Old Baggies - WBA Former Players

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When it comes to selecting Hawthorns Heroes, everybody is going to have a view on who should and shouldn’t be included. But just how much more heroic does it get than lifting the FA Cup for your team, especially when that’s a feat accomplished by just five men in this club’s long history? Jem Bayliss was the first man to captain an FA Cup winning side in 1888 and he was followed by Charlie Perry in 1892, Tommy Glidden in 1931, Len Millard in 1954. But Graham Williams managed to eclipse even those giants, for not only was he the last Baggie boy to skipper an FA Cup winning side, he did it having previously led the Albion to the Football League Cup two years earlier against West Ham United.

Prestigious win though it was over the Hammers, Bobby Moore, Martin Peters, Geoff Hurst et al, the League Cup has never had anywhere near the allure of the FA Cup, the premier cup competition in world club football, the centrepiece of the English football calendar. Perhaps even more so then than now, an FA Cup winner’s medal was the one trophy that every player wanted, even over and above a League Championship gong, for there was nothing to compare with the day out at Wembley when the nation stopped for the FA Cup Final, gathering in front of their TV sets from early in the morning to watch “Cup Final It’s A Knockout” where supporters of both sides would compete to see who could get the biggest laugh out of Stuart Hall, Eddie Waring and legendary cup final referee Arthur Ellis. Then there was the spectacle of a player introducing an ignorant nation to the rest of his team, a chat with both teams in their hotel and the journey to Wembley Stadium on the team bus – one team on BBC1 and the other on ITV.

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While the country lapped up such glorious entertainment, for the players it was a completely different and rather more nerve wracking event but one which none of them would have traded for anything, as Graham Williams explains.

“To lift the Cup at Wembley is a magnificent dream, everybody wants to do it. I think I can say that for pretty well every member of the team, even those of us who played international football, playing in front of a packed Wembley and then actually carrying off the FA Cup was the highlight of our careers.”

In the latter half of the 1960s, seeing Albion reach cup finals was no great surprise because we were among the best cup fighting teams in the country. But by 1968 it had been 14 years since the Baggies had last won the FA Cup and for a team built on its cup traditions, that was far too long, something the Albion players understood as they embarked on the competition, especially since the previous year’s effort had ended with an ignominious 5-0 defeat at Leeds United. When Albion pulled out a third round tie with Colchester, it looked like the perfect start to a cup run, yet at Layer Road, Albion came closer to going out than at any other time in the competition as Williams remembers.

“We drew 1-1, Tony Brown scored a penalty for us which shows how hard we found it to break them down. But we were very lucky because in the last minute Colchester scored a goal and we were all looking around thinking, “That’s that for this year.” But the referee disallowed the goal, though even now I don’t think any of us know what for!”

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Albion lived to fight another day, brought Colchester back to The Hawthorns four days later and thumped them 4-0, Jeff Astle starting his run of scoring in every round of the competition by scoring twice, John Kaye and Clive Clark adding the others. Southampton were next up, but when they held Albion to a 1-1 draw in West Bromwich, once again, the omens weren’t good given that we’d lost there 4-0 in the league in August. But fortunately, Albion had their own dressing room soothsayer in goalkeeper John Osborne as Graham recalls.

“John Osborne would say “They’re not going to score today” and they wouldn’t score. He had a knack of predicting what would happen because in the days before substitute goalkeepers, I had to go in goal a couple of times and he’d told me before the games that I would have to go in goal! He would say ‘I can’t carry on, I can’t carry on’, and we would swap at half-time. I played in goal at Southampton – these are the sort of things that happen, but the spirit carried us through. I said to John Kaye, “I’m going to stay on my line, so you come and head anything beyond the six yard box.” But the Southampton supporters got wind of it and they started flicking lighted cigarette ends at me so I ended up edging forward and ended up on the penalty spot! But we got through it and won 3-2.”

Portsmouth were beaten at the first attempt at Fratton Park in the fifth round, leaving us to take on Bill Shankly’s mighty red army in the quarter-finals, the first half of Merseyside that would stand between us and the cup. It took three games to separate the teams, after we drew 1-1 at home and then 0-0 at Anfield. “We played really well against Liverpool but you had to because they were a great side. Those were the exciting games. Going to Liverpool and getting a draw and then beating them at Man City’s ground, those were the exciting days. On the day it’s a case of you just wanting to win, your heart is so determined on wanting to win and in the end we managed to get past them 2-1 and into the semi-final. That was a brilliant feeling.”

Albion genuinely were a bit fortunate to overcome Birmingham in the semi-final, but Williams concedes that there is something to the adage of having your name on the cup. “I think our side had a great team spirit and as captain it was very easy for me. If we went to a Throstle Club, they had lots at that time, all I had to do was go into the dressing room and all of the lads would volunteer, there’s no doubt about it, they would all turn up. Our dressing room was full of laughs when you think we had John Osborne and Jeff.

“Jeff would come out with jokes, you would be nervous and he would come out with something to relax you. His first day at the Albion he wore a blazer when he walked in, Micky Fudge was rested because Jeff had been signed from Notts County, and soon as he came in everyone said ‘Oh the bus driver’s here then’, because he had this green blazer on. We lived together and we’d fight like mad for one another. Sure, we had a bit of fortune against Colchester, then Southampton, and coming back from The Dell, I think I said to somebody, “We’re going to win the cup this year.” We weren’t at our best against Birmingham, but in semi-finals and finals, all that counts is the result and we got it.”

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Which left Albion bound for Wembley to take on the great Everton side, the “School of Science” set up that would take them to the First Division Championship twelve months later, the glorious midfield of Harvey, Ball and Kendall as good as anything anywhere in the country. Everton, FA Cup winners in 1966, were clear favourites and started out in that vein as Graham admits.

“It was a very difficult game because we were under the cosh all of the time and we fought very hard. Everybody says we were lucky, but we were lucky at Colchester, against Southampton we were. Liverpool say we were lucky. I live in Everton country in North Wales and I go and see Everton with my scouting job and they still ask for the Cup back! I walk down the road and they still recognise me and they always say “You stole our cup, you stole our cup!” We went out there, we fought for everything and we gave everything that day. Everybody was tired and it was the team spirit within the club that got us through that day.”

Win the cup we did, with Jeff Astle’s goal in extra-time the difference between the two teams.

“I always see the goal because it’s always on the TV, but I never really look at the game because, as I say, it wasn’t an outstanding game, it wasn’t a game where you think, that was brilliant. Everything about the goal was unusual, because Jeff hit it with his left foot, it flew into the top corner and Everton just died. They had just gone and we created a couple more chances after that. We could have won three and that would have made us look an outstanding side. It was a tremendous feeling in the tunnel, people don’t realise how wide the tunnel is and as you are walking up you see the steam, the bodies and the noise. It’s getting louder and louder and you can see the steam coming off the bodies, that is a tremendous feeling, and the nerves, that’s when it hits you.

“We were so tired after the game, the reception was put back an hour because we were all late and the dinner finished early because we were tired and instead of going nightclubbing or really enjoying it, we all went to bed I think. The memories are very blurred really because we were tired when we came off. It was the first time extra time had been played and the ground was quite heavy and we were all shattered, so we didn’t really remember much until we arrived back at West Bromwich the following day and there was a hundred-thousand people waiting for us – then you realise that you’d won the cup. Then we flew out to Africa on the Monday for a post-season tour and that’s when all of the celebrations really started!”

For months after, all people in God’s country could talk about was that FA Cup win, and players were in great demand to go out to supporters clubs  and talk about the day. Invariably, as Graham remembers, they’d take the trophy with them, though occasionally, that lovely piece of silverware found itself the worse for wear.

“We used to carry the Cup around, we used to take it to all of the Supporter’s Clubs in the Midlands and then take it home with us at night. On this one occasion I’d taken it to some place and then taken it home to Sutton Coldfield and put it underneath the bed. My son, who was only eighteen months then, did his toilet in it! Every time I see them lifting the cup now I think what Richard had done in it – I know where that’s been!”

Since Graham lifted the trophy on 18^th May 1968, Albion haven’t been back to the FA Cup Final, much less won it. Given the quality of players we’ve had since, even Graham can’t believe that pictures of him and his team are still so much at the forefront of our history.

“I thought a couple of years later when they had Regis, Cunningham and those players that they had an outstanding side and that they would have won something, but the Cup has a little bit of luck attached to it and they didn’t get it when they needed it and that’s something I’m very sad about. In my heart I am still a West Bromwich Albion fan and we are all West Bromwich Albion people, it’s the first result I always look for. I’d love to see us go and win the cup again, it’d be a brilliant thing for the club.”