{"id":4666,"date":"2022-01-29T09:44:30","date_gmt":"2022-01-29T09:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=4666"},"modified":"2022-02-04T18:02:15","modified_gmt":"2022-02-04T18:02:15","slug":"ray-kennedy-an-arsenal-appreciation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=4666","title":{"rendered":"Ray Kennedy – an Arsenal appreciation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From arsenal.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The death of Ray Kennedy prompted an outpouring of praise and appreciation for a player who had achieved a huge amount in a career plagued at its end by the effects of Parkinson\u2019s Disease, the condition which eventually claimed his life at the age of 70. Whilst Arsenal fans can be paranoid about media bias it was reasonable in this instance to focus on the fact that he achieved the bulk of his success with Liverpool. But he was an extraordinarily decorated player and in the first four or five seasons of his remarkable career he achieved that success with Arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This appreciation of a very important figure has been constructed around a central piece by our old friend Ray Coggin, a frequent and welcome contributor to the site. It then draws on memories from some of Ray Kennedy\u2019s teammates and a number of Arsenal fans who remember the impact he had on our club. To score one goal of epic importance in the history of a club is a remarkable achievement. To score two, as Ray did, is extraordinary and assures him of a permanent place in any Arsenal Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will let Ray Coggin <\/strong>introduce this tribute, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Older fans will be aware of course that previously, on the 3rd May 1971 the great \u201cdouble\u201d winning team secured the club\u2019s first league title in 18 years at our old \u201chome\u201d ground, White Hart Lane. This was thanks in no small part to the rapid emergence of a talented young striker by the name of Ray Kennedy, not to be confused of course with my mother\u2019s brother, my uncle Ray Kennedy, sadly not related! Arsenal\u2019s Ray had formed a formidable partnership with John Radford and together their goals had propelled Arsenal forward to great things, ending the club\u2019s years in the doldrums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Ray Kennedy came from the humble mining community of Seaton Delaval in Northumbria. His father Martin was a miner and his mum Veronica, a housewife. Like many boys in the north east Ray possessed a great talent for playing the beautiful game. A local scout for the Potteries club Port Vale had spotted Ray playing for his school and alerted his boss, none other than the great Stanley Matthews as to Ray\u2019s potential. Stan Matthews made it his job to visit Ray\u2019s parents to persuade them to let him sign schoolboy terms for Port Vale. One can only imagine the pride that his parents must have felt when, out of the blue they were paid a visit by one of the greatest names in English football. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Unfortunately, Matthews later decided that Ray wasn\u2019t going to make the grade as his physique wasn\u2019t suited and he would probably remain too slow to make it in the professional game. So, Ray returned home and began to play for local side New Hartley Juniors. That successful, free scoring team were winning enough games to alert more scouts and he was soon noticed by Arsenal. So as a seventeen-year-old he found himself being taken on by Arsenal as an apprentice. Six months later he had done well enough to be given a professional contract and he signed in November 1968.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Only ten months later in September 1969 Ray was given his big chance when he was named as a substitute in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup game against Glentoran. It was the beginning of the long running troubles that had broken out in Northern Ireland and the weekend had seen rioting and arrests in Belfast with 1100 British troops being flown in to keep the peace. The game went ahead in front of a crowd of 13,000 and Ray came on to replace John Radford in a game that Arsenal lost 0-1. Having won the first leg 3-0 at Highbury the Gunners went safely through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I was at the Highbury game with my sister (Bodrum Gooneress). Arsenal must have lost the toss and attacked the North Bank in the first half. The quite sparsely populated game, with only 24,292 in attendance, meant that the stadium was almost two thirds empty. This gave us the opportunity to walk from the North Bank through the West Side Terrace to the Clock End for the second half. This was the only time the gates were unlocked for a first team match in my experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018On the 18th October 1969 Ray made his First Division debut at Roker Park, Sunderland in a 1-1 draw. His first goal came on the 28th February 1970 in the home game against Sunderland in a 3-1 win. He really cemented himself in Arsenal history when he came on as a 77th minute sub against Anderlecht in the first leg of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final at the Constant Vanden Stock stadium, Anderlecht.  In the 82nd minute Ray headed a consolation goal to reduce the arrears to 1-3. He took no part in the return leg at Highbury the scene of the famous 3-0 final victory, but it was that headed goal that turned the tide in Arsenal\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The following season, Ray firmly established himself as a first team legend. He got his chance due to a serious injury to Charlie George. Ray came into the team to partner John Radford and formed a formidable strike force that brought our first League Championship since 1953, culminating with that winning header against Tottenham in May \u201871.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With the score still 0-0, with 3 minutes left at the Lane, Ray Kennedy connects with a Geordie Armstrong cross from the left. From zapsportz.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The ball soars past Pat Jennings and in off the underside of the bar to give Arsenal a 1-0 victory and the 1970-71 league title. From arsenal.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u2018At this time my home was in New Barnet.  Local residents included people of the music industry that frequented the shop. One night in the launderette, I met none other than Arsenal star Ray Kennedy doing his laundry. He was at the height of his Arsenal career and meeting him in this unusual circumstance was more important to me than the other glitterati around me. Having Arsenal\u2019s top scoring forward (we didn\u2019t call them strikers then) as a neighbour really was rubbing elbows with the stars! He was packing up his washing as I walked in, and startled by his presence I asked him, \u201cDo you have to wash your own kit?\u201d He chuckled as he picked up his bag. Leaving he looked at me and said in his North East accent, \u201cNo, Bertie Mee does that!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Ray topped our scoring chart with 26 goals in the 70-71 season, but in the close season first team coach Don Howe left the club to take up the manager\u2019s job at his old club West Bromwich Albion. Don was replaced by Steve Burtenshaw which resulted in a perceived loss of effort on behalf of the squad. Ray again top scored with 19 goals in the 71-72 season, but the rot had set in on his Arsenal career. The strict physical regime that Howe had maintained disappeared and along with it, Arsenal\u2019s fortunes took a turn for the worse. Ray\u2019s form also took a dive and his weight had started to become a problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018By 1973 Ray had suffered problems on and off the pitch. His health had shown indications of problems as early as 1970 but he was able to shrug it off until it got the better of him in later years. He blamed his loss of form at Arsenal on marriage problems and assured people that after the relationship ended his form would pick up. . Mee had brought in Brian Kidd to replace him and decided to move Ray Kennedy on, so he left for Liverpool in the summer of 1974. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ray Kennedy signs for Liverpool. From lfchistory.net<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It took someone with the genius of Liverpool\u2019s Bob Paisley to have the vision to move Ray from the striker\u2019s role to that of a midfielder. Ray\u2019s career blossomed to make him one of the most decorated players in the history of British football. Even when his Liverpool career came to an end, he continued to add trophies to his lengthy well documented haul with a Welsh Cup winners medal with Swansea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Sadly, his domestic life continued to be a struggle and the debilitating Parkinson\u2019s disease that had probably shown manifestations in his younger years eventually got the better of him. It finally claimed him in November last year at the age of 70. The memory of him leaping to head those goals in an Arsenal shirt lives on with me and those of us lucky enough to see him play at both our homes at Highbury and White Hart Lane.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ray\u2019s biography encapsulates the significance of a very fine player. His rise to fame was meteoric and very welcome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bob Wilson<\/strong> was someone who closely shared those successes with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ray and Bob in 1971. From twitter.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It was my absolute privilege to have been a teammate of Ray Kennedy. Unassuming, modest, a gentle giant of a player. Ray\u2019s partnership with Raddy, John Radford, 50 years ago as we achieved Arsenal\u2019s first League and FA Cup double, was outstanding. Fifty goals scored between them that season. Also, Ray brought us back from the edge of defeat and gave us hope in the 1970 European Fairs Cup Final 1st leg v Anderlecht with his late substitute goal. We all know what happened a week later, the first major trophy triumph for Arsenal in 17 long years. And then the headed goal one year later that made us the 1970-71 League Champions and gave me the best night of my entire playing career at of all places White Hart Lane. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just a pity most of the rest of his illustrious career came at Liverpool. His courage and fortitude in accepting and living with his Parkinson\u2019s disease from his early 30\u2019s until his death speaks volumes for our friend. I will never forget his smile and happiness on that night at Spurs in 1971.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly Frank Mclintock<\/strong> when talking about \u2018The Match of my Life\u2019 called Ray \u2018an unsung hero\u2018. He found it hard to believe that we could acquire a player as good as Ray in the way we did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Another mystery was how Port Vale, locked for so long in the lower divisions, let Kennedy go. They decided he was not good enough, but for us he was a sensation, scoring 19 goals in the league alone that season. He was a strange boy, kept himself to himself and when he arrived we knew nothing about him other than that Port Vale had bombed him out. He and John Radford played so well together, scoring vital goals and dragging defenders all over the pitch. They were a terrific pair! \u2018 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ray, Frank and Raddy after the \u201971 FA Cup Final. From arsenalarsenal.net<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Our own North Bank Ned<\/strong> also has fond memories of this lad from the North-East. But his memory is an unconventional one! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I remember well the first time I didn’t see Ray Kennedy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It was in the March of his debut season, 1969-70. We were at home in the second leg of the Fairs Cup quarter-final against Dinamo Bacau, thrashing the Romanians, 7-1. Raddy got a brace. So did Charlie George and Jon Sammels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018But Ray Kennedy was nowhere to be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Here’s the backstory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I was at Highbury that evening with a teammate from a midweek side. He also fancied himself as a tactical visionary. One of his theories was that to counter defences using a sweeper, teams should get rid of centre-forwards and play two wingers as Jimmy Greaves-like inside forwards. Not the twisty, little, bandy-legged wingers but the big, strong, direct, pacy ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018This advice was freely given to any club. Still, my teammate thought Arsenal was moving in that direction by pushing George Graham back from centre-forward into midfield and moving Radford inside from the right-wing. What we needed to have done next, he thought, was to buy a left-sided equivalent \u2014 and not Peter Marinello.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018He had seen this kid we had brought in as an apprentice from up North, where he had been scoring goals in amateur football by the dozen, play left wing for the reserves. He thought he might fit the bill, though he might be too slow for First Division football. This teenager had come on as a sub in a couple of earlier rounds of the Fairs Cup. Expecting the same against Dinamo Bacau, we were there to check him out with the first team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018A fool’s errand, as it turned out. Ray Kennedy didn\u2019t make the team sheet even as sub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It would be a year until I saw Ray Kennedy in the flesh, against Liverpool, as it happened, in the league at a jam-packed Highbury. Again, I was there with my teammate, who had snuck me into the press box (different times!). We slid past John Arlott, no less, to take our seats!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Kennedy, by then, was established as Raddy’s strike partner, vindicating my team mate\u2019s early championing of 4-4-2 (even a stopped clock is right twice a day). But it happened by accident. Charlie George broke his ankle early in the season, and Ray got his chance. In football, them’s the breaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018He scored 26 goals that season, but not that day. It was a tight, hard-fought game, much closer than the 2-0 scoreline suggests. Shankly’s Liverpool were mighty then. Ray had a couple of half-chances in the first half, but Smith and Lloyd snuffed them out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It looked as if he would score late into the second half when he latched onto a flick from George Graham and rounded Clemence but lost the ball to Lloyd in the mud of the six-yard box. Raddy poked it off Lloyd’s toes and into the net.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Fairs Cup winning Arsenal squad. From onlinegooner.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

1970-71 was the zenith for Ray at Arsenal. But his important header in Brussels was arguably the goal that won us the Fairs Cup the season before – it was the only away goal by either side in the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember Ray well. I remember him coming on at the very end of a serious beating by Chelsea at Highbury in 1970 as a substitute given three minutes to turn around a 3-0 deficit. It was January 1970 and the two teams were heading in different directions. Fifteen months later I remember going to a wedding reception in Chelsea with my then girlfriend on the day we beat Chelsea 2-0 to pile increasing pressure on Leeds. Everyone bar us was a dejected Chelsea fan. It was a very nice feeling!  The scorer of our two goals was Ray Kennedy. It followed on from his goal past Gordon Banks, a few days earlier as we reached Wembley in the FA Cup for the first time in 18 years. A few days after the Chelsea win we struggled past Coventry with a late strike from\u2026you\u2019ve guessed it\u2026Ray Kennedy.In the following season he decided a three game FA Cup marathon with the only goal of the second replay against that season\u2019s champions Derby County. The following season I remember him rising in characteristic Kennedy fashion to head the winning goal in a titanic FA Cup sixth round replay against Chelsea at Highbury. In his last season with us he scored our first goal of the season after three minutes against Manchester United at Highbury. His last goal was, I believe, our winner at Anfield which gave the title to Leeds United. It was that performance which persuaded Liverpool to sign him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A typically dynamic Ray Kennedy against Newcastle, 1973. From The Grauniad<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

From that miscellany of Arsenal goals, it is clear that Ray was not just a great scorer of goals but a scorer of big goals in big games against big sides, the sort that remained etched in your memory forever. His departure to Anfield was a surprise and a disappointment as it is always sad to lose scorers of iconic goals who have made special memories for your club. Ray\u2019s replacement, Brian Kidd was quite sensational in his first season in a terrible Arsenal team while Ray struggled initially at Anfield but the switch to a midfield role transformed him and the rest is history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal and Liverpool, remain rivals whose history is intertwined with great games against each other, Cup Finals and championship deciders, pivotal games that embellish the history of both clubs and the rivalry is intense and enduring. But in one respect the clubs are united. United by the fact that a shy young lad from the North-East achieved feats of huge magnitude and significance for both clubs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ray Kennedy, 1970. From Michael H on Pinterest<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Ray Kennedy, we salute you! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rest in Peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The death of Ray Kennedy prompted an outpouring of praise and appreciation for a player who had achieved a huge amount in a career plagued at its end by the effects of Parkinson\u2019s Disease, the condition which eventually claimed his life at the age of 70. Whilst Arsenal fans can be paranoid about media bias […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4666"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4666"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4766,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4666\/revisions\/4766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}