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"You honestly can't wait for the game to finish"- Paddy Mulligan on abuse directed at West Brom's 'Three Degrees'

98FM
98FM

01:49 18 Apr 2018


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Sunday's surprise 1-0 win over Manchester United was a great result for West Bromwich Albion but in the grander scheme of things, it feels as if it's the last breathe of the dragon before it succumbs to relegation. 

Still rock bottom of the Premier League as games run out, it seems they are counting the cost of parting ways with survival specialist Tony Pulis and appointing Alan Pardew who has since been sacked.

It's a view former Ireland, Chelsea and West Bromwich Albion right back Paddy Mulligan subscribes to as he told me in a chat with Team 33 prior to the Man United game.

But after discussing the current plight of the club, he reminisced about his time with West Brom from 1975 to 1979 from the way John Giles signed him to what it was like playing with a young Bryan Robson.

But he also recalled fond memories of playing alongside the fabled 'Three Degrees' - Brendon Batson, Cyrille Regis and Laurie Cunningham who endured racism from the terraces emanating from opposition fans. 

"I saw the letters that they received," he said of the bigotry aimed at his three team-mates.

"It was absolutely disgusting that a fellow human being can put pen to paper... the infantile rubbishy letters... that they would take the time [to write them]. It just goes to show what sort of brains that they don't have to go and do that. It was disgusting. I just said to the lads, 'Look, if you can get it out of your head, please, because that's not what it's all about and you lads should know that.' And it was very hard for them."

Paddy also recalled what it was like on the pitch as those players were subjected to monkey chants and projectiles.

"I saw bananas being thrown at Cyrille - it was disgusting carry-on - and to Laurie and to Brendon. And making monkey gestures and all this sort of carry-on. Disgusting," he said, before explaining his own feelings as he watched what happened around him.  

"You just have to deal with it but you honestly can't wait for the game to finish whether it was the 20th minute or the first minute or 30th minute of the second half. You just can't wait for the game to finish to get off the pitch or at half time to reorganise your thought process because there's no room in the game for that in any sport."  

You can listen back to the full interview on the podcast player or stream/download on iTunes:    

"You honestly can't wait for the game to finish"- Paddy Mulligan on abuse directed at West Brom's 'Three Degrees'

00:00:00 / 00:00:00

Recent interviews on Team 33 include former Man United cult hero Andrei Kanchelskis, ex-England international Carlton Palmer, former Newcastle and Everton left back Alessandro Pistone, Chelsea legends Bobby Tambling and Paddy Mulligan, Dutch legend Johan Neeskens, ex-England striker Darius Vassell, Liverpool legend David Fairclough, former Ireland midfielder Mark Kinsella and former Everton forward Tomasz Radzinski. Plus our in-depth chats with Tony CotonPackie BonnerNobby SolanoRon Atkinson and Alan Curbishley are still available on iTunes. You can find them all in one place by subscribing to Team 33 on iTunes.

Also on this week's show, Joe, Derek, Killian and I talked the latest VAR farce and a suitably downbeat ending to the Premier League title race.


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