Non League Yorkshire

Steve Nicholson recalls the night he scored a ‘hat-trick’ to help book Emley’s famous FA Cup tie with West Ham

Emley assistant manager Steve Nicholson was captain of the Emley side who famously played West Ham in the FA Cup third round in 1998

STEVE NICHOLSON remembers the night he scored a ‘hat-trick’ in Emley’s thrilling 1997 FA Cup second round replay victory over League Two high-flyers Lincoln City which booked the famous trip to Premier League West Ham in the latest ‘My Greatest Game’.

Ronnie Glavin’s Emley came back from 2-0 down with 15 minutes to go in their second battle with Lincoln to draw 3-3 after extra-time. Captain Nicholson scored twice, including the dramatic equaliser to make it 2-2 in normal time. The Emley captain then converted a penalty in extra-time before scoring in the penalty shootout as Emley won 4-3 – with goalkeeper Chris Marples heroically saving former Huddersfield Town striker Phil Stant’s penalty to send the village club through.

The replay was held at Huddersfield Town on police advice and Nicholson pours out his memories of the match as well as the aftermath and build-up, including a few stories from the earlier rounds.

Nicholson spent ten years at Emley and later played again for Glavin at Worksop Town as well as for Emley under their later guise of Wakefield FC during the College Grove days.

The Leeds-based Fireman is now back at Emley as assistant manager to Richard Tracey and he also outlines his fitness regime which enables him to play when necessary at the age of 48.

Ronnie Glavin’s famous Emley team of the 1997/98 season

Emley AFC (Graham 74, Nicholson 84, 98 pen) 3-3 (4-3 pens) Lincoln City (Whitney 64, Alcide 71, Hone 116), – Wednesday 17th December 1997

The Teams 

Emley AFC: Marples, Nicholson, Jones, Thompson, Lacey, David, Calcutt, Hurst, Graham (Viner 98), Wood (Tonks 72), Reynolds. Subs unused: Dennis, Johnson, Hutson.

Lincoln City: Richardson, Barnett, Whitney, Fleming, Holmes, Austin, Walling, Hone, Gordon (Alcide 61), Thorpe, Brown (Stant 105). Subs unused: Stones, Robertson, Bimson.

Referee: T Heilbron

Attendance: 4891

“It was a horrible night because there was three-inch of snow on the ground. The game was only on because there was undersoil heating at the McAlpine Stadium. It would have had no chance at Emley, or anywhere else for that matter. I was on days at Cookridge Fire Stadium and I had arranged for someone to come in for me an hour early a 5pm. I had to get to the McAlpine Stadium as early as I could. When I got to work earlier all the snow had started coming down. It kept coming down and after setting off at five because of the snow it took me two hours to get over to Huddersfield so I was late. In normal weather, in those days it would have taken an hour or hour-and-quarter, but I got there at 7pm for a 7-45pm kick off. I threw my gear on quickly, but I certainly didn’t get a proper warm-up which is a strange thing to say given it is considered as one of the best games of my career. 

“This was before mobile phones too so Ronnie Glavin won’t have known if I was going to make it on time. He knew I had someone coming in for me at five. To be fair these things happened a lot in those days. Because myself, Mickey Thompson and Rob Tonks were firemen, it was accepted that we would turn up a little later if we were working. Both Rob and Mickey weren’t working that night because they were in middle-rota days.

“I’ve picked the Lincoln game because a lot of people know a great deal about the West Ham match and we also got beat as expected. I don’t like getting beat and we actually beat Lincoln and that was a huge achievement in itself.

“People need to remember we started off in the first qualifying round which was an awful long way to the third round proper. I wouldn’t say we had any luck, but in the whole run we were only drawn at home once which was against against Belper in the third round qualifying round. We got past Workington and Durham fairly easily in the first two rounds and then beat Belper 2-1. Nuneaton who we played in the fourth qualifying round were top of the Doc Martens – the equivalent league to ours (Northern Premier League) and they were a big money team so even when we played them we weren’t expected to win. Simon Jones our left back scored an unbelievable goal with his wrong foot. He shot from 30 yards and it was like ‘where has he pulled that from’? There were little bits and bits like that along the way.

“Morecambe were top of the Conference when we played them in the first round proper so another game we weren’t expected to win. The first game at their place was 1-1 and a bit of a stalemate. The replay was an unbelievable experience at the Welfare Ground. The crowd was put down as 2400 and the kick off was delayed for over an hour because of the amount of people that came in.  The Police even got called out after some residents rang them and the Police helicopter was flying above the ground because they wondered what was going on. If you know how small the village is, you’ll realise that people were parking here, there and everywhere. There were miles more than 2400 there. It went to extra-time and it finished 3-3, but we literally scored in stoppage time to make it 3-3. A lad called Garry Marshall scored. He only played a handful of games because he broke his arm in training before the Lincoln game, but he came on as sub and with his first touch he scored. We ended up taking the penalties at quarter to 12 that night because of the kick off delay. It is quite unbelievable. Chris Marples had a ‘worldie’. I think he saved three. I don’t think the club’s neighbours minded the floodlights being on that late because all the locals in the villages used to come to the games. It was an incredible night and an incredible atmosphere because of the enclosed space. I played at West Ham and for some touring teams in front of massive crowds, but for a Non League game on a home ground, the Morecambe replay is the best atmosphere I have ever played in, 100%. The Lincoln replay at the McAlpine wasn’t the same sort of atmosphere because the ground was half-empty.

“We moved onto Lincoln at Sincil Bank and we were winning 2-1 and the referee played I believe 11 minutes of stoppage time and Lincoln scored the equaliser in the ninth minute of it. We had battered them, and they were top of Division Three and on an 18-match unbeaten run. They were walking away with it and they were managed by the notorious John Beck. They employed every tactic under the sun to unnerve us. There were cold showers, the balls they provided for the warm-up were pumped up like concrete, from information we have received we were told not to drink any of the juice or tea they provided. They had an enormous nightclub speaker bang outside the changing room with the music blaring out. It was that loud you couldn’t talk to each other in the changing room. The heating was turned up to ridiculous temperatures. They were a very long ball and set-piece team. They had ball-boys with towels so the full-backs could launch the ball into the box. Both the full-backs wore golf gloves so they could throw it. The touchlines were brought right in so the pitch was really small. It was Wimbledon-esque which John Beck teams were always like.

“Between the first game and the replay the draw was made for third round and when West Ham got pulled out it was amazing. The incentive was there for both teams. 

“The FA and the Police would not let us play the replay at Emley because of what had happened with the crowd against Morecambe. The venue had to be changed to Huddersfield Town.

“The game is a funny memory because I technically scored a hat-trick. I’m not a prolific goal-scorer at all. I think I ended up scoring about 18 goals over my career for Emley. One of those two goals against Lincoln was a penalty during normal time and I shouldn’t have been on penalties. Ian Banks was the penalty taker, but he got injured in an FA Trophy tie at Solihull Borough before the first Lincoln game. I couldn’t play at Solihull because I was on nights, but Ian tore his calf. We had a chat about who would take penalties and I was captain when Ian wasn’t playing and I just said ‘I’ll take pens if no-one have them’. Lo and behold, I scored a goal in open play when we were 2-0 down as well as a penalty in extra-time and another one in the shootout.

“We were out when it was 2-0. One of our former players Colin Alcide who we had sold to Lincoln had scored one of them. We looked dead and buried against a full-time team two leagues higher, but we turned it around which sums the side up. There was a never-say-die attitude about the side. It got us an awful lot of results. Emley and that team punched above its weight financially. Budget-wise it was no-where near the teams we used to play against. There were some big clubs like Altrincham and Barrow and their wages were above ours. We got £20s and more travelling expenses. No-one was on decent money because the club just did not have it. 

“Deiniol Graham got it back to 2-1. I scored with four minutes of normal-time left. I just bombed forward and I think I overlapped Dean Calcutt or Glynn Hurst. One of them slid me in and I just struck the ball so it was going to go past the goalkeeper to the far post. It was going in. One of their defenders got a foot on it and deflected it in. I obviously claimed it, there was no way it was going down as an own goal. I ran the whole of the pitch to celebrate. It was an amazing moment because we were dead and buried.

“Extra-time came and we got a penalty which was now my responsibility. That was to put us 3-2 in front and scored it. There was four minutes to go when they equalised to take it to penalties. 

“Because we knew West Ham was the prize the shootout was one of the most nerve-wracking bits of football I have ever been involved in. For myself, my confidence was quite high. Because I’d scored twice I was buzzing and I took the first penalty of the shootout. I just grabbed the ball and said I’d take the first one. I scored, It was a decent penalty and Chris Marples then pulled his magic out again. I think he saved two. Phil Stant who used to play for Huddersfield and Lincoln’s most experienced player is who missed the decisive penalty. Chris knew him from his Football League days and I believe he went up to Phil Stant before the penalty and they had a laugh and joke. I think Chris bet him a pint that he’d save it and he did. It was a good penalty, but a bloody good save because he got down to the bottom corner. It was pandemonium then.

Steve Nicholson still plays occasionally at the age of 48

“I didn’t have to go to work the next day, but because I scored the hat-trick and being skipper of the side my landline was ringing off the hook at home. Every sports journalist from the Times to the Sunday Sport was ringing me. I ended up on the BBC Breakfast news the next day. I went into the studios at Look North. I even got my picture in the Sunday Sport. They made me go into work at the Fire Station and they had me in the Firefighter gear with a sledgehammer in my hand (photo can be seen on Google). The whole experience of being in the limelight between the Lincoln replay and the West Ham game was amazing and I loved it. Everybody had a piece of it. Different people got on different programmes or in publications. 

“For a village the size of Emley to reach the FA Cup third round was incredible. When we went to West Ham, almost the entire village went to watch the game. The Police were worried about burglaries because the village was deserted so they put an extra Police presence on in the village. It had been publicised in the National Media and obviously it would have been a burglar’s delight. 

“I’m not sure if this is right? But someone told me a few years ago that it is thought Emley the lowest ranked side in the Football Pyramid to get to the third round proper in the history of the FA Cup?

“A lot of people know my mum and dad and will know that they’ve seen a lot of my career(!) They were amazed when we got to the third round. They lived and breathed all my games and they’re still going to games now. You still see them, here, there and everywhere! It was a fantastic time for every Emley supporter, but to have your son play in a team like that which is so remembered by Non League fans, they must be pretty proud. A lot of people are reflecting at the moment and I bet there are various scrapbooks out round at my mum and dad’s house. 

“It is funny how things come full circle. Ronnie Glavin was the manager and I’m now helping manage Emley with Rich and Conor Glavin, Ronnie’s son, is one of our players. Conor sent me a picture on WhatsApp of Conor being the mascot at one of the Emley games when he was about six. I was captain and he was obviously stood with me which is unbelievable. At that time, Conor and Jordan Rhodes were going to games. We obviously Andy Rhodes in goal at one point. Conor and Jordan used to play with Ian Banks’ lad Oliver. They would be out on the pitch as tots kicking a ball about. 

“Ronnie Glavin was so detailed in preparation for games. He had teams watched and he was a fantastic man-manager of people. His knowledge of the game was second to none. What he should get credit for is his ability to get good players to come and play for Emley with the finances he actually had. He didn’t have the money to pick and choose who he wanted to sign. He got Deiniol Graham, an ex-Manchester United came to play for little old Emley. Glynn Hurst was a former Barnsley player. Ian Banks came. On the flip side he got me to come from Leeds when (former Farsley Celtic manager) Denis Metcalf helped him. As well he got people from local football like Michael Reynolds and Paul David to come. They were just playing Saturday football. His scouting network and his contacts were brilliant. The 1998 was one of the best sides I have ever played with.

“He had a group of lads who would run through brick walls for him. His sides were always fit because he was a stickler for fitness. You look at Dean Calcutt, he was a local football player playing for someone like Honley, we had pace and we were a big side who were good at set-pieces. He was meticulous about working on set-pieces and pattens of play so we were very hard to break down. If you look at the side which got 101 points in 2001, we kept something like 16 clean sheets. That doesn’t come about for no reason, it is because you work on stuff in training.

“I have a lot of time for Ronnie, he was a real mentor for me in Non League football. I learnt a lot off him, stuff which you take with you when you start managing and coaching. I played for him several times; at Emley, Worksop Town and then for Wakefield at College Grove so I played for him for a long time. When you put the managers I played for the most together on the table, Billy Bremner, Howard Wilkinson and Ronnie Glavin; I don’t think you can go far wrong with anyone of them.

“Even though I spent probably over ten years playing for Emley, it isn’t actually my most local club. Farsley Celtic probably are. So Emley is a bit of a trek for me from Alwoodley. The only thing I can say is when I left Leeds United, I had a bad injury and when I was fit again, Denis Metcalf was a friend of my dad’s and I was told to get myself down to Farsley and do pre-season. My played for a Farsley for a while and then Denis got the assistant manager’s job at Emley to Ronnie and he took me and Stephen Ball with him. I think the reason I stayed with Emley for that long was because the club was the highest placed Non League side in Yorkshire apart from Frickley who I didn’t know a lot about.

“I got into this very good Emley side who for the ten years I was there never finished out of the top six. It was a family club and there was always a brilliant atmosphere. Going in the club after the games, all the players stayed, there were mothers and fathers, wives and kids. We stayed behind for hours and I had such an affinity with the club at that time because of that. It is very difficult to leave when I did (in 2004), but a lot had changed. The club had moved to Belle Vue and because the ground rent got doubled to an unsustainable level, the budget got cut and all the players apart from myself, Nick Wood and Paul Cuss left. Nicky Wood eventually went to Bradford (Park Avenue) and Paul Cuss went to Farsley, but I felt obliged to stay as captain. But we were bottom of the league, the year before the Conference North came in, and we were getting beat 5-0, 6-1 each week. It was a team of kids. Ronnie had left to go to Barnsley as first team coach and Ian Banks the manager had a snorkel on trying to get results. In the end I got an offer to go to Farsley when Lee Sinnott was the manager and I took it. 

“I regard Emley as my club after spending so many happy years with it. It is such a honest family club and still is to this day. They are a sleeping giant to me. 

“I got the phone call from Mark (Wilson) last year to see if I would be up for being joint manager with him back at Emley. The problem for me is I can’t manage because I can’t get enough time off work to be at every game and training session. I said I would come back, but only as an assistant to someone. That threw a spanner in the works because Mark was going to be joint manager. Because I had worked with Richard (Tracey) for five years at Ossett Albion and because of his experience and contacts, I recommended Richard to be joint manager with Mark. We had a meeting with the club and they asked us to apply and although they considered other people, we had an interview and it must have gone well. 

“We had a good year and it is devastating how it has finished. Everybody in Non League football is saying it is a rash and hasty decision. Scotland are promoting sides and the Premier League and Football League are on about finishing the season. Non League sides have never had anything on the table. They have just been told ‘everything is null and void, everything has been expunged, it is like you have not even played’. It is basically ‘that’s it, we don’t want to hear from you, we’ll tell you when you’ll be starting your new season’. We hadn’t lost a game since November and we are gutted. The club had been so close to winning promotions for many years, but not got over the line. This year, especially with four to go up, it would have taken a disaster for us not to finish the job off. 

“I have played occasionally. I think I played six games this season. I did say when I came back to Richard and Willy ‘sign me on, but if we have lads there who are doing a job, I will be one of those people on the bench that you can bring if needed’. I didn’t think it was right as assistant manager to be playing. I have been playing for Harrogate Veterans with people like Simeon Bambrook and Lee Connor and I went to the Veterans World Cup in Thailand last year. I’m 48, and to be fair I didn’t think when I left Leeds that I’d be still playing at a decent level at that age. But because of my job I have to say physically fit. I was fairly fit anyway, but you have to look after yourself to be in the Fire Service. I eat and drink sensibly. I’m not a big drinker, never have been. I also run to work from Alwoodley to Cookridge everyday and that’s a good 10k. That helps a lot too.”

Steve Nicholson was interviewed by James Grayson

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