Oscar Arce Brother

[pooligan]

Yes i remember Ces Podd ,tall lanky full back playing for Bradford City against us in the 3rd. I was at that game to and standing in that stand you mention. Really nasty atmosphere in the ground that day. Before the game i remember most of the Villa fans ,me included, were standing in the open end behind the goal when the Bradford mob charged across the pitch and hate to say it ,kicked fuck out of us.A lot of us managed to escape into that stand. I  remember that stand had seats with terracing in front and i watched the game standing in front of Jake Findley,Bobby Macdonald and Mike Brady who i knew well as they use to use the same club as me.I remember when we scored a little group of villa fans just in front of me cheering the goal. That let the Bradford fans know where we were.Within minutes there was a mob of Bradford in  that stand looking for us. I remember as if it was yesterday a Bradford fan being stabbed  just in front of me and Bobby Mac laughing at me and saying glad we are in here and not out there. At the end of the game ,the walk back to the coach seemed to take for ever as there were hundreds of Bradford fans looking for villa fans and hardly a copper in sight. Strange i can remember all that and hardly a thing about the match. I think we won 1-0 with Charlie Aitken scoring but i could be wrong

[Dave Cooper please]

It was Ces Podd.
Yeah I remember him playing for Bradford, I also believe he was the first black player to be granted a testimonial match by the FA and he fielded an all-black team in the game.

[Pat McMahon]

I remember Ces Podd too as he was the first black player I ever saw in the flesh, playing at left back (I think) covering the flank in front of the Trinity enclosure. It’s funny pooligan, but my memory is of him being short and stocky – I was only a nipper so probably not very accurate.

I know some fellas from the C Crew who as youngsters went to that away game you refer to at Valley Parade and they recounted similar stories to yours. Their memory was that lots of Leeds fans turned up to join forces with Bradford fans that day and it was a very ugly afternoon.

[pooligan]

Yeah Pat, it was rumoured  there was Leeds fans there. The season we we won promotion under GT was just as bad. After the game we were one of the first out of the car park just over the road from the away end. Bad move, we had just gone a few yards up the road from the ground when we came across a big punch up in the middle of the road and one guy was actually thrown on to the bonnet of our car.Talk of these first black players,can anyone say who was the first black player to play in the first division, the first one i can remember seeing is the old Leeds United winger Albert Johanson followed by Clyde Best of West Ham.

[blackburne]

And they were gone before Jimmy Brown joined us.

I realise this is a very old thread, but I was at a Central League game in about 1969 and this was indeed the inside-forward line-up on the team sheet.  I remember that Hector  Fullone (on the team sheet as Arce) scored a cracking drive from just inside the penalty area.  Jimmy Brown had not long joined, and I think Barry Hole was playing because he was coming back from suspension (or possibly injury).

[MorrisNielson]

I don't have a complete record for the stiffs for 1968-69 but Oscar & Hector had left by January 69.
Hopefully this might be of use for those who remember the brothers Arce.

[Oscar Arce]

In that Coventry game at Highfield Road, Oscar suffered a bad injury and was carried off, never to return again with his brother not far behind.
In the 5-1 defeat at home to Blackpool in the previous match, Oscar scored a free kick which was his standout moment in a Villa shirt, albiet in the reserves.
He later went on to be a respected coach mainly in Africa, but what happened to Hector god knows.