Jump to content

Tommy Craig


Guest sandbachowl

Recommended Posts

Was a real out of the blue signing. Us spending £100,000 on an 18 year old kid? But, yes, he could play.

 

Saw his debut at home to Spurs....last game of the 1968/69 season. Tried a shot from the edge of the centre circle.....unreal. Probably his best games were in the early part of the 1972/73 season when he ran the show and scored a few penalties; that night match when we beat Huddersfield 3-2 still stays in my memory. But selling him in December 1974 was an admission that we were going down.

 

Saw him play for Newcastle at Arsenal in about 1978. He scored the only goal....unfortunately it was for Arsenal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

44 minutes ago, fredmciverslovechild said:

Was a real out of the blue signing. Us spending £100,000 on an 18 year old kid? But, yes, he could play.

 

Saw his debut at home to Spurs....last game of the 1968/69 season. Tried a shot from the edge of the centre circle.....unreal. Probably his best games were in the early part of the 1972/73 season when he ran the show and scored a few penalties; that night match when we beat Huddersfield 3-2 still stays in my memory. But selling him in December 1974 was an admission that we were going down.

 

Saw him play for Newcastle at Arsenal in about 1978. He scored the only goal....unfortunately it was for Arsenal.

 

Who did we beat for his signature

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Darth Sturrock
1 hour ago, sandbachowl said:

I understand he was quite an expensive signing at the time-did he live upto

expectation;

 

Look forward to your replies

 

Aye, he was a very good player, my hero as a lad..... Very good at free kicks and penalties, and could pick a good pass.

 

He stood out, in what was a pretty poor team in all honesty.... We had a couple of decent seasons with him in the early seventies, when we had Willie Henderson and Brian Joicey et al in the side, where we looked like we might be building towards a promotion side (I think we came 10th or 9th one season) but all that optimism fell away and we soon looked like relegation fodder, and when Tommy left, we were down and out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

tommo was a penalty expert as well ....think he only missed one, in a easter relegation battle against preston missed it early on but didnt let it bother him as he scored the winner later on from the spot ....he was ice cool in everything he did and all that stopped from being a great player at a much higher level  was he had no pace

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, torryowl said:

in 74-75 we were a side with fighting chance of avoiding relegation ,we then sold tommo in dec and in the next 21 games won 1 and scored 3 goals .....he was a brilliant player in a very very bad team .

 

This..............................he was John Sheridan before John Sheridan.........even walked / ran like him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, sheriwozgod said:

 

This..............................he was John Sheridan before John Sheridan.........even walked / ran like him.

Up to Sheridan arriving we'd only had two outstanding passers of the ball McCalliog and Tommo...Shez was the best of the three

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, fredmciverslovechild said:

Was a real out of the blue signing. Us spending £100,000 on an 18 year old kid? But, yes, he could play.

 

Saw his debut at home to Spurs....last game of the 1968/69 season. Tried a shot from the edge of the centre circle.....unreal. Probably his best games were in the early part of the 1972/73 season when he ran the show and scored a few penalties; that night match when we beat Huddersfield 3-2 still stays in my memory. But selling him in December 1974 was an admission that we were going down.

 

Saw him play for Newcastle at Arsenal in about 1978. He scored the only goal....unfortunately it was for Arsenal.

I remember his debut against Spurs. We had a lot of possession that night and Tommo took all the corners. Everyone was placed right under the bar. Unfortunately Spurs had the great Pat Jennings in goal then (in my opinion the best keeper in the country at the time) and he took every one. A more experienced player would have used theat accuracy to mix it up and try something different, but it was a clear sign of things to come from him. He could drop a ball on a tanner from 40 yards. Instead though he usually dropped it onto the heads of our strikers who couldn't usually hit a barn door from point blank

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Excellent footballer for us , like his former namesake -Bobby Craig.Almost certain I saw him once playing for Scotland against England at Wembley, where he mesmerised the then England defence.  Record at Wed - played 1968-74 - p 214 scored 38 goals 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...