Imagine for a moment that you are a young footballer, a few days short of your twentieth birthday. You have already played a handful of games for 1st Division Wolverhampton Wanderers, you even scored a goal for them (away at League leader’s Liverpool’s ground). But in February you are loaned to 2nd Division Cambridge United for whom you played six games without scoring. At the end of the season both Wolves and Cambridge are relegated from their respective divisions. You have got your toe in the door of first team football but your CV isn’t looking too good – two relegations!
During the summer you secure a move to 3rd Division Swansea City. The downward trajectory of your career seems inexorable but at least you have a club, you still have the chance to prove yourself, to prove the doubters wrong.
Where would you choose, if you could choose, to make your debut for the new club? A home fixture would be nice, a chance to impress the fans straight away. But you are keen to make a good impression no matter what, where the game is played is immaterial – surely?
Did I mention you are black?
In the circumstances an away game against Millwall at the Den would probably not have been your top pick, indeed it may very well have been at the bottom of your list. But you are a professional footballer and you must play regardless of the reputation for racist abuse of visiting black players at the Den.
Millwall’s reputation was such that one black player, Peter Foley, has admitted that he feigned injury to avoid playing for Scunthorpe in their opening game of the 1967/68 season at the Den. Peter put the experience to good use, he realised that he had let himself and his team mates down, it never happened again and Peter became an active anti-racist campaigner (in 2003 he was awarded an MBE in recognition of his work against racism).
We don’t know how Steve Mardenborough was received at the Den when he stepped out to become Swansea City’s first black player but we can be pretty sure it was hostile – many black players have spoken about their experiences there. By now, 1984, Millwall had fielded black players in their own team (notably Phil Walker and Colin Lee) who had been cheered by the fans at the Den – being Millwall was more important than being white. But black players in visiting teams were still singled out for vile racist abuse. To be fair, Millwall were by no means alone in this. One Swansea fan commented ‘surprisingly he (Mardenborough) didn’t get much racist abuse, unlike the black players who visited the Vetch (Swansea’s home ground, Vetch Field). Because of his performances, the North Bank took him to their collective heart.’
There are no particular comments about Steve in the programme for his debut game but at least his name appears on the team sheet.
Steve’s career never really hit the heights but he did carve out a career in Divisions 3 and 4 (apart from a single 1st Division game in a second spell at Swansea). In total he clocked up well over 350 appearances).
When Steve looks back on his career, scoring a goal at Anfield would surely be a stand out memory (there were 45 other goals too), that experience alone should be enough to blot out the memory of any racist abuse he experienced at the Den.