Memories Down CUT THROAT LANE It feels like I have been waiting for this game for a while. In League terms, it has been 10,801 days, but who’s counting? I bet Steve Claridge and his manager still remember that day well! Our track record with today’s visitors is one of sporadicity. It took 75 years to meet the Tractorboys for the first time and it has been 29 years since the last duel, in League competition anyway. Today’s old programme focus is a Division Two fixture against our next opponents, Sheffield Wednesday. The game was played on 16 October 1982, our fifth season of six in said division. Our visitors were managed by none other than Jack Charlton and it is fair to say their squad looked decent for the time. Some interesting comments in the programme from school children who had been guests at the previous home game against Carlisle. Apart from anything else, they seemed to enjoy the “food” on offer at the game. The “look back in time” feature was interesting too, a 1972
match at Southport in front of a crowd of over 7,000. What would the Sandgrounders do today for a crowd of even half that? Anyway it was a decent game that day which ended in a 2-2 draw. We were 2-0 down within ten minutes of the restart (both from Gary Bannister) but Floyd Street and Chris Turner saved the day in front of a crowd of 5,677, which I sincerely hope is bettered this time round. And to end on a really cheery note. Ten Nazi leaders are hung as war criminals after the Nuremberg war trials on this day in 1946, including Joachim von Ribbentrop who was the first. He had been responsible as foreign secretary for the non-aggression pact signed with Russia in 1939. Which lasted until the advent of Operation Barbarossa and the invasion of Russia in 1941. Enjoy yourselves. ■
Harry
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