This week’s interview is the first of it’s kind as it will be done in two parts. When I sent out the questions I was sent such long responses that I have decided to split the interview in two! The second part of the interview will be published on Sunday.
Geoff Chapple celebrating one of his five FA Trophy wins at Wembley
This week’s interview is with probably one of the biggest names in non-league football and will always be mentioned when the subject of FA Cup giantkillers is raised.
The man I am referring to, of course, is Geoff Chapple. He is probably best known for his FIVE FA Trophy wins for both Woking and Kingstonian (including three in four seasons at Woking) and his FA Cup giant-killings but today’s interview will hopefully give more of an insight into Geoff’s time in the game.
Geoff currently works as the Club Secretary at Woking. I wanted to note at this point that he helpfully sent me notes for answers to the questions when he had a spare moment and that I am very grateful for him taking the time to do so.
How did you get into management in the first place? How did it go in the early part of your managerial career?
I actually became a player/manager in 1979 when Alton Town (who were in the Athenian League at the time) sacked their manager Martin Wilkes.
The chairman of the club went to the players and asked them to select the best man for the job and hey presto! much to my surprise, my team mates suggested that I was the man that they wanted to take charge.
At the end of that season Alton Town were player Windsor & Eton in the Final of the Athenian League Cup (held incidentally at Windsor & Eton’s ground) and Alton won 2-1 in extra time.
I scored the all-important equaliser in the 90th minute and the Windsor manager missed my equalising goal! With minutes remaining and his team winning 1-0, he needed to change into his suit in readiness for the presentation. He couldn’t believe it when he came out of the dressing room to see his team kicking off after conceding my late goal!
During the after-match celebrations I was asked by Windsor & Eton if I would consider joining them for the following season. Being very loyal to Alton, I said ‘thank you but no thank you’. However at the start of the following season Alton had financial problems and promises made to certain players that I had enticed to the club were not forthcoming.
This news hadn’t gone unnoticed by Windsor & Eton who were very quick to make contact, and it wasn’t long before I, and three of my Alton team mates left and signed for Windsor and I had to revert back to just being a player.
My playing career (in senior football) was ended on Saturday 8th March 1980 at 3:40pm in an Athenian League game at Harefield United. If that wasn’t bad enough news, the day got worse when I received news that my father had passed away at the same time on the same day.
It took a good six months before I was able to go back to work. I then had complications meaning that I was further hospitalised with a blood clot on the lung. This was from having my leg in plaster from foot to thigh when I broke my leg.
At the end of the 1982/83 season the Windsor & Eton manager and assistant left (with nearly all of the players) to join Woking and I was invited to take on the manager’s job.
I only had two players left on the books at the club in Trevor Baron and Chris Yates.
Yates was the jewel in the crown and I made sure that he stayed with me.
We got a very good side together and went from strength to strength, winning promotion and having good runs in both the FA Cup and FA Trophy.
The Woking manager departed during my first season at Windsor & Eton and was replaced by Bill Dodgin, a well-known figure at the time.
A disastrous start to the following campaign (84/85) saw Bill get the sack and I was approached by Woking to become their manager. I accepted and continued to be their manager for the 13 continuous seasons.
A new chairman was appointed in 1997, he had this vision of taking Woking to the ‘promised land’ I asked him for a contract (for security as my daughter was just starting school) and he refused, so I left to join Kingstonian where I had fours happy seasons.
Your first FA Cup giantkilling when at Woking was at West Bromwich Albion where you won 4-2. What was your plan going into the game? When the draw was made, we didn’t give ourselves a chance, although we were excited at the prospect of going to play at a big club. You have got to remember that we were only an Isthmian League team then and West Brom were in the Second Division (today’s Championship). As the tie got nearer, we had a team meeting after a training session and discussed how we would set ourselves up for the game. We had watched West Brom on four separate occasions and so we mentioned to the players that if there was a weakness in the West Brom team, then it was their defence. All of our reports mentioned a lack of pace in the West Brom central defence. We had travelled up the night before the game and stayed in the Moat House, along with Cambridge United who were playing Wolverhampton Wanderers the following Sunday. When the day of the game arrived, the weather was absolutely awful and around lunchtime we had word that if there was much more heavy rain then the game would be postponed. I actually went down to see the playing surface early in the morning and remember thinking that this game might well be called off. Thankfully the rain abated, 5000 Woking fans had made the trip and a Colin West header had given WBA a 1-0 lead at half-time. My half-time team talk was one of thanks to my players for their first half efforts, and although I never said it at the time, I was thinking that if we only lost 1-0 then that would have been a terrific effort from my lads. As was mentioned in our training session briefing, the WBA central defenders were a tad pedestrian and so it proved as striker Tim Buzaglo scored a brilliant hat-trick in a sensational 4-2 victory.
Geoff celebrates with hat-trick hero Tim Buzaglo after Woking’s famous 4-2 victory over West Brom in the 90/91 season
Your first spell at Woking is probably best remembered for the FA Cup runs and FA Trophy wins. Which gave you the most joy of the two?
That is a difficult one to answer because there were so many moments of glee. However, my overriding of the one single event that gave me most joy and pleasure was my very first FA Trophy Final at Wembley Stadium on 21st May 1994.
It was not so much the final itself but the sheer delight of winning the semi final replay against Enfield.
We had drawn the home and away legs of the semi final and a third match had to be played to decide the winner. The match was played at Adams Park, home of Wycombe Wanderers and was on Tuesday 26th April. We won the game 3-0.
Why was this my most memorable and exciting event (also tinged with sadness)? It was because when I was a 14 year old schoolboy, we were set an assignment to write an essay on the two things that we wished for in life.
My two things were to own a BMW car (I’ve had six!) and to play football at Wembley Stadium. Whilst I never achieved the second, I did of course get to Wembley five times in the FA Trophy Final, winning them all.
The sad part of the build up to my first Wembley appearance was knowing that my parents were not here to share the moment with me, they had always supported me throughout and although we were a relatively poor family, they always made sure that I didn’t go without.
In Part Two, Geoff discusses the dream tie that Woking got as a result of beating West Brom, getting Woking so close to the Football League and his visits to Wembley. This will be published on Sunday.
