Chichester City's famous Sussex County League triumph recalled - 40 years on

A couple of weekends ago the title-winning squad were supposed to get together for a grand reunion to toast their victory and recall the old days. The coronavirus shutdown meant that was postponed, but it will still go ahead as soon as it is allowed.

But we can still celebrate the anniversary here, thanks to Chi City club photographer Neil Holmes, who has interviewed some of the key men who brought about the title win and has dug out photos and cuttings from the championship triumph with the help of the Observer archives and the West Sussex Records Office.

Today we recall how the title was won and hear the memories of the manager Richie Reynolds - then tomorrow (Thursday) we allow some of the members of the team, including skipper Greg Brown, plus club stalwart Trevor Wallis, to relive the triumph.

How it happened

The 1979-80 Sussex County League season, the 55th in the competition’s history, featured two teams at opposite ends of the likely success ratings.

Southwick hadn’t finished outside the top six in ten years, winning the league in 1975 and being runners-up in 71, 77, and 79.

In that same ten years, Chichester City’s successes had come early, as runners-up in 1970, third place in 1972 and winners in 1973. There followed two 11th places and a few relegation dogfights.

In 1979-80, Southwick would have been fully justified in thinking they were favorites for the title, having been beaten to the title by Peacehaven & Telscombe the previous season.

Chichester had avoided relegation at the end of an awful season, when they’d looked sure to go down, thanks to the appointment of Richie Reynolds, whose side won seven and draw three of the last ten games with the same team. They had momentum but many still saw them as likely strugglers in 79-80.

After ten games, Southwick were top of the league with nine wins and a draw. City had two wins, two defeats, and a draw from their first five games, but soon improved.

Don't miss this week's Chichester Observer series for a page devoted to Chichester City's Sussex League glory of 1979-80

City played 14 cup ties that season including three rounds in the FA Vase, while Southwick played 18 cup games.

But Chichester City were more consistent when it mattered – they did not lose in their last 12 games, (nine wins, three draws), whereas Southwick’s last 12 games produced three defeats. City also had some luck, with late goals that either saved a point or snatched both.

Manager of the time RICHIE REYNOLDS tells Neil Holmes about City's title win

I went to Chichester City in the 1978-19 season when a good friend of mine Tony Grundy got wind of me turning Yeovil down, phoned me up and said “what are you doing messing about at Carshalton, why don’t you come and run Chi City?”.

I thought at that time the Sussex County League was a bit lower than I wanted to go, as I was playing in the Devon County League at 14, but he set up a meeting with John Hutter, who offered me £20 a week for players’ expenses.......how could I turn down an offer like that?

The turnaround was remarkable, and I don’t think anyone has achieved the same since. They were on a run of nine defeats, we had a couple of training sessions, then straight into the first game which was away at East Grinstead on an awful pitch, we won 4-1.

That first game did them the world of good, to go away from home, knee deep in mud and get a result like that, it gave them so much confidence. Of the ten games left in the 1978-79 season, we won seven and drew three, and stayed in the first division.

I just changed the organisation really, everyone knew what job they had to do, they were a very quiet team, so I worked on making them a lot more vocal and I made Greg Brown captain for that reason. But it worked, they were a good bunch of lads, a couple weren’t good enough, but we got through. Then the next season I only brought in a couple of players to go with what we had.

For 79-80, having just returned from Holland I introduced a European system where we played a short passing game from the back. I banned our goalkeepers from kicking long, I played Neil O’Boyle as a sweeper behind Duncan Clough and we immediately became very tight at the back.

We played with two wingers. Both Dave Egleton and Gary Wheatcroft – who I got from Southampton through John Mortimore – played on the touchline when we had possession and they tucked in to give us four across the middle when we lost possession.

Greg Brown sat in the middle to allow me the freedom to support our two strikers, Gary James and Terry Vick, and we started to dominate teams and confidence was very quick in coming.

I played in midfield with Greg Brown, and I used to say to Greg ‘play the ball in behind the defence for Gary James and Terry Vick to chase’. Tey did a lot of work I’ll give them that and scored a lot of goals, they did really well. It surprised me actually because when I first came in, I didn’t think Terry could kick a ball, and I thought what have we got here, but in that first game at East Grinstead he was brilliant.

We didn’t have a great start, with some mixed results, but started to get things going. We had a lot of postponed games due to cup games, including a good run in the FA Vase and bad weather, which meant we had to play 12 games in a month at the end of the season. We did it though, winning nine and drawing three. Then it was on to the title decider at Southwick

We’d played Shoreham away three days before the Southwick game, where we’d needed a win to seal the title, but came out with a 1-1 draw, so we had to go to Southwick and get a draw.

Southwick had been top of the league most of the season, and because of postponements we played them last game. We needed a draw, but Southwick needed a win to get the title on goal difference.

There was no inspirational team talk needed because my players knew what was required and gentle encouragement at half-time to reassure was all that was needed. The talking which was needed to win this title was bellowed out a few weeks earlier at Steyning when we were hammered 5-2.

It was after this game that I told these players they would win the title. For the first and last time this team went into a game too over-confident. They soon came back down to earth and didn’t lose again.

I didn’t change the way we played as I was always committed to playing our 4-4-2, which suited the players we had. I thought we should have won the game.

Quite a lot of the game was in our half, but the defence held on. Then with 11 minutes left I gave away a penalty. It was never a penalty, I often wondered if the referee ever had a good night’s sleep after that (VAR should have been there!) but the boy hit the post and their chance was gone.

I was very proud of my achievements at Chi, in particular winning seven and drawing three of the last ten games in 78-79 to keep a team who had just lost the last nine from being relegated, and also very proud at winning the title especially as we did it with the same group of players that were struggling so much prior to my arrival! We only lost four games in 40 matches.

Tomorrow: skipper Greg Brown and other key figures remember the glorious win

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