We had just been promoted from division three, Sunderland were promoted at the end of that season into the top flight but the Cobblers silenced their 39,000 crowd with a spectacular 2-0 win, one of our most famous victories.
Joe Kiernan had been made skipper for the day and played a blinder. Paul hitched up on Friday, then back home to Northampton with a mate after the game but got only as far as Catterick, where they slept in a haystack, waking up the next day covered in frost.
There were no mobile phones and they never bothered to call home to explain.
I stayed on Teesside with my parents and on Monday, went down a coal mine that had pit ponies; we met the brother of the Cobblers then winger Billy Hails, wielding a heavy cutter one-handed at the coalface.
Did other readers used to hitch round the country in their youth? Let me know your experiences at
cobblersteve@hotmail.comThe full article contains 212 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
