{"id":429,"date":"2019-11-28T05:43:43","date_gmt":"2019-11-28T05:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gonbys.com\/?p=429"},"modified":"2019-11-28T05:43:43","modified_gmt":"2019-11-28T05:43:43","slug":"academica-de-coimbra-1971","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/?p=429","title":{"rendered":"Acad\u00e9mica de Coimbra, 1971"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When followers of Wolverhampton Wanderers talk about squeezing onto a terrace it\u2019s usually in relation to fitting 30,000 gents on the South Bank, or losing their friend after a goal in the Holte End (I did lose a friend that way \u2013 Jimmy Sidney \u2013 but I\u2019m happy to say he turned up again some twenty years later in the Tower End of Bloomfield Road). Well, let me tell you, I\u2019ve been packed into Pop Sides, shoehorned into Sheds, cramped on Kops and pressed into paddocks, but there was never anything before or since the Est\u00e1dio do Calhab\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem in Coimbra, though, wasn\u2019t a question of numbers \u2013 Wolves had demolished Acad\u00e9mica 3-0 in the home leg, and the locals were consequently unenthusiastic about the competition \u2013 but rather one of scale. Decades of the insular Estado Nova regime and a century and a half without an international conflict had left Portugal rather isolated in history, and this was evident in its population. Outside of the major ports of Lisbon and Porto, the average height of a Lusitanian was just fifty-nine centimetres. By way of comparison, Derek Dougan was six foot three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The height difference had served Wolves to great advantage at Molineux, where in real terms the Portuguese had had to run three times more than the home side, and a not-especially-well-directed John McAlle header proved well out of the reach of goalkeeper Concei\u00e7\u00e3o Melo for the first goal. The visitors had also had trouble dealing with the size five football, reminding me of the Subbuteo table football game that was popular with children and some supposed grown-ups at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walking from the station (fortunately the rail system used the Iberian gauge, and the rolling stock was consequently of a comfortable scale), we felt like South Staffs Godzillas, actually taller than many of the houses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This being September in Portugal, we could avoid problems of scale by drinking our beers in the street, but fitting inside the ground was always going to be a problem. Eventually we arranged with some English-speaking turnstile attendants a way in using a large opening at one end of the ground. Most of the ground was uncovered, fortunately, but as more and more Wolves fans arrived, it became increasingly difficult to maintain balance on the concrete benches. Perimeter fences barely reached the shins, and so the front rows were continually toppling over, and for the only time in my life I felt thankful for an athletic track around a football pitch, as it meant that this did not interrupt the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game itself threw some very interesting variables Mr McGarry\u2019s way. With no away goals to their name, Acad\u00e9mica were going to need to score at least four times, and there was little chance of that with Lofty Parkes filling out the tiny goal. But the small ball was going to be a problem to control and strike cleanly. However, from the moment the players squeezed out of the dressing rooms and onto the pitch, it was clear that they were well-prepared. At set pieces, the players would go on all fours in order to head dangerous crosses away, while up front, Dougan played barefoot, and was shooting with the top of his big toe in order to get more consistent contact. Waggy\u2019s control was such that he just got on with it, and had an imperious game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Manuel Antonio opened the scoring, shooting through the legs of the goalkeeper, I wondered whether McGarry\u2019s adjustments had been enough, but the Doog soon equalized with a rocket off his left toe (provoking the asphyxiating but exhillerating crush that I always remember, now, when trapped by a lift door or trying on medieval armour), and with Lofty now kneeling in order to close the gaps between his ankles, the tie was effectively over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After celebrating Dougan\u2019s eventual hat-trick, we headed out for some diminutive Superbocks before getting the train back to Porto, where the Ingenian and self-styled \u201cNight Pirate\u201d Jimmy Leicester awaited us on board a clipper ship which he had borrowed from his employers, the National Maritime Museum, and we sailed back to Greenwich singing a shanty which hadn\u2019t been heard since we took to the North Sea for the Austria Wein game in 1960:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There’s a thin line between Lusitanian and Lilliputian…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}