Reluctant Hero by Colin Bell

Author:Colin Bell [Bell, Colin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-09-25T15:40:57+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

Horses For Courses

Off the field, things couldn't have been better. I was starting my married life with the woman I loved and business at the Bell Waldron restaurant was going well. The new football season began on a high, too. Although we had only finished fourth in the First Division, we were invited to compete for the Charity Shield and beat Third Division champions, Aston Villa, 1-0 at Villa Park to give our new manager Malcolm Allison his first trophy.

Malcolm felt that Leeds United would be our biggest rivals to win the title and the bookmakers agreed. Despite my optimism, we didn't start the new league season well, losing five of the opening six games. To make matters worse, we were knocked out of the League Cup at my old club Bury and were beaten 1-2 by Valencia in Spain, in the UEFA Cup. We lost the tie 3-4 on aggregate, to go out of the competition at the first-round stage.

After looking forward to the new season so much, within a couple of months we were bottom of the table and desperately in need of a few victories to climb out of trouble. Wins against West Ham, Derby and Everton gave us a lift as we approached another derby.

I always looked forward to the Manchester derbies. In total, I played against United twenty-one times during my career, scoring eight goals, which isn't a bad record for a midfielder. Only Joe Hayes and Francis Lee scored more goals in derbies than I did: a record that makes me very proud.

The derby was at Maine Road on 18 November 1972. I remember it being a bad-tempered game at times. My former City colleague Wyn Davies was in their starting line-up. I opened the scoring early in the game with a simple tap-in, following a collision between the United goalkeeper Alex Stepney and his teammate Tony Dunne.

I should have been credited with a hat-trick because I scored the other two goals, too, to win 3-0. However, one of them was recorded as an own goal by Martin Buchan, as it deflected off him en route to goal. It wasn't to be the last time Martin Buchan spoiled my day in a derby.

Away from football, I'd developed a passion for racehorses. My interest in racing started soon after I joined City, when a friend of Malcolm's gave me a horse called Stay Back. Along with Colin Waldron and Paul Doherty, I paid for the horse to be trained by Frank Carr at Malton in North Yorkshire. Frank was one of the best trainers around. Unfortunately, Stay Back lived up to its name and never won a race while under our ownership.

Its biggest chance came in a race at Catterick, when Frank had tipped us off that it was going to do well. I checked the odds in Friday's Manchester Evening News and they were at a favourable 100-8, so we backed it with our entire kitty, carefully accumulated over the previous months at £5 a week.

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