Manchester United humbled by The Shaymen- Part I

[converse91970]

As someone born in 1970, I had read and heard about this giant killing before, but had not realised until watching the clip just now how many of United's European Cup winning team had been playing that day! I am not surprised the Shaymen still talk about this victory even now!

Good luck to Halifax, hope to see you back in the Football League soon!

[watneycupman]

@converse91970 - Thanks for commenting and for your good wishes. We certainly aim to to get back to the League and have made the first step up this season, winning the Unibond Div 1 North title with 100 points, a newly completed stadium and end of season gates at around 3000. We are coming back fitter, faster, stronger........ 3 promotions to go.......

[pablotjob]

I'm Argentinian, i live in Spain.......an english friend told me that halifax town reached to the old thrird division once , in the 70s...(league One now); where is the team playing now? The Non-League??? Greetings from Spain.

[watneycupman]

Hi Pablo, good to hear from you. The Halifax team shown here was our best ever and played in div 3. The club fell into a decades long decline, culminating in liquidation last summer. However it was immediately reformed and currently plays in the Unibond North league, 4 levels below the football league.

Do not worry though, we will be back.

[pablotjob]

hi watneycupman! thanks for your answer; you didn't tell me waht the watneycup was...maybe de the league cup??? other thing: i'm a football t-shirt collector; i was visiting halifax town website but i coudn't find its online shop; i'd like to get HTFC t-shirt; do you know about the price? greetings from Malaga, Spain. (An argentinian fan)

[watneycupman]

Hi Pablo, the Watney Cup was a pre-season competition for the top scoring sides in each division in the previous season. It was the first sponsored tournament in Britain (Watney Mann were a brewery) ran for about 5 years and was extremely popular at the time. It is believed to have featured the world's first penalty shoot-out in 1970, (Hull city v Man Utd).

[watneycupman]

The Halifax Town Shirt: the first thing to know is that they only played in the orange shirts for 2 seasons, the current colours are blue shorts and white shorts.

If you email the club secretary I am sure they will be able to supply you with a shirt. the email address is:

secretary @ halifaxafc. co. uk

Let me know how you go on with it.

(and good luck Argentina in the World Cup, I hope we can play you in the final next year. :) )

[watneycupman]

That should say blue shirts and white shorts.

[d23w]

@pablotjob - the Watney Cup was a pre-season cup sponsored by Watney's brewery. I think it was held for 3 - 4 years in the early seventies.

[trimmytrab]

I went to the Shay for the 1st time a few weeks ago to watch them my play my lot Mossley. U can hardly recognise the place. Its a really good stadium now, was 1200 there that night but would have been better if we could have changed ends at half time.

[cajjer]

Pre-season friendly; who cares?

Got the win over city in 1980?

[watneycupman]

Not by any means a pre-season friendly, cajjer, the Watney Cup was big enough at the time, not the European Cup obviously but big enough for the Reds to play their first eleven, and all but 20,000 to turn up.

Haven't got the win over City, yet, but I'll load it up for you when I do ;)

[cajjer]

Yeah, but I have to find consolation somewhere :)

[chrismonc87]

my two fav clubs shaymen n united

[htafcjosh]

fantastic!

[Pigeon55]

How could we delete it from our memory ?? The Shay must have been the worst ground we visited..ever But take nothing away from Halifax they deserved their "15 minutes of fame" They lost in the next round 2-0 to WBA

[watneycupman]

Thanks pigeon55, gracious comments, and you're right about the ground, it was a disgrace. We're now 4 leagues below the football league, due to non-football reasons, but we still have the support of a league club, and we are coming back. I hope in due course you'll get the chance to come back with you club and see the transformation in the stadium since that Watney Cup game. That is unless you were one of the scumbags who trashed the town centre afterwards. I'm sure you were not.

[Pigeon55]

Ooops...well it was like this..... NO i was not one of the scumbags lol,I agree with you though Fc Halifax Town deserve to be back !! cursed taxman