And another not a seven decades quiz.

I thought I’d finished with these quizzes for teams we never got to play in the sixties and eighties (we did play Wycombe in an FA Cup tie in 1975) once we’d got past Stevenage and Burton, but a look at what I did in 20/21 when we faced them in the Championship showed that I had to admit defeat as well with Wycombe.

Therefore, I’ll go with the same format as I did for those other two teams we’d not played enough games against and have a quiz where the answers come from the letters which make up the word Wycombe.

This time last year, Wycombe were involved in a three way battle for the two automatic promotion places with Birmingham and Wrexham. The first named of those two teams stretched clear in the second half of the campaign and were certs to win the title with months of the season left, but there were definitely times after the Christmas and New Year holiday period when they looked better placed than the Welsh team to accompany Birmingham into the Championship.

However, the loss of manager Matt Bloomfield to Luton turned out to be pivotal for Wycombe. Bloomfield’s successor Mike Dodds could not get the same response from the squad and they faded away to finish in the Play Off places – they were beaten at that stage by Charlton 1-0 on aggregate in just about the worst Play Off Semi Final tie I’ve ever seen,

Nevertheless, Wycombe were fancied to challenge for the Play Offs this season, but, after getting off to a miserable start, Dodds was sacked and replaced by ex Swansea boss Michael Duff who is a proven performer at this level. Duff looked to have turned things around and those Play Off predictions were not looking far off the mark when they had a very good October and November.

However, they’ve been inconsistent over the past six weeks or so with only two wins in the nine games in all competitions they’ve played in that time. That being said, the fact that those two victories came against Lincoln and Bolton tells you that they will be dangerous opponents on Thursday and they should certainly not be written off as possible Play Off contestants just yet.

I’ll post the answers to the quiz on Friday and, finally, can I wish all readers a very Happy 2026.

W. Which team beginning with a W were this City side embarrassed by in a Cup game?

Healey, Dwyer, Pethard, Grapes, Pontin, Thomas, Bishop, Buchanan, Evans, Stevens, Lewis with Micallef as an unused sub.

Y. Name three players with a surname beginning with a Y who have played first team football for City.

C. Two more obscure City opponents starting with the letter C to identify. The first saw two of our players score seven between them in what could be called a proper local derby and the second gave us a much tougher game as we travelled just over 15 miles to play in front of an estimated crowd of 500.

O. A non City related question now. Which ground beginning with the letter O has a stand called the Norway Stand. Also, when a new main stand in this ground was built nearly a hundred years ago, local folklore has it that the architect forgot to add plans for access to the seating area and a couple of external staircases had to be added to the structure after it had been built. Three years ago, it was announced that the club who play at the ground would share their stadium with a team from a historic venue which normally played its home games forty miles away, can you name the ground I’m describing?

M. One of the answers to a question above is something of a legend at this club beginning with a letter M which we once played in a cup tie that was switched to a venue forty miles away from their normal ground. This switch meant that the journey City fans had to make to watch the tie was extended to over 230 miles – who are the club concerned?

B. Can you identify this player with a surname beginning with the letter B from his former clubs?

Albion Rovers, Chesterfield, Sheffield United, Detroit Express, Washington Diplomats, Chicago Sting, Cardiff City, Kettering Town and Chesterfield.

In all, he played 570 League games in his career.

One other clue, he won one cap for his country in front of an 80,000 crowd in Bucharest.

E. An easy one to finish. We won on three of our first six visits to this club beginning with the letter E, the trouble is the last time it happened will be a hundred years ago come next December! Name the club.

Answers.

W. Despite goals by Phil Dwyer and John Buchanan, City went down to a 3-2 defeat at Worcester City in the Sixth Round of the Welsh Cup on 12 February 1979.

Y. I could only think of three, the easy one is Scott Young and then there’s Eddie Youds who made sub appearances for us against QPR in the FA Cup and in the league at Bolton as well as starting in a Welsh Cup tie with Port Talbot Athletic while on loan to us from Everton during the 89/90 season.  David Yorath’s one City appearance came in the Semi Final of a major Cup competition – he was our left back in the Second Leg of a League Cup Semi Final against West Ham in February 1966. City lost 5-1 in front of a crowd of 14,313 with the disappointing attendance being an indicator of the tie being almost all over after a First Leg which the Hammers win 5-2 at Upton Park.

C. Carl Dale scored four times and Nick Richardson three as we beat Caerau 9-0 in a Fourth Round Welsh Cup tie which was switched to Ninian Park on 5 December 1992.Seven years earlier, City had been very grateful to Nigel Vaughan and Chris Marustik  as the first named scored twice and the latter once to enable us to scrape through a Third Round Welsh Cup tie at Caerleon by 3-2 on 26 November 1985.

O. For a short while, Queens Park played their home games at Ochilview Park, Stenhousmuir while their New Hampden ground was being built.

M. The aforementioned David Yorath played for Margate at various times between 1968 and 1981 and his brother Terry has also managed the club. In December 2002, City were drawn away to Margate in the Second Round of the FA Cup and the game was switched to Dover Athletics’ Crabbe Ground – City won 3-0 thanks to goals from Peter Thorne, Willie Boland and Leo Fortune-West.

B. Scottish international Jim Brown was one of five “proper” goalkeepers we used in the 82/83 promotion season (Phil Dwyer and Lindon Jones both had a go between the sticks one afternoon at Bredford as well!). Brown played three times for us, saving a penalty in one of his appearances.

E. A Hughie Ferguson goal was enough to give us a 1-0 win at Goodison Park, Everton on 11 December 1926 and we’ve not beaten them in Liverpool since then.