Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Peter Bodak versus Man City, January 1982

Don't ask me why but I just thought of this goal, and YouTube was good enough to confirm that the goal and the goalscorer weren't just a figment of my imagination.

I had totally forgotten about that red and white Coventry City away kit, though. My memory was still locked on their chocolate delight from the Wallace and Ferguson era.

Sadly, Bodak doesn't have one of the more informative wiki pages but this article which dates from 2005 fills in some of the gaps.

6 comments:

John said...

I played against him in the Birmingham Boys' League Major Cup Final in 1975 or 76. He played for South Western Warriors. They beat us 4-0. He had one trick, which was to wait for defenders to commit, then he'd drag the ball back and skip past them. I saw him do it to a teammate, so when I went to tackle him, I faked my lunge, he pulled it back, then I went in and took it off him.

It clearly miffed him, because the next time I appraoched, he kicked the ball straight into my face and gave me a nose bleed.

I have a nice story about his time at Man City too, but I have to go home now. ;-)

Imposs1904 said...

Nice story. ;-)

I'm afraid I don't have any stories of schoolboy tussles with future professional footballers. Neither me nor my contemporaries were ever good enough.

What concerns me is why I suddenly thought of Bodak and the goal for the first time in x-amount of years? First sign of old age? I thought that was my new found penchant for old Ruth Rendell mysteries.

I'll hazard a guess that I was thinking of Peter Medak and that made me think of Peter Bodak. It's all in the 'dak.

And it's still a nice goal after all these years. And it also reminds me that I do regret the fact that Coventry are no longer in the top flight. (Another sign of me drowning in nostalgia.)

John said...

There's really no other reason to remember him. His career hardly set the world alight. There was another kid on their team that day, Mark Rees, who was playing for England Schoolboys. No idea what happened to him either.

It must have been 77 or 78, now I think of it. It was the under 16s final. I'll see if I have the program somwehere around.

The City story (from an insider) is that during training he was one on one with Joe Corrigan and elected to chip him, and scored. This was taking the piss, obviously. Bodak was sitting in the changing rooms afterwards, when Corrigan came in and lamped him on the jaw. "Don't you ever fucking chip me again!" He roared.

True story. I'm told. ;-)

John said...

Hey, I just read that article. Seems the story I was told was a fabrication or else I remembered it incorrectly. The same person who told it to me said he remembered Bodak's signing for Man City because he announced, "Bodak is the name, goals are the game". Either my friend's recollections are wrong or else Bodak said it at every signing.

My own personal memory is correct, though. He was a right-winger. I was a former left-winger turned left-back. I had him in my pocket the entire match.

Imposs1904 said...

Corrigan never struck me as that sort of player but I guess Bodak does come across as a bit of a wind up merchant in the article linked to.

I'm trying to remember Bodak playing for Man Utd but it could have been only for a couple of games. It must have been when Atkinson was still in charge.

"My own personal memory is correct, though. He was a right-winger. I was a former left-winger turned left-back. I had him in my pocket the entire match."

Reminds me of that funny joke in one of Bleasdale's Scully books:

Scully - 'I marked their star striker and he didn't get a kick all afternoon."
Steve - "Yeah, but his two headed goals were the highlight of the game."

I'm paraphrasing but you get the gist. ;-)

John said...

Heh heh. I don't recall Bodak scoring that day, but I have a vague recollection of them scoring while I was off the pitch bleeding everywhere.