Part 2 His Memories Of His Time With Salford
Making the change from rugby union to rugby league is not something which can be undertaken in a brief period of time, particularly for a forward, so it is unsurprising that for John Knighton, who had had virtually no experience of league, it took quite some time for him to make his mark.
“I spent the first twelve months of my time in the ‘A’ team, getting used to the requirements of a second row forward in the game.
“I quite enjoyed the time with them because they were a good team in themselves and that helped me in making progress with my own game.
“Friday nights at Salford were renowned for the games at The Willows, and we played alternate Friday evenings to the first team, so people just had the habit of coming to a game, every Friday to start off each weekend.
“Consequently, our attendances were quite exceptional for a second-string side, and it got me used to playing in front of a big crowd, and all in all, it gave me a very good grounding.
“Obviously, in view of our successes, Ken Roberts was a good leader, and he played in quite a few matches with us as well, and it was thanks to him, in part, that within a year of so I got promoted to the first team.”
With his progression to the higher echelons of the club, John found himself in a somewhat different environment to that to which he had previously been accustomed.
“Cliff Evans was the coach, but under him were both Les Bettinson and Alan McInnes. Alan was another teacher from our neck of the woods, who had joined the club in the mid, to late, sixties as a stand-off, before moving into the centre, on the arrival of David Watkins.
“Les undertook more of the fitness training, while Cliff would plan out all the moves, select the team, and determine the tactics for each game.”
John’s biggest surprise, on his debut, came in the last few minutes in the changing room, which were considerably different from those he had experienced in his union days.
“I had got used to a really big build up in the dressing room prior to going out onto the field, with people winding each other up to full pitch, in readiness for the kick-off.
“Nothing like that happened at all, however. The referee just blew his whistle, and we all trooped out onto the pitch. But then, once the ball had been kicked, it seemed like World War 3 had started.
“Our prop forward, Graham McKay, in particular, set off at a tremendous rate, tackling players right left and centre and generally putting himself about with some ferocity. To a certain extent that was their replacement for the warm-up we used to have back in my union days.”
Actually meeting up with all the stars of the first team was not, for John, the overwhelming experience it usually proved to be for many newcomers into the side.
“Because, as a union player from south Manchester, I had never even seen a game of rugby league until I started playing, I had no knowledge whatever of the game or the players, other than the former union players.
“Consequently, in my very early days at the club, the likes of Chris Hesketh, Colin Dixon, and Kenny Gill (RLQSG#10) were unknowns to me and so I never really had the feeling of awe, when I first arrived, which I might well have had, had I known anything about them.
“Once I had settled into the team, though, I felt I had to measure up to their standards, and, to that end, I trained to the full, in order to do so.”
Even the cultures of the two codes he found to be considerably different from each other, of which that of rugby league suited him, by far.
“In rugby union it was all about drinking after games, which had no attraction for me at all, but in league, it was very much about performance and taking it forward to the next match, which is what you would expect from a professional sports club, both now, and back then.
“Even the game itself is considerably different, even though they have the duplication of the name of rugby in their titles. In union you are following the ball, going from one break to another, and you are working all the time.
“When I first made the change I continued doing this, but it soon began to dawn on me that in league, all these efforts were completely wasted, because it is much more end-to-end rugby, so I decided that it was better to work in a specific channel up and down the pitch rather than from side to side across it.
“The one person I soon found it important to follow around was Kenny Gill, because he orchestrated so much of what we produced, and he could put you through gaps that no-one else knew existed.
“It helped me choose the best angle to run at and that would get me through the line, and into space. I scored quite a few tries as a result.”
One game that stands out in John’s memory was an away match at Blackpool Borough, one Friday night, but for all the wrong reasons.
“That was the one and only time I was sent off. It started with their scrum-half hitting me, so I hit him back, and the referee sent the pair of us off.
“That was how the game was refereed in those days, with immediate action rather than a process of warnings. In fact, the referees were characters in their own right, and, as such, stamped their own character on each game.
“I remember playing games under the officiation of Eric Clay, known as Sergeant-Major Clay because that was the style in which he refereed. Billy Thompson had the great gift of being able to talk his way through a game, and, in later years, became an after-dinner speaker with stories galore of his days with the whistle.”
Going from one game to another the following week, each individual match tends to fade quickly from their memory, as players turn their attention to the next side they are to be up against.
“Two other games which I remember especially, were the two finals of the BBC2 Floodlit Competition against Warrington.
“The first one ended in a 0-0 draw, which was an extremely unusual occurrence, though, unlike most such scoreless results, it was not a dreary, uninteresting encounter but a keenly fought, evenly matched contest in which defences were prevalent, yet severely tested, by strong, varied waves of attack.
“Unlike those for the first match, the conditions for the replay, at Wilderspool the following week, were absolutely dreadful, with torrential rain and sleet having poured down all day, turning the pitch into a quagmire.
“We managed to get in front relatively early on, so that, as conditions continued to deteriorate even further, it became more and more difficult to master them, and scoring became nigh impossible. We were consequently able to hold out, to lift the trophy.”
Another game, which is probably etched in the mind of every player who took part in it, was the abandoned match against Leeds, in which Leeds’s stand-off, Chris Sanderson, sustained a fatal injury.
“I had been selected to play on the right wing, marking John Atkinson, in place of Keith Fielding (RLQSG#6), who was unavailable.
“I had often played in the centre before, because I had sufficient speed to be able to fill in there, and I quite enjoyed that. The wing, however, was a different proposition, and I found it far too isolated to derive any pleasure at all from it.
“The incident happened about ten minutes into the game. Chris was taken into the dressing-room, while we continued with the game. I even half expected that he would possibly return, later in the game.
“It was shortly after the start of the second half, that we were called to the middle to be told that the game had been abandoned, and the reason why.
“It was an absolutely dreadful thing to have happened. It appears that he had choked on his own vomit and that was what had led to such an awful event. The shock of it though lasted with us for weeks. It had been the last game of the season, and so it was never replayed.”
On a far happier note, John was a regular in the side, which, in 1976, for the second time, won the First Division Championship.
“I had missed being involved in Salford’s first success, in 1973, not having made my way into the side until the following year, but I clearly remember the final game of the ’76 season, away at Keighley, which we had to win. This was not as straightforward as might have been expected, because Keighley had, themselves, to win, in order to avoid being relegated into the second division.
“Thankfully, we won, 13-6, although we had a real tussle on our hands, with the confines of a small Yorkshire ground and an unfamiliar playing area, following the tortuous journey to get there in those days, so we really felt as though we had earned the honour.”
Like most of the players, after a home game John could usually be found alongside all the others, unwinding in the Willows Variety Centre.
“My wife would always come to the game to watch, and we would meet up, afterwards, often joining others such as Mike Coulman (RLQSG#1), Chris Hesketh, and Alan Grice (RLQSG#11), with their wives, to relax after the hurley-burley of the match.”
Once the team had repeated their feat of winning the First Division Championship, in 1976, John began to notice something of a deterioration within the team.
“There was no drop in standards surrounding the club, but, increasingly, the team did not seem to be as successful on the field as they had always been, and, by 1978, that had become more noticeable. Other teams, notably St Helens and Leeds had upped their performances and were beginning to draw away from us.”
