John Swannell RIP
Older supporters may remember the brilliant, goalkeeper John Swannell , who passed away a few days ago
John had an extremely distinguished career between the sticks in the 1960s and 1970s He played for Corinthian Casuals ,Hendon and Leatherhead , achieving massive success with the latter two
he won Isthmian League Titles and Amateur Cups with Hendon as well as being in goal when they famously drew at Newcastle in the FA Cup
he then went on to play for Leatherhead, who were a formidable side in non-league football in the mid 70s and was part of their side that took on and nearly beat Leicester City again in the FA Cup
he also won numerous caps for the England side and the Great Britain Olympic squad
apparently he was still playing for Corinthian casual veterans into his 60s!
A superb keeper, often the thorn in our side, but well loved and respected by Wycombe players and supporters.
RIP John
Comments
A great keeper, it always took a lot to beat him.
A top keeper. I remember a match against Hendon in 1974 where he was the only reason they didn’t get a pasting. It took an unbelievable free kick from Bodger into the roof of the net to beat him. Was that really 50 years ago, where did that go?
Sad news. Remember him well in his (then) iconic yellow goalkeeping jersey.
I saw him several times in my Wealdstone days, both in League games and in the Amateur Cup Final in 1966, which Wealdstone won. Quite a year. Married on St Patrick’s day, the club I supported win the Amateur Cup and, to cap it all, England beat Germany in the World Cup Final.
John Swannell was the best amateur goalkeeper I’ve ever seen.
Mike Pinner was another fine Amateur keeper. I remember him playing for Pegasus and shutting the door to Wanderers in the Amateur Cup at Loakes Park which led to a replay at Iffley Road Oxford. The Wanderers came from a goal down to win 2–1 with a last-minute winner from Jackie Tomlin. I remember standing behind railings at pitch level.. Although an amateur and working as a lawyer he played for several professional clubs during his career.
There were a lot of great keepers on the Amateur scene in that period Mike Pinner ,Dave Collyer (Woking and Sutton) John Shippey(Oxford City) Ian Wolstenholme (Enfield and Slough) and of course, our own John Maskell. However, in my opinion, John Swannell was probably the best. amongst that company that is really saying something.
Just slightly later than that era (late rather than early 70s) I always enjoyed being behind the goal of Hayes’s Alan Jarrett when we played them - a very athletic keeper and fun to watch...
Not forgetting Alex Stepney (still with us and looking well at 81). I remember seeing him, playing for Tooting and Mitcham at Lower Mead in the ‘sixties before he moved on to Millwall and Manchester United.
Remember Dave Collyer being chaired off the Loakes Park pitch by impressed Wycombe fans after one particularly good game against us.
Me too. Moved down from Stockport and lived in West Harrow in my very early teens at that time. Was also at Wembley for the Amateur Cup Final. Very much remember John Swannell but only in his Hendon days. Always took notice of the keepers as that is where I played when I played.
Wow, did that really happen, @NewburyWanderer?? How cool... I heard the story, but thought it was just an apocryphal tale.
Yes, it’s true, I was there
Cheered or chaired? Is this some long forgotten local chairmaking tradition whereby the man of the match was carried off in a wheelback windsor at full time?
That is an incredible thing.
These days we don't even seem to be able to keep up the Loakes Park habit of clapping the opposition 'keeper to his goal in front of the terrace. It's faded almost to nothing over the last few years, which I personally think is a bit sad. Gone and sorely missed, like Eddie Monsoon, Keith Allen's "most welcome visitors from [insert name of opposition here]", and the bloke with the towel round his shoulders.
"ALLEZ, LES BLEUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
I remember it well. 6 October 1973, after beating Woking 1-0 in the FA Cup. Mentioned in the match report.
https://cc6ea6ad-1db3-47c1-b44e-4c85fcee46a2.filesusr.com/ugd/13036b_8c1ddfe1dcba40d4913020d8b7cbb53a.pdf
I can't work out why i wasn't there (maybe I was...?) I don't remember going to Chatham away either, although I went to just about every other 'local' away cup match at that time, FA Cup or Amateur Cup. My messed up old-age memory would've said that was the year we went down to Worthing in the FA Cup, not Chatham. Anyway... I do, of course, remember the matches which followed later in the competition - my first ever experience of a 'giant killing' (vs Newport), and then a step up in quality and a sobering defeat by Peterborough in Rd 2. Those were such big games for me back then - i couldn't concentrate at school all week in the lead-up. I lived for the FA Cup back then - in much the same way as @LX1 does now...
@LeedsBlue We went to Chatham in the 3rd QR, Worthing in the 4th.
Dave Collyer had a great rapport with the Wycombe fans. He would chat to our supporters behind the goal. (remember that would go on for 90 minutes in those days because we changed ends at half time.)
without looking at the superb club history, I believe from memory that we had played Woking at home in the league the previous Tuesday as well
So the chat and the banter carried on for 180 minutes over the course of a few days. There were some fans who actually wanted him to sign for us, but I’m not sure how that would have worked as we already had the brilliant John Maskell in goal.
It’s funny how I can remember things that happened 50 years ago, but probably can’t remember why I have just walked into the kitchen!
Can someone explain "chaired off" to me please? I'm imagining either everyone throwing chairs at him or a deeply worrying euphemism.
The euphemism escaped me but he was carried on people's shoulders. I seem to remember him looking concerned at first but it was all perfectly good humoured and safe.
I share @Mr67's memory lapses but it was one of the few things I remember clearly from those early days, because it was so unusual.
I went to every game that year in the cup run. Newport were the first side from the football league that we ever knocked out in the FA Cup if I remember rightly there was a crowd of over 6000 for that game with an all ticket crowd of over 10,000 for the Peterborough game. of course, the following year was the Middlesbrough run
So that was early 1974 was it ? We moved to Sands from Basingstoke around that time (and I’d switched from Wealdstone to Wycombe in 1968 before being “dispersed” from central London to Basingstoke in 1970).
It was the 73/74 season with our cup run, ending with the defeat against Peterborough December 1973 as we had started in the first qualifying round our cup run, consisted of six matches
early 1974, brought its own fun. In the amateur cup(the last season of that competition) we easily beat Hornchurch at home 5-0 before being drawn away to Durham Village team, Evenwood in the second round a trip to the north east of England during the three day week and with a much inferior motorway system to today was like a trip to the moon. The team flew up and flew back on the same day because they couldn’t get time off work because of the restrictions. However, this didn’t stop us winning three nil.Our reward for this endeavour was a similar trip two weeks later up to Blyth Spartans although in the same league they were a different kettle of fish and we bowed out of the competition at that stage which was the third round Not to worry, an eventful season ended with us winning the league for the third time in four years and the county cup. Never a dull moment watching Wycombe
@micra it was late 1973. The 1st and 2nd rds were still played around the same time as they are now - Nov and early Dec. The Middlesborough 3rd rd game was the first week of 1975, and the Bournemouth 2nd rd tie which set it up (after a replay) was late 1974.
(Edit - ignore this, Mr67 got there first...)
Always good to have confirmation that my memory is not playing tricks though
It's the feeling you get when you've just been shithoused by Wycombe Wanderers