Wrexham v Man Utd 1957

[louisleftboot]

Ally McGowan

An old interview from RP with Ally McGowan where he talks about the United game.

[wafc1926]

Originally Posted by louisleftboot

Ally McGowan

An old interview from RP with Ally McGowan where he talks about the United game.

Great stuff. Aly was a real character and , of course, one of the original 20 inductees into the Wrexham AFC Hall of Fame.

[rayred]

I remember being at the Liverpool game in 1963 as a 16 year old. My recollection is of finding myself with my brother on the kop which, unknown to us, had been taken over by the Liverpool fans. The Liverpool fans next to us sussd out we were not of them but said "eereey wack, just stick with us and you'll be alreet". Newspapers reported next day that Liverpool fans had travelled to Wrexham in the back of open trucks including coal lorries.

[jonesfach]

Originally Posted by louisleftboot

Ally McGowan

An old interview from RP with Ally McGowan where he talks about the United game.

Great interview.

Thanks for putting it up.

[Kiddy Dragon]

Ally McGowan one of my Wrexham heroes. Remember the day he broke his ankle. A true great, always gave his all and was a truly tough full back. Would always say hello when passing in town.

[t1954]

Originally Posted by rayred

I remember being at the Liverpool game in 1963 as a 16 year old. My recollection is of finding myself with my brother on the kop which, unknown to us, had been taken over by the Liverpool fans. The Liverpool fans next to us sussd out we were not of them but said "eereey wack, just stick with us and you'll be alreet". Newspapers reported next day that Liverpool fans had travelled to Wrexham in the back of open trucks including coal lorries.

They would have needed to, because if I remember right the match was played in the middle of the coldest winter in the last 70 years. The snow was about a foot deep on the footpaths leading into town, frozen hard. The match would never have been played now. I was under the cow shed the other end. Great memories.

The United game I was 10 at the time, walked down to get my ticket at the reserve match the week before. Starting queuing about 9 in the morning, same the following week for the match, even though I had a ticket. Being small i wanted to stand in the front. Had a ticket for the paddock in front of the old wooden stands on the Mold Road, had a great view, the match is now
a blur, but great memories.

[eastsussexred]

Man U sold their full allocation of 8,750 tickets for the game. Attendance 34,445.
Ground tickets costing two shillings and sixpence were reported in the press as costing 25shillings on the black market

Invasion Of Wrexham (from the Liverpool Echo)

Wrexham had its biggest-ever Soccer invasion to-day--a crowd of 35,000 for the F.A. Cup-tie with Manchester United. Due to pack the Racecourse ground to the limit the crowd would outnumber by about 2,000 the entire population of the town. From many parts of North Wales and the border counties. people moved in by road and for what was being called locally ‘the match of the century’. From Manchester came a contingent of about 9000. United s. most of them carried by six special trains at Wrexham Station arriving at intervals of fifteen minutes fro mid-day.
They were followed by specials bringing in Wrexham Supporters from stations up to Bala and Oswestry.
Signs on the approaches to the town diverted cup-tie traffic along selected routes to car parks, where space had been provided for about 4000 vehicles.
The attendance will be a new record- the previous being 30,000 having been set up at the Wales v Ireland International match in 1948.

Although it was an all-ticket match and everyone was assured of getting in, queus began forming outside of the ground at 9am. Many boys eager to get a good view were in the front, well armed with rattles.
In the Wrexham dressing room the Wrexham players received their regular cup-tie greeting from an anonymous well-wisher in London. This time, the usual white heather was set in the centre of a red and white ribbon, and with it was a lucky horseshoe.
One optimistic supporter anticipating a drawn game had provisionally booked a motor coach to take a party to Manchester for the replay next Wednesday.
In all the excitement the hospitals had not been forgotten. Wrexham Supporters Association agreed for the usual commentary to local hospitals being extended to 25 hospitals in the Manchester area. This way something like 9000 patients will follow the game.

[eastsussexred]

Re

[WrexhamProgs]

Nice pics EastSussexRed!

Here's the programme from the reserve game at which vouchers were given