1986/1987 Season

Joe Dixon’s

Football Memories

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1977

Dawdon C.W. 1986 / 1987 Season

Leading up to the start of this season I was very optimistic. My good friend and former team mate Harry Clark came to join me as my assistant. We were part of the really good Ryhope CA team for many years in the late 1960’s and 70’s. He then went on to coach and manage them during their first years in the Northern League. Chris Cain, ex Colchester United, was starting his 3rd season at Dawdon and such was his talent and knowledge of the game I made him player/coach. This with some really good players in the squad meant we had the best opportunity of having a great season.

Our first 2 friendlies were against Peterlee Linread and Dawdon Mechanics, both from lower leagues, and we won comfortably 6-1 and 7-0 respectively. The other friendly was against a much tougher Peterlee Town team from the Northern League Division 1. We played quite well and I was happy with a 1-1 draw.

Despite being optimistic we got off to dreadful start losing our first 3 games scoring 0 and conceding 7 goals. The heaviest defeat was losing 3-0 at home to Hartlepool BWOB a team that had been Teesside League Champions the previous season. Our 4th game was against Reyrolle’s who had beaten us 2-0 in our second game which was just 5 days previous and thankfully we beat them 1-0 at home. Our 1st win of the season was followed by 7 straight wins which put us in 2nd place and just 2 points below the leaders Hartlepool BWOB. As fate would have it our next game was against Hartlepool on their home ground. A win for us would mean a 9th consecutive win and we would replace them at the top of the league. We knew it would be very difficult especially as they beat us convincingly in our 3rd game. So, obviously, It was a very proud moment for everyone associated with the club when we continued our great form and won 2-1.

In this incredible run we scored 21 goals and conceded only 3. During this run we played against Clarke Chapman’s in the Durham Challenge Cup and beat them 4-2 making it 10 straight wins.

Unfortunately this first third of the season turned out to be the high point of the season. From the middle of November ‘86 Chris Cain could only play 6 games and was a huge miss. Other key players were unavailable for parts of the season and we could never keep the same team for 2 consecutive games. Even after winning a game, more often than not, we were making 3-4 changes, in the following game. We managed to hold on to 2nd place after 23 games but we eventually finished mid table. A big big disappointment considering the quality of the players below.