50 years of watching Leigh part 2 - the Seventies (69/70 ) : Fri Dec 28, 2018 3:25 pm
Now I know all the anticipation is for the 70/71 season, but this previous season could so easily have topped it, but in the end turned out to be very similar to my first one of 63/4. What a top class side Alex was building. The following players all made 30 appearances or more:- Dave Chisnall, Mick Collins, Dave Eckersley, Jimmy Fiddler, Paul (Jethro) Grimes, Gordon Lewis, Geoff Lyon, Joe Walsh, Derek Watts, and Bob Welding. So after the usual defeat by old rivals Wigan in the first league match of the season, the team went on an amazing 13 match winning run from 23 August to 13 October 1969. This included a march to the Lancs cup final, which included a tight home win against the Wire 15-12, an even closer defeat of Rochdale away 11-10, which set up a mouth watering semi-final on a dry Mid-October evening, where a scarcely believable crowd of 16,494 descended on Hilton Park to see a comfortable victory 15-4, with only one try by Lewis with a mixture of drops,pens. And conversion by Alex and Tommy Grainey. also in this match winning run was a revenge win over Wigan at H.P.by 14-6 in front of 15,500. Now Alex Murphy OBE was not only known as Old Big Head for nothing, but after the Widnes semi, which was the 13th win in a row and with Leigh top of the table, they faced a trip to Salford (David Watkins et al) only 2 days later. So Alex goes public with the boast that he his nt going to cut his now flowing locks until Leigh lose again. So it came to pass that an exhausted Leigh side could not live with a star studded Salford team, and slid to a 15-5 defeat,but I will always remember the 11,000 Salford fans singing HAIRCUT,HAIRCUT!! all through the last 10 minutes. This loss seemed to Have affected the side somewhat because 2 weeks later came the Lancs Cup final against Swinton at Wigan with Leigh massive favourites. Now we all know what happens when we are expected to win and this is what exactly happened with desperately poor performance resulting in a 11-2 defeat. But meanwhile the team had been slowly progressing through the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy 25-8 v Wakefield af home, and then superb away wins at Hull KR 12-6 and then 12-11 at Cas. This meant a Final appearance against the old enemy Wigan at Central Park. Now WIgan were going through a sticky period, so hopes were high despite having to play away, but being underdogs suited the side better.3 penalty goals from new signing Stuart Ferguson, 2 from the touch line the other from 45 yards and a drop from Alex plus brilliant defending gave Leigh an 8-4 lead on the hour before a typical break from Alex sent Rod Tickle over in the corner for the only try of the game and an 11-6 win , to give Leigh their first trophy since 1955, and the fist for me as a supporter.Those 4 goals by Fergusonwere crucial. He had been signed from Swansea R.U.F.C. and proved to be one of the shrewdest signings of Alex ‘s reign. With all this cup glory, could 1970 be the year for our first visit to Wembley? Well the first round saw a hard fought 17-6 win at Workington, with the hotly anticipated draw for the second round giving us an away tie at bottom of the table. What happened next was scarcely believable. Alt Park was a field in the middle of an inner city housing estate in Liverpool with just one stand on a day of teeming rain. We were just glad to be on one of the many Monk’s coaches rather than parking up my dad’s Rover 90 !! It was set up for one of those displays you dread from Leigh, and so it proved. Although usually bottom of the league, Huyton could always be relied on for effort, led by the indefatigable Geoff (Piggy) Fletcher, and I can honestly say they should have won the match. But when you have a goal kicker of Ferguson’s stature it can get you out of tricky situations, and so it proved with 4 penalty goals cancelling out two tries and a conversion for Huyton to earn a totally undeserved 8-8 draw
Now as in previous seasons I cannot stress the importance of the Challenge Cup to the game at the time, and this was shown in the attendance at this match of 3,500, when the normal gate for Huyton rarely rose above 500. But even I was amazed at the replay match which was arranged for 2 days later on a Monday evening on 23 February 1970. I remember it was a dry cold day with everyone expecting an easy Leigh victory. What actually happened was an incredible defensive performance by Huyton, resulting in the first 2-0 win I had ever seen by Leigh. But even more incredible than this was the attendance of 8,135. To put this in context, this would have beaten every home crowd apart from Saints in our recent super league season!!
Cup fever had hit Leigh especially when the 3rd draw gave us a home game against Wiggins’s revenge was in the year. Leigh were on a high, while Wigan were not the Wigan of old. What could go wrong? Yes you’ve guessed it - on March 7 1970, in another massive letdown and in front of 18,505. no tries were scored and despite 2 Ferguson goals we went down 6-4.
From then on the season petered out somewhat although the side finished 7th and qualified for a home tie in the top 16 playoffs and duly beat Widnes 21-10, but went out in the next round at Saints. 16-5. However, this had been a great season with a major trophy won and the team gelling nicely with the icing on the cake being a proper goal kicker in Stuart Ferguson, I reckon the best kicker Leigh have ever had, and certainly since Colin Tyrer. At times during the season Alex was taking the goalkicks!! So what was in store for 70/71? Pre season we had signed Tony Barrow and Peter Smethurst -where these the final pieces in the jigsaw or would big match nerves affect us again? I will take a break before reviewing our first finest hour.
