A first round classic Rob may have missed......

[Heatwave]

I was hoping to see this one in Rob's front page article but it wasn't there, so I thought I'd add it.

 

22nd November 1975. Queen were in the charts with Bohemian Rhapsody and Vale had a first round tie away at Grantham. The pitch - now tragically beneath a supermarket - had a pronounced slope from one end to the other. Vale had the slope advantage first half and went in at half time a goal up. Grantham weren't going to surrender their home advantage easily though, and fairly quickly went 2-1 up in the second half.

 

The last few minutes of the game were frantic Vale pressure to equalise, urged on by a large away support just behind the touchline - no separating wall or barrier. When at last the ball hit the back of the Grantham net the celebrations saw the massed Vale fans invade the pitch. Then someone noticed the linesman had his flag raised.

 

The crowd now surrounded the unfortunate liner and the referee had to push through the crowd to get to the official. Someone who was a lot closer to the action than I was heard the exchange:

 

Ref: 'What's wrong?'

Liner: 'I thought it was offside but now I'm not sure'

 

The goal stood and finished 2-2. Vale won the replay 4-1 on the Monday - no week's interval for replays in those days - but I'll never forget the one Vale match in which the support had a direct influence on the result.

[hamilboy]

I was hoping to see this one in Rob's front page article but it wasn't there, so I thought I'd add it.

 

22nd November 1975. Queen were in the charts with Bohemian Rhapsody and Vale had a first round tie away at Grantham. The pitch - now tragically beneath a supermarket - had a pronounced slope from one end to the other. Vale had the slope advantage first half and went in at half time a goal up. Grantham weren't going to surrender their home advantage easily though, and fairly quickly went 2-1 up in the second half.

 

The last few minutes of the game were frantic Vale pressure to equalise, urged on by a large away support just behind the touchline - no separating wall or barrier. When at last the ball hit the back of the Grantham net the celebrations saw the massed Vale fans invade the pitch. Then someone noticed the linesman had his flag raised.

 

The crowd now surrounded the unfortunate liner and the referee had to push through the crowd to get to the official. Someone who was a lot closer to the action than I was heard the exchange:

 

Ref: 'What's wrong?'

Liner: 'I thought it was offside but now I'm not sure'

 

The goal stood and finished 2-2. Vale won the replay 4-1 on the Monday - no week's interval for replays in those days - but I'll never forget the one Vale match in which the support had a direct influence on the result.

 

If i remember it was a Derek Brownbill equaliser don't think the linesman had any option but to change his mind.

[Santa]

The Stoke replay in 1992 wasn't bad either.

 

Dartford away in 2010 was an eventful day out.

[robf]

I'm happy to see a few more suggestions. Clearly "five memorable ties" is an easier article to write (and read) than "twenty seven memorable" ties but as I cannot cover/recall every one, it's nice to see people interact with the feature and suggest some of their own which weren't in the article. In fact it's nice to see an interaction with the features anyway.

 

I hope that despite the omissions the article was interesting. I tried to go for a wide ranging selection - a couple of thrillers, one involving the old second replay system, one from 50-odd years ago etc...

 

but by limiting my selection to five I am never going to get them all in there so please do suggest some others in here...

 

You never know you may get a "Five ALTERNATIVE thrilling first round ties" feature...

[Heatwave]

If i remember it was a Derek Brownbill equaliser don't think the linesman had any option but to change his mind.

 

Didn't Derek Brownbill get a hat trick in the replay?

[Heatwave]

The Stoke replay in 1992 wasn't bad either.

 

Dartford away in 2010 was an eventful day out.

 

Everything about the Stoke replay hinged on big, daft Dave Regis getting the ball stuck in the mud when all he had to do was roll it in - the VP pitch, true to form, was like a quagmire as the game was played in monsoon rain. Apparently Peter Swann was laughing as he cleared the ball.

[Santa]

I think it was Grantham that Chris Harper talked about in an anecdote somewhere, in particular the struggles he had to get copy back to the Sentinel offices for the final. I think he had to relay it to some bloke who went off to phone it through at a local pub.

[points-with-bone]

Not a first round game, but Rob's selection of the game against New Brighton in the 1950's jogged my memory of Vale also beating them in the fourth round of the cup to progress to the last sixteen in the 1927-28 season

 

Points-with-Bone