THE BIG MATCH REVISITED
 

Watching now on itv4 see that palace were 2nd behind brighton,does anyone remember if we were the featured main game from now till the end of the promotion season in 1978/79 ?

I thought the only game of ours that made the Big Match that season was our 1-0 win over Oldham.

orient v palace was on

So was the penultimate home game - Palace v Notts County. I have the Notts. County and Orient games on an old Betamax tape (with the goals from the Burnley game). There were all on the special DVD I circulated a few years ago.

yep , couldnt remember the other game . had some great interviews on it as well

thanks for that and did you make many copies James ?

I made about 40/50 copies over the years - and I know that my copy of the Burnley goals (which I believe is the only copy which still exists) was used by Palace in the Centenary DVD.

thats cool i will keep an eye out for one on e-bay for your one

I hope you won't find one there. I didn't sell any and I made it clear to everyone who received one that they were for personal use only and not re-sale.

Most people who received one made a (voluntary) contribution to the BBS, to help with running costs.

on todays game the Filbert street pitch had been covered by a bubble and was was described as perfect but it looked so poor now
and what was the notts county score ? i cant remember

I watched this again a couple of weeks ago,during black January,to remind me og the goo dold Palace days.

i wouldn't expect anyone to sell them really James

Games on TV 1978/79 season:

Millwall 0 Palace 3 - Big Match
Palace 1 Oldham 0 - Match of the Day
Stoke 1 Palace 1 - BM - Jerry Murphy about to be subbed, he chipped the keeper from 20 yards
Villa 1 Palace 1 League Cup - goals on On The Ball
Palace 3 Brighton 1 (and Hilaire.....!)
Palace 0 Villa 0 LC replay - Midweek Match or Sportnight can't remember
Villa 3 Palace 0 LC2nd replay - goals on Football Focus
Palace 0 Fulham 1 - Ref blew for time too early, players came back on played in front of half empty Selhurst
West Ham 1 Palace 1 - Match of the Day (Elwiss goal disallowed for nothing)
Palace 1 Orient 1 - goals on Football Focus or On The Ball
Palace 1 Stoke 1 - Freezing Feb, Walsk 25 yarder last minute
Brighton 0 Palace 0 - Freezing Feb, only one of five matches on in whole of England
Sunderland 1 Palace 2 - goals on On The Ball
Leicester 1 Palace 1 - Highlight feature on Football Focus with Des Lynham in huge flares - Kember got knocked out by the ball, Palace equalised in last minute
Palace 2 Notts County 0 - BM
Orient 0 Palace 1 - BM
Palace 2 Burnley 0 - Goals on News at Ten

I had all these on tape, for some reason I have half of them now. :( I also had everything that was televised from the previous two seasons including the Wrexham goals and Palace 3 Swindon 3 when the Big Match cameras went into the Palace changing room. All bloody gone, luckily some of that reappeared on the Centenery DVD.

Oh and I forgot we were on Sportsnight 78/79 winning the Five a Side tournament at Wembley, beat Chelsea 3-2 in the final (lost that tape as well :( )

thanks for that info Chocky i remember many of them games on tv now

was it the murphy goal when the commentator said but what if he should score now ? (or similar) also loved it had to happen leeds away 76 FA CUP

Palace 0 Fulham 1 didn't remember the score but i was there and it was so wierd when they came back on i think it was a good 5 ninutes more

We were quite proud of the old hot air balloon that saved a few games at Filbert Street.
Wonder if i was at the game mentioned,1978/79,off the top of my head,some dark days and low attendences at Leicester back then.

But soon to be turned round by Jock Wallace,a couple of experienced heads and a glut of youngsters.........i know.......:S:

I remember it well. I was in the Bar having a drink when someone told me that the players were coming out again.

Palace had been so much on top in the last 10 minutes of the game and looked likely to equalise, but never got going again during the 'extra time' - probably much to the Referee's relief.

1976 Palace 3 Swindon 3 highlights - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea8gG8AVIwA

Keith Macklin, Yorkshire TV. He couldn't get over the quality of Palace's performance that day. Superb stuff.

It never ceases to amaze me how bad the pitches are in these old videos... and I was there!

The main stand enclosure looks especially neat in that video with it's white wall.

Although seriously lacking in cover, Selhurst was fab back then. No tosser stewards in yellow jackets, no annoying goal music to assault the eardrums; just a muddy pitch with 22 'normal' men playing for a decent rather than obsecene wage.

Bliss :love:

And yet players like Best, Cruyff and Don Rogers could still control it no problem.

And fans went Berserko when their team scored a goal,

Bouncing,swaying terraces,full of longer more personal songs,towards players regarded as proper heros,
Songs such as...At number 1 we got ######,we got the best team in the land,.....that song would continue for ages until you'd gone through the whole team,i'm sure Palace had the same....:lux:

Thanks for posting that ...haven't seen those goals since 1976! It was a week before the cup tie against Chelsea.

A timely reminder - can't beleive we let the 'Valentine's Day' massacre pass this year on here without bumping one the 76 Cup Run threads :grrr:

Never too late http://forums.cpfc.org/showthread.php?t=179867&page=2 :p

Try this one, Palace versus Yer Actual West 'Am from 1971... we lost as usual (it was the game where Ade Coker scored on his debut and then vanished off the face of the earth), but there's an absolutely cracking panorama of Selhurst Park to open proceedings and, actually, we played quite well...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-YNYvno-Qg

Thanks for that Tony, remember that match because not only was it Coker's debut and goal but also John Hughes making his home debut.

Blimey, just looked at the record books, home attendance for the Manure was bigger than the attendance at Old Trafford. How times have changed.

As you say, it's a cracking panorama of Selhurst Park but, as ever, can't see myself in the crowd :o

thanks and what a great 2nd goal for nicky chatterton in the swindon 3-3 game :)

Odd seeing camera men by the goals, and also goalkeepers picking up the backpass.

Lampard.... like father like son! Fat and dirty!

A lot of "names" in that West Ham team.

Another very old piece of footage from 71... Palace away at the Arse (guess what, we lost again). This is grainy black and white stuff, and seems to be almost in slow motion, but our goal can be seen at the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rucGObE4OM0

This is the same thing, but the picture quality might be slightly better...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TaMt7XxatA

is there any early/mid 80's stuff on Youtube?

Somewhere on there, I think, is that appalling 0-0 draw with Burnley in about 1983 featuring Tommy Langley and Chris Jones at their incomparable worst.

Actually, there's not as much stuff as one might have hoped. I thought perhaps some fans of other clubs might have put stuff up of their teams playing us, but most of the available Palace material appears to be from more recent season goals videos. Swindon Town's official site has the 1989 play-off and that can be found on YouTube.

We just weren't on tv much in the 80s I suppose.

Thats a great little clip never seen it before, see the Whitehorse was having its Sainsbury's development and the Holmesdale had that section inserted down the middle for split the away fans, looked a good crowd though, Selhurst was never the same after that

That was a very early game I attended, it summed up what was to come in the decades ahead. We were at the top, Swindon down the bottom, 3-1 up and coasting, gave a stupid penalty away which we even got away with, and STILL fecked it up and threw the win away (and ultimately that season threw promotion away)! Then the next week we beat Chelsea. Mad club.

What a goal by Steve Perrin in the win at Stoke in 1977.

Boy... was that being transmitted from Mars?

CCTV cameras filmed that from the car park.

Currently on ITV4.

Chelsea v Liverpool with Tommy Langley playing up-front for Chelsea. He's just skyed one into The Shed from about 10 yards. I missed the start; it's quite an old season. There's a youthful Ray Wilkins and even Chopper bloody Harris still playing for Chelsea. No doubt there will be a few other carthorses that they managed to fob-off on us during the 80's.

He kneed one against the post as well

Elwiss every week ITV have been running the whole Big Match programme (complete with London Weekend intro which just had to be followed by the Big Match theme :D ) from the corresponding weekend 30 years ago 78/79 season. So watch out for our promotion run in in a few weeks with the Notts County and Orient games. :)

Re the Chelsea v Liverpool game, Ray Wilkins being interviewed with massive loads of hair lol! And Ron Harris still kicking players up the arse even in his late playing days.

yeah I saw that , Peter Borota, David Stride, Harry Hutton, Chopper Harris was just a thug in reality, although they played quite well to draw with Liverpool, Walker and Butch Wilkins were class, Langley was shite which wasn't really a surprise, TBM was far superior to MOTD in every way, I used to watch on Sunday lunchtimes and us kids would go for a huge kick about after sometimes 15/a side

Exactly! :p We used to go to Norwood Grove.

we lived in Pollards Hill

I have known a woman out here in Spain for a long time, called Dawn, she owns a nice restaurant, a Palace 'follower' who grew up 30 years ago in Pollards Hill.

Maybe you've done her. :D

we all like to wake up at the crack of Dawn

Well that brought a tear to my eye.

Both of sadness and joy. Sadness that you could see the man beginning to lose it, and joy that he still had that sparkle, and said such nice things about his time at Palace.

Now that is what I call a coat!

Amazing interview and footage - every Palace fan should watch that

Nice clip of John Burridge doing his pre-match hand stand here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA0NzuCJYkg

I just have ,such great memories .Reminds me of what a great player PT was,and Mal as a coach and a show man.I Remember him being interviewed on one of the sport shows at the time,late on in Grandstand after our win at Walton & Hersham.He was asked about the fedora and said it was a Cup hat ,how nearly right he was.Also and I may be wrong but I think Johhny Byrne may have played for England when we were Div 111.

Looking at the coat I wonder where Mal parked his Sopwith Camel?

on soon at 12, we've got Spurs with Ardiles and Wolves, highlight of the daytime TV

Lacy & Jones were playing for Tottenham, Peter Taylor came off the bench.
Sir Stevie was playing for United, or should I say wankers!

Wow the was fantastic. Quite moving really. I was never as big an Allison fan as some Palace supporters but it was certainly an entertaining time when he was in charge. Who will ever forget the fantastic cup run with the fedora etc? And anyone who's rude about Peter Taylor really ought to look at it too.

Can you give me a nudge when we get to those weeks please? My DVD from James stopped working about a year ago, so it'd be great if I could record it and have it again.

Followed by Thunderbirds. :p

People were dissapointed in Taylor as a manager purely because he was such an exciting player, but a very negative manager.

Thanks for that, I was at the match but I can't remember seeing the highlights on tv. Great stuff!

Same story with Trevor Francis I guess.

I fully agree. But he didn't merit some of the level of criticism that he received on here.

I remember the Big Match being followed by the Persuaders.

And preceded by a combination of All Our Yesterday, The Farm Show and University Challenge.

After The Big Match was tea time.

was it not "Out of Town" with Jack Hargreaves? seem to remember it was incredibly boring

That as well.

I think the farm show was a bit earlier, maybe about noon and on BBC. Always had film of cows and cow shit everywhere. Not the best lunchtime viewing.

I hope this link hasnt been posted elsewhere

The 3-1 win over Brighton in 1978.

I remember it like it was yesterday .... a very warm day for October.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX75kiCoJBY

I always remember it as The London weekend Show with Janet Street Porter, then Thunderbirds then The Big Match.

The Big Match was mainly on at 2.15 on sunday afternoons, was on for 45 minutes and only had one ad break, at half time during the main match.

:lux: :lux:

30 years ago - christ! The team still feels so familiar.

Magical but sad. The chances of ever having a team like that again feels so remote.

When was Tomfoolery on?

John Burridge is not wearing any gloves?

Similar to my recollection. But I remember watching Thunderbirds first and Sunday lunch was served almost exactly when it ended. The LWT Show happened while we were eating and we were then allowed to leave the table early to watch the Big Match.

If lunch was late, you watched the start of The LWT Show that was a cartoon of JS-P in big flares with exaggerated teeth and Elton John style glasses wading across an animated London skyline.

There was also a time when the pre-Big Match line up included Weekend World with Bwian Walden which was a sort of weekly round-up of the political week presented by a bloke with a speech impediment that made Jonathon Ross sound like an elocution instructor. It had the fantastic Nantucket Sleighride by Mountain as its intro; in fact, if you played the non-vocal parts of the record now, I'm sure more people would say "that's Weekend World" rather than "that's Mountain".

I've got a feeling that it started at 12:00. Obviously this is a very specific couple of months in time; late-70s definitely.

What about Police 5? That preceded the BM as far as I can remember.

KEEP EM PEELED!

Is Shaw Taylor still with us?

Thunderbirds was 1pm which lasted for an hour. TBM was 2.30pm. Can't remember what was on between Tbirds and TBM :p

20the Century Box with Danny Baker?and Weekend World with Brian Walden, also very boring and such such inapprotiate theme music for a current affairs programme

not sure either,but The Persuaders was always on after The Big Match...........the theme tune still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end,they don't make 'em like they used to:D .............http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgLEdvRKAYI

Great thread this ....

See, you boys had the London based The Big Match. We in the West country very rarely had access to TBM.

Were I live we had either the HTV produced Soccer Special which covered Swindon Town, Bristol Rovers & Bristol City with the truly awful Roger Malone commentating, or ATV's Star Soccer which covered the Midlands. Mostly WBA, Brum, and Wolves with the voice of Hugh Johns, again dreadful.

We used to dream of watching the Big Match with teams such as Palace, Spurs, Arsenal & Brentford. I did remember watching us play Arsenal in Oct 1972. I think we lost 2-3.

Here's some interesting links .....

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carouse...ATVLondon.html
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/ITV/HTV.html

Happy days,basking in the sun,and watching Mullery squirm !!!:bash:
What a fantastic player Mike Elwiss was in his brief career with us,but for injury,he would have become a great.

This should bring back memories of Sunday afternoon viewing, waiting for the Big Match for those of us of a certain age. You have to get beyond the first verse of vocals for the instrumental break at about 1:40 on the clip that you'll remember fondly (or perhaps not).



I think it was usually the 12:00-13:00 slot. Was the LWT Show possibly 11:00-12:00 ? It was meant to be yoof programming wasn't it ? Just about the first of its kind.

Couldn't agree more! Thanks for the link!

It sounds like Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased).

Which, by the way, also used to be shown on a Sunday afternoon.

At the risk of posting a link already mentioned, the full Big Match Theme Tune, featuring Budgie doing his handstands before the Brighton game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsFi_...eature=related

I recognise the music but can't remember what programme it was played on. Can you remind me please?

Nantucket Sleighride (or part of it) was the theme tune for Weekend World (often presented by Brian Walden - is he still alive?)

There were some cracking themes for current affairs programmes back then... World in Action's was great too, real 'this is important, listen up, we are doomed' type stuff.

Sundays on ITV were great, Thunderbirds, the Big Match and later in the afternoon an action adventure like The Persuaders or Randall and Hopkirk. Then a tea-time serial such as Black Beauty or Catweazle and into the evening, after the dull religious bit, you'd have Upstairs Downstairs. Where did it all go wrong?

Used to love all the regional jingles as well... Southern, Anglia (with its knight on a horse), Tyne-Tees, Granada, HTV, LWT's red white and blue logo and twinkly tune (it was always a lovely moment on Friday evening when they took the handover from Thames, which meant no school for two days)...

All the different matches and commentators...
Granada (Everton and Liverpool) - Gerald Sinstadt
Central (Blues, Baggies, Villa Wolves) - Huw Johns with his ('One-nudding, Birmingham Siddy! catchphrase)
Yorkshire was John Helm who I think did our 1-0 cup win at Leeds: 'It had to happen...'
Dear old Brian Moore covering London Weekend, hyperventiliating: 'And a GOAL!!!!'

'The pictures are from Anglia Television, your commentator is Gerry Harrison and Norwich City are in the slightly darker shirts...'

Happy days...

Great post :)

Excellent post!

Martyn Tyler took over Yorkshire commentary about 1977, he was the voice of our 2-0 win at Sheffield United when we had to wear their yellow away kit.

Kenneth Wolstenholme was still covering the North east in the late 70s.

Chelsea v Liverpool March '79 that was on last week - "And away we go, Chelsea in the white socks". :D

Check out the size of Woy Jenkins' asthma inhaler

MARVELLOUS FAYRE!!!!!!!! :lux:

Haven't heard that for 30 years. Scary it feels about a month since I heard it. What happened during all that time? Did we ever get back to the First Division? Did we fulfil the potential of being the Team of the 80s? Did we ever win the FA Cup? Tell me that c*** Mullery ever came to Palace and I'll know you're taking the piss.

This music can ONLY be followed by



What team's kit was that yellow shirt with wierd sash at Highbury on that intro? Stoke I think?

I was in a hotel lift in Rio de Janeiro many many years ago and the lift music was The Big Match theme, how bizzarre was that? There was only one other bloke in there, some smart black fellow in a suit tapping along to it on the handrail. That is top of the list in my book of 100 best lift journeys.

Yes, pretty sure the yellow sash shirt was Stoke (looks like Terry Conroy, I think). They had a much smarter white, black and red one, too.

That Chelsea goal from about five miles out was scored by none other than Brian Bason.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Walden

Brian Walden still with us..

Weekend World, presented by Brian Walden. We're having problems pinning down its exact slot, but I'm pretty sure that it was before The Big Match. 12:00 - 13:00 would be my guess.

It was basically a round-up of the Parliamentary week presented by an ex-Labour MP (he might have still been one for all I know, but he had a speech impediment that would have normally ruled him out of a career as a TV presenter)

even the early 80's theme tune was a goodun':p

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubh9oAR7Ql4

Weekend World ?
I have not looked beyond this post.

Having read on , now, I just feel like a :clown:

Tune may have been OK, but the visuals were pretty crap.

Dead right. Andy Burton's site has captured them both here

A weekday tv treat, league cup final 79 on now..