General Yesteryear

Yep. David Sloan and Ray Gaston. Two Northern Irish players. One was a great player the other, well............!!
Gaston was a similar signing to Pat Hoban. He scored bucket loads of goals for Coleraine but couldn't cut it in Div 2, now Championship.
 
Oufcrealist said:
Yep. David Sloan and Ray Gaston. Two Northern Irish players. One was a great player the other, well............!!
Gaston was a similar signing to Pat Hoban. He scored bucket loads of goals for Coleraine but couldn't cut it in Div 2, now Championship.
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Wasnt Gaston one of two NI players being chased by a number of clubs at the time?.... given his (lack of) abilities & pace twas no real surprise OUFC were the club that won that chase. I can't recall who was the other of those two NI players who were creating a furore with a number of English clubs at the time?
 
Sarge said:
Wasnt Gaston one of two NI players being chased by a number of clubs at the time?.... given his (lack of) abilities & pace twas no real surprise OUFC were the club that won that chase. I can't recall who was the other of those two NI players who were creating a furore with a number of English clubs at the time?
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Not sure Sarge. I'll put my thinking cap on! I do know that was the situation with Scunthorpe when we signed Nigel Cassidy. The story in the press was that we were tipped off about Kevin Keegan and were offered him at a certain price. A scout went up, watched a game and decided Cass would be the better player. Cass was great for us and a marvellous character. Just wonder if we had signed Keegan what would his career have been like!? Anyhow he signed for Liverpool a while later and never looked back.
 
Oufcrealist said:
Not sure Sarge. I'll put my thinking cap on! I do know that was the situation with Scunthorpe when we signed Nigel Cassidy. The story in the press was that we were tipped off about Kevin Keegan and were offered him at a certain price. A scout went up, watched a game and decided Cass would be the better player. Cass was great for us and a marvellous character. Just wonder if we had signed Keegan what would his career have been like!? Anyhow he signed for Liverpool a while later and never looked back.
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Cass was great for us, proper old fashioned English centre forward ... now you mention it I vaguely recall that Cass and a young Keegan were both 'looked at ' before Cass came to the U's ..... that may be what Im confusing with Gaston arriving?
 
Mermaid said:
Sloany yes, but the number 9 was the one and only ....... (pause for effect)


Ray GASTON

I had erased him from my life for nearly 5 decades

PS a colour picture would have shown his ginger barnet and rosey red cheeks, all huff and puff but no end result, a poor mans DUFFY

edit : many typos
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Not old enough to remember Gaston , although my Dad doesn't remember him fondly either... but..... If Gaston was old Div 2 and Duffy was Conference, then surely Duffy was a poor mans Ray Gaston?!

Actually based on who was chairman when Duffy played that could actually make him a sockless mans Ray Gaston!
 
We were actually in our first season in what is now the Championship.

What I was trying to say was that the two players were polar opposites. Gaston ran around like a headless chicken for the whole game with no end result, I understand that Duffy sulked, moaned and walked through games and scored penalty after penalty. So if you combined the two (what a thought) you would have a ...................... on second thoughts, that just would not work!

Gaston was one of Arthur Turner's last buys, he was sacked and replaced by Ron Saunders in the new year. The two incidents are very much linked.

I never saw the Welsh wizard 'play' (had to rely on Bob S's in depth assessments on social media), whereas I saw the Irishman on most of his appearances, sadly the majority were in our reserve team where he became a cult figure, still running about a lot and chatting to the fans. I think he soon realised that he would not make the grade here, he seemed to accept his fate with good humour which was much appreciated by many of my fellow supporters at the time.

EDIT: still can't type very well. TYPO fixing
 
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Really weird away terrace. Very shallow, and if you wanted any sort of view from the back you had to stand on tip toe and grab onto the advertising hoardings above, literally with your fingertips....otherwise you fell forward. Absolute screamer from Paul Hinshelwood.
 
Sarge said:
Is that David Sloan on the left or the pic? (first International player to play for OUFC?- also scored the only goal against scum , when they were league cup holders, in a 1-0 win in an early league cup round)

Maybe Colin 'Nobby' Clarke on the right of the Atkinson brothers?
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I actually thought that was Derek Clarke on the right, brother of Allan (Leeds & England) before Gaston was mentioned.
 
stokeu said:
Memory playing up, was that the night we shared scones and earl grey with Chelsea at the services?
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And what a fine dining event that was too! All the boys laughed to have such fun ?
 
stokeu said:
I've seen them, the first time being at Goodison on the night.... Good times
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Merseyside/liverpool police seemed to be on some sort of competition with each other before/ during/ after that game racking up nickings of OUFC supporters.... police snatch squads were in the upper tier of the away end (which housed a number of toffees supporting scousers towards the back!) nicking OUFC fans for things as minimal as looking behind in amazement (that home fans were in the same seating area as away fans)! there were posters around in the ground with a long list of things 'not permitted' and bindipper old bill enforced each n every one of them to the letter. 6 people off the coach I travelled up on were collared before/during/ after that game.... all 6 let go on bail in the early hours , all 6 fined £50 in court around a week later....all for very questionable ' offences'... no FSF in those days

Paul Hinshelwood's late goal was a welcome consolation, and a long distance screamer
 
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