Old footage - Saints v Crystal Palace - Nov 1969

[Badger]

Stumbled across this today, the Big Match from 30/11/1969. Black & White tv, of the game at The Dell.

Good nostalgia for us old bastards, with Paine, Sydenham, Davies, Channon, Fisher, Gabriel etc. Hoping it takes minds off of Sports Republic for a few minutes. 

 

Always worth seeing - long lost age,  adverts for Watneys Red Barrel,  coppers walking around the pitch. The state of the pitches are remarkable.

Good to see goal celebrations without fucking obligatory knee slides as well.

Commentary very understated in those days, bloke not trying to be the centre of attention. Jimmy Hill talks through our goal a bit after. I didn't bother watching any of the rest. 

I saw a comment on the Youtube page after the game, that Eric Martin looked to be playing in pyjamas. 

[Teamsaint1]

3 hours ago, Badger said:

3 hours ago, Badger said:

Stumbled across this today, the Big Match from 30/11/1969. Black & White tv, of the game at The Dell.

Good nostalgia for us old bastards, with Paine, Sydenham, Davies, Channon, Fisher, Gabriel etc. Hoping it takes minds off of Sports Republic for a few minutes. 

 

Always worth seeing - long lost age,  adverts for Watneys Red Barrel,  coppers walking around the pitch. The state of the pitches are remarkable.

Good to see goal celebrations without fucking obligatory knee slides as well.

Commentary very understated in those days, bloke not trying to be the centre of attention. Jimmy Hill talks through our goal a bit after. I didn't bother watching any of the rest. 

I saw a comment on the Youtube page after the game, that Eric Martin looked to be playing in pyjamas. 

Jimmy Gabriel. What a player. Could do with one like him right now. Think  he would have been great in the modern game.

Edited Friday at 20:36 by Teamsaint1

[Badger]

30 minutes ago, Teamsaint1 said:

Jimmy Gabriel. What a player. Could do with one like him right now. Think  he would have been great in the modern game.

Definitely. He played CB, MF, and from time to time was a stand in centre forward when Ron Davies was injured. I think it was the following season to the one shown v Palace, 1970/71 when he spent a few weeks up front. Scored the winner v Man Utd at The Dell.

A player I noticed in the Palace match highlights was Hugh Fisher. A lot of our play seemed to go through him. ( Unusual and good bit of skill from him at one point in the first half). Never the same player again after his injury. 

[Teamsaint1]

35 minutes ago, Badger said:

Definitely. He played CB, MF, and from time to time was a stand in centre forward when Ron Davies was injured. I think it was the following season to the one shown v Palace, 1970/71 when he spent a few weeks up front. Scored the winner v Man Utd at The Dell.

A player I noticed in the Palace match highlights was Hugh Fisher. A lot of our play seemed to go through him. ( Unusual and good bit of skill from him at one point in the first half). Never the same player again after his injury. 

I remember Hughie’s injury , IIRC he had a metal pin put in his leg ? He did stand out in that Palace game. I was stood in the front row of the Archers right behind the goal ( with lots of Villa fans!)  when he scored that vital equaliser in the  cup. Etched deep in my memory that one  

[Badger]

8 minutes ago, Teamsaint1 said:

I remember Hughie’s injury , IIRC he had a metal pin put in his leg ? He did stand out in that Palace game. I was stood in the front row of the Archers right behind the goal ( with lots of Villa fans!)  when he scored that vital equaliser in the  cup. Etched deep in my memory that one  

Just looked the date of the match up, 3rd January 1976.

Fiftieth anniversary of the game and Hugh Fisher’s goal tomorrow. 

[The Wyvern]

I love everything about that era, including the pitch, would happily swap it for what we have today.

 

That said, quality of football has definitely improved, wouldn't get away with some of that defending if Saintsweb had been in existence in the late 60s

[Badger]

17 minutes ago, The Wyvern said:

That said, quality of football has definitely improved, wouldn't get away with some of that defending if Saintsweb had been in existence in the late 60s

Yes imagine some of it:

Bates has taken them as far as he can, needs to go … No Plan B if the cross to Big Ron doesn’t work 

Paine, good servant, but his legs have gone …

Channon’s missed chance : Chivers would have got that … 

But would be interesting reading which pubs the Alehouse team were seen it, and at what time, especially the night before a game 

[Graffito]

2 hours ago, Teamsaint1 said:

I remember Hughie’s injury , IIRC he had a metal pin put in his leg ? He did stand out in that Palace game. I was stood in the front row of the Archers right behind the goal ( with lots of Villa fans!)  when he scored that vital equaliser in the  cup. Etched deep in my memory that one  

You’d have been a brave man to have celebrated that goal. I was in the Milton and the Archers was packed with very noisy villa fans who brought hundreds of balloons.

[Kingsland Codger]

Thank you for posting this. Away from the action there was plenty of nostalgia to wallow in. Saints in good old-fashioned stripes, the baggy shorts of the referee, a kid with a rattle behind the goal, an ad for Rizla papers, the half-time scores along the touchline, plenty of police but not a Hi-Viz jacket in sight - Happy Days.

[Saintinnot]

Thanks so much for posting this - it’s helped me so much with a personal quest I’ve been on . My Father advertised his business at the Dell in the 1960’s and I’ve been searching for an image of the advertising board and now I’ve found it on this video!  An important part of my family history !

now I know the location and season my aim is to find a still and get it blown up - hopefully the club historian will help me find one .

 

[Badger]

26 minutes ago, Saintinnot said:

Thanks so much for posting this - it’s helped me so much with a personal quest I’ve been on . My Father advertised his business at the Dell in the 1960’s and I’ve been searching for an image of the advertising board and now I’ve found it on this video!  An important part of my family history !

now I know the location and season my aim is to find a still and get it blown up - hopefully the club historian will help me find one .

 

Thanks. I wondered whether to post this or not, as many are probably only interested in the here and now. 
 

Reading your post I’m glad I did, and pleased it’s helped you piece together some family history. ( I did some digging on mine, and ended up in contact with someone in Canada who was able to fill in some gaps from the late 19th Century… quite satisfying to add some pieces into the jigsaw so I know how you feel). 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

18 hours ago, Badger said:

A player I noticed in the Palace match highlights was Hugh Fisher. A lot of our play seemed to go through him. ( Unusual and good bit of skill from him at one point in the first half). Never the same player again after his injury. 

Fisher really stood out as the man moving the ball into our wealth of attacking riches, and controlling the game.

Lovely to see, and Gabriel being so versatile and getting the goal.

[Ex Lion Tamer]

Not my era but as others have said, Fisher looked really great here

[Oh no Mick Mills]

Thanks for put this up. 

Its a great watch. 👍 

 

[Teamsaint1]

On 03/01/2026 at 00:27, Graffito said:

You’d have been a brave man to have celebrated that goal. I was in the Milton and the Archers was packed with very noisy villa fans who brought hundreds of balloons.

It was just me and my brother , aged 13 and 11 standing in the front row so the Villa fans ignored us ! There were some other Saints fans in the Archers , but it was mainly Villa. Anyway, we definitely celebrated . 

[sadoldgit]

On 02/01/2026 at 17:25, Badger said:

Stumbled across this today, the Big Match from 30/11/1969. Black & White tv, of the game at The Dell.

Good nostalgia for us old bastards, with Paine, Sydenham, Davies, Channon, Fisher, Gabriel etc. Hoping it takes minds off of Sports Republic for a few minutes. 

 

Always worth seeing - long lost age,  adverts for Watneys Red Barrel,  coppers walking around the pitch. The state of the pitches are remarkable.

Good to see goal celebrations without fucking obligatory knee slides as well.

Commentary very understated in those days, bloke not trying to be the centre of attention. Jimmy Hill talks through our goal a bit after. I didn't bother watching any of the rest. 

I saw a comment on the Youtube page after the game, that Eric Martin looked to be playing in pyjamas. 

I was living in SE London at the time and most of the kids in my class supported Palace so I used to get a lot of stick when we played each other.

A few years on I ended up playing against the Palace right back in this game, John Sewell, in a Sunday morning park match when he was playing for an amateur team called Lessan. I thought he was rubbish at Palace but despite his advancing years and waistline, none of us laid a glove on him all game.