C’mon Without, C’mon Within …

Memories of Wyn Davies … a truly great Newcastle United No.9 … RIP.

I can remember precisely when I first saw Wyn Davies. He was 21 and playing for Bolton Wanderers in a promotion decider at St James’s Park on Good Friday, 16th April 1965.

He was causing our defence all sorts of problems in the first half, particularly with his aerial ability, crashing two headers off our crossbar. At halftime Joe Harvey told our centre half, John McGrath, to see how fast he could limp. A challenge that would have seen McGrath sent off now reduced his effectiveness to the extent that he spent most of the second half limping along the wing.

However, he made a big impression on Smokin’ Joe who tried to sign Wyn the following October as we struggled to score goals in the top flight. Despite agreeing a fee with Wanderers and my prayers to a God I no longer believed in, Joe failed to get his man on this occasion as he couldn’t agree terms with Wyn. It gave a glimpse into Wyn’s character. He knew his worth and wasn’t going to be short-changed by anybody.

Ronald ‘Wyn’ Davies was born in Caenarfon in 1942 and started his working career in a local slate quarry - appropriate for a striker who was hard as rock! He signed full-time for Wrexham in 1960 but it wasn’t long before he was picked up by Bolton Wanderers and won his first cap for Wales in 1963.

United’s problems in front of goal continued in 1966 and Harvey returned to Bolton for Wyn with a club record bid of £80,000 (and I assume better terms for Wyn who by this time had scored 74 goals in 170 games for Bolton) in time for him to make his debut on October 29th against Sunderland at StJames’s.

We lost 3-0! Harvey’s response was to put the whole playing staff on the transfer list bar Wyn and Alan Suddick, who was our best player at the time. Of course, Suddick was the player everyone wanted and he was transferred to Blackpool at Christmas!

However, Harvey reinvested the money wisely and we stayed up - just!

Things improved a bit the following season with Wyn topping the scoring charts with 12, assisted by his strike partner, Albert ‘Ankles’ Bennett and our 10th place finish was enough to see us qualify for the Fairs Cup.

The following season would establish Wyn as a legendary Newcastle United No 9 as continental teams had never seen a player a player with his ability in the air, combining an incredible leap with an apparent ability to defy gravity and hang in the air to get away his header.

Throughout the Fairs Cup run, the opposition tried to stop him through fair means and foul but Wyn was teak-tough mentally and physically and virtually unplayable at times, Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson was the chief beneficiary, racking up 30 goals, twice as many as Wyn but Pop would be the first to say that his success was owed to Davies’s ability to hold the ball up and find him with flicks inside and outside the box.

One goal against Sporting Lisbon stays in the memory. Wyn met a free kick by Tommy Gibb and his headed flick found Pop just inside the box. Although the ball was at waist height, Pop scored with a brilliant volley into the Gallowgate End, probably the best goal of the cup-winning run.

On an individual basis, however, our match against Inter Milan on 30 September 1970 probably was Wyn apotheosis. He’d scored in a 1-1 draw at the San Siro the previous week against a team of Italian 1970 World Cup finalists like Faccetti, Burgnich, Mazzola and Bonninsegna so Inter had had fair warning about how dangerous he was in the air.

This was a time when the thuggery of Italian defenders was infamous and after Bob Moncur scored our opening goal, the Nerazzuri lost their heads. It culminated in a massive bust-up in front of the Gallowgate End when Wyn feinted to go in on the Inter keeper. The resulting fracas saw the ref knocked to the ground by a left hook from the Inter keeper.

Unbelievably, the Italians were incensed by the fact that their keeper was sent off. After that, they forgot about football and focused on kicking as many Newcastle players as possible, particularly Wyn, who they saw as the chief culprit. He rubbed it in when he scored our second goal which pretty much guaranteed our victory.

Wyn’s time at St James’s came to an end after we signed Malcolm Macdonald in 1971. He had played 216 games, scoring 53 goals. He was never known as a prolific goal scorer but the carnage he caused up front allowed others to score - Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson and Albert Bennett scored almost 100 goals between them as Wyn’s partners over the same period. He moved to Man City and later played for ManU, Blackpool, Crystal Palace and Stockport before retiring from professional football in 1978 at the age of 36.

He was a true leader of the line when football was a much more physical game than it is now and he was probably our first superstar of the modern era. Our game developed around Wyn’s unique attributes and his partnership with Pop Robson, probably one the best players never to play for England.

Like a lot of Geordies of a certain vintage, Wyn was my first Newcastle United hero. He was a genuine Newcastle United legend who never let me down. He gave us our pride back and helped us believe that we were a big club once again because, although he didn’t score a hatful of goals, on his day he was virtually unplayable as Inter Milan with their world class defenders discovered two their cost.

Truly you’ll not see nothin’ like the Mighty Wyn. While he was at Newcastle we believed a man could fly!

WALLACE H WILSON