Nicholls, who was a Football League referee from 1966 to 1973, was also involved in another memorable occasion at Home Park. He was one of the linesmen when a Football League representative side beat their Irish League counterparts 12-0 in September 1966. Seven members of England's 1966 World Cup winning team were involved in that match, which attracted a crowd of more than 35,000

Could have been that. Could have been lost in translation. Could have been he lied but I have a watch!

Looking back at Real Madrid European games to that time the only one reffed by an English ref(with presumably English linos)was the March 1968 quarter final against Sparta Prague, Real lost to Man U in the semis

Would it have been neutral venues back in them there days?

Enjoyed it so much he celebrated by buying a boat apparently ;)

Even being Lino at the Bernabéu must have been ace

I don’t. I would have done at some point but will need to check. And I do know that he was lino rather than ref for that game so apologies for inadvertently misleading.

Do you know who the Real Madrid game was against?

I never got him to Plough Lane or KM as too far to travel but I do regret that we never got to Home Park together.

And failed 💥

In that report of the Plymouth v Santos game it says that the Brazilians tried to change the ref at half time!!

He hardly talked about his reffing experiences til right towards the end of his life and then once he got going you couldn’t shut him up.

[Link]

And he was not bent please do not say he was bent

His name was Grandad [Link]

Thats in the era of dodgy European games being fixed by bent refs too

He did loads. Somewhere there’s an awesome photo of him yelling at Danny Blanchflower, taking no sh*t. He did a Real Madrid European semi final and I have the club watch he was given as a gift* and “most famously” he did the Plymouth Argyle v Santos friendly which was anything but friendly. So he’s reffed Pele.

Trigs-wow that’s amazing what games did he ref?

Thought you were referring to the cup final penalty, Swiggy! My grandad reffed up to European Semi Final level back in the late 60s/early 70s and said that in certain games he would never give a penalty against the home team in the last ten minutes of a game.

Well I disagreed with him TS, never a penalty. He still said "yes" when my fiancee made me ask if I could have her hand in marriage :)

And I refereed at that level OI and wouldn't have given the penalty. Just shows we are human?

RIP Tony Godden ex W.B.A. and Chelsea keeper

Surrey Bob,I had plenty of practice on here:-)

You have to consider the refs position of the incident in those pre VAR days, he has just one look at it and has to make a split second decision. Even at Wealdstone where I went Saturday there was a penalty controversy that the visiting Marine fans being scousers are convinced should have been given, another chip on their shoulder

The other thing - JG you presume it seems that demand is inelastic from the OAPs - I don’t think it is. Nor do I think that these seats will be filled by adults