Fit For Saturday?

In the early 1990s, Halesowen Town raised around £250,000 with dealings in the transfer market, such was the stock of the team and the players.

The Black Country outfit had built on a solid foundation of four West Midlands (Regional) League titles and two wins at Wembley in the FA Vase to push on into the Southern League, and players were being watched.

The Yeltz's first season in the Southern League Midland Division was 1986/87 and by 1990 they had won the league, scoring 100 goals in that season and amassing 92 points to achieve promotion.

Crowds that had been built up in the West Midlands (Regional) League and FA Vase days were still flocking into The Grove, and so were the scouts from Football League clubs!

Halesowen had to do without Dean Spink in their title-winning season - he had been signed by Graham Taylor for Aston Villa for £30,000 before it had even begun.

Early in the season, the legendary Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest signed Stuart Cash, although he would never make a first-team appearance at The City Ground.

One of the most successful of the departures was Sean Flynn, who signed for Coventry City in 1991 and would go on to captain West Bromwich Albion, where he made 100 appearances in a professional career total of 387.

But Flynn wasn't the only Halesowen player who would sign initially for the Sky Blues.

Defender Andy Pearce and goalkeeper Tim Clarke would also cross the West Midlands to Highfield Road.

Clarke had impressed Coventry`s joint bosses John Sillett and George Curtis when Halesowen beat the Sky Blues first team in a pre-season game.

It became a good relationship between Halesowen and Coventry, and one that was cemented in a funny story when Terry Butcher was sacked as the manager of the latter in January 1992.

Halesowen boss John Morris took advantage of the links between the two clubs to get the former Ipswich Town and England defender in to take training.

“We were going through a bit of bad run at the times and he thought it might boost morale,” Morris said at the time.

The trouble is the press got hold of it and said the club was trying to sign the legendary player, who was still only 33, quoting the Halesowen chairman as saying he was going to sign.

There was no chance of this as, despite being sacked by Coventry, he was still being paid in full by them until the end of his contract and actively looking for another job as a manager.

Gavin Blackwell, Halesowen`s physio at the time, continues the story: “But his presence did work a treat in taking some pressure off us.

“He had a real presence, having won the UEFA Cup with Ipswich under Bobby Robson and playing 77 times for England.

“We had some fun with him when taking his first session with the squad when resident joker Rob Shilvock ran out to training in a bandage he had asked me for which had coloured with red felt pen to replicate Butcher’s famous ‘war wound’ from the World Cup qualifier against Sweden.

“Terry took it well, bringing laughter, of course, it is the picture that he is famous for, and in fact he did play again in the league, signing for Sunderland in August of '92, playing 38 times and later becoming player-manager.”

At the end of the 1992 season, Halesowen came through their bad patch to finish eighth in the Southern Premier and reached the First Round Proper of the FA Cup, losing to Farnborough Town in a replay.

(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.)

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