Club stalwart Stewart Willingham, having been involved with Thackley AFC since the 1970s, has “seen it all” in non-league football. However, one day which will forever live in the memory for Stewart is 8 April 1975, as this is the day that he welcomed F.C. Barcelona to the home of the club and the club ground, Dennyfield.

For Stewart, club secretary at the time, most of the day was nothing out of the ordinary up until 6pm. “I was getting ready to host some colleagues from Holland for an evening in Ilkley. My wife June and I had an annual dinner for executives where we would go to the Box Tree restaurant. When out of the blue I got a telephone call.”

The gentleman who called Stewart at 6pm said he was the UK Barcelona representative, and asked whether the club could accommodate a training session for F.C. Barcelona at 7pm that evening. “I thought it was a wind up at first, and my response initially had two words with the second being “off”! But as we spoke further I recognised a name of one of the Directors he mentioned and thought that it may actually be genuine”.

The call was genuine. F.C. Barcelona were due to play Leeds United in the first leg of the 1974/1975 semi final of the European Cup, and were staying at the Baron of Beef (now known as The Highfield) at Five Lane Ends. They had been due to train at Bradford City’s Valley Parade stadium, but due to a mix up a reserve team game was playing and F.C. Barcelona had been turned away. They needed a place to train and Stewart’s number had been passed to F.C. Barcelona by a Bradford City representative.

“He persisted and I eventually relented, jumped in the car with June and we made our way to the ground. I had to make my apologies to my colleagues from Holland, but luckily they were very understanding. We arrived in time to open up and turn the water heaters on. Before we knew it the F.C. Barcelona team were here! This included the manager at the time, Rinus Michaels and the star player at the time Johan Cruyff!”. Cruyff at the time, for the benefit of any younger readers, was the Lionel Messi of his generation and even had the “Cruyff turn” named after him.

Stewart did all he could to make the superstars visiting Thackley as comfortable as they could have been. It all, unfortunately, did not run as smoothly as Stewart would have hoped. After he asked what the F.C. Barcelona team would need, the manager Rinus Michaels asked to borrow some footballs for training, which was a tougher request than you would initially think. “We had had some break ins around the time at the club, and all the nice training gear and expensive footballs were stored off site. The only footballs we had were some old training balls which looked as though they could have been used in the Bradford City FA Cup Final in 1911!”.

Nevertheless, Stewart handed the balls over and a small training session, lasting around 30 minutes, took place. A small crowd had gathered, hearing rumours that the world football giants F.C. Barcelona were in town. Those spectators saw Johan Cruyff emerge from the dressing room with a football, do kick ups walking all around the pitch without letting the ball drop before he walked back in the changing room!

The hospitality did not contain itself to just use of the Dennyfield pitch. “After the training session the F.C. Barcelona players did what every football team does after a game at Dennyfield. They headed to the bar! By this time Johan Cruyff was “my mate”, he was so easy to talk to and his English was impeccable. All the players had a drink, although I must say it was soft drinks. Cruyff had a bottle of Coca Cola, and we had the empty bottle on display for several years until it was one day accidentally thrown out with some empties.”

Stewart has seen football teams week in and week out throughout his life, and one thing from this day really struck a cord with him. “The really interesting thing about observing these world class players relaxing, is that they very much behaved in the same manner as any other group of players at any level I have seen. They messed about a bit, there was plenty of banter and lots of laughter. I think they quite enjoyed their short visit to Thackley to see how the other half lived.”

Unfortunately for F.C. Barcelona, the training session did not serve them well. Leeds United beat the Spanish giants 2-1 with Billy Bremner and Allan “sniffer” Clarke scoring either side of a Juan Asensi equaliser. Leeds United went on to claim a place in the final after earning a 1-1 draw at the Camp Nou. Unfortunately for Leeds United they then went on to be beaten by Bayern Munich and missed out on the European Cup.

Thackley AFC is extremely proud of its history and lucky enough to have club servants such as Stewart still involved with the club today to be able to hear about how one of the greatest ever football teams visited Dennyfield. As well as seeing such a great team up close and personal on the pitch, it is a reminder that at whatever sport you play and whatever level you play at, never forget the importance of having a laugh and a joke with your team mates in the bar over a drink.

Stay tuned for more Thackley AFC “Throwbacks”.

Written by Ben Oliver – 4 March 2018