| Hat tricks 15:50 - May 20 with 5968 views | James1980 |
No Hat Tricks scored in SPL this season. Favourite Hat Tricks Dale or otherwise and also any favourite Dale based Hat Trick stats. |  |
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| Hat tricks on 06:11 - May 21 with 1469 views | pioneer |
| Hat tricks on 22:16 - May 20 by EllDale |
I’d completely forgotten about Terry Melling’s hat-trick.
He’d arrived the previous September to score goals and hadn’t really done so; he got three in one game and Dale went and bought Tony Buck!
I think we’d lost at Workington over Christmas but after that couldn’t stop scoring. Even Norman Whitehead scored with a header in this one!
What stuck in my mind as a 14 year old was the conundrum that such crap opponents played in such a massive stadium.
The way that Park Avenue was allowed to disappear as a venue was scandalous and that includes the county cricket ground next door. |
We lost at Swansea the saturday before Xmas that was 6 games without a win (8 if you include FACup) and were hovering around bottom 4. Workington was on boxing day and we won 2-1 to start a 15 game unbeaten run that took us all the way up to the top 4. We opened 1969 by butchering Grimsby at Spotland 6-1 ( Reg hat trick and Melling scored ). Then the following weekend was the game at Park Avenue and his hat trick - a natural hat trick at that. It was the first time since 1926 that we had two hat tricks in consecutive games, though Reg got two in three games in 1965. We beat Aldershot at Spotland the following Saturday with Melling scoring again, meaning in the four games since Xmas it was 4 wins with a combined score of 15-3, melling and Reg getting 5 each.
On Feb 10 Melling played in a 1-1 draw at Newport. After the game Dale signed newports centre forward Tony Buck. Buck replaced Melling in the starting line up in the next game at home to Darlington. The two joined forces for the only time in the following game a 0-0 draw at Lincoln and then Melling was sold to Darlington and Buck scored in 5 of the next 6 games.
Good times. | | | |
| Hat tricks on 06:45 - May 21 with 1440 views | D_Alien |
| Hat tricks on 06:11 - May 21 by pioneer |
We lost at Swansea the saturday before Xmas that was 6 games without a win (8 if you include FACup) and were hovering around bottom 4. Workington was on boxing day and we won 2-1 to start a 15 game unbeaten run that took us all the way up to the top 4. We opened 1969 by butchering Grimsby at Spotland 6-1 ( Reg hat trick and Melling scored ). Then the following weekend was the game at Park Avenue and his hat trick - a natural hat trick at that. It was the first time since 1926 that we had two hat tricks in consecutive games, though Reg got two in three games in 1965. We beat Aldershot at Spotland the following Saturday with Melling scoring again, meaning in the four games since Xmas it was 4 wins with a combined score of 15-3, melling and Reg getting 5 each.
On Feb 10 Melling played in a 1-1 draw at Newport. After the game Dale signed newports centre forward Tony Buck. Buck replaced Melling in the starting line up in the next game at home to Darlington. The two joined forces for the only time in the following game a 0-0 draw at Lincoln and then Melling was sold to Darlington and Buck scored in 5 of the next 6 games.
Good times. |
Pretty much spot on, but we were never lower than just below mid-table all season
After the pre-Xmas Swansea defeat:
https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-division-four/22-december-1968/
[Post edited 21 May 6:49]
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| Hat tricks on 07:48 - May 21 with 1387 views | EllDale |
You can’t accuse Fred and the board of not backing the manager around this time.
To find £5k for Buck was ambitious.
There had been an awful lot of 1-1 draws just after the start of the season with Steve Melledew seeming to score in most of them so the defence was pretty solid but these were converted into wins after Christmas. | | | |
| Hat tricks on 15:42 - May 21 with 1184 views | 49thseason |
| Hat tricks on 05:23 - May 21 by JumeirahDale |
Andy Morris for the comedy, Daggers for the iconic status.
A stark reminder of leaner times and a different game that we went almost nine years without a hat trick in the 1970s... |
And its been 6 years since the last one....I guess playing out from the back and barnstorming victories with lots of goals are mutually exclusive... |  | | |
| Hat tricks on 20:11 - May 21 with 1030 views | pioneer |
Aye, but we were only one point above the bottom four going into that game at high flying Workington.
Something ‘clicked’ to get that turnaround in form. | | | |
| Hat tricks on 20:26 - May 21 with 1004 views | EllDale |
Is that around the time that Richley left out Vince Radcliffe and replaced him with Graham Smith at right back?
I think Radcliffe only played one more game that season, at centrehalf for Colin Parry at Scunthorpe in March? It was the only game that Parry missed and the team stayed remarkably free from injury.
Other people believe that the arrival of Dick Connor as coach in December was significant. | | | |
| Hat tricks on 20:42 - May 21 with 975 views | D_Alien |
| Hat tricks on 20:26 - May 21 by EllDale |
Is that around the time that Richley left out Vince Radcliffe and replaced him with Graham Smith at right back?
I think Radcliffe only played one more game that season, at centrehalf for Colin Parry at Scunthorpe in March? It was the only game that Parry missed and the team stayed remarkably free from injury.
Other people believe that the arrival of Dick Connor as coach in December was significant. |
Edit... Radcliffe scored in the 6-0 win over BPA in November and i think he got an injury since the back four were playing well as a unit, but as you say, once Smith got his chance we were probably even stronger [Post edited 21 May 20:45]
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| Hat tricks on 21:09 - May 21 with 948 views | EllDale |
Am I right in thinking that until then Smith had mainly been used as a central defender since his arrival from Leeds? | | | |
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| Hat tricks on 22:30 - May 21 with 906 views | D_Alien |
| Hat tricks on 21:09 - May 21 by EllDale |
Am I right in thinking that until then Smith had mainly been used as a central defender since his arrival from Leeds? |
I seem to recall him playing in a variety of positions, our own version of Paul Madeley; but he made the right back position his own and of course, went on to set the record for Dale appearances | |
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| Hat tricks on 01:40 - May 22 with 853 views | pioneer |
| Hat tricks on 22:30 - May 21 by D_Alien |
I seem to recall him playing in a variety of positions, our own version of Paul Madeley; but he made the right back position his own and of course, went on to set the record for Dale appearances |
Yes he played a mixture of full back and centre back in his first season (66-7) playing in every game. In 67-8 he played centre back in all but 4 games where he filled in at full back for….Steve Melledew believe it or not! Even in the promotion season Smith had played 7 games at half back before taking over at full back for Radcliffe in that Workington win. | | | |
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