25-05-68: Swansea Town (a) 3-2 (HT 2-2) Crowd (8,969)

Referee J. Gow (Swansea). David Gwyther was the Swansea Substitute.

Profile:

Ivor John Allchurch was born in Swansea on 16th October 1929 and was spotted by Swansea Chief Scout Joe Sykes playing in the under-eighteens at the age of sixteen. He did not realise at the time that he had uncovered the club's best-ever player and all-time leading goalscorer. Four years later he made his Swansea debut and showed a consistency that saw him regularly netting in the high teens and soon became the Welsh "golden boy". Not only was Allchurch a great goalscorer but he also possessed great vision and passing skills. His League debut was probably hindered by Allchurch having to spend two years on National service from 1947 to 1949, although he was able to play in Non-League for local clubs, Shrewsbury Town and Wellington Town. His Swansea debut came on 26th December 1949 in a 0-3 defeat at West Ham United. Less than a year later , on 15th November 1950 he was capped for the first time by Wales in a 2-4 defeat by England at Roker Park, Sunderland. His displays for Wales soon brought him to the attention of several First Division clubs. It was Newcastle United, in October 1958, that took the chance by paying £28,000 plus Welsh International Reg Davies in part-exchange to prise him away from his native town after he had scored one hundred and twenty-four League goals in three hundred and twenty-seven League appearances in ten years. He soon became a legend on Tyneside where he stayed for four years, scoring forty-six goals in one hundred and forty-three League appearances. He returned to Wales in 1965 joining Cardiff City where he scored thirty-nine goals in one hundred and three League games before returning to Swansea after an absence of seven years to add forty goals in one hundred and eighteen League games to his impressive tally.He became the first Welshman to make fifty appearances for his country and when he retired he held the record for the number of caps, sixty-eight, and goals scored, twenty-three, which remained the records for many years before Joey Jones bettered the appearance record and Ian Rush bettered the scoring record. His brother Len was also a Welsh International outside right with Swansea Town and Sheffield United. Allchurch was appointed MBE in the new year's honours list of 1966. He continued playing non-League football until he was fifty and then became a storeman. He died of cancer, in Swansea, on 9th July 1997. A life-size statue was erected in his honour outside the Swansea City ground in 2005.

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