Magical Year

Thirty years remembering Halesowen Town and the Southern League Midland Division title.

Halesowen Town were having an excellent 2019/20 season, competing for the title in the BetVictor Southern League Division One Central and on the cusp of a journey to Wembley in the Buildbase FA Trophy before the arrival of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Gavin Blackwell, who has had three spells as physio at his hometown club, reminisces here about another season when they enjoyed great success.

It was fantastic to see my hometown club have a great season. Thirty years ago, the 1989/90 season prior to World Cup 90 saw Halesowen win the Southern League Midland Division title and promotion to the Premier Division.

Manager John Morris assembled the championship side on the back of losing his forward Dean Spink in a close season transfer to Aston Villa, with Graham Taylor’s side paying £40,000 for his services.

Early on in the campaign we also lost Stuart Cash, who Brian Clough signed for Nottingham Forest but sadly never played a first-team game at the East Midlands club.

He was one of a number of players including Andy Pearce, Sean Flynn and Tim Clark who would later transfer to League clubs in the coming seasons.

They would all enjoy varying success, with perhaps Flynn (350 appearances for five League clubs) and Pearce (152 League appearances for four League clubs), enjoying the best careers in terms of longevity.

More importantly for Halesowen, the combined transfers brought in around £250,000 to the club’s coffers, serious money even now but certainly 30 years ago for a club of this size, it gave them a massive boost.

I had been working at Oldbury United as physio but joined Halesowen during the close season of 1989, to form part of Morris’s backroom staff.

We opened the pre-season campaign with a home friendly against a strong Manchester United side that included Remi Moses, Mal Donaghy and Colin Gibson.

It was the start of a memorable campaign which also included an FA Cup First Round appearance away at Cardiff City narrowly losing 1-0.

The visitors’ page in the matchday programme for the tie at Ninian Park read: “Whilst they may not realistically hope to get there, their chances of winning promotion to the Beazer Homes League Premier Division look quite bright.

“Last season they finished fourth in the Midland Division, just two points behind the top two promoted clubs; this season they are currently in the top three after last Saturday’s 2-1 win at Banbury when they were 1-0 down after just 40 seconds.

“That was their fourth consecutive win in league and cup, and they have suffered just one defeat in their last twelve first-team games prior to last Tuesday’s scheduled return trip to Stourbridge in the Westgate Insurance League Cup match.

“And with major improvements at The Grove over the past few years, with further developments planned, their ambition to play at the highest level of non-League football will see them have the facilities to match.”

It was a very different football world then in many ways. For example, you could only name 13 players in a matchday squad, meaning you only had two subs so your judgement on injuries had to be spot on, with little room for manoeuvre.

The assistant referees were then known as linesman who would come into the dressing room and check the players’ studs, something that no longer happens, with perhaps the 'assistant referee' giving them a cursory glance once they line up to take the field.

But no matter what the era, there is nothing like winning a league title and with it, promotion to a higher division and the 1989/90 season was a great experience.

The FA Cup tie and run in the Staffordshire Senior Cup, playing Stoke City at the old Victoria Ground two days after playing at Ninian Park was great, but managers often refer to the league as the bread and butter.

It is the one you have to have every single aspect of football management about you in place to win it. Endurance, talent be a little bit daft, strength, discipline, psychology, you name it. And of course, you need very good players.

It’s a real endurance battle over a long nine or ten months and there isn’t too much room for marginal error, so it was fantastic to be part of a great group of players and staff who were led by a great manager.

I learned so much that season from players and in particular John Morris and the other staff, assistant manager Henry Crampton and scout Bill Bishop.

One is the importance of the transfer deadline day of the last Thursday in March where we signed Tim Langford and Sean Hayward to bolster the squad to get us over the line to cover suspension, injury, illness or other absence.

The season ended on a further a high with Graham Taylor sending Aston Villa’s first team to The Grove on a baltic style May evening for a treble testimonial for club legends Mark Penn and the prolific twin strike force of Lee and Paul Joinson.

Playing in that game was David Platt, who had only made his England debut in November of the previous year, but who me and Henry thought would make Bobby Robson’s World Cup squad. He went on to score the winner against Belgium in the first knockout stage in Italy and notched 3 goals in total, including a penalty in the semi-final shoot-out with Germany.

Halesowen Town’s league record in 1989/90 was played 42 won 28 drew 8 and lost 6, scoring 100 goals and 92 points.

The following season had another high a pre-season friendly with First Division Coventry City’s first team hosting us at Highfield Road with Halesowen winning 1-0 and Tim Clark man of the match with a string of fines saves getting him a dream move to the Sky Blues.

The Yeltz would go on to finish eighth in each of their first two seasons in the Southern League Premier Division of what was step two of the National Pyramid in those days.

(Gavin Blackwell has been involved in the game for over 30 years and has shown great dedication during that time as the physio for a handful of local non-League clubs, most notably Halesowen Town, but also Oldbury United, Tividale, Stourbridge and Hednesford Town, as well as assisting the Wolves academy and WBA reserves.)