Roy Hodgson was leaving the pitch, nonetheless flushed with the success of profitable his first sport again at Ashton Gate as Bristol Metropolis supervisor when he was stopped in his tracks by the imposing presence of Dave Rodgers.
‘Dave, what the hell are you doing right here?’ exclaimed Hodgson, amid a blur of expletives from the previous England supervisor, handshakes, backslaps and how-do-you-dos and great-to-see-you greetings because the pair tripped again in time to February 1982.
Rodgers was within the tunnel space on behalf of Metropolis’s former gamers to current a Man of the Match prize to goalkeeper Radek Vitek for his clear sheet in opposition to Sheffield United, however that was hardly the purpose.
Rodgers is without doubt one of the legends of the Ashton Gate Eight. One of many gamers who tore up their contracts to cease the membership going out of existence throughout Hodgson’s first spell in cost.
These have been turbulent and acrimonious occasions. They usually led finally to what all these years later stays a shameful blight on the membership’s historical past with loyal gamers integral to its most profitable period scapegoated then discarded to rectify the gross mismanagement of others.
As soon as the sacrifice had been made, contracts nullified and chapter averted, they have been brushed apart. Compensation promised by no means got here they usually couldn’t even get a ticket to a sport. And whereas every of the eight have their very own model of what occurred subsequent, resentment simmered and lives fell aside.
The Ashton Gate eight – again row (l-r): Geoff Merrick, Jimmy Mann, Julian Marshall. Entrance row (l-r): Chris Garland, Gerry Sweeney, Peter Aitken, Trevor Tainton and Dave Rodgers
The eight have been honoured by Bristol Metropolis in January with a minute’s applause
Followers present their appreciation for the gamers who saved their membership from extinction
The Ashton Gate Eight begins with a scrap of paper handed by one of many membership’s administrators to midfielder Jimmy Mann, who was instructed to carry these on the record to a gathering within the boardroom.
‘I by no means believed it could result in something as dangerous because it did,’ says Geoff Merrick, in flat cap, jumper and tweed jacket as he greets Day by day Mail Sport at his farm on his seventy fifth birthday final week. ‘That little piece of paper, about two inches lengthy and three inches huge.’
The seven listed have been captain Merrick, then aged 30, Rodgers (29), Mann (29), Chris Garland (32), Trevor Tainton (33), Peter Aitken (27) and Julian Marshall (24). Ready for them have been chairman Archie Gooch and the membership’s accountant. Gerry Sweeney joined them within the boardroom. At 36, Sweeney was the senior professional within the dressing room and had been at house washing his automobile when he took a telephone name and was instructed to report back to the bottom instantly.
The urgency was clear. He was requested to not delay, not even to alter garments, so he bounded into the bottom in his Bristol Metropolis tracksuit, at which level he bumped into Garland who assumed Sweeney was about to be named as supervisor. Sweeney, in the meantime, thought he was being pranked. He took a chair within the boardroom and checked for clues solely to seek out team-mates with lengthy, solemn faces so demanded to know what was occurring.
‘Like a proper hook,’ recollects Sweeney, miming the influence whereas perched on a low espresso desk within the entrance room of his house close to Portishead Marina. ‘Any individual says, “The membership’s going to the wall, we would like you boys to tear up your contracts”.’
Metropolis have been practically one million in debt and dropping cash quick. The escape plan was to liquidate and reform. Dazed, they left Ashton Gate asking for time to take recommendation. Little or no was on supply, definitely not from the PFA. ‘They did not struggle our trigger,’ recollects Rodgers from his house by the River Avon. ‘They did not know learn how to deal with it.’
The narrative spinning from the boardroom by media was that solely these eight gamers may hold the membership alive, and that they have been stalling to guard comfy existence and profitable contracts.
There’s a false impression in regards to the contracts. Having reached the highest, Bristol Metropolis misplaced management of its spending. These seen as worthwhile gamers have been tied down on long-term offers to protect in opposition to new freedom of contract laws.
Roy Hodgson (centre) with Bristol Metropolis’s board members, who turned the membership into a brand new firm referred to as Bristol Metropolis 1982 Ltd
Hodgson, now 78, on his return to Ashton Gate as supervisor in March – 44 years after his first stint
Clive Whitehead, scorer of the aim in opposition to Portsmouth to clinch promotion in 1976, signed an 11-year deal, however had been offered to West Bromwich Albion for £100,000, in November 1981. Most saleable property have been offered as they plunged again by the leagues.
The Ashton Gate Eight weren’t in the identical class. Their contracts on the level they have been torn up have been value a cumulative complete of £280,000. Mann had the longest to run with two extra seasons. Nonetheless, they have been portrayed as the issue and subjected to threatening telephone calls within the night time telling them to go away or else, verbal abuse within the streets and even the occasional snide remark from colleagues on the membership.
‘Depraved’, is the phrase utilized by Merrick. ‘The entire expertise broke my coronary heart and my thoughts.’ He and Tainton are proud Bristolians who got here by Bristol Metropolis’s youth ranks. They’d been on the membership for 15 years and by no means wished to go away. Invoice Shankly tried to signal Tainton for his nice Liverpool facet. Merrick, Metropolis’s captain by the age of 20, turned down Arsenal amongst others.
‘I am glad I stayed,’ says Merrick. ‘It was a magical place for a few years. We had a great staff coming collectively. We received promotion. If I might gone to London, I would not be sat right here right this moment with a farm and cows and surrounded by my mates. I keep in mind saying to my spouse, “If I signal for Arsenal, I am going to by no means see one other cow in my life”.’
Rodgers was one other homegrown participant. His father Arnold is the third highest scorer within the membership’s historical past with 112 objectives. Rodgers and Sweeney, a Scot signed from Morton in 1971, had every been there for 11 years. Mann for eight having joined from Leeds. These 5 have been heroes of the promotion below Alan Dicks. They toppled Don Revie’s champions-to-be Leeds in an FA Cup fifth spherical replay, in 1974, two years earlier than going up.
Tainton has a signed {photograph} framed on the wall in his house of Metropolis’s jubilant gamers contained in the Elland Street dressing room after that well-known win. They’re a contented band of brothers on the up. They misplaced 1-0 at Liverpool within the subsequent spherical however drew inspiration. ‘We pushed the 2 greatest groups within the nation to the bounds,’ says Sweeney. ‘That gave us self-belief.’
Garland, who grew up beside Ashton Gate, was Metropolis’s golden boy striker of the ’60s, who left for Chelsea and Leicester then returned after promotion to clock up 12 years over two spells. These have been hardcore legends by any metric. And, along with Aitken and Marshall who signed after relegation in 1980, the eight accounted for two,374 appearances, 185 objectives and 75 years of service.
The extra they liked Bristol Metropolis although, the more durable it was to take the best way all of it unfolded. Merrick has at all times suspected there have been different options to the disaster not totally explored within the haste. They signed the deal for £100,000 compensation between the eight of them, however the cash didn’t materialise.
Merrick (left) challenges Arsenal’s John Radford. He was Metropolis’s captain by the age of 20 and turned down advances from the Gunners amongst others to stick with his boyhood membership
They joined different unpaid collectors when the membership was wound up and made do with a small windfall from a testimonial sport between Southampton and Ipswich at Ashton Gate. ‘I used to be going around the pub with my mates, promoting tickets,’ recollects Rodgers.
Some have been requested to play at Newport earlier than they left. ‘They nonetheless anticipated us to drag on that purple shirt and provides our all,’ says Tainton. ‘It was humorous realizing it could be the final time.’
4 days after tearing up his contract, Garland paid on the turnstile to face on the terraces and watch Hodgson’s depleted Metropolis draw 0-0 with Fulham.
‘The lads suffered,’ says Merrick. ‘We needed to restart our lives, which we by no means anticipated when that scrap of paper got here into our fingers, however one factor must be mentioned: All of us remained Bristol Metropolis followers. We by no means held it in opposition to the membership.’
Tainton’s delicate method masks the dedication that typified him as a midfield dynamo and got here to the fore when the Ashton Gate Eight set a domino impact in movement.
‘We would put our financial savings right into a enterprise promoting garments to attempt to get one thing going after I completed soccer,’ says Tainton. ‘The enterprise went to the wall, I misplaced my home and my marriage suffered. I misplaced my marriage. I used to be at all-time low.
‘I would not wish to undergo it once more or see anybody undergo it. I began once more on the backside. The council supplied me a flat and I labored each hour I may to get again on the ladder. It was the one method I knew. It took me 4 or 5 years to recover from it, however plenty of folks lose their jobs do not they. Life goes on.’
Tainton discovered a job in safety at Oldbury nuclear energy station and stayed for practically 30 years. Merrick performed for a few months in Hong Kong with Garland and labored as a window cleaner on his return earlier than transferring into the constructing commerce, then to his farm.
After retirement, Tainton discovered a job in safety at Oldbury nuclear energy station and stayed for practically 30 years
Rodgers grew to become a groundsman at Bristol Grammar Faculty and later at Clifton Faculty the place he was a home grasp by the point he left. Sweeney was a postman within the mid-90s when then-Metropolis boss Joe Jordan invited him again to Ashton Gate as a coach.
Garland briefly returned to Metropolis on a non-contract foundation within the following season, by which era they have been down within the fourth tier, and struggled after soccer with a playing habit and chapter. He was recognized with Parkinson’s illness earlier than he was 40 and died in 2023, aged 74.
‘Chris was a marvellous footballer,’ says Merrick. ‘He was two years older than me and once we first met enjoying in opposition to one another he broke my nostril, however we grew to become actually good mates. Whereas I went off and discovered learn how to plaster and lay bricks, nothing fell into his lap which he loved. He was a footballer and did not have a whole lot of love for the rest. He discovered it troublesome and there was by no means any assist from Bristol Metropolis.
‘He grew to become very ailing and it is a unhappy story for such a beautiful man. And all of it got here from the Ashton Gate Eight. I do not need folks to be fed up listening to about it, however I am unable to overemphasise how crucial it was in our lives on the time, and that is how I felt for a protracted, very long time.’
Exhausting occasions should not forgotten however 4 of the surviving seven are firmly again within the Bristol Metropolis embrace the place they belong. The method emerged out of the membership’s commemorations to mark 40 years for the reason that Ashton Gate Eight in 2022 and Merrick’s ebook, Life with the Robins and Past, written with writer Neil Palmer and launched in the identical 12 months.
A pre-match ebook signing occasion had queues snaking round Ashton Gate and a second session needed to be organized. The outpouring of affection impressed Palmer to formalise a former gamers’ affiliation.
By the beginning of the 2023-24 season, Merrick, Tainton, Rodgers and Sweeney had been appointed among the many membership’s official ambassadors. Higher late than by no means, you may say.
They attend each house sport, incessantly overwhelmed by the response of so many followers eager to cease them on the concourses to reminisce, acknowledge the sacrifices made and purchase them a drink. Somebody will normally ask in the event that they introduced their boots. And that particular person was Hodgson when he ran into Rodgers at a time when he was desperately in need of central defenders. They each had a chuckle.
Garland (left) with Alan Hudson at Chelsea within the early 70s. He was recognized with Parkinson’s earlier than his fortieth birthday and died in 2023
A everlasting tribute to the Ashton Gate Eight on the stadium, telling the story of this selfless group
Hodgson’s shock return has given Metropolis a shot of consideration as one other season fizzled to a detailed – however with hope rekindled that someday they may emulate these legends
None of Metropolis’s gamers may have envisaged the younger boss battling the membership’s meltdown in 1982 and unable to cease the slide in direction of a 3rd relegation in three years occurring to handle England, Liverpool and Inter Milan in a glittering profession.
Hodgson’s shock return has given Metropolis a shot of consideration as one other season fizzled to a detailed. He has met Tainton and Sweeney as nicely, and there was real heat from all sides.
‘What a profession, what a prime, prime coach,’ says Tainton as Hodgson ended his second spell at Ashton Gate in happier model with victory in opposition to Stoke Metropolis on Saturday.
Eleven factors from seven video games, altogether happier reminiscences than his first time round and hope rekindled that Metropolis may someday emulate these legends and attain the highest flight as soon as once more.
