Those Were The Days; 22nd December 1973

[Les1949]

THOSE WERE THE DAYS
22nd December 1973

London Senior Cup 1st Round

Hampton 3 (Cutler 36’, Minor 55’, Eales 80’) Finchley 3 (Whyte 75’, Currie 83’ 86’ )

Hampton;-

Chris Page; Ray Ash, Steve Markham, Peter Minor, Alan Earl, Brian Crandley (C Horne, 82’), Phil Sperling, Ted Yorke, Simon Johnson, Johnny Eales, Roy Cutler.

Finchley;-
Gordon Patterson; Roy Thomas, Paul Currie, Paul White, Alan Campbell, Gordon Beale, John Cole, Peter Clark, Ian Denholme, Willie Whyte, Len Pryor.
Sub; Randall

It was the night before Christmas (well, almost), and now for the second attempt to play this London Senior Cup match (the first, a week before, played on a frozen pitch was abandoned after Hampton’s Ken Reed broke his leg). This time, it was the heavy mud of Beveree that both teams had to deal with, especially during the second half when a storm made the pitch almost unplayable. Cutler opened the scoring in the 36th minute when he was played in by Johnson. Ten minutes into the second half, Hampton sored their second when a Cutler corner was headed in by Minor. Hampton seemed to have the game won especially when Page tipped over a shot by Willie Whyte. Christmas comes but once a year and the Hampton defence suddenly got into the giving mode, early. With a quarter hour to go, Whyte reduced the gap with a free header from a corner. Hampton stirred into action went 3-1 up, Cutler, involved in all three Hampton goals, set up Eales. Paul Currie, brother of the England International, then scored twice in three minutes, a long range free-kick that beat Page and then heading in from Roy Thomas’s cross. A week later Hampton would lose 2-0 in a replay at Finchley.


The Old Historian