Post by Macmoish on Jul 29, 2010 11:46:57 GMT
Andy Mitten column
menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/sport/football/manchester_united/s/1312478_andy_mitten_column
July 29, 2010
The English accent with the tinge of cockney stands out on the lush green playing fields north of Dallas.
“Good lad,” shouts Gordon Hill, “well done, yes Johnny, yes!”
The former United and England winger, 55, is clad in a full red kit and boots as he hollers instructions to 14 young players who form part of United FC – a club of several youth teams and around 80 players near Hill’s home of six years in the city.
Hill first played on loan in America while a 20-year-old with Millwall. Later in his career – after spells under Tommy Docherty at United, Derby County and Queens Park Rangers, he played for several American clubs, before moving full-time to Texas with wife Claire and their son Sammy.
United signed the Londoner from Millwall for a bargain £70,000 in 1975 and he played over 100 games in three successful seasons in Docherty’s dynamic side, scoring 39 goals.
“I signed the contract without looking how much I was going to be paid,” he says. “I just wanted to play for United.”
Reds idolised the chirpy cockney and the Scouser Steve Coppell on the opposite wing.
“We played great football under Tommy Docherty,” recalls Hill. “For all his faults, the Doc made decisions which needed making – he had to let some of the older players go even though that didn’t make him popular.
“He bought attacking players like myself and Steve Coppell, wingers who played the United way. We thrilled the crowds and terrorised defenders. We were a young team who beat Ajax and Juventus in Europe.”
United fans labelled called Hill ‘Merlin’ after the magician and labelled him the ‘King of all Cockneys.’
Doc’s Red Army also sang a song to the tune of Save Your Kisses For Me. He recites the words in his back garden as he tends to his flowers.
“Bye bye Derby, bye bye…because we beat you 2-0, with two goals from Gordon Hillllllll,” he sings as he recalls his greatest moment, scoring both goals in the 1976 FA Cup semi-final which took United to Wembley.
But United were beaten by second division Southampton in the final.
“That was the only game in my career which my dad attended,” Hill says. “He never came again as he thought he’d bring me bad luck.”
United returned to Wembley a year later and beat treble chasing Liverpool 2-1 in the FA Cup final.
“They were great times,” recalls Hill. “I was a bit of a joker and didn’t see eye to eye with everyone. Martin Buchan once clipped me round the head for not picking up a player. I saw red and went after him. The ref pulled us to one side and said: ‘I’ve never sent two players off from the same team for fighting, so calm down.’
“You don’t have to be best friends with people you work with. But when we went out onto the field, the respect for my team-mates kicked in and we were the best young team in the country.
“Teams hated coming to Old Trafford – they could smell us, too. Our kit smelled of Five Oils, a preparation used in massages which no other teams seemed to use. They would smell us and say ‘That’s Man United.’
“Far more teams were in contention for the title than now, but we were going to win the league, I’m sure of it, then the Doc got sacked.”
Hill didn’t fit into the plans of replacement manager Dave Sexton and moved to Derby.
He still follows United, but the subject of England – who capped Hill six times - in the recent World Cup elicits a strong reaction as he says wingers Theo Walcott and Adam Johnson should have been in the squad.
WATCH Andy Mitten’s video diaries of his trip to the USA at uwsonline.com
menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/sport/football/manchester_united/s/1312478_andy_mitten_column
menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/sport/football/manchester_united/s/1312478_andy_mitten_column
July 29, 2010
The English accent with the tinge of cockney stands out on the lush green playing fields north of Dallas.
“Good lad,” shouts Gordon Hill, “well done, yes Johnny, yes!”
The former United and England winger, 55, is clad in a full red kit and boots as he hollers instructions to 14 young players who form part of United FC – a club of several youth teams and around 80 players near Hill’s home of six years in the city.
Hill first played on loan in America while a 20-year-old with Millwall. Later in his career – after spells under Tommy Docherty at United, Derby County and Queens Park Rangers, he played for several American clubs, before moving full-time to Texas with wife Claire and their son Sammy.
United signed the Londoner from Millwall for a bargain £70,000 in 1975 and he played over 100 games in three successful seasons in Docherty’s dynamic side, scoring 39 goals.
“I signed the contract without looking how much I was going to be paid,” he says. “I just wanted to play for United.”
Reds idolised the chirpy cockney and the Scouser Steve Coppell on the opposite wing.
“We played great football under Tommy Docherty,” recalls Hill. “For all his faults, the Doc made decisions which needed making – he had to let some of the older players go even though that didn’t make him popular.
“He bought attacking players like myself and Steve Coppell, wingers who played the United way. We thrilled the crowds and terrorised defenders. We were a young team who beat Ajax and Juventus in Europe.”
United fans labelled called Hill ‘Merlin’ after the magician and labelled him the ‘King of all Cockneys.’
Doc’s Red Army also sang a song to the tune of Save Your Kisses For Me. He recites the words in his back garden as he tends to his flowers.
“Bye bye Derby, bye bye…because we beat you 2-0, with two goals from Gordon Hillllllll,” he sings as he recalls his greatest moment, scoring both goals in the 1976 FA Cup semi-final which took United to Wembley.
But United were beaten by second division Southampton in the final.
“That was the only game in my career which my dad attended,” Hill says. “He never came again as he thought he’d bring me bad luck.”
United returned to Wembley a year later and beat treble chasing Liverpool 2-1 in the FA Cup final.
“They were great times,” recalls Hill. “I was a bit of a joker and didn’t see eye to eye with everyone. Martin Buchan once clipped me round the head for not picking up a player. I saw red and went after him. The ref pulled us to one side and said: ‘I’ve never sent two players off from the same team for fighting, so calm down.’
“You don’t have to be best friends with people you work with. But when we went out onto the field, the respect for my team-mates kicked in and we were the best young team in the country.
“Teams hated coming to Old Trafford – they could smell us, too. Our kit smelled of Five Oils, a preparation used in massages which no other teams seemed to use. They would smell us and say ‘That’s Man United.’
“Far more teams were in contention for the title than now, but we were going to win the league, I’m sure of it, then the Doc got sacked.”
Hill didn’t fit into the plans of replacement manager Dave Sexton and moved to Derby.
He still follows United, but the subject of England – who capped Hill six times - in the recent World Cup elicits a strong reaction as he says wingers Theo Walcott and Adam Johnson should have been in the squad.
WATCH Andy Mitten’s video diaries of his trip to the USA at uwsonline.com
menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/sport/football/manchester_united/s/1312478_andy_mitten_column
