Heroes from the 1980s - Bob Murcell and the VASE winning team

Andy Leitch, Kenny Norman, Steve Doughty

The 1980s will definitely be remembered as a decade of two halves. The early 1980s saw the Club rise to national prominence winning the Vase and the Hellenic League in 1982. The following season they took the Southern League by storm, missing out on promotion to the Premier League in the last week of the season to their old rivals Cheltenham Town.

 

The remainder of the decade saw a slow slide towards trouble on and off the pitch, and the infamous name change to Stroud FC, designed to increase attendances but actually dramatically reducing the club’s following just as the club entered a financial crisis.

 

Bob Murcell arrived at the Club in 1980 as Manager, having left Gloucester City under a cloud. He was a flamboyant character in the mould of Malcolm Allison, and brought a big time feel to the Club. John Duff and the Committee now had funds at their fingertips unheard of in past years and Bob was the first beneficiary of this. When he joined the Club in October 1980, Rovers were bottom of the League and by the end of the season they finished comfortably in mid table.

 

For the 1981-82 season Rovers lined up for five preseason friendlies against League teams and with a team of new faces who, with one exception, Steve Doughty, all had League experience.

 

Rovers went on to win the FA Cup and the Hellenic League that year with a squad that cannot be dissected to find a particular hero, they are all part of Forest Green Folklore. Kenny Norman and Andy Leitch’s goals at Wembley ensured that Rovers had arrived on the National stage.

 

Steve Doughty had joined Forest Green Rovers from Frampton United in 1981, having been playing Stroud League football, and was promised (tongue in cheek?) a Wembley Cup winners medal by Bob Murcell. Steve got his medal and then remained with Rovers for the rest of the decade and became a stalwart of the Club, standing firm when many others moved away from the Club with budgets being tightened and results falling away.

 

Steve’s testimonial fell away too, a victim of financial meltdown at the start of the 1990s, and he finally moved away to Newport County in 1991 having given his best years to Forest Green Rovers.