will Aimson (once a green etc etc) to let Malachi get his second assist for Caleb Watts saw Argyle wrap up a three nil away win at Wigan.
Boateng was immense and had a shout for assists on all three goals after his jump distracted Mr Tickle and his unfeasibly long arms to put Peppleâs first on a plate. Seb Campbell came off the bench for a five-minute debut cameo. Pepple now has fourteen in all competitions and eleven in his last twelve games.
Shine on you crazy Diamonds. Pink Floyd did sing that, I am certain.
That, combined with a combination of other results meant the play-off race that we were apparently out of a fortnight ago, is now very much back on for a team that doesnât seem to understand they have too many injuries to be able to keep this run of form up. Indeed, on current form they are the second-best side in the division, behind the redoubtable Lincoln City who may or may not have converted the errant Barcelona fan who turned up to watch Sonny Bradleyâs boys win at Singed James Park.
Which leads us to why the sale of almost 3000 tickets for Saturdayâs trip to the Select Car leasing Stadium doesnât seem so rash anymore.
Reading sit just above us in the table, three places and two points clear. Now in their first full season after the Dai Yongge disaster years, the club is currently apparently losing a million pounds a month for its former Why Come owner Rob Couhig, a fact that has resulted in him reacting to a broken hip by suggesting his ownership may not be for the long term. In the middle of a run of away games that saw them claw an unlikely three points from Luton having trailed after eighty minutes, they lost at Mansfield while we were winning at Wigan, and after our visit, two of their next three home games feature Cardiff and Lincoln City. They also have trips to Huddersfield and Stevenage in that spell. Admittedly our next four are all against teams above us currently, but we are in a run of form that few thought possible when we propped up the table.
When thinking about trips to Reading there are only three games that really stand out. Argyle hit the three-goal cushion at Wigan a little later than they did at Elm Park in the 85/6 6 season, but anyone who was there that day remains scarred by the collapse to a four three defeat to our then as now promotion rivals. Despite that calamity, both sides were promoted at the end of the season.
Trips to Reading are however not too fearful, sitting in the top 25 of all grounds visited by Argyle for results (The bible that is GOS strikes again). These include the famous one nil away win by Dave Smiths side a couple of seasons after the four-three collapse, when Ciderman was following his half time routine of getting the tea ready for his side, and so was blissfully unaware that Gary Peters had put through his own goal to give Argyle the interval lead. It was only after the game that he was made aware his side had actually won and not drawn.
2005/6 saw Argyle grab an opening day win with a late Nick Chadwick goal in a season where Reading were to win the Championship and only suffer a single defeat at home all season. I believe it still rankles.
So rather than focus on matches we all know and recall to some extent I thought I would, given the attention being focussed on some of the individuals in the squad, on a player whose short career, and sadly, life, reflects on how football has changed.
Robin Friday only played for just over four seasons as a professional, only played for two clubs, and yet has been voted the greatest ever player for Reading winning Player of the Year three times in three seasons. He died aged thirty-eight, most likely from a heart attack brought on by a heroin overdose. His biography is âThe Greatest Player You Never sawâ although a few hundred Argyle fans, me included, saw him at Ninean Park at the end of the 76/7 season in an ultimately fruitless win for Argyle as they fell back from the then second division, following a late Terry Austin goal.
By then Friday was on the decline. The following season, following a spell in prison for impersonating a police officer whilst shaking down people in Leicester Square who might be in possession of drugs, Cardiff and Friday agreed to go their separate ways.
As a youth he was multi-talented, a fine cricketer and a decent boxer. His older twin Tony reckoned he was a better goalkeeper than a striker, with incredible reflexes, but despite being scouted and trialled by Palace, Chelsea and QPR (he was part of the youth team squad that accompanied Chelsea to their sixty-seven FA Cup final defeat by Spurs) he was not signed by any of them. Reading came across him at first when he played for a Borstal side against their youth team during a fourteen-month spell for various offences. He played a few times for their youth side, but then went back to his Acton home and became an asphalter whilst banging in goals for sundry Isthmian League sides including Walthamstow Avenue, Hayes and Enfield.
In 1972 he almost died after falling from a roof onto a metal spike that pierced his buttock, went up into his stomach and narrowly missed his lungs. Remarkably his was strong enough to pull himself up off the spike and recovered to be back playing in three months.
Reading boss Charlie Hurley, who had followed his career since his Borstal days, signed him as an amateur for ÂŁ750, which allowed Friday to keep working and occasionally playing for Hayes for whom he had scored forty-six goal in sixty seven appearances. In the same period he had also been sent off seven times.
Friday trained as he played, and Hurley had to rein him in after three players limped out of one training session. Hurley registered him with the Football League, and he was outstanding in his debut at Northampton, before scoring his first Reading goal in his next game at Barnsley. He was signed as a pro on a salary almost half of his wages as a roofer as asphalter and made his professional debut in a four one victory over Exeter, scoring twice.
The following season Friday continued to dominate the clubâs performances, but also to push the boundaries with his behaviour. Hurley was aware he was taking drugs and attempted to keep him on the straight and narrow. Friday also had a reputation for drinking, and one local pub banned him on no fewer than ten occasions.
His importance to the team however trumped his erratic behaviour which ranged from stealing angels from a graveyard, to put around a sleeping director in a coach back from an away game (when chastised by Hurley he returned them), to smuggling a swan into his hotel room.
In his first full season Friday wowed the Reading fans and was voted player of the year. His antics continued, once kissing a policeman after scoring at Rochdale âbecause he looked cold and lonelyâ.
The following season Reading won promotion from the fourth division, but Hurley was seeing signs of Fridays off field antics affecting his performance. In one game however the World Cup referee Clive Thomas was in charge and witnessed Friday receive a long diagonal ball on his chest which he then powered into the top corner of the goal over his shoulder, only turning to see it go in after the shot was taken. Thomas said it was the greatest goal he had ever witnessed, which was no mean achievement having refereed at the highest level, the likes of Pele Eusebio and Charlton. Friday simply shrugged and said âyou should come here more often. I do that every week.â
Promotion however meant Friday and his teammates expected to be rewarded and, when the directors reneged on their promises Fridays performances suffered. Other clubs were sniffing around, but only Cardiff had made an offer. Friday was using drugs regularly (his wedding which was covered by Southern TV even had a wedding gift of a chunk of marijuana) and degenerated into a brawl with the guests stealing the presents.
His form suffered and after a game at Mansfield where he was subbed, the local paper noted that when he left the field so did all the attendant scouts and managers who had trekked to see him. Friday broke into his opponents dressing room and left them a âgiftâ in their bath.
Transfer listed, the only club to return and bid for him was Cardiff City, but Friday didnât want to move from London. Hurley however told him he would be released if he didnât move, and so in December 1976 Friday boarded a train to Cardiff using only a platform ticket and was arrested at Cardiff Station by British Transport police. Cardiff Manager Jimmy Andrews came to his recue and with a few days was regaling his former boss about how good Friday was after he ran Bobby Moore ragged for Fulham, scoring twice and caressing the former England skippers nether regions to unsettle him (a common Friday trick). Hurley finally interrupted Andrews and said âYouâve only had him four Days Jimmy. Give it a few months.â
Friday himself hated the distance from London, travelling back regularly, often stealing a ticket by pretending to be an inspector and knocking on locked train toilet doors, then stealing the ticket when it was shoved out under the door for inspection. He begged Hurley to take him back to Reading.
His reputation grew at Cardiff, including a 1996 single by the Super Furry Animals which featured Friday on the sleeve flicking the vâs at former Argyle keeper Milija Aleksic in a game against Luton. Aleksic and Friday had clashed several times, and after a late challenge by the striker Aleksic angrily refused his apology. Friday then stole the ball from John Faulkner after the free kick, rounded the keeper and scored, before flicking the vâs at him as he returned to the restart.
The song, which in its live version has over a hundred uses of the f word, holds the record for the most uses of the word in a single. The band issued the iconic artwork in tribute to Friday after his death and contained this tribute from the authors of his biography.
âThis record is dedicated to the memory of Robin Friday, 1952 to 1990, and his stand against âthe manâ.
Robin Friday was a nonconformist and lived every second of his life with an intensity that burned for all to see. Friday not only flicked V signs at goalies who stood no chance against his prowess, but he flicked V signs at anyone who tried to tame him.
He was the superstar of the suburbs, the one who made George Best look like a lightweight.â
Friday had returned to Cardiff at the start of the 77/8 season but his court appearance in London and subsequent sentencing meant he had to wait until later in the season to play. In that game he was sent off for kicking a young Mark Lawrenson in the face. He only played one more time professionally, in a heavy defeat at Bolton, before the club released him.
Returning to London, Friday was the subject of a petition of over three thousand Reading fans demanding the club re-sign their hero.
Then Reading Manager Maurice Evans told the striker if he settled down he could be playing for England within three or four years. Fridayâs reply was to ask the managers age, and, when told, said âI am half your age and lived twice your life.â
Friday was a maverick, who arrived on the footballing scene at the same approximate time as our own Paul Mariner. At a time when our own rule breaking folk hero Jock Morrison is having his own health battles, Friday too was from an era where personality was not something that was coached out of players.
His short life was a waste in so many ways, but he remains the most popular player in Readingâs history. Sadly, there is little footage of his career, including of his wonder strike against Tranmere, but for those of us of an age, he was a hell of a player.
This weekend though we will have to content ourselves with the Unpronouncables Derby as Kevin Ehibhathiomh takes on Aribusitamunoipirim Emmanuel Pepple.
As they say in Reading, crumbs!!!!
COYG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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