MY CITY TEAM-MATES: Ian Cooper on the 1976 FA Cup underdogs

IAN COOPER continues our series on City team-mates with his take on the underdogs from 1976.

PETER DOWNSBOROUGH

He was just Mr Reliable. He instilled that confidence in everyone because you knew that if anything got through, Peter would be there to stop it.

He was an incredible shot-stopper, one of the best I’ve ever seen. You looked around at other teams with their goalkeepers and you wouldn’t swap Peter for any of them.

He was a very experienced player and had a dry sense of humour. He never let us down.

CES PODD

Ces was such a good lad and went on to play a record number of games for the club. He was such a character.

I remember the story about the young lads in the team going into Leeds one time and Ces bought a parrot home!

That was something that only Ces could have done and he was popular in the dressing room.

He had such pace and was another very consistent player. He got voted into the team of the season because he worked so hard for the team.

JOHN MIDDLETON

John Middy was a dominant centre half. He was the one who went for everything.

He wasn’t a big lad but blimey, he was one of those who had a great spring. He always seemed to jump higher than you thought he should have been able to do.

He used to dominate the penalty area and, if we needed any extra help, Joe Cooke would come back as well.

Middy was a solid defender and used to let you know what was happening.

DAVE FRETWELL

Dave’s style of play was a bit more like Bobby Moore. He was quite a cultured player.

He was doing a degree at Bradford university when he was playing football – he was a bright lad.

He was a lovely footballer who’d play it out from the back, which was something quite unusual in that era.

It probably wasn’t encouraged all that much but David used to do it all the same! He had confidence in himself and would just tidy everything up.

He was what we’d have called a sweeper and played most of his career at Bradford.

Unfortunately, he’s one of the lads we’ve lost contact with although we have tried.

TREVOR HOCKEY

Trevor was very aggressive and not just on a match day, he was like that in training. He’d train exactly the same way as he played.

You were always very wary if you were up against him in practice games.

He wasn’t a Leeds hardman type of player but he’d come face-to-face with you.

He was a good help within the team and was always encouraging those around him.

It was a shock about his death because he was only 43. He’d moved back over to Keighley which was where he was from.

GARRY WATSON

Garry played about half of the games that season and was very versatile. He was a bit younger than me and could play in various different positions.

He was comfortable being out on the left or the right because he had two really good feet. That was really useful for us having someone who could play just about anywhere.

I probably couldn’t tell you what was his best position. We’re all the same and you just wanted to play anyway but I don’t think even Garry knew.

You asked him to play centre forward and he would have happily done that and done a good job as well. He could also read the game well.

I think he played more in midfield getting forward just behind the front men.

ROD JOHNSON

He really was Leeds United. You knew where Rod had come from.

Rod grew up at Leeds under Don Revie as a youngster with the likes of Paul Madeley, Paul Reaney and Kevin Hector and you could tell with the way he played. He was one of those lads who really got stuck in.

He was our main ball-winner who always put himself about. But he was also good footballer going forward and knew how to pass a ball.

He was always a bit of a comedian. He used to come into training in the morning and say things like, ‘I slept like a log last night, I woke up in the fire’.

He had a one-liner for everything, he never shut up. From the moment he walked into the place, he’d be gabbing all the time – you knew Rod was there.

It was tragic to hear that he died in December.