One of the chapters in Football’s Black Pioneers that caused us the most angst was the one on Leyton Orient. The reason for that was simple – we were aware of a widely repeated story about a game between Orient and Millwall but found that in one (very) crucial respect, it wasn’t true.
The story was that Leyton Orient’s brilliant young winger, Laurie Cunningham, scored a goal at the Den, Millwall’s ground, enraging the notoriously racist home fans. Having been on the receiving end of racist abuse throughout the game, Orient’s two black players, Cunningham and full back Bobby Fisher, raised their fists towards the baying fans in a Black Power salute. However much one might sympathise with them, this was hardly the most sensible thing to do and various missiles rained down in their direction, including a kitchen knife.
The problem is that the football record books are unanimous in stating that Laurie Cunningham never scored a senior goal against Millwall. If that part of the story was untrue could we give any credence to the rest of it?
We went to great lengths to prove or disprove the various elements of this story. That a knife was thrown is confirmed by this newspaper report:
We also found reference to the racist abuse experienced by the players that day in an article by Jeff Powell, long time sports reporter at the Daily Mail, an article which also made reference to the players making a Black Power salute.
Here is the back page of the programme from that game:
Clearly Laurie Cunningham replaced Derek Possee at relatively short notice, oh, and it was Barrie Fairbrother who was credited with scoring the Orient goal, not Gerry Queen as the programme owner thought.
Laurie Cunningham is in the middle of the front row of this team photo from the centre of the programme with Bobby Fisher on his left (the player on Bobby’s left is Ricky Heppolette, an Anglo-Indian who was Orient’s first non-white player).
Orient’s following game, played on 21st December, was at home to Hull. There was no mention in the programme of the racist abuse of players at the Millwall game although, in her regular column, Jill Palmer, did comment on the problems with hooligans that football was experiencing:
Laurie Cunningham was conspicuous by his absence from the Orient line up that day. Jeff Powell quoted Orient manager, George Petchey, as saying that he had seen the players make a Black Power gesture as they left the pitch and had ‘dropped Cunningham from the next match and warned Fisher there must be no repetition.’ George Petchey is generally credited with having been very supportive of his young black players so it is disappointing, although perhaps typical of the era, to see his response.
When Millwall visited Brisbane Road for the return match on 11th January 1975, Laurie was named on the bench. He came on in as a substitute for Ricky Heppolette and, although Orient won 2-1, Laurie didn’t score in that game either!