Golden Boy Stubbs hits five!

[wivelgull]

Golden Boy Stubbs hits five[/i]! That was the dramatic headline on the front page of the Saturday night soccer special (yes, they called it soccer then - well, sometimes anyway). The worthy gang of old codgers who inhabit this site will remember well the Saturday night football edition (it was printed on odd-coloured pinkish paper) as, no doubt, they will remember the Football Specials put on every Saturday by the DG (Devon General).
It was only the fifteenth game of the season and already Stubbsy had eight league goals to his credit; but this was the match he came into his own.
Many people remembering past glories keep the impression that the weather was always warm and sunny, but my memories of Plainmoor are always of grey and rather miserable days. But that matter not - I was there! It's probably this game that makes everyone who saw him put Robin as their favourite player.
The crowd was a very ordinary 4,442. At the end of the season we finished sixth (no play-offs then) and Newport fifteenth. I can't recall the half-time score but with about eighteen or nineteen minutes to go we were leading 3-1 in what appeared to all intents and purposes to be a very run-of-the-mill fourth division game. Then all hell was let loose. Stubbsy, who'd already scored one, ran riot and scored four more, while the County side, playing to the crowd no doubt, entered into the spirit of things and scored two more themselves. In the end the score was United 8 County 3. I doubt if more goals have ever been scored in one game at Plainmoor. To be quite honest, I can't remember any of the goals themselves, only that the crowd went wilder and wilder as each one went in.A friend of mine was working at the Model Village at the time and he said later that he could hear the shouts getting louder and louder. Great days!
Our heroes were: Adlington, Allen, Bettany, Austin, Smith, Hancock, Webb, Northcott, Stubbs, Jenkins, Pym. Our other goalscorers were Jenkins (2) and Tommy.
I can't remember Austin or Webb (though no doubt our venerable friends will remind me), but I do recall, among others, the great Reg Jenkins (who is Rochdale's greatest ever hero) and the fabulous St Marychurch milkman, Ernie Pym.

[tomogull]

That was one of the better days at Plainmoor ! You've titled the thread 'Golden Boy Stubbs' and few would argue that he is one of the best players ever to play for United, but he owed a lot to his success to the likes of Tommy Northcott, Reg Jenkins and Ernie Pym. Like you, I don't remember Austin or Webb, except it wasn't the infamous Dave Webb !

[crownhhill]

Frank Austin was,signed from Coventry City.
A classy midfield player, always rated highly by Don Mills.
Bobby Webb a small right winger.
Didn't figure too much.
Suffered a bad broken leg while playing for us.