Kazimierz Deyna

[gordondaviesmoustache]

The massive floodlights of course

Of course!

 

[petrusha]

I didn’t go to the Bristol game but I distinctly remember photos of the goals being in the match day programme for the next game, against Ipswich, which as I posted earlier was the final game of the 1979/80 season.

I seem to recall Deyna rounding the Bristol keeper for one of the goals?

He would have fared much better twenty or so years later.

Maybe someone else can post it as YouTube has been made inaccessible where I live, but the Bristol City game was on Match of the Day and the goals from the 3-1 win are on YT. As I recall, we tore them apart in the first half and were 3-0 up at the break before coasting in the second period on a bright, sunny afternoon. As it was the game that mathematically made us safe that season, there was something of a party atmosphere.

According to the BM history section on this site, the crowd that day was 32,745, which was another particularly mendacious Swales special* - you could add almost another third on top of that and it would still be believable. As I recall, Deyna's goal came after the 'keeper dived full length to save a shot by Nicky Reid after a barnstoming run by the full-back, with the Pole tapping in the rebound.

It was a season of constant drama at City. First, there was Allison ripping apart Book's fine late-seventies side, followed by an uncertain start, then optimism in the run-up to Christmas (especially the wins against European Champions Forest and in the derby, with United flying high that season), a dispiriting winless run between the Saturday before Christmnas and well after Easter including the huimiliation at Halifax, before the positivity at the end of the campaign.

And after all that came the even more dramatic 1980/81 season, which is still one of my favourites as a Blue. But that's another story, and Deyna never got a look in once John Bond had arrived, not featuring at all in the first team under Bond before being transferred to the NASL.

* - The former physio Roy Bailey is on Twitter and wrote a while back that there were many suspicious attendance figures in this period of just below 33,000, since that was a figure at which the players started to receive a crowd bonus and they were certain that old PJS fixed the numbers to avoid paying it. I suppose that we can't be 100% sure, but, well, you wouldn't put it pas him, would you?!

 

[Stelea]

Deyna was a fantastic player and too good for the disorganised mess of a team he was playing in.
Remember my dad always taking a special interest in any foreign player in our league, even Stepanovic. Probably because of their ability to pass the ball rather than the lump it nature of English football back then.
We watched Stepanovic quite a bit for the reserves where was was captain and really did stand out on the pitch. Remember him scoring a lovely individual goal at the North Stand end and then going down on one knee to milk the applause.

 

[petrusha]

Deyna was a fantastic player and too good for the disorganised mess of a team he was playing in.
Remember my dad always taking a special interest in any foreign player in our league, even Stepanovic. Probably because of their ability to pass the ball rather than the lump it nature of English football back then.
We watched Stepanovic quite a bit for the reserves where was was captain and really did stand out on the pitch. Remember him scoring a lovely individual goal at the North Stand end and then going down on one knee to milk the applause.

I watched the resevres with my old man at the time as well, and remember that Stepanovich did indeed look really good. He was actually a right-back before he came to City, but that was the one position in which Malcolm never actually played him. He even featured on one occasion playing wide on the left with Paul Power out injured. It was against Wolves and there are extended Granada highlights on YouTube - unsurprisingly, he really struggled. He might actually have been a decent player for us, but he never really had a chance given the way he was used.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Maybe someone else can post it as YouTube has been made inaccessible where I live, but the Bristol City game was on Match of the Day and the goals from the 3-1 win are on YT. As I recall, we tore them apart in the first half and were 3-0 up at the break before coasting in the second period on a bright, sunny afternoon. As it was the game that mathematically made us safe that season, there was something of a party atmosphere.

According to the BM history section on this site, the crowd that day was 32,745, which was another particularly mendacious Swales special* - you could add almost another third on top of that and it would still be believable. As I recall, Deyna's goal came after the 'keeper dived full length to save a shot by Nicky Reid after a barnstoming run by the full-back, with the Pole tapping in the rebound.

It was a season of constant drama at City. First, there was Allison ripping apart Book's fine late-seventies side, followed by an uncertain start, then optimism in the run-up to Christmas (especially the wins against European Champions Forest and in the derby, with United flying high that season), a dispiriting winless run between the Saturday before Christmnas and well after Easter including the huimiliation at Halifax, before the positivity at the end of the campaign.

And after all that came the even more dramatic 1980/81 season, which is still one of my favourites as a Blue. But that's another story, and Deyna never got a look in once John Bond had arrived, not featuring at all in the first team under Bond before being transferred to the NASL.

* - The former physio Roy Bailey is on Twitter and wrote a while back that there were many suspicious attendance figures in this period of just below 33,000, since that was a figure at which the players started to receive a crowd bonus and they were certain that old PJS fixed the numbers to avoid paying it. I suppose that we can't be 100% sure, but, well, you wouldn't put it pas him, would you?!

No mate. I definitely wouldn’t. Have just had a peek at the attendances for that season and yes, most were just over 30,000. Thinking back to that Ipswich game I’d say the stadium was at least three quarters full. I remember the Platt Lane (where both our goals were scored) being pretty full which was a good indicator as it was usually the last of the three non-terrace ends to fill up. So about 40,000 would he my guess, which is way more than the stated attendance.

I think the official attendance at the time was 52,000 but I reckon you could (reasonably) safely get approaching 60,000 in.

 

[BringBackSwales]

Maybe someone else can post it as YouTube has been made inaccessible where I live, but the Bristol City game was on Match of the Day and the goals from the 3-1 win are on YT. As I recall, we tore them apart in the first half and were 3-0 up at the break before coasting in the second period on a bright, sunny afternoon. As it was the game that mathematically made us safe that season, there was something of a party atmosphere.

According to the BM history section on this site, the crowd that day was 32,745, which was another particularly mendacious Swales special* - you could add almost another third on top of that and it would still be believable. As I recall, Deyna's goal came after the 'keeper dived full length to save a shot by Nicky Reid after a barnstoming run by the full-back, with the Pole tapping in the rebound.

It was a season of constant drama at City. First, there was Allison ripping apart Book's fine late-seventies side, followed by an uncertain start, then optimism in the run-up to Christmas (especially the wins against European Champions Forest and in the derby, with United flying high that season), a dispiriting winless run between the Saturday before Christmnas and well after Easter including the huimiliation at Halifax, before the positivity at the end of the campaign.

And after all that came the even more dramatic 1980/81 season, which is still one of my favourites as a Blue. But that's another story, and Deyna never got a look in once John Bond had arrived, not featuring at all in the first team under Bond before being transferred to the NASL.

* - The former physio Roy Bailey is on Twitter and wrote a while back that there were many suspicious attendance figures in this period of just below 33,000, since that was a figure at which the players started to receive a crowd bonus and they were certain that old PJS fixed the numbers to avoid paying it. I suppose that we can't be 100% sure, but, well, you wouldn't put it pas him, would you?!

No you wouldn’t!

 

[Stelea]

I watched the resevres with my old man at the time as well, and remember that Stepanovich did indeed look really good. He was actually a right-back before he came to City, but that was the one position in which Malcolm never actually played him. He even featured on one occasion playing wide on the left with Paul Power out injured. It was against Wolves and there are extended Granada highlights on YouTube - unsurprisingly, he really struggled. He might actually have been a decent player for us, but he never really had a chance given the way he was used.

Probably never got a chance at Right Back due to Ray Ranson being there.
Ranson like Caton and Reid was one of Big Malc’s projects.
There is footage on YouTube of England v Yugoslavia circa 73 in which Stepanovic plays

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Probably never got a chance at Right Back due to Ray Ranson being there.
Ranson like Caton and Reid was one of Big Malc’s projects.
There is footage on YouTube of England v Yugoslavia circa 73 in which Stepanovic plays

Telling none of them made it as top players. I know Caton moved to Arsenal, but he struggled a bit and was moved on after a few years and dropped down a level, to Oxford iirc. Caton was highly rated when he first broke into the first team.

 

[Sky Blue Thinking]

Scalding hot pie? I doubt it. They only ever sold not even luke warm pies!

With dubious filling including lumps of gristle

 

[dennishasdoneit]

I was about 12 He got 10 out of 10 in the Sunday mirror or people ratings for a game I had watched the previous day.
The day he took Bristol City apart on virtually his own and gained a life long fan. He should have played more but for Allison

Another great insight into the quality of the player,even though past his best,whilst at City. Tabloid player ratings may not be revered by some fans,but in those days ,media football writers imo, tended to be so much more even handed in their analysis of the game.
I can only remember one other player getting marked 10 out of 10,and that was John Barnes for Liverpool, away at Palace after a 4-1 win.iirc