Manchester United 1 Southampton 4 (Ron Davies 4) Part 2 - The Interview

If like me you are a Saints fan in possession of a bus pass and a season ticket at a concessionary rate, the name Ron Davies will already conjure a nostalgic smile. Amongst my generation Ron Davies is simply a Saints Legend and in mine and many other's opinion, the best header of a football we've ever seen.

If however you are a younger Saints fan or just a fan of today's Premiership Football you might need a little more background so excuse me if I quote briefly from his online biography:

"During close season 1966 manager Ted Bates spent a club record £55,000 to bring the 24 year old centre forward to Southampton as the club prepared to face their first season in the top flight. It soon became clear that the money had been well spent as Davies went on his goal scoring run of 12 goals in 10 consecutive league games and ended the 66-'67 season having scored 37 goals in 41 games to top the goal scoring charts. A big but amiable giant, Davies was useful on the ground, but it was in the air where he inflicted most damage.
With crosses from Terry Paine and John Sydenham floating in, Davies continued to dominate the aerial battles and he again headed (along with George Best) the scoring charts for 1967-68 season. His heading powers were awesome and when on 16 August 1969 he scored all four Saints goals in a match at Old Trafford, Matt Busby said that Davies was the best centre forward in Europe.
During his career with the club Davies scored 134 league goals placing him 8th on the club's list of all-time goalscorers. He won 29 caps for Wales, 23 of them whilst at Southampton and his total of 134 league goals included three 4-goal hauls, the most memorable being at Old Trafford in August 1969."

These highlights (Pt 1) and interview (Pt 2) are taken from ITV's "The Big Match" from that weekend in August 1969. Forget the discussion whether it was three goals or four for Ron...today there would be no dispute, definitely four. The headers shown here aren't the height of Ron's powers more "bread and butter" headers that were Ron's "stock in trade" If he were plying his trade today "Ron Davies -- Heading Masterclass" would be a top selling DVD...sadly this is about all that exists online.

Many thanks to Duncan Holley for supplying the original video and to Mike Gardiner for videoing the original from my PC screen.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Southampton FC
• Ron Davies
• John Sydenham
• Terry Paine
• Frank Saul
• John McGrath
• Saints
• great headers
• top goal scorers
• division one

[LukePettit]

@StLandrew1958 hey thanks for that. That explains the ridic scorelines from the old days. There aren't many of the all time top scorers from the 70s.

[StLandrew1958]

Aha..! The interview has reappeared. For a few years it was around and then it disappeared. Good to see it again.

4-4-2 was newish back then..! That was 1969. Back in 1966 they were still doing 2-3-5 at home. Of course that naturally becomes 4-3-3 if you want a more defensive posture, even at home, [and one that doesn't let in so many goals.], without affecting the attacking element too much.