Odejayi doesn't remember Radford's goal

Cheltenham Town meet Newcastle in the next round of the FA Cup. Already the tie is being compared to the game between Hereford United and Newcastle over thirty years ago. The following comes from the Independent:

It's a sure sign of time and the tide passing over you when you mention the phrase "Ronnie Radford goal" to a would-be FA Cup giant-killer and he replies with a blank stare and an apology. "I'm sorry, I'm not aware of it," Kayode Odejayi confessed. "I haven't seen it, to be honest."

The BBC are sure to put that right before Odejayi leads the Cheltenham Town forward line against Newcastle United in the fourth-round tie to be televised live from Whaddon Road at lunchtime next Saturday. The long-range screamer that Radford struck against Newcastle in the mud at Hereford back in 1972 has become the symbolic small-screen image of the Davids cutting the Goliaths down to size on the FA Cup trail, although it was actually a late equaliser in that third-round replay, and Ricky George was the man responsible for delivering the winning blow in Hereford's famous 2-1 extra-time victory.

It has some relevance to next Saturday's tie, too - and not just because Graeme Souness's flapping Premiership Magpies are in danger of falling victim to a team of underdogs, albeit from League Two rather than the non-League ranks.

Ronnie Radford spent eight years playing for Cheltenham in their Southern League days. He still worked in the town as a joiner when he joined Hereford as a part-timer. In fact, he spent the day before that Newcastle tie putting the roof on a house in Cheltenham. He returned to finish the job at 8am the following Monday.

"There's a nice little link to Cheltenham, then," Odejayi politely acknowledged, after patiently listening to the FA Cup history lesson. If the roof is to fall in on the latter-day Newcastle at Whaddon Road on Saturday it is the 23-year-old striker who is likely to be responsible for it. Ominously for the Tynesiders, his Christian name does start with a "Kayo", and his surname finishes with a "y" and an "i," as in the Geordie term of agreement, "Why aye". "Most people just call me Kay," he said. "Whichever way you want to say it, it's all right with me."

At £5,000, the fee he commanded from Forest Green Rovers three years ago, Odejayi cost Cheltenham precisely £14,995,000 less than Newcastle paid 10 years ago for the man who will be leading their forward line, and their team, on Saturday. "I think the only comparison between myself and Alan Shearer is that we're both strikers," the modest Odejayi maintained. "He's one of the best in the world at what he does. He's had a great career and he's a massive name, a household name. I doubt many people in Newcastle know about me or any other of the Cheltenham boys."

Not unlike the situation with Hereford United's Ronnie Radford before they defeated Newcastle.

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