Billy Heath pulling off the great escape with Frickley Athletic in 2008 is an often forgotten achievement.
When you study the table and Frickley’s results from the 2007/08 campaign, Harry Houdini would have been proud as it was an epic escapology act as Frickley were completely doomed at Christmas.
The season began in disastrous circumstances with it taking until the 17th game of the campaign – the last Saturday of November – to win an NPL Premier Division One match. A 2-1 win at home to Kendal Town which increased their points tally to nine.
Results were bad and Heath actually resigned less than two months into the campaign and was replaced by former Blues midfielder Mark Hancock. Hancock was sacked after a month in charge and Heath was brought back.
Frickley spent Christmas Day deeply rooted in the relegation zone with just 12 points.
Left-back Chris Gowen believes the turning point was the 4-3 defeat to promotion chasing Gateshead in the middle of January 2008.
Frickley played “like Real Madrid” in the first half and held an incredible 3-0 lead thanks to Lee Morris, Rob Pell and Chris Hilton. But ex-Guiseley forward Pell had been shown a straight red card to leave them with ten men.
Gateshead, who went onto beat Buxton in the play-off final and would win promotion to the Conference North in the following season, wore Frickley down, scoring three goals in five minutes after the 74th minute mark to level it up.
The Blues finished with nine men as Steve Robinson was red carded following Gateshead’s late winner.
The cruel defeat served to galvanise Heath’s side as they won their next six matches to pull clear of relegation danger and secure safety before the final day.
This is Chris Gowen’s ‘My Greatest Game’.
Saturday 19th January 2008
Frickley Athletic (Lee Morris 4, Rob Pell 7, Chris Hilton 45) 3-4 Gateshead (Jamie Harwood 74, Steve Bowey 76, Graeme Armstrong 79, David Southern 89)
The Teams
Frickley Athletic: Adam Nicklin, Steve Robinson, Chris Gowen, Danny Walsh (Scott Turner 84), Phil Lindley, Dean Jones, Chris Hilton, Jonathan Groome, Lee Morris (Neil Towler 79), Rob Pell, Chris White. Sub unused: Craig Marsh.
Gateshead: Paul Musselwhite, Craig Baxter, Phillip Cave (Paul Talbot 73), Steve Bowey, Paul Thompson (Jamie McClen 46), Steven Salvin, David Southern, Kris Gate, Graeme Armstrong, Jamie Harwood, Wayne Phillips. Sub unused: James Curtis
Referee: Rob Atkin
Attendance: 294
“It is a bit strange that I’ve picked a game that I actually lost, but it was a game in that season that kick-started us and galvanised us. It was like a Newcastle-Liverpool game because there were goals-galore, sending-offs and incidents. It had everything.
“It was Billy’s second season in charge and it was my second spell with the club as I had been there in 2001/02 under Gary Marrow and then Phil Sharpe. That (2007/08) season it didn’t feel that we were that bad, but looking back on it we actually started the season without winning any of our first 16 league games. We lost ten and drew six before we got our first win against Kendal Town at the end of November.
“We had some pastings, but in the main we were only getting beat by the odd goal here and there. It just wasn’t happening for us even though I don’t think the squad had changed much from the season before. As well I don’t think the morale in the dressing room was that low. A lot of the lads had played for Frickley at least twice. I had, Lee Morris had, Dean Jones had, Chris Hilton had and we were used to being near the bottom. We had the odd season where we did alright, but that season we just needed a good win that would put us on a bit of a run.
“Billy left around early October and Mark Hancock replaced him and he signed a few players. Neil Redfearn came in and he was still class and scored a few goals, but nothing really changed because we were still losing.
“I remember clubs around us getting in touch with certain players and I remember Billy phoning me and telling me to hold fire because there might be something happening. He had obviously been speaking to the club about maybe coming back if things didn’t change.
“So Mark Hancock went after about a month and Billy was back, initially as caretaker, but they soon made it a permanent appointment.
“We all liked Billy and what he went on to achieve after Frickley may have raised some eyebrows as he had a certain style of football. The Frickley pitch didn’t allow us to play the way we wanted and it was a case of getting the ball up to the front men and pressing the opposition in the last third. But his record at Ferriby speaks volume. Billy did a lot of hairdryer treatments in the dressing room and down the years I bet there is a few lads who can say they have had those moments with him.
“I don’t know whether or not he had been on a crash course in coaching between leaving and coming back because training was completely different. Training under him in his first spell was a get-together with the lads and we did an hour if that. We were getting ran for half of the training session and the rest of it was just five-a-side. After we went to the Cricket Club for a few pints and a laugh.
“But when he came back he started doing tactical work in training. One training session we spent 45 minutes on two ideas for free kicks. We went through it all night and it is an important detail because it came to fruition in the Gateshead game. Nobody could believe what was going on because we weren’t used to it. This free kick he wanted was slightly wide of the 18-yard box and about 20-yards out and it only involved six or seven of us. The rest of the lads were stood on the halfway line doing keepy-ups for 45 minutes! Billy had a few other ideas like putting Chris Hilton into the right wing position which was a strange, but it worked. Hilts has recently said he wasn’t the most prolific goal-scorer, but he scored a couple of goals in that role as a right-midfielder – one of them being in the Gateshead game as it happens.
“The Gateshead game arrived and we were bottom and they were flying and it is the old cliche because it was a game of two halves. We were like Real Madrid in the first half. We battered them and we went in at half-time 3-0 up. Rob Pell had been sent off five minutes before half-time and we thought ‘oh here we go’ because it was only 2-0 at the time.
“But then we got the free kick in the last minute of the first half. Danny Walsh had to dink the ball over the top of the wall and we had someone running down the side who would pass it across the penalty area and put it in. We tried it in training around 50 times and it worked twice so we thought it was a free kick that wasn’t worth trying. Billy and (assistant manager) Bobby Carroll were screaming ‘it’s on, it’s on, the free kick is there, do it’. All the lads were thinking that we were 20 yards out and we should just have a shot at goal. Billy was near me so I was having to shout across to tell them to do the free kick. So Danny chips it, Chris White gets onto it and Hilts scores. We never celebrated a goal so much. Billy was running up and down the touchline and he was probably thinking he was Jose Mourinho. He’d pulled off a masterstroke with the free kick.
“At half-time it was one of those moments where people were staring at each other and thinking ‘what’s happened here, we’ve just battered a team who are near top of the league and we’re near the bottom’ and we could have had four or five goals. Earlier in the season we had gone 16 games without winning, we couldn’t buy a win and in that first half it all came together. People were giggling, especially because of the free kick. Rob Pell’s red card kinda got forgotten about. That was off-the-ball too and I don’t actually think the referee saw it.
“Billy had to get our feet back on the ground and he just said ‘Gateshead are going to be sticking it on us, launching it into the box and we’re going to have to defend for our lives’.
“We went out and I remember repeatably saying to the ref ‘how is long left’? What felt like 20 minutes was three minutes and he was telling me to stop asking him.
“Gateshead played with a 3-1-6 formation and they battered us in footballing terms. Billy had his way of playing and their gaffer (Ian Bogie) had his way of playing. Billy wanted us to stick it in corners and press them high. Their manager was screaming and shouting because whenever someone put a long ball in he was going mental. He was shouting ‘keep it short and keep passing’. All he wanted them to do was keep passing it.
“It got to 70 minutes and we were still 3-0 up. Gateshead were not panicking at all. They were passing it about all over. I always like to pass through the midfield and Danny Walsh was always someone who would come and show from a throw-in or short free kick. At times I did it on instinct and I’d give him the ball because he could deal with it. Billy was screaming ‘stop passing it short, just get it up there’. So I had Billy at my side screaming at me for passing it short and I had the other manager near me screaming at his players for hitting it long. It was quite funny in that sense.
“I don’t know whether we were too tired because we were down to ten men and they were tiring us because they just kept passing it? But they scored after 74 minutes and it was 3-1. They soon got another one and by the 80th minute it was 3-3. You are thinking ‘oh my god, what’s happening here’ and that’s when we started panicking. They scored the winner with two minutes to go and that’s when it all erupted. Frickley fans are vocal and from what I’ve read and what I remember I don’t think the referee had the best of games. They were baying for his blood. Steve Robinson also got sent off because there was a bit of controversy over the winning goal. It was either because we felt it was a foul or there was a handball. Nothing went for us that day. The ref gave the goal and Robbo didn’t take it well. We were down to nine men now and at the end we were dead on our feet.
“I think there was a bit of trouble with the ref at the end as a couple of players had a go at him. We went in the dressing room and we expected the hairdryer treatment from Billy, but it never came. He said ‘lads what you have done today was unbelievable, we just pick up next week and go again’. To concede four goals in 18 minutes after being 3-0 up, some teams would have thrown the towel, but we didn’t. It galvanised us and we went strength to strength and I think we were safe with a couple of games to go.
“It is a game I’ll always remember and it is a season that I put up with my best alongside winning the title with North Ferriby on the last day and winning the North Riding Cup with Pickering Town. That’s because we were nowhere. We were bottom and on almost single figure points at Christmas and ten points adrift of getting out of trouble. After the Gateshead game we had 16 games left to play and we won six on the bounce and drew two. Out of those 16 games we lost just three times and I think two of them were when we were already safe. The last three games were Buxton who lost to Gateshead in the play-off final, Witton who finished second and Fleetwood on the last day. Fleetwood won the league. We picked up seven wins and six draws from the last 16 games.
“We had a free Saturday in April and we all decided to go into Wakefield and we needed Ossett Town not to win. We were in a boozer in Wakefield and Soccer Saturday was on the TV. Ossett’s score came on the screen and it was like the party Jamie Vardy had when Leicester won the Premier League. We were all sat together and Ossett’s score came up and we just erupted. The pub went absolutely mental. You don’t realise it at the time, but looking back it 12 years on, it was unbelievable what we achieved. To say the results we had, we were safe with two games to go.
“We went to Fleetwood on the last day and it was between them and Witton as to who won the title. Witton were second and a point behind Fleetwood, but they gave up the ghost because they thought Fleetwood were at home against little old Frickley and Frickley were safe and probably won’t turn up. So Witton rested all their players for the play-offs and as it turned we drew with Fleetwood and Witton lost. If Witton had won they would have pipped Fleetwood to the title. It is weird because we all know what’s happened to Fleetwood since.
“It was a season that all started with the Gateshead game. Whenever I see any of the lads, it is a game a lot of us all remember because after it we went on the winning spree. You can talk about having the players to get results, but a lot of it was to do with team spirit and togetherness. We were a close-knit bunch. There was a turnover of players at times, but the spine of the team remained the same. You had Dean Jones, Hilts, Robbo, myself, Danny Walsh, Lee Morris, Chris White so the spine was there, it was just about filling in the other bits. We had players coming and going, but we got there in the end.
“I always like going back down to Frickley. They were really nice people and I still speak to Pete Bywater, Ruth Simpson and Penny Wall. We had some great players when I was down there, but a lot of the results we got was down to team spirit.”
Chris Gowen was interviewed by James Grayson