An Interview with Dixie McNeil
This week’s interview is with Dixie McNeil who played for numerous Football League clubs including Exeter City, Northampton Town Hereford United and Wrexham.
Dixie was a prolific goalscorer throughout his career and was the top goalscorer in all four of the Football League divisions in two successive seasons (1974/75 and 1975/76). He also managed Wrexham for a while and was assistant to John Sillett for a time at Coventry City.
You scored for Northampton in the famous FA Cup tie against Manchester United George Best scored six goals in an 8-2 victory. What are your memories of that day?
Manchester United were the best club in the world at that time. They had Bobby Charlton, David Herd, Besty and a lot more and they had won the European Cup (what is now the Champions League) two seasons before.
George Best was just coming back from a six week suspension and this was the longest that had ever been given to a player before.
He may have scored six that day but I got one with my right foot! My goal was from 12 yards out and with my right foot, which was unusual for me as I was totally left-footed!
Another couple of famous goals that you scored in the FA Cup were 8 years later for Wrexham. You scored the all-important equaliser against Blyth Spartans and also the winner in the replay which was played at Newcastle’s St James’s Park. How tough were that Blyth team as opponents?
That was typical FA Cup! Blyth had beaten Stoke City in the previous round so they were full of confidence. We drew with them at home and then played them in a replay at Newcastle’s ground.
We got to St James’s Park at around 6:15pm for a 7:30pm kick off. There were only few fans outside and as we got off the bus we said that there won’t be many here tonight.
Having gone into the dressing room, the players decided to have a look at the pitch and what a shock, 40-odd thousand fans were already in the ground and it was full! The fans that we had seen outside were locked out and couldn’t get in.
It was a hard replay but we got through. I have to say that I got a great goal with a half-volley from 20 yards into the top corner of the goal. Later two or three of the Blyth players went into professional football. If my memory is still good, two of them went to Newcastle United?
I read in an article recently that you spent over 20 years trying to get hold of your shirt from that season before a fan handed it in to you. Can you tell us what happened there?
I got injured towards the end of the season and John Lyons took my place in the team. We only had the one set of shirts numbered 1 – 11 and John used my shirt in my place.
At the last home game of the season, John threw the shirt into the crowd and I am not happy as you can imagine. I obviously wanted to keep it as a memento of what we had done that season with promotion to the Second Division and reaching the Sixth Round of the Cup.
Twenty years on and Wrexham FC open a shop in town at Christmas and the mayor and I are asked to open the store.
A man came into the store and offers the shirt to the club with me obviously noticing that it is my shirt from the promotion season! I also know how lucky he was to get it having been in the Kop End terrace of the ground as that is where John said that he threw the shirt into the crowd.
The man said that he wasn’t lucky at all, John gave him the shirt at the end of the game! With that in mind, he fully understood what the shirt meant to me and gave it back. It is now displayed in the bedroom where my grandsons sleep whenever they sleep over at the house.
When you were at Hereford United, you were top goalscorer of all four divisions of the Football League for two seasons in a row (1974/75 and 1975/76). What words of advice can you offer someone who wants to become a great striker as you were?
Being top goal scorer in the whole of the football league two seasons running is a fabulous thing; I still don’t know if anyone else has done it?
As a forward you always have to be on the move in the penalty area. You have to try and read where the other player is going to deliver the ball and you have to attack the space either in front or behind the defender.
If you receive the ball at your feet you need to be shooting either at the first or second touch of the ball.
It was around that time when you helped Hereford United up to the Second Division. What are your memories of your time at Edgar Street?
Hereford were a super club, the players gelled brilliantly together which is also a great advantage.
John Sillet was a great maanager but would come down on you if he felt it was the right thing to do. John bought me for £20,000 a club record at the time and he always let me play in my own style. He gave me so much confidece to play.
Terry Paine was John’s assistant. He was a great winger or midfielder and a great passer of the ball. He would say to me “Show me the number 10 on your back and i will put the ball over your shoulder to score.” He was right.
Graham Taylor was your manager at Lincoln City. Could you tell at that early stage of his managerial career that he was going to be a success?
Graham Taylor was the left back in the team but got injured at Leicester City. He then took over as manager at Lincoln after David Herd was sacked.
Graham brought what he wanted to the players after we played Colchester away and lost. He lectured us for an hour after the game, telling us were we were wrong in playing the game. I think at the time we were all gob smacked.
At the end of the season my contract was up and I went to see Graham.
The club would not give me a rise in my wages and the club (not Graham) sold me.
Graham kept in touch after he went to Watford and Aston Villa and then being the England manager showed how good he was as a manager. He was a good friend and colleague.
Years later when I was granted a testimonial at Wrexham, he came and was the guest speaker at the evening dinner.
He had been the England manager by now and when i asked him
what it will cost me he said nothing, we are mates. Sadly he has passed
away but what a great guy he was.
You won the Welsh FA Cup and qualified for Europe in the process in your first managerial role when you took over at Wrexham. How did you enjoy management?
Management was always something that I always wanted to do and when the position at Wrexham came I applied for the job and fully enjoyed it.
The club had no money what so ever but you always feel you can do well.The first season went well in the league and qualifying to play in Europe by winning the Welsh Cup was a bonus,
Although we got beaten in the First Round, we were unbeaten, drawing
both games. We drew 0-0 away and 2-2 at home to Real Zaragoza, going out on away goals.
In the third year of managing we were still the lowest paid club in the Football League and at the start of the 4th season, I decided to go to Coventry in First Division. The manager John Sillett had chased me from the season before to become his Assistant.
It was great being at a First Division club but it was not me in charge and it was not my home town club.
At the end of the season, John stepped down and i decided that i did not want to stay, leaving home at 6:30am on Monday morning and coming back late was not right for both my wife and two children.
What do you do nowadays in your retirement years?
I’ve worked for BBC Wales for tens of years and guess what I’m doing? I’m summarising Wrexham league games live!
I am now the President of the Club. This is my fifth year now and I hope that there are more to come
I am also the Granddad to four boys so Saturday’s involves watching them as well!
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