If a Wembley cup final win and the attendant celebrations were not enough, on the Monday evening came Mike Channon's testimonial game against Queens Park Rangers.

For some reason over the years the first name of Michael Roger Channon, Saints legend of this parish has changed in the early 1970's he was almost universally called "Mike" and occasionally referred to as Mick, but these days it's completely turned full circle and it's always Mick.

Anyway Mike was a very fortunate man that year apart from winning the Cup he had scheduled his testimonial game for two days after the Cup final, this was one of those things where you just strike lucky, when the date was set Saints were not in the Final and it could just have easily been a game played on a nondescript night 9 days after Saints season ended in front of a reasonable but far from packed house crowd.

I like most kids still at school back then had to return on that day after the Easter holidays and as you can imagine the talk was about only one thing, the moment that the day ended we were rushing home to leave for the Dell for the game against Queens Park Rangers in what could well be the Charity Shield at Wembley 3 months later, QPR sat a point clear of Liverpool in the old First division, but the Reds had to go to Wolves the following night, sadly for QPR Liverpool won the game and it was they not the London side who would be Champions and meet us at Wembley in August.

The problem for the testimonial game was that apart from the stands it was pay on the day and with a 7.30pm kick off it didn't leave much time for people to get there from work etc, we had finished at 3.30pm so where ahead of the bulk of the crowd who would be at work, we were outside the ground before 5pm.

Sure enough even at that early time the queues were massive and we got in after a lot of pushing and shoving and well before the kick off the gates were locked with reputably anywhere between 5-10,000 locked out and 29,508 in the ground.

Whether as was normal back then (allegedly) a few people were not counted either to give Mike a few extra bob not declarable or due to the odd turnstile operator working the double click, from experience there were far more than that number in the ground, especially when you consider the official capacity was slightly over 30k, there was no where you would squeeze another soul into the ground, but more of that later.

As kick off drew near the crowd reached fever pitch and as the teams came out as you can see on the footage below courtesy of your tube there was a mini pitch invasion including my good self, I appear at around 42 seconds wearing a black jumper with 3 purple bands across the middle. This was my lucky cup jumper and I had worn it to every game in the cup run aside from the Villa replay the only game i missed, for the record i did wash it in between rounds.

As you can see the atmosphere was red hot in the ground, I dont think I have ever seen one so charged before or since and eventually the game got underway.

Indeed it was so packed that many people had to climb the walls surrounding the pitch and sit on the cinder track.

The game was almost an aside, QPR were a decent side but it was Saints who opened the scoring and it was who else but Bobby Stokes on the half hour, back then testimonials were played with a lot more intensity than they are these days. Frank McClintock equalised before half time.

In the second half Stokes again scored and QPR again equalised and as the game headed into the final ten minutes more and more people were on the pitch side of the wall, in preparation of what was going to be a massive pitch invasion.

In the final minutes, no one is quite sure how many were left, Peter Osgood received the ball and took a shot, by now the fans were on the pitch, they didn't think it was all over, it was the sheer pressure of those behind pushing forward, Osgood's shot hit a supporter on the head and went in, but by now all the players were running for dear life.

No one was sure whether the goal stood and Saints had won 3-2 and nobody cared, the referee confirmed that he had already blown the whistle as Osgood shot and before the ball entered the net that the score was 2-2, ironically the referee at Wembley had been Clive Thomas who would disallow a goal by Zico of Brazil in the World Cup Finals by blowing for full time as the ball was in flight.

Somehow all the players got off the pitch and reappeared in the Directors box with the FA Cup for a spine tingling acclamation from the supporters now packing the pitch as well as the stands.

Eventually the players went back inside and the crowd dispersed and Cup Fever was officially over.

That was confirmed when the following Saturday Saints strangely had a post season friendly at home to Scottish team Heart of Midlothian, the crowd was only around 10,000 and Hearts won 3-2 with Pat Earles who along with Paul Bennett played in the Cup run but had to watch from the bench at Wembley as non playing squad members.

Photo: Action Images

Foz added 19:51 - May 4 I recall Mike Channon in post-match TV interviews immediately after the Cup Final having the presence of mind to give his testimonial a plug. I managed to get in with a group of friends, and it was a great night. It certainly seemed fuller than the official capacity. Am I right in remembering that Bobby Stokes (who couldn't actually drive) was presented with a Mini before kick-off?

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lanerutty added 07:06 - Dec 21 Duration of the forty years with the time that have all occasionally matters in the life will also be testimonial greeting. By the random visit on the https://www.topratedessayservice.com/ website about the reasonable referred had to celebration against the final cup.
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