Derek Possee

[Jonboy]

The following is an extract from the Vancouver Sun July 6, 2000.

Les Wilson & Derek Possee, who now hold two of the most important positions in the BC (British Columbia) Soccer Association, got their starts in the game as foes on the pitches of the English League.

Possee was hired as the BCSA's provincial head coach last November.

Possee, who hails from South London and is 54, played 19 seasons in the English League with Tottenham Hotspur, Milwall, Crystal Palace and Leyton Orientbefore signing with the Whitecaps early in the '77 season.

"When I played for Wolves, Derek was with Crystal Palace," Wilson recalls. "I remember those games very well. Derek was one of the top strikers in the English League at the time - a household name throughout the country. He was in his prime and a top-flight scorer".

This is before my time, but do any of the BBSers remember Derek?

[Gooders]

Oh yes indeed I do. He was a better player for Millwall than he ever was for us though.

I think they used him as a winger whereas we tended to play him as a central striker.

His goals to games ratio was quite poor.

Flattered to deceive, basically.

[gcwhite]

My memory is vague but didn't we buy him from Millwall in the middle of a big spending spree by Bert Head? In fact that might have been the spending spree that first got us in trouble financially. I remember him as a short winger. He certainly wasn't "one of the top strikers".

[Glazier]

Jonboy for your information,

Derek Possee - Played seasons 1972 to 1974

Appearances FL 51+2, FAC 1+1, FLC 1.Total 56.
Goals all competitions 13 total.

[Gooders]

He was taller than you'd think.

We didn't use him as a winger.

[Archiebald Leitch]

Memory may have faded Norm, but I recall him as a short slightly built centre forward.

AMMILLER has videos of matches with the boy Possee playing.

[Mike Douglas]

The program for the first couple of matches of 1974 tried to get nicknames going. It failed.
1. Paul Hammond (The Cage)
2. Paddy Mulligan (The Dealer)
3. Tony Taylor (The Road Runner)
4. Nick Chatterton (Interceptor)
5. Bobby Bell (Blockbuster)
6. Mel Blyth (Masterpiece)
7. Derek Possee (The Sheriff)
8. Charlie Cooke (The Card Shuffler)
9, Alan Whittle (The Hustler)
10. Dave Swindlehurst (The Problem)
11. Don Rogers (Troublemaker)

Sub. Bill Roffey (No nickname supplied)

Dave Swindlehurst was 17 and Nick Chatterton 18 which doesn't half make me feel old.

[johnny]

I remember a really good goal Possee scored against Stoke,from the edge of the box with the outside of his right foot.It's true though that he was better at Millwall-they were a good side in those days,Eamon Dunphy,Gordon Hill,Gordon Bolland,Keith Weller,Dennis Burnett....
I don't think he played for us at the right time,as we had a squad of about 100 towards the end of Bert Heads reign as manager (seemed like it anyway!)and Possee and players like him never got a decent run in a team that was always changing the more desperate the relegation dog fight became.

[selhurst]

I remember him well. In those the Holmesdale used to sing this song:

5 foot 2
eyes of blue
Derek Possee's after you!

remember that one jonesy?

[gcwhite]

What formation did we use in those days? Although I went to all the games and can go on and on about players like the legendary Don Rogers I haven't a clue if we played 4-3-3, 4-2-4 or whatever. Of course most games were viewed through an alcoholic haze courtesy of Young's Special so the finer points of tactics were never going to get much of our attention. I remember a brief period where we had Rogers and Hughes on the wings but how did the rest of the team fit in with that? Can some of you who were younger (and therefore not in the pub for 2 hours before the game) remember some of these finer points?

[selhurst]

http://www.zyworld.com/paulpaul9/possee6.jpg
DEREK POSSEE 61 appearances, 16 goals, signed from Millwall in Jan 1973 for £115,000. Joined Orient in 1974.

Diminutive Derek Possee was manager Bert Head’s last signing in the latter’s unsuccessful quest to retain our hard-won top flight status in 1972-73. A nimble and speedy winger, Derek responded positively to the challenge, even if the 1st Division of those days was rather beyond his capabilities, and no-one laid any blame for our eventual relegation at his feet.

The following term, after another dreadful start to the season, was better for Derek. Either on the flank or sometimes up the middle, he was one of Malcolm Allison’s first choices in our side and finished as second-top scorer only to the great Don Rogers.

From ‘Crystal Palace FC Player by Player since 1960’ by Rev Nigel Sands (Sporting & Leisure Press, 1996).


[This message has been edited by selhurst (edited 08 July 2000).]

[selhurst]

http://www.zyworld.com/paulpaul9/possee5.jpg
Derek Possee pictured in 1973.

[selhurst]

http://www.zyworld.com/paulpaul9/possee7.jpg
Back page of the programme, for the home match against Tottenham Hotspur, 27 January 1973. Possee is No.7.

[selhurst]

http://www.zyworld.com/paulpaul9/possee1.jpg
Derek Possee drives the ball past Peter Latchford to score his first goal for Palace, at West Brom, 10 February 1973.

[selhurst]

http://www.zyworld.com/paulpaul9/possee2.jpg
Possee in action at Selhurst Park, in the match against Birmingham City, 6 March 1973, attendance: 26,014.

[selhurst]

http://www.zyworld.com/paulpaul9/possee3.jpg
Possee's header is saved by Alex Stepney, Man Utd v Palace, 11 April 1973.

[selhurst]

http://www.zyworld.com/paulpaul9/possee4.jpg
Possee in action against Aston Villa,
11 September 1973.

[selhurst]

http://www.zyworld.com/paulpaul9/possee8.jpg
Possee shoots against Brighton, in a pre-season 'friendly' at the Goldstone,
August 1973.

[Sugar Loaf]

I think I remember him. Wasn't he a very short bloke?

[gcwhite]

So guys, was he a winger or a striker? And what formation did we play? And was I the only one drinking Young's Special? Alf, Tony, Pete, Dave and Mark where are you?

[Eagle El]

i remember him & Alan Whittle getting two apiece against Verona (I think) in the Anglo Italian Cup at Selhurst. I don't think we played it in the air much that evening!!

[Messenger]

The Anglo-Italian Cup, now that was a competition! I always felt that Possee was more a Millwall hero than a Palace one.

[selhurst]

http://www.zyworld.com/paulpaul9/ss1a.jpg
is Stephenson Soundbyte Derek Possee?
http://www.zyworld.com/paulpaul9/ss1b.jpg

[Sugar Loaf]

Yes! I always thought I recognised SS from somewhere.

[Messenger]

Stephenson is Possee!

[STEVECPFC]

I went on my first ever pre-season tour abroad to Sweden in 1974 by Inter-Rail and in the second game we played IF Saab in Linkoping (23 July 1974 - Nigel Sands 1905- 1995) and my hero, Malcolm Allison informed me that we had sold Derek Possee. I remember celebrating because I had spoken to my hero (unfortunately the only words)and we had got rid of him.
P.S. There were only two other Palace fans and and either of them wasn't Chris Wright

------------------

[Gooders]

Memories are playing tricks people!

We played him almost exclusively as a central striker.

I can see why people think he was short (he was slight) but my guess is that he was about 5 feet 10.

The "five foot two, eyes of blue..." song was about Alan Whittle, not Derek Possee.

Formation at that time? Well it was the days of Left Backs, Centre Halves, Half Backs, Inside Forwards and Wingers so I suspect it was 3-2-5 same as everyone else (or 3-4-3 if the inside forwards played a bit deeper).

Anyone else remember how radical the concept of "twin centre-halves" still was in those days?

Anyway, back to Possee's height - where's the Rev Nigel Sands when you need him?

[gcwhite]

Originally posted by Gooders on 07-10-2000 04:35 PM
Memories are playing tricks people!
.......
Anyone else remember how radical the concept of "twin centre-halves" still was in those days?



You're right about memories playing tricks. The older I get the vaguer things become. Anyway I'm 6'5" so Possee is still short as far as I'm concerned. And he wore No 7 so he must have been a winger. http://www.cpfc.org/ubb/smile.gif

Talking of radical concepts I have a memory of a trip to Craven Cottage one Easter when Big Mal played two wide men but no central strikers. Some kind of contintental idea. We won 3-1 so it worked quite well. I think we then played Fulham at home either the next day or the day after and we lost 2-0. So much for that radical concept!


[This message has been edited by gcwhite (edited 10 July 2000).]

[Gooders]

Good point GC - height is relative and as I'm 5'7" I suppose I wouldn't regard him as short!

I'll see if I can find any reference to it in my old books this evening though - it's bugging me now!

I saw that he was referred to as "diminuative" - in those days that epithet was definitely reserved for the real short-arses like Alan Ball, Alan Whittle and Bobby Kellard.

I too have the video that features Possee and it was that, more than my memory, that made me realise he wasn't as short as I thought.

I know you're as anxious as I am to find the answer, NOT!

[Adrian]

Blimey! This is all very impressive....

...what happens if I mention

BOBBY WOODRUFF??

[Gooders]

I'm afraid he was ever-so-slightly before my Palace time, Adrian,

Tall, lean, blonde bloke? Not much cop?

[David Battle]

I seem to remember that after 20 games Possee had only managed one goal.
There were also occassions when he played up front with Rogers and Whittle giving us the shortest forwardline of all time.

[gcwhite]

Originally posted by Adrian on 07-10-2000 06:13 PM
Blimey! This is all very impressive....

...what happens if I mention

BOBBY WOODRUFF??

Now you're talking. My first Palace hero. Chanting "Bobby, Bobby" whenever we got a throw in. Long throws, great goals. Enduring image, isn't it .....

[selhurst]

I just think it's a shame that Stephenson Soundbyte or jonesy haven't responded to this thread.

[Gooders]

Ok GC, I had a look in my "Palace Player by Player" book last night and there's no mention of Possee's height.

So I got out my Palace "Classic Matches" video and watched the 3-2 victory against Stoke from 1973 which featured him quite a lot.

I was mistaken, he is indeed not large! He was not playing as a winger (we had Don Rogers and Charlie Cooke in the team at the time so it's hardly surprising) - he was playing more as a twin-striker with that other not large bloke, the aforementioned Alan Whittle.

Camera angles can be deceptive and the Stoke defenders were all quite big with mops of unruly hair (and enormous sideburns!) but I would guess that Mr Possee was about 5'8".

Not "diminutive" perhaps, but certainly small for a striker. He won a few headers in that game though!

Shall we put him to bed now?

By the way, I read the stats on Woodruff. He did indeed leave Palace in the season that I started watching them. His goals to games tally for us was quite impressive.

Played for Wolves before us and after he left he played about 4 seasons for Cardiff without such a good strike rate and then a couple of seasons with Newport County with an even worse one. Seems we definitely got the best out of him.

[gcwhite]

Cheers Gooders. It's strange that I often look back on the 72/73 season as a golden time with exciting players such as Rogers. And then I remember that we were actually relegated! That's enough of Memory Lane for now. Back to the future.

[Gooders]

I know - I still can't believe we got relegated that season - that was the year we thumped the red scum 5-0 (and it could easily have been 10!)

I meant to mention - the STATE of the pitch in those days! It was like the proverbial quagmire. Perhaps that was a significant factor in the in-and-out form of people like Rogers, Cooke, Whittle etc?

You're right though - let's look forward to next season.

If the two Arsenal boys that we're allegedly about to sign are half as good as Cole, things are looking up!

[gcwhite]

I rest my case. Possee was a shortarse! http://my.genie.co.uk/gcwhite/images/POSSEE.JPG

[This message has been edited by gcwhite (edited 30 January 2001).]

[This message has been edited by gcwhite (edited 30 January 2001).]

[Ian Hart]

Possee was a really stupid signing. His reputation was largely built upon one (admittedly spectacular) goal in a very good season he had for Millwall. It was shown over and over in the ITV Sunday equivalent of Match of the Day (What was it called? The Big Match? On The Ball?) and was voted their goal of the season. When Millwall decided to sell him they accepted a bid from West Ham. He was about to go there, when Palace matched the fee, but offered a vastly higher salary. Sadly, this persuaded him to sign for us. I met him a few years later, and he admitted it was such "silly money" that he couldn't say no, otherwise he would have chosen the Hammers.

We were throwing money around at the time, with very little thought of whether the players we were getting would actually fit in together. Consequently, we ended up with a strike force of Whittle, Rogers & Possee, all individually good, but all of whom came about half way up the goal-post. Consequently, anything played up the field above head height, tended to come straight back again. What we were crying out for, rather than Possee, was a target man.

Allison persevered with the same stupid line-up when he took over. Down we went. It was only part way through the next season (when, from memory, he introduced Swindlehurst) that he acknowleged such a line-up would never work.