Gordon Davies Cigarette Card

I was doing a run-a-round on the interweb and found a cigarette card of Gordon Davies. He was also one of my boyhood hero's along with Gary B. (I did get bullied quite a lot as school - some think rightly so). I thought that I would post the image and add a little more history....

Having deciphered the back I recon it reads:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Card Image*

FOOTBALL

SERIES OF 50
No.15

GORDON DAVIES

Ivor, as he's nicknamed, cost just £2500 from Merthyr Tydfil and has been a regular marksman since making his Fulham debute against Mansfield in March 1978. Won his first Welsh cap against Turkey in November 1979 and his average of a goal every other game has made the former schoolteacher one of the leagues most consistent strikers.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gordon Davies was born 8th August 1955 in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. His international debute was Wednesday, 21st November 1979 in a 1-0 defeat against Turkey, he was capped 16 times in total for his country, he was part of the starting line up that beat England 1-0 on 2nd May 1984 ( http://sporting-heroes.net/football-her ... eroID=3555 ). On the subject he said "We knew as individuals we probably weren't as good as England, although we had three or four world-class players in the likes of Ian Rush, Neville Southall and Kevin Ratcliffe. What we did have, though, was a great team spirit. England had a lot of good ball players but we knew that, if we got in among them and made it difficult for them to knock the ball around, they would make mistakes. Out of all the home internationals the games against England were always the ones that you wanted to win. It was nice going back to Fulham after the game and give the directors and chairman a bit of stick because everyone thought it wasn't a case of if England would win but by how many. I keep reminding friends and family that the last time we played England we won and I think the Welsh lads who played that night are very proud of it." ( http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Sto ... 87,00.html )

Gordon Davies signed for Fulham back in April 1977 from Methyr Tydfil as a 23-year old. He was currently teaching at the time. He scored on his debut away at Blackpool and was also sent off in that game. The season after on the opening day of the season he scored a hat-trick (all goals in the second half) in a 4-3 win at St Andrews against Birmingham, when Fulham were trailing 3-nil at half-time. For the next seven seasons he was netting an average of 18-goals and was one of the best strikers outside the old Division One Championship. Liverpool were apparently after him at one stage, but in the end he moved to neighbours Chelsea for a fee of £350,000 - scoring 9 goals in 15 matches - including a hat-trick away at Goodison Park in a 4-3 win. However, Davies's career was short-lived at Stamford Bridge because of the Kerry Dixon/David Speedie partnership and he ended up after two seasons moving to Manchester City. (Fulham only got £90,000 as he failed to play 20 matches, in where we'd have got the remaining cash). At City in his first season he netted 14 goals, but the following season after injury couldn't break back into the first team and was unhappy with his manager - so he rejoined Fulham for at the age of 31. For the next four seasons he continued to score - partnering the likes of Dean Coney, Leroy Rosenior and Gary Brazil. ( http://footiethreads.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16791 )

The is a biography of Davies called "Gorden Davies Fulham Story 1978-90" published in 1991, it is considered rare, I can't imagine why?

Fulham Record
In his two spells at the club his record was:
1977-1984 played 247 (3 as sub) goals 114
1986-1991 played 147 (27 as sub) goals 45

Please note that I have stolen and collated this, rather than written it. If any of the statistics are wrong I blame lame web pages, if any are right then I am clearly a genius.

*I did try linking it as an image, obviously I am not very good at this!