Fifty years on, Ronnie Radford’s iconic winner typifies the FA Cup

The commentary from the then 26-year-old John Motson is almost iconic as the strike itself, but 50 years on from the FA Cup tie that changed his life, Ronnie Radford – who celebrated with a double arm raise celebration which would soon be barely visible among the throng of Hereford fans who ran on the pitch to celebrate with him - still likes to downplay a Third Round replay goal which remains perhaps the most iconic in the competition’s 150-year history.

“Sometimes they go in, and sometimes they end up in the car park,” he tells The Independent.

Luckily for Radford his 30-yard smash, on an Edgar Street pitch that resembled a mudbath, flew past Willie McFaul and into the top left-hand corner, equalising Malcolm McDonald’s opener for the visitors, and laying a platform for an extra-time winner from Ricky George, who had travelled down with Motson from London the day before the game.

Given the replay had already been delayed three times as a result of the weather, Newcastle were probably left wishing the then Southern League side had put them out of their misery at the first time of asking at St James’ Park in a match which ended 2-2.

That afternoon in the West Country has written itself into FA Cup folklore, a match which typifies the enduring allure of the competition – the greatest of levellers where the little guys can give a bloody nose to the big fellas and spark scenes of unrivalled jubilation at humble non-league clubs up and down the country.

The magic of the cup? There can’t be too many others who appreciate that phrase as much as Radford.

“You only have to ask those non-league clubs who are playing this weekend, or even those non-league clubs who got the first round this season, it’s just a magical time for all those teams involved,” says Radford, now 78.

“Some of those clubs will have started in the preliminary rounds – we had to play seven matches just to get to that match against Newcastle. For those people who support these clubs, it really does affect them, it’s so special, everything about it.”

Despite coming through the ranks at Sheffield Wednesday and then spending time at Elland Road with Leeds United, Hereford’s run in the 1971/72 competition was one of the few occasions where Radford got the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the great names in the English game.

Along with the likes of Newcastle’s McDonald and Bobby Moncur, he and his teammates then got the chance to play against West Ham’s Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst in two further fourth round matches before the Bulls’ FA Cup odyssey finally came to an end at Upton Park in front of over 42,000 fans on Valentines’ Day.

Hurst’s hat-trick in the Hammers’ 3-1 win, though, did little to dampen Radford’s love affair with the competition.

“It was a magical time, and it remains a magical time for whichever team is lucky enough to experience it,” he says.

“It’s not just for the players, it’s the supporters who come and watch them week-in, week-out, in the rain, in the snow, in the mud!”

Whereas Motson would be commentating on an FA Cup final as soon as 1977 – taking the mic for Manchester United’s 2-1 win over Liverpool, as a result of a contractual dispute between David Coleman and the BBC – Radford would be back at work the day after his goal against Newcastle had made the front and back pages of the national press.

“That was just the way it was back then,” he says. “And I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I loved my job (he was a qualified joiner) as much as I did my football.

“But the FA Cup was always a highlight for me every season. When I was at Cheltenham, we reached the second round and had a tie against Watford but each year those FA Cup matches were always the one you looked forward to most.

“I still watch it now because I want someone to experience what I did, I’m always willing someone to get that unique feeling of being an unknown footballer who is suddenly the centre of attention.”

Not that being in the spotlight is something that ever came naturally to Radford.

He’s keen to emphasise that he was just the man who scored a goal – albeit one of the most famous in English football – and that his teammates deserve a name check as much as him.

The surviving members of that side will be brought together at Edgar Street next month to mark the exact anniversary of that tie, with the visit of Boston providing the perfect excuse to celebrate the men who made history.

Stories will doubtless be relayed to those who weren’t fortunate enough to be there of Radford’s thunderbolt. Although he insists that fabled red foot rocket wasn’t a one-off.

“I scored one from a similar distance against Port Vale when we got promoted to the Football League,” he says. “That went in the top corner from roughly the same distance after a one-two with a lad called Eric Redrobe. Some go in, some go over, you just have to make a good connection.

“Mind you, the balls we played with were bricks compared to the ones that play with today. I remember picking one up in a sports shop and I couldn’t believe it. It was like lifting air.”

Radford left Hereford’s fans floating on the stuff 50 years ago. On Third Round day, there will be plenty of other unsung heroes hoping to follow in his understated footsteps.