Founder of Elite Foods, Terry Crosbie also played as a goalkeeper for amateur football team Skelmersdale United and the pinnacle of his career was playing at Wembley in the FA Vase final 1967 at Wembley in front of 75000 spectators.
The tie finished 0-0 on the day setting up a replay at Maine Road with Enfield winning 3-0.
Enfield 0 Skelmersdale Utd 0
FA Amateur Cup Final 22nd April 1967
Attendance 75,000
Here’s a great article written by Kev Panther on Pitch Hero.
“On the Friday afternoon, United left little White Moss Park for London, hundreds of well-wishers had gathered to see their hero’s off but on their arrival at the National Stadium Bill Gregson was far from happy, taking one look at the scoreboard and declared “Oh no, look at that Enfield v Skelmersdale !! Im not having that there’s only one Skelmersdale and that’s United. Let’s have it changed”.
Dave Moorcroft summed up “Dear oh dear, I expected the turf to be better than that”.
100 coaches had been booked to leave Skelmersdale, another 88 in Liverpool and 40 odd in the Wigan area. A special train has been laid on and countless others will head south by car. As the big match arrived 22nd April 1967 a day that will be remembered for a long time by those who were there, the town of Skelmersdale was empty, devoid of a single soul except for a few bobbies on the beat patrolling a “Ghost” town.
“Wembley has never known a finish like this. With 90 seconds of extra time to go, the unknowns from Lancashire had the game in their grasp when referee Jennings pointed to the penalty spot. Up strode the Skem’s right back Alan Bermingham, to take it as Payne one of the Enfield heroes lay sobbing on the ground. He had handled and as far he was concerned the game was over. Most of the Skelmersdale team couldn’t bear to look as Bermingham carefully placed the ball, blasted it to the right and Enfield’s goalkeeper Wolstenholme brought off the save of a lifetime. He threw himself like an acrobat towards the ball and was engulfed and mobbed by his exited colleagues as Bermingham lay flat on his face, beating the ground in anguish. That’s how close Skelmersdale, the shock team in the Amateur Cup came to winning the trophy.
United team; Crosbie, Bermingham, Bridge, Unsworth, Wade, Moorcroft, Whitehead, Worswick, Bennett, Burns, Mansley; Sub Alan McDermott.”
Link to the article
https://bit.ly/pitch-hero-skelmersdale-united
