Seven decades of Cardiff City v West Ham United matches.

Posted on November 3, 2026 by The other Bob Wilson

With me posting messages on City matches on Sunday mornings, I’ve fallen into the habit of forgetting to mention the Cardiff City Women’s team because they play their matches a few hours later in the afternoon.

With them losing two games early in their season, it looked like they would not be involved in a title race which looked like it was coming down to a tussle between the North duo, Wrexham and TNS. However, City extended a winning run that has elevated them into third position, not too far behind the top two with an ultimately comfortable 3-1 win over Swansea last weekend despite falling behind to a thirty five yard howitzer.

An own goal had City level before half time and they hit the front with Haile Richards from the penalty spot in the 83rd minute and then three minutes later, Shannon Evans made sure of the win with a header from a corner.

As for City’s first team, they face the side fancied by many to lift the title come May, West Ham. It’s a mixed blessing that the game is being played at Cardiff City Stadium where we remain unbeaten because with three wins and three draws from their six away games, the Hammer’s away record is top of the table standard, but, with them down in eighth place and their manager Nuno Santos coming under pressure, it’s the three home defeats they’v e already suffered that is holding them back.

I was quietly confident that we could beat Birmingham, but, until you know what your centreback pairing is going to be as City potentially could be without Perry Ng, Dylan Lawlor, Calum Chambers, Kristian Bielik, Will Fish and Alex Robertson due to injury, Isaak Davies was not in the squad on Saturday and no reason has yet been given for this Callum Robinson still seems to be on the naughty step and Gabe Osho is serving the last game of his suspension.

So, it’s hard to know what to expect tomorrow – my mind goes back to a 4-1 win over the Hammers in a night match at about this stage of the 04/05. season when we were in a similar position to where we are now, but I think that the most likely outcome will be that we suffer a first home league defeat.

On to the quiz, I’ll post the answers on here on Thursday.

60s. This centreback had a brilliant claim to fame. As a graduate in modern languages, he was used as an interpreter by his first club in a bid to sign the great Alfredo Di Stefano from Real Madrid in 1964 – he flew out to Madrid as part of the club party in what turned out to be unsuccessful negotiations. Apart from West Ham, all of his clubs were based in his native country. He signed for West Ham after being a long term back up to a club legend and, more or less, had the same role during his three years at Upton Park. He moved from West Ham to another East End, before finishing up at the Rock. He passed away at 65, another footballing motor neurone disease victim, can you name him?

70s. Name the Cardiffian who played in the same West Ham sides as Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst.

80s. Did this striker con a World Cup winner?

90s. Are Inca warriors involved in physical exercise.

00s. Scorches famous frontman?

10s. Accompaniment at Mornflake Stadium?

20s. Taciturn speed merchant maybe!

Posted in Memories, 1963 - 2023 | Tagged | Leave a comment

Don Murray.

Posted on November 2, 2026 by The other Bob Wilson

It’s now been confirmed by the club website that Don Murray, one of the greats of my Cardiff City supporting life, has passed away at the age of 80. There was a message on social media from a reliable source this morning giving this news and now we’ve had it confirmed by the club he served for thirteen years, most of them as captain, through most of the sixties and well into the seventies.

There had been a Just Giving type appeal for Don last season as news emerged that he was battling Lewy body Dementia, so news of his death should not have come as a surprise, but, as I mentioned on a messageboard this morning, Don had an indestructible quality to him as exemplified both by his longevity as a player and also by the fact for, someone of my age in particular, he was just always there!

Don was there for my first game watching City in 1963 when I was 7 and in 1975 when I was 19 – I literally grew from boy to man with Don Murray leading the City team out with the number five shirt on his back!

That feeling of him always being there lingers because it was quite literally true. Only Phil Dwyer and Tom Farquharson have played more games for the club than Don, but he’s a record holder as far as consecutive league games goes. There was a time in the late sixties when City were transforming from perennial Second Division strugglers to one of the best sides in the division when our back four was always Carver, Murray, Harris, Bell and for three years from 1968 until 1971, Don racked up an unbroken run of 146 appearances, while right back Dave Carver was playing 130 plus straight games as well if I remember rightly.

I’m pretty confident that Don holds another club record as I cannot believe that there is another City player from Great Britain that was born further away from Cardiff than he was. He hailed from a village called Duffus which is slightly further north of us than Dingwall, the home of Ross County, where John Buchanan hails from.*

As for Don the player, I can remember being very impressed as a kid by the fact that he had captained a Rest of the World youth eleven against England youth at Wembley- that’s an indicator of youthful promise, but I don’t see how anyone could claim that his career reached the heights such an honor suggested, then again, he would to have been, say, a Beckenbauer to have done so!

For me, Don’s time at City could be viewed in two distinct parts – pre (Brian) Harris and post Harris. I’d categories the first phase as raw, but pretty effective, with the occasional spectacular own goal (one against Millwall springs to mind) and loss of discipline (although I’m not sure his record in that part of the game was really as bad as it was painted at the time). 

Don needed a steadying hand alongside him and that came with one of the all time great City signings I’d say when you consider how little we paid for him. Don became one of the second tier’s best centre halves with Brian Harris alongside him. 

Was he good enough for the First Division? I think we would have found out if we’d been promoted in 70/71 because I cannot believe Jimmy Scoular would have left his captain out. I reckon he would have coped with it, with one of the reasons for that opinion being that he was a better footballer than he was often given credit for – some evidence to back up this claim being offered here with the superb cross he puts in for our second goal.

Like so many defenders of his era, Don would have had to modify his game to cope in the 2020s, but how modern Cardiff City could do with a leader like Don and how we could do with a centreback who could keep himself as fit as he did!

I’ll finish by recalling a night well after Don had retired when he and several other members of the 70/71 squad were invited to an event in 2011 to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the win over Real Madrid. The occasion offered a reminder of how softly spoken Don was, but I was most struck by how he and his team mates seemed so grateful to be given the chance to meet with fans to celebrate one of the great nights of their careers – Don, along with all of the other players present, came across as top blokes!

RIP

*A City fan who spent five years living in the Duffus area has informed me that, although Don grew up there, he was, in fact born in Elgin which would mean that he was born closer to Cardiff than John Buchanan. All of the reference sources I’ve checked say Don was born in Duffus, but gthat may not be the case.

Posted in Out on the pitch, R.I.P. | Tagged | 1 Comment