Gerry Wolstenholme's Blog - Posts Tagged "fa-cup-winner"
A First Division Championship and FA Cup Winner
James (Jimmy) Robson (1939-2021)
Jimmy Robson was born in Pelton, County Durham, on 23 January 1939. He was an inside forward who had been spotted by a Burnley scout playing local football in his native north east and he signed for the club as a 15-year-old. In later life he reflected on the move to Burney remembering that on arriving in Lancashire to the sight of chimneys and mills, he feared he’d made a mistake, and longed for home. But he quickly adapted and after some reserve games, he made his Burnley debut in the First Division on 6 October 1956 as a 17-year-old inside right against Blackpool at Turf Moor in front of 27,678 fans and he scored a late equaliser for his side in a 2-2 draw.
He went on to become an integral part of the First Division Championship winning Burnley side of 1959/60 and played in the club’s following season’s European Cup campaign and scored in the first minute of their tie again Stade de Reims and he also scored in the second leg as Burnley went through 4-3 on aggregate. He also scored in the quarter final when Hamburger SV were defeated 3-1 at Turf Moor but Burnley were eliminated when they lost the return leg 4-1. {I was lucky enough to see the two Burnley home European games at Turf Moor as coaches were run from Blackpool in those days to other Lancashire team’s games and I particularly remember my first sighting of the German striker Uwe Seeler.] He also scored the equaliser in the 1962 FA Cup Final and it was the 100th goal scored in a Wembley Cup Final; Burnley eventually lost 3-1 to Tottenham Hotspur.
Blackpool had originally been reported as being interested in signing him and Burnley’s Ray Pointer as early as January 1964 but no deal took place and manager Ronnie Suart later said that the reports of Blackpool’s interest were purely ‘guess work’. However, Blackpool did get their man when they signed him from Burnley for a fee of £12,000 on 12 March 1965 [Ironically Pointer was also to sign for the Seasiders but that signing did not take place until 1973.] By the time of his move Robson had become a crowd favourite at Turf Moor as he had played 202 League games for the club, scoring 75 goals. He had also won an England Under-23 cap against West Germany on 10 May 1959 at the Ruhrstadion, Bochum, taking his place in a forward line that read, Peter Brabrook, Robson, Peter Dobing, Ray Parry and Albert Scanlon Scanlon. He scored one of England’s goals in a 2-2 draw.
After signing for Blackpool, Ronnie Suart rushed him to London for his debut against Tottenham Hotspur the day after his signing, 13 March 1965, and he made his first appearance for the Seasiders at inside left in place of Graham Rowe. Blackpool were struggling in the lower reaches of the First Division at the time and up to then Robson had spent most of the season in the Burnley reserve side after having scored only six goals in 26 League games the previous season. So it was asking a lot of him to immediately perform at a high level against a rampant Spurs’ side, particularly with Jimmy Greaves in goalscoring form. And so it proved as one report stated, ‘Robson will have to re-adjust himself to the pace of First Division football, for his slowness was exposed too often in this game, particularly when it came to working with the quick-thinking Ball.’ He did, however, ‘send outside right Moir through for Blackpool’s goal’.
He was up and running in his second game against West Bromwich Albion at Bloomfield Road on 20 March for he scored in the 23rd minute. Moir took a free kick ‘and dropped the ball into the goalmouth’ where ‘Potter failed to clear cleanly and the ball dropped at the feet of Robson who promptly slammed it into the net to score his first goal for Blackpool’. Blackpool won the game 3-0 and he went on to play nine League games and score two goals for Blackpool in the 1964/65 season.
He began the 1965/66 season in Blackpool’s Central League side but after the League side had drawn one and lost two games, he was recalled for the game against his former club Burnley on 30 August 1966. He scored Blackpool’s goal but even so the Seasiders lost 3-1. He also scored in a losing cause in the following game when Liverpool won 3-2. Then after four successive defeats, Blackpool defeated Leicester City 4-0 and once again he was on the scoresheet.
Then in December 1965 Blackpool signed Scotsman Bobby Waddell as an additional inside forward and Robson lost his regular starting spot and consequently he played spasmodically for the League side for the remainder of the season.
He scored twice in a 2-1 victory over Blackburn Rovers in a Lancashire Senior Cup tie on 4 April 1966. His first came after 14 minutes when “Parry hit a perfect centre into the middle where inside right Robson rose head and shoulders above Blackburn pivot Mulvaney and flashed the ball into the net” and his second came when “Parry, starved of the ball in the second half, then broke away, laid on a perfect pass for Robson and, despite a brave attempt by Jones, the Blackburn ‘keeper, Robson succeeded in pressing the ball just inside the post for the winner.” Blackpool subsequently lost 3-2 to Barrow in the semi-final of the tournament.
He scored four goals in the Central League side’s 6-1 victory over Everton reserves on 23 April 1966 when he was “fed by a stream of passes through the middle by wingers Horne and Moir and really rocked the Mersey boat as Everton finished a bemused and battered team”. And in addition “Hunter scored the fifth and sixth near the end from openings created by Robson.”
On 27 April 1966 he wrote his name into the annals Blackpool FC history when he became the club’s first substitute to score a goal in a 2-1 defeat by Manchester United. And he ended the 1965/66 season having played 18 League games, making two substitute appearances, scoring seven goals, 15 Central League games, scoring eight goals, two Lancashire Senior Cup ties, scoring two goals, and three friendly games, scoring two goals.
He made his first League appearance of the 1966/67 season at inside left in a 2-0 defeat by Aston Villa on 10 September 1966 and then on 8 October he reappeared at inside right in a 2-1 defeat by Manchester United. Thereafter he missed only one game until the end of the season, playing the last 10 games in the half-back line. His final appearance for Blackpool in the First Division was in a 3-1 victory at Anfield over Liverpool, only Blackpool’s sixth victory of the season as they were relegated to Division Two. He played 30 League games, made two substitute appearances, scoring three goals, one FA Cup tie, four League Cup ties, scoring two goals, and eight Central League games, scoring one goal, in the 1966/67 season.
He had a run of three League games in November 1966 when he scored in a 3-1 victory over Cardiff City and also in a 2-0 defeat of Charlton Athletic, and he had also played two League Cup ties and 15 Central League games, scoring three goals, up to the time of his transfer in the 1967/68 season. In total he had played 60 League games, made four substitute appearances, scoring 14 goals, one FA Cup tie, six League Cup ties, scoring two goals, and 38 Central League games, scoring 12 goals, for Blackpool.
He was transferred to Barnsley for a fee of £6,000 on 19 January 1968 when he was paid £863 as his accrued share of benefit. He went on to play 87 League games and score 15 goals for Barnsley, and he was part of the Division Four promotion-winning side in the 1967/68 season.
He was transferred to Bury in August 1970 and he played 100 League games, made three substitute appearances and scored three goals for the club.
He later coached at Burnley, Huddersfield Town and Rochdale.
He was always a well-respected visitor to Turf Moor and after retirement from the game he worked in public relations at Burnley Football Club.
He died on 14 December 2021 after a period of illness on 14 December 2021 with supporters and all his former clubs saddened at his passing, with a Blackpool FC official stating, ‘We are saddened to learn of the passing of former forward Jimmy Robson at the age of 82. Our sincere condolences go out to his family.’
Jimmy Robson was born in Pelton, County Durham, on 23 January 1939. He was an inside forward who had been spotted by a Burnley scout playing local football in his native north east and he signed for the club as a 15-year-old. In later life he reflected on the move to Burney remembering that on arriving in Lancashire to the sight of chimneys and mills, he feared he’d made a mistake, and longed for home. But he quickly adapted and after some reserve games, he made his Burnley debut in the First Division on 6 October 1956 as a 17-year-old inside right against Blackpool at Turf Moor in front of 27,678 fans and he scored a late equaliser for his side in a 2-2 draw.
He went on to become an integral part of the First Division Championship winning Burnley side of 1959/60 and played in the club’s following season’s European Cup campaign and scored in the first minute of their tie again Stade de Reims and he also scored in the second leg as Burnley went through 4-3 on aggregate. He also scored in the quarter final when Hamburger SV were defeated 3-1 at Turf Moor but Burnley were eliminated when they lost the return leg 4-1. {I was lucky enough to see the two Burnley home European games at Turf Moor as coaches were run from Blackpool in those days to other Lancashire team’s games and I particularly remember my first sighting of the German striker Uwe Seeler.] He also scored the equaliser in the 1962 FA Cup Final and it was the 100th goal scored in a Wembley Cup Final; Burnley eventually lost 3-1 to Tottenham Hotspur.
Blackpool had originally been reported as being interested in signing him and Burnley’s Ray Pointer as early as January 1964 but no deal took place and manager Ronnie Suart later said that the reports of Blackpool’s interest were purely ‘guess work’. However, Blackpool did get their man when they signed him from Burnley for a fee of £12,000 on 12 March 1965 [Ironically Pointer was also to sign for the Seasiders but that signing did not take place until 1973.] By the time of his move Robson had become a crowd favourite at Turf Moor as he had played 202 League games for the club, scoring 75 goals. He had also won an England Under-23 cap against West Germany on 10 May 1959 at the Ruhrstadion, Bochum, taking his place in a forward line that read, Peter Brabrook, Robson, Peter Dobing, Ray Parry and Albert Scanlon Scanlon. He scored one of England’s goals in a 2-2 draw.
After signing for Blackpool, Ronnie Suart rushed him to London for his debut against Tottenham Hotspur the day after his signing, 13 March 1965, and he made his first appearance for the Seasiders at inside left in place of Graham Rowe. Blackpool were struggling in the lower reaches of the First Division at the time and up to then Robson had spent most of the season in the Burnley reserve side after having scored only six goals in 26 League games the previous season. So it was asking a lot of him to immediately perform at a high level against a rampant Spurs’ side, particularly with Jimmy Greaves in goalscoring form. And so it proved as one report stated, ‘Robson will have to re-adjust himself to the pace of First Division football, for his slowness was exposed too often in this game, particularly when it came to working with the quick-thinking Ball.’ He did, however, ‘send outside right Moir through for Blackpool’s goal’.
He was up and running in his second game against West Bromwich Albion at Bloomfield Road on 20 March for he scored in the 23rd minute. Moir took a free kick ‘and dropped the ball into the goalmouth’ where ‘Potter failed to clear cleanly and the ball dropped at the feet of Robson who promptly slammed it into the net to score his first goal for Blackpool’. Blackpool won the game 3-0 and he went on to play nine League games and score two goals for Blackpool in the 1964/65 season.
He began the 1965/66 season in Blackpool’s Central League side but after the League side had drawn one and lost two games, he was recalled for the game against his former club Burnley on 30 August 1966. He scored Blackpool’s goal but even so the Seasiders lost 3-1. He also scored in a losing cause in the following game when Liverpool won 3-2. Then after four successive defeats, Blackpool defeated Leicester City 4-0 and once again he was on the scoresheet.
Then in December 1965 Blackpool signed Scotsman Bobby Waddell as an additional inside forward and Robson lost his regular starting spot and consequently he played spasmodically for the League side for the remainder of the season.
He scored twice in a 2-1 victory over Blackburn Rovers in a Lancashire Senior Cup tie on 4 April 1966. His first came after 14 minutes when “Parry hit a perfect centre into the middle where inside right Robson rose head and shoulders above Blackburn pivot Mulvaney and flashed the ball into the net” and his second came when “Parry, starved of the ball in the second half, then broke away, laid on a perfect pass for Robson and, despite a brave attempt by Jones, the Blackburn ‘keeper, Robson succeeded in pressing the ball just inside the post for the winner.” Blackpool subsequently lost 3-2 to Barrow in the semi-final of the tournament.
He scored four goals in the Central League side’s 6-1 victory over Everton reserves on 23 April 1966 when he was “fed by a stream of passes through the middle by wingers Horne and Moir and really rocked the Mersey boat as Everton finished a bemused and battered team”. And in addition “Hunter scored the fifth and sixth near the end from openings created by Robson.”
On 27 April 1966 he wrote his name into the annals Blackpool FC history when he became the club’s first substitute to score a goal in a 2-1 defeat by Manchester United. And he ended the 1965/66 season having played 18 League games, making two substitute appearances, scoring seven goals, 15 Central League games, scoring eight goals, two Lancashire Senior Cup ties, scoring two goals, and three friendly games, scoring two goals.
He made his first League appearance of the 1966/67 season at inside left in a 2-0 defeat by Aston Villa on 10 September 1966 and then on 8 October he reappeared at inside right in a 2-1 defeat by Manchester United. Thereafter he missed only one game until the end of the season, playing the last 10 games in the half-back line. His final appearance for Blackpool in the First Division was in a 3-1 victory at Anfield over Liverpool, only Blackpool’s sixth victory of the season as they were relegated to Division Two. He played 30 League games, made two substitute appearances, scoring three goals, one FA Cup tie, four League Cup ties, scoring two goals, and eight Central League games, scoring one goal, in the 1966/67 season.
He had a run of three League games in November 1966 when he scored in a 3-1 victory over Cardiff City and also in a 2-0 defeat of Charlton Athletic, and he had also played two League Cup ties and 15 Central League games, scoring three goals, up to the time of his transfer in the 1967/68 season. In total he had played 60 League games, made four substitute appearances, scoring 14 goals, one FA Cup tie, six League Cup ties, scoring two goals, and 38 Central League games, scoring 12 goals, for Blackpool.
He was transferred to Barnsley for a fee of £6,000 on 19 January 1968 when he was paid £863 as his accrued share of benefit. He went on to play 87 League games and score 15 goals for Barnsley, and he was part of the Division Four promotion-winning side in the 1967/68 season.
He was transferred to Bury in August 1970 and he played 100 League games, made three substitute appearances and scored three goals for the club.
He later coached at Burnley, Huddersfield Town and Rochdale.
He was always a well-respected visitor to Turf Moor and after retirement from the game he worked in public relations at Burnley Football Club.
He died on 14 December 2021 after a period of illness on 14 December 2021 with supporters and all his former clubs saddened at his passing, with a Blackpool FC official stating, ‘We are saddened to learn of the passing of former forward Jimmy Robson at the age of 82. Our sincere condolences go out to his family.’
