Gothenburg Revisited

Pars return to the Ullevi Stadium after gap of 43 years.

Gothenburg is Sweden's second largest city and boasts a population just short of 500.000. The city's soul is to be found in its flourishing music scene and in the archipeligo with its wonderful swimming bays, in all its greenery and in its trams which still run through the city centre traffic. Download City Guide

Dunfermline played in Gothenburg during their their European campaign in the 1964/65 Inter Cities Fairs Cup. On that occasion their opponents were Orgryte Idrottssallskap and they progressed principally as a consequence of the fine 4-2 win from the first leg at East End Park.

The match in the Ullevi Stadium was the Pars 13th in European competition and the goalless draw was enough to see the Fifers through to meet Stuttgart in the Second Round.

Manager Willie Cunningham and Vice Chairman Bob Torrie had travelled to watch their opponents take on IFK Gothenburg in a league derby. Although Orgryte lost 5-1 an impressive 30 yard drive from Orjan Persson was sufficient to ignite interest in signing the Orgryte player but Jerry Kerr at Dundee United won that challenge and of course the Swede was subsequently to become a very important person at Rangers.

The day of the Pars second leg is one that went down in British sporting history and anyone who watched the television that day, 20th October 1964 will remember the great achievement of Ann Packer winning Olympic 800m title at the Tokyo games. Dunfermline own mark in history came as a result of a great performance in Gothenburg and a great individual performance by George Miller who was outstanding in a Dunfermline team where every member played a major part.

After a day of torrential rain conditions at the Ullevi Stadium were atrocious and it was no surprise that only 1341 turned up to see the game. Pools of water covered the running track and the pitch itself soon turned into a quagmire. Indeed despite the brightness of the very good floodlight system the whole arena presented a dismal and depressing scene with its acres of unoccupied seats.

All the spectators present were easily accommodated under cover at the rear of the terracing almost 100 yards from play. Pars goalie Jim Herriot was not troubled until 12th minute when he had to save a hard shot from Svensson. It was obvious that what the Fifers had, they were determined to hold and only three forwards were acting as strikers - Jackie Sinclair, Alex Ferguson and John McLaughlan. (Remember these were days of the front five!)

There were few thrills at either end until Fergie was sent through in 28 minutes to be stopped somewhat unceremoniously by the Orgryte defence. The referee refused a claim for a penalty and this was followed by an almost similar incident at the Dunfermline goal with Simonsson trying to break through.

Half time arrived with neither side able to claim any advantage but it was clear that the fast running Swedish forwards were being well held by a resolute and well drilled defence. Shortly after the interval Carlson brought out the best in Herriot, who did well to push a fast ground shot over for a corner.

The game developed into stalemate and although the Swedes never gave up they could make no impression on the Dunfermline defence in which Miller played the leading part.

DUNFERMLINE: Jim Herriott; Willie Callaghan and John Lunn; Jim Thomsonm, Jim MacLean and George Miller; Jackie Sinclair, Alex Ferguson, John McLaughlan, Alex Smith and Harry Melrose
ORGRYTE: Gunnskog; Wetterland and Ackerwall; Svensson, Schwartz and Bertaljansen; Soderberg, Hanson, Simonsson, Carlson and Persson

REFEREE: Gunnar Michaelsen (Copenhagen)

Before the match in Stuttgart George Miller moved to Wolverhampton Wanderers for a fee of £28,000.