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Reckless Meets Colin Powell By Reckless This interview originally appeared in a Barnet programme. Reproduced by kind permission of the club. Les Eason, Lou Adams and Billy Meadows, who were prolific goalscorers for the club during the late 1960's and early 1970's, will all state that their job was made simple because of the midfield skills of Barry King and Gerry Ward, but more importantly by the service and wing play of Colin Powell. Of course it is not as simple as that but the fact is they have all said so. The press viewed Colin as the 'George Best of non-league football'. Powell is an all time favourite of many Bees fans, was without doubt one of the most exciting players to play for our club, was voted by the Barnet Football Club Supporters Association as 1970s Player Of The Decade and fully justifies the tag of a Legend Of Underhill. I met up with Colin, or Paddy as he is universally known, in the bar of the Metrogas Sports Club in Eltham where he still plays cricket in the summer and where his son David now plays as a striker in the Kent league. "I live just down the road in a nice house in New Eltham with my wife Sally and I do enjoy a Sunday at the club after matches, you must excuse me not having a drink with you Reckless but I have been up all night watching the cricket and drinking coffee!" he laughed. Colin, the middle of three brothers, was born in July 1948 in Hendon but soon moved to Stevenage with his parents. As a boy he followed Luton Town and also watched a lot of football at Hitchin Town who were a strong team in non-league at the time. "My earliest football memory was crying my eyes out when hearing about the Manchester Utd Munich Air Crash in 1958, the whole country was in mourning. As for heroes, Ray Whittaker was I suppose the first player I loved watching at Luton, he was an out and out winger. Approached by Barnet "I was lucky to go to Barclay School in Stevenage which was very sport orientated and my teacher Brain Williams, who also played for Hitchin, was an early mentor and more like a real manager than a teacher. I began as a midfielder in the Stevenage Youth team but wasn't physically strong so ended up out on the right wing and used my best asset which was my pace. I progressed into what was then the Stevenage Town first team at 17 thanks to manager George Curtis who took me under his wing. When the club went bust the manager then was Tommy Bickerstaff. He moved onto Cambridge City and planned to take some of his players with him. My mate Johnny Brooks, who I was working with as a window cleaner was one, and I was offered a contract too. I had made my mind up really but then Dexter Adams rang and said 'come and meet me for a chat'.
Paddy freely reminisced about those halcyon days; "There were some great players at Underhill when I arrived in 1968 and a bonus was the pitch condition which was superb, the best in the league. Most pitches in the Southern League were terrible and didn't suit Dexter's style of play for sure." Not only did Paddy terrorise full backs with his pace and trickery he also scored more than his fair share of goals.
"As I said I was earning a living as a window cleaner and then got a job with a company who made school furniture. Fortunately I never had a problem with getting time off for training on a Tuesday and Thursday and travelling to matches on Saturdays or midweek. You know I hadn't even leant to drive when I joined Barnet and used to have to get the train down unless I could wangle a lift!" He continued, "The social side at Barnet at the time was fabulous, most Saturdays we would be in the bar at 5.30 and if anyone left before half 10 they got slaughtered, that's how it was but we all tried to look after ourselves fitness wise." Paddy's record of fitness is second to none. "I hardly missed a game in my whole career and was lucky with injuries" he said proudly. To illustrate this Paddy played in over 250 games for the Bees in just five seasons scoring some 70 goals. FA trophy He spoke of the FA trophy semi final against Macclesfield at Stoke City in 1970 "We lost 0-1 that night because they beat us up basically, they certainly roughed Gerry up and kicked their way through the game. The Ref let them get away with murder, I was upset because that side had more than enough to grace Wembley. We eventually got there in 1972 against Stafford Rangers but we didn't turn up on the day as a team. The occasion was so special; the boys had visited the week before to look around it was extraordinary, but we missed early chances and frankly were well below par that day. It was the only time in my career that I played there too" Paddy's greatest hour in an amber and black shirt was during January 1973 and the FA Cup ties against QPR. Believe me that Phil Parkes' crossbar was shaking for a week courtesy of a Powell screamer in the last minutes which would have won the day for the Bees. "Yeah I caught it sweet, too well in fact" he chuckled. "I thought we completely outplayed them in the replay too until the last 20 minutes when the fitness told". The game at Underhill finished 0-3 in front of nearly 11,000 and the QPR team included the likes of Stan Bowles, Gerry Francis and Don Givens, it was a glorious night all the same. Time to Move On Shortly after this Theo Foley and Les Gore at Charlton Athletic approached Colin and offered him his first full time contract and Barnet allegedly £10,000, Paddy was 24. "Hereford Utd had shown an interest in me and we had nearly agreed terms but I said I needed time to think about moving from Hertfordshire, where I was settled, and from Barnet where honestly I was still happily playing. Anyway the money on offer from Hereford wasn't that different from my full time wages when coupled with the money from Barnet. Eventually I chose Charlton not only because the size and potential of the club (they were in the old Division 3 in 1973) but also the close proximity. I knew as did Barnet manager Tommy Coleman that the time was right to move on". Every Barnet follower was saddened to see Paddy leave Underhill, with his mop of thick blond hair on the right wing leaving full backs for dead time and time again, but we all knew he would progress. He was an exceptional talent and we had been fortunate to witness his maturity. He never let the side down and was one of those players who would give the crowd an instant lift of expectancy when he received the ball. I honestly believe only Andy Clarke and Dougie Freedman have come close to Paddy's ability to excite an Underhill crowd in that way. "I spent five brilliant seasons at Charlton, again hardly missing a game." He continued "I was approached by Derby County in 1977 about the same time that my mate Derek Hales moved there, Colin Murphy put a bid in for me but Charlton rejected it. I also spoke to Sheffield Utd too. I then briefly moved to America, to Boston Massachusetts playing for the New England Tea Men with my Charlton team mate Mike Flanagan. They forked out £90,000 for me! After a season there I returned to the Valley until 1981 partly because I was also offered one of the houses that Charlton owned to live in, so that was a big bonus". Rumours The rumour around that time was that Barry Fry had tried to sign Paddy for Barnet but Paddy denied this "No he didn't although we did speak a lot on the phone at the time". I also challenged him that he applied for the position of manager when Fry was sacked before moving to Maidstone. "No to that again, but I did think about it for sure, that is probably how the rumour started but no I didn't actually apply," he laughed. Colin appeared in over 320 games for Charlton Athletic over an 8-year period. "Alan Mullery took over and told me honestly 'Look Paddy, I want to bring in my own players and I am planning to sign a new winger called Carl Harris.' So, as my long time friend Keith Peacock had just become manager at Gillingham I joined them for a couple of seasons, even though I had 8 months left of my contract, and had a lovely time. It was a smashing club to play for. I drifted into non-league with Dartford and then Tooting & Mitcham and finally ended my playing career at Bromley. I had a spell as an assistant manager there with Trevor Ford and then as a manager in my own right at Margate for a while but managing wasn't for me." At 40 I was fortunate to get a job at Westminster School in London coaching football and also tending to the pitches. That was in my blood because as a nipper at Stevenage I would lend a hand with the pitch maintenance and also helped at my local cricket club too nursing the wickets. Roger Alwyn, the Charlton Chairman found out what I was up too and offered me work looking after their training pitches. Frankly the lure of the place was impossible to turn down and of course the club ultimately returned to the Valley after ground sharing at Selhurst Park and Upton Park. I eventually became head groundsman at the new stadium, it was perfect. I have been here ever since and part of Charlton for 34 years." Old Friends I asked him about old friends from Barnet. "The oldun's bump into one another now and then but I do keep in regular touch with Ben Embery, a lovely man. Even now he says to me 'I watched a game the other night Paddy and I know we would have put 6 past them'. He is right because we were a great side and were all close mates too. I sincerely mean it when I say I had some fabulous times at Underhill and I do follow their progress." These days Paddy keeps fit by playing Cricket every weekend in the summer although he doesn't pull on the football boots anymore. He is very close to his children. "No more football for me, but I do enjoy watching my son David play. He was at Welling and Gravesend and actually played in a FA cup-tie at Villa Park, that was a proud moment. I have two daughters, Lisa and Becky and I have just become a Grandfather too." I asked him what is in the future. "I desperately want Charlton to survive, because when you have sampled Premiership football you really don't want anything else, and to continue to be happy. However I will put today's football into perspective - when l Ieft Barnet and joined Charlton in 1973 I was earning £40 a week – I would have had to have played for 80 years to earn what Beckham earns in a week!" Paddy Powell would certainly be a millionaire if he played today, he is a Legend of Underhill and it was a sheer pleasure to meet him again. Photo Gallery Uncaptioned
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"I will always remember it
because I had no idea what Dexter looked like. I walked
out of Potters Bar station and glanced around the
forecourt and the only person I could see was a small man
in glasses, wearing a cravat and a trilby hat – that
can't be him surely? But it was! We went back to his
house for a cup of tea and he told me that he had only
seen me play once but had heard great things about me
– 'would I sign for Barnet?' I went home and spoke
to the lads and my parents and they all convinced me to
join not only because it was a big big club in the
Southern League with some top players it was also close
to home. I was 19 and I didn't do it for the money I can
tell you!"
"We all wanted to score for
that team and lord knows we created the chances, I did
really well considering who the forwards were. Eason and
Roger Figg were just great goalscorers while Billy
Meadows made his goals from just being Bill. If he had
been blessed with a bit more pace he would have become a
top class centre forward. Lou Adams was another forward
who was brilliant in front of goal plus Lou and I were
particularly close friends. But Gerry Ward was the truly
class player in that team, he really was. He was I think
27 when he joined, still in his prime, what a player, it
was a real privilege to play with Gerry.
