Mel Blyth

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Mel Blyth
Personal information
Full name Melvin Bernard Blyth
Date of birth July 28, 1944 (1944-07-28) (age 63)
Place of birth    Norwich, England
Height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Playing position Centre back
Youth clubs
Norwich City
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1967–1968
1968–1974
1974–1977
1977–1978
1978
1978
1978–1981
1980
1981
1982		 Scunthorpe United
Crystal Palace
Southampton
→ Crystal Palace (loan)
Cape Town City
Margate
Millwall
Houston Hurricane (summer)
Bulova (Hong Kong)
Andover		 027 (3)
216 (9)
105 (6)
006 (0)


075 (0)   

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.
* Appearances (Goals)

Mel Blyth born Norwich, England on 28 July 1944, is a former footballer, who won the FA Cup with Southampton F.C. in 1976.

Contents

[edit] Norwich City and Scunthorpe United

Mel Blyth started his football career with non-league Great Yarmouth. He then joined Norwich City, although he never made an appearance in the first team.

When, in October 1967, former Norwich manager, Ron Ashman, took up the reins at Scunthorpe United, then struggling at the foot of Division 3, he returned to his old club to sign several players, including Steve Deere, Geoff Barnard and Mel Blyth to shore up the holes in the defence.

Unfortunately, Scunthorpe were relegated at the end of the 1967-68 season and in July 1968, Mel moved on to Crystal Palace.

[edit] Crystal Palace

Mel joined Crystal Palace in the summer of 1968 as an old-style wing-half, but he developed into a magnificent centre-back. He immediately became a regular member of Palace’s 1968-69 Division 2 promotion side, and the in their first ever match in Division 1, he scored Palace’s first goal in the top flight with a looping header against Manchester United. He followed this with another goal against Everton on the following Saturday.

As Palace struggled in Division 1, regularly finishing just above the relegation zone, Mel became a permanent fixture in the Palace defence alongside John McCormick. He was deposed as centre back for a while by Roger Hynd but after playing in midfield for much of the 1969-70 season he won his place back when Hynd was temporarily switched to the forward line. The contrasting styles of Blyth and McCormick made for a good mix, and the two of them stayed together until McCormick's retirement, near the end of Bert Head's time in charge.

Palace eventually lost their fight to avoid relegation at the end of the 1972-73 season, under manager Malcolm Allison. In the following season, Mel had a long spell of injury and Palace went straight on down into Division 3. Shortly after the start of the 1974-75 season, in the same week that Ian Evans arrived from QPR, Mel was signed by Southampton for a fee of £60,000.

[edit] Southampton

Saints paid £60,000 for Mel Blyth in September 1974 – he was one of Lawrie McMenemy’s first over-30 signings. His move to The Dell renewed his enthusiasm and there he played the best football of his career. Blyth’s impact in his first season at The Dell was such that he was voted the supporters’ player of the year.

A cool commanding figure in defence, he was the perfect foil to the more flamboyant Jim Steele and the two men’s effective partnership was the mainstay of Saints’ victorious FA Cup run of 1976, including beating his former club, Crystal Palace, in the semi-final.

By the end of the 1976-77 season, six of the twelve players from Saints Cup-winning side had left the club; Mel was the seventh after he had argued with McMenemy about breaking up the cup-winning team too quickly. The arrival of Chris Nicholl, in 1977, signalled the end of 33-year-old Mel’s sojourn on the South coast and, after a brief return to Palace, he completed his League career with Millwall.

In total he made 136 appearances for the Saints, scoring 7 goals.

[edit] Back to Crystal Palace

Mel re-appeared in Palace’s colours in November 1977, when Terry Venables signed him on loan, after Ian Evans, who had replaced him in 1974, had broken his leg.

In both stints at Palace, Mel made 262 first team appearances scoring 12 goals.

[edit] Millwall

In the summer of 1978 he moved to non-league Margate, and then in November 1978, he moved on to Millwall, where he made a further 86 appearances.

[edit] Foreign Adventures

In the 1978 close-season he played for Cape Town City, then managed by former Palace coach, Frank Lord. At Cape Town, he played alongside Mick Channon & Kevin Keegan. He later played for Houston Hurricane, before a spell in 1981 in Hong Kong with Bulova alongside Charlie George and Barry Haines (formerly at Spurs). After falling out with the manager, Ron Wylie, Mel returned to England, ending his career at non-league Andover.

[edit] After football

Although he was an electrician by trade, Mel later became a driving instructor but, by November 1990 he was running his own building firm in south London. In 2003 he was a director of a building company and also a part-time coach in Crystal Palace’s schoolboy academy.

[edit] Honours

[edit] As a player

With Southampton F.C.

  • FA Cup winner 1976

[edit] References