As part of the continuing series of events marking the 75th anniversary of the amalgamation of Tooting Town and Mitcham Wanderers, Tooting & Mitcham United will be holding a reunion of past players at the home match against Whitstable Town this Saturday (February 9), writes Roger Butcher.

A similar event two months ago saw a get together of the successful 1959 team and was a great success. This time the club are reuniting players from the mid 1970s who reached the FA Cup 1st round proper in four consecutive season facing league opposition four times.

In 1974 Tooting were drawn at home to Crystal Palace and was played on a Tuesday afternoon after the Saturday date was postponed and Palace boss Malcolm Allison didn't feel that the Sandy Lane floodlights were suitable for an evening game. Tooting took a shock lead in the first minute when Steve Grubb converted a corner, and a giant killing was on the cards when Tooting keeper Dave Cobb saved an Alan Whittle penalty. But the Palace team, including Terry Venables and Dave Swindlehurst proved too strong and ended up victorious by 2 goals to 1.

The following season Tooting hit the national headlines when the reached the 3rd round proper - the Havant & Waterlooville of 1976 - and were drawn away to Swindon Town. Despite going down 2-0, Tooting fought back with 2 late goals to earn a replay at Sandy Lane.

In front of a capacity crowd Tooting took a first half lead with a shot from Dave Juneman, although and own goal from Bobby Green restored parity. Then, with about 10 minutes to go, Alan Ives latched onto a throughball from Derek Casey and slipped the ball past the Swindon keeper to make it 2-1. Tooting held on to record their most famous victory. Tooting eventually fell 3-1 away to Bradford in the 4th round.

Tooting were up against league opposition two years later when Northampton Town came away as 2-1 winners, Tooting's goal coming courtesy of current manager, Billy Smith.

Billy will be at the presentation, along with most of the players from that great era. The event will take place at 5:30 following Tooting's home game against Whitstable this coming Saturday. It will consist of an audio-visual look back at those halcyon days, including a short film of the Swindon game, and will take place in the function room with everybody welcome. So this will be a great chance for anyone who attended games in the 70's to re-live some of the clubs finest days with the players who were there.