One of my early heroes was Fergie, incredibly gifted and one of footballs hard men to boot. I think we profited from Stanley doing a Bury back then, chief architect of their demise being Burnley Chairman Bob Lord who thought every Accrington supporter would immediately don claret and blue scarves.
Many will remember the job Fergie did on David Wagstaffe (later to become an Ewood legend himself) when promotion rivals Wolves came to town. Fergie deployed as full back to take care of him clattered him 3 times in the opening 10 mins (60's clatterings btw being next thing to GBH), Waggy's pin came out and he turned around and kicked Fergy up in the air and was sent off for his pains. Unfortunately that match ended 0-0 I remember.
Another memory was quite timely. poor old Duggy was playing the twilight of his career with a cruciate ligament injury, before cruciate ops were even dreamed of and Fergie had taken it on himself to be Duggy's self appointed 'minder'. Home to WBA (I think) and the left back performed a real hatchet job on Duggy in the first 20 mins causing Duggy to be carried off. That left back lasted only until the next time he got the ball and Fergie went right through him with two feet off the ground! WB defender left the field on a stretcher!
"Jack Marshall was never petrified, he just let us go out and play.” With the likes of Fergie, Duggie, England, Clayton, McEvoy, Newton, Pick and Mike Harrison on the pitch I guess Jack Marshall didn't have a lot to fear did he? The abolishment of the maximum wage put paid to those times for BRFC supporters for 25 years until Jack Walker stepped up to the plate.
