The Wands of Grassmeade 1967-1973. Part 4: Wingers

I have always maintained that the best way to attack an opponent's goal is through the use of wingers. Like a pincer approach if we were talking about a battle strategy. Back in the time between 1967 and 1973, wingers were out-and-out strikers who hogged the flanks on a football pitch. Nowadays, of course, we have wing halves and even overlapping full-backs that all do the same job as the old-style wingers.

Famous wingers since the Second World War have included Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney, George Best, John Barnes and, of course, more recently we have Bukayo Saka and Jack Grealish. Yes, there are plenty more wingers in the modern game, if we delve a bit further to reveal them. If I knew the names of any female wingers in the women's game I would name some here, too but, it is remiss of me that I don't. Not having followed the women's game anywhere near as much as the men's game, I hold my hand up and say, "guilty as charged".

But this post is about the wingers who played for Cray Wanderers in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, when the 50 years' ban on women's football in this country by the Football Association was still active, albeit coming to an end. I have not hidden the fact that a winger is my favourite of all positions on the football field. A winger can jink, they can dummy, they can run past defenders as though they weren't there and, they can cross a ball into that 'corridor of uncertainty' inside the six-yard box between the goalkeeper and his defenders with aplomb.

The first Cray winger I saw play and who had a huge effect on my interest and subsequent playing days was Tex Wiltshire. Real name Terry, he patrolled the left wing in the number 11 shirt and was really handy with his left foot. For a winger, Tex scored an abundance of goals for the Wands that, by the time he left to return to Horsham from whence he first came during the 1966-67 season, he had rattled in 23 goals in 115 appearances in the amber and black of Cray Wanderers. After his departure at the start of the 1970-71 season, he was replaced by Ron 'Wiz' Wissenden.

On the opposite flank, Colin McGannon doubled up as a right winger if the midfield was ably patrolled. He reverted to midfield when Micky Harrington arrived at the back end of the 1967-68 season. Harrington played in 30 games across that and the following season, scoring a total of 8 goals, including one from far out on the right touchline towards the Mungo Park Way end of Grassmeade against Bedford Town. His cross-cum-shot eluded the visitors' goalie to complete Cray's scoring in a 5-1 victory.

Another midfielder who doubled up as a winger was John Mears. His trick was to come inside from the right flank and let fly with a lethal left-footed hoof of the ball. One particular time he did it resulted in a goal from outside the area against Wimbledon, as his curving shot was too hot for Dickie Guy in the visitors' goal to handle. Cray went on to win that dreaded Autumn Shield game 3-1, with John Faulkner adding two second-half headed goals, either side of him and Guy receiving a booking each for a bit of 'handbags' on the goal line at a corner kick. 

Ron Wissenden, meanwhile, was proving to be the ideal replacement left winger for the by then departed Wiltshire. A product of the Reserves, he kept the crowd enthralled with his jinking runs along the left flank once he'd broken into the first team. However, over the course of four and a half seasons between 1967-68 and 1971-72, Wiz only played in 57 first team games but scored 24 goals. That's a very impressive strike rate for a winger and he also had many assists to go with that record. When he wasn't playing for the first team, Ron was often seen speeding along the left flank for the Reserves.

After the players' walk-out in January 1972, the Wands had to wait for the arrival of the ex-279 Chislehurst players to witness quality wingers again. They arrived in the shape of Paul McCarthy and Pat Carey. Macca patrolled the right wing and Pat looked after the left side. Between them they could turn any oposition defence inside out. Both played for the Wands during the whole of the 1972-73 season, after which Carey didn't play for Cray again until Jimmy Wakeling became the manager at Oxford Road in the 1975-76 season, whereas McCarthy continued to play under John Biddle until they both decamped to Bromley in 1975.

Over the years Cray Wanderers have been blessed with skilful wingers. I have been fortunate to witness many of them run rings round the opposition. I may not be able to get to any games at the moment but I still have my memories of all the games I have watched the Wands play over the years — and nobody can take those away from me.

In the final instalment of this mini series, I will be covering the Cray Wanderers strikers between 1967 and 1973, including one who went absolutely berserk at a refereeing decision and ended up getting banned sine die. Not to be missed!