Wally Walford

Remember them Persil away days? Football fans up and down England suddenly showed an interest in the washing up powder being used to keep  their clobber clean to collect the tokens that entitled them to a free ticket on the train.

Me? I used one for the first time to go to Norwich away in 1981.

Nothing game in a nothing season though we did finish 3rd behind Aston Villa and Ipswich Town.

This particular game was remarkable for very little. It ended 1-1 but it marked Peter Nicholas debut and started a nine game run that saw us finish impressively.

Around the same time we signed Nicholas Steve Walford moved out, joining Norwich City just before the Arsenal game.

Now typically when a player moves to a new club they say nice things about their previous one. Not Wally Walford. He was interviewed in the programme for the Arsenal game and he was less than diplomatic about his former club.

Some of his quotes make interesting reading!

"I was fed up at Highbury and was going home from the club not wanting to play anymore'.
"I had the stuffing knocked out of me with Arsenal. I constantly found myself being good enough to play in the first team but never it seemed sufficiently capable of holding down a position'.

There was of course a very good reason why he was never an automatic first team choice under Terry Neill and Don Howe. He was crap!

Miserable git! He was signed from Tottenham reserves and became a bit part player for the Arsenal which has to be an improvement.

For many of us from that generation he nearly went down in history as the man who nearly lost us the 1979 FA Cup Final against Manchester United. For those who have no recollection that  was the game we were coasting 2-0, replacing David Price with not long left. Our 2-0 lead was soon pegged back and it took Alan Sunderland's last gasp winner, he prodded the ball home before Walford could have a sniff, to win us the game and many pointed the substitution as upsetting the rhythm of the team.

For those of a more recent era the north London born Walford in many ways resembles Pascal Cygan though he had more hair. Their stats are similar as well, Walford playing 98 times (including sub appearances), over a four year spell while Cygan managed 98 games in a four year period.

Back to Walford who also lent his name to an English soap opera suburb ( or maybe not) he joined Norwich at the same time as Martin O'Neill and obviously the duo hit it off big time as O'Neill entered management and has had Walford as his assistant at Wycombe Wanderers, Norwich City, Celtic, Leicester City, Aston Villa and Sunderland.

They are shown in the picture on either side of the geexer in white socks