Terry Phillips reflects on the playing career of Godfrey Ingram, who played for the Bluebirds and the Hatters. Luton-born Ingram, who celebrates his 60th birthday in October, started his career with his tome-town club and visited Cardiff City Stadium when manager Neil Warnock’s home team won 2-1 against the Hatters in a Championship fixture. This evening, Luton are back to play a Carabao Cup second round tie.

Godfrey Ingram’s move from North America to South Wales during 1982 proved to be one of the oddest transfers in Cardiff City history.

The former Luton Town forward was reported to have joined Cardiff City from San Jose Earthquakes for a club record £180,000 fee.

Now we know the inside story – the Bluebirds didn’t pay a penny for the talented Ingram.

He was 22-years-old, a former England schools and youth international and had started his playing career with Luton before joining Earthquakes.

He scored 17 goals in 31 North American Soccer League appearances and was voted San Jose’s player of the year.

Cardiff agreed a fee of £180,000 for Ingram and the clubs agreed it was to be paid in instalments with an initial deposit of £20,000.

Club chairman Bob Grogan, whose company Kenton Utilities owned the Bluebirds, paid the up-front money and the deal was done.

Just over two months later, though, Ingram rejoined Earthquakes, reportedly for exactly the same £180,000 fee.

Was it a loan signing? A permanent move? What happened?

Ingram, certainly, doesn’t know, saying: “Even to this day, I don’t know if it was a loan or a transfer.

“I was expecting to stay in Cardiff for the duration. 

“Everything I knew about it suggested it was a transfer. I was disappointed not to stay a little longer. 

“Cardiff did not see the very best of me. It would’ve been great to stay, but my destiny was clearly back with San Jose.”

The inside story is that it was a full transfer to be paid in bits and pieces, but San Jose approached Cardiff and said they were keen to re-sign Ingram.

Managing director Ron Jones said: “The position is that while Ingram is happy with us, he has expressed concern about personal issues which he felt could be solved by returning to America.”

Ingram left Wales, San Jose repaid the £20,000 deposit to Grogan and City were quick to sign experienced Bob Hatton from Sheffield United as his replacement.

For years football reference books described Ingram as Cardiff’s record signing, but now the real story is known.

Former Bluebirds and Hatters player Ingram was, and still is, a colourful character. He played alongside George Best for San Jose, Carlos Alberto and Franz Beckenbauer at New York Cosmos.

“When I first joined Cosmos we had 60,000 every game and that was unbelievable,” he said.

“The day after I first arrived at the Cosmos we played Argentina, who included Diego Maradona, who had just won the World Cup in 1978.

“They told the kit man to put my name over whichever shirt he could. The shirt he found had Cruyff on the back! Those were the days.”

Sir Alex Ferguson was Aberdeen manager when he tried to sign Ingram.

“It was a couple of years before I moved to Cardiff, and David Pleat, who was manager at Luton at the time, was asking for £120,000,” said Ingram.

“Fergie flew me up to Aberdeen. I was only about 19 or so. He said he was impressed with me, but felt the fee Luton were asking for was too much.”

Ingram had personal reasons for joining Cardiff – because it meant he could spend time with his mother.

“Not many people realise that one of the main reasons for me moving from San Jose to Cardiff was because my mother was very ill and only had a few months to live,” he said. “It was an opportunity to be close to her.

“The family home was in Dunstable and Cardiff were fantastic about the whole thing. They allowed me to train with Luton on Monday and Tuesday during the week and then travel back to Cardiff on Wednesday. 

“We’d go through a practice game on the Thursday, light training on Friday and then the game on Saturday.

“City really treated me well, realised the situation and treated me magnificently.”

He scored two goals in 11 League appearances for City and scored a third for the Bluebirds in his final match – a 3-0 FA Cup win against Wokingham on November 22, 1982.

Ingram’s debut had come in a 2-0 win against Sheffield United at Ninian Park in September and he says: “It was absolutely awesome to play at Ninian. There was such a great atmosphere.

“It was great to play alongside players like the Bennett brothers (Gary, Dave), who I got on really well with.

”I stayed at a little bed and breakfast place in Penarth and still remember the bridge that had a sign saying ‘You need Brains’ on it.

“It was such a fun time. The people and the city really took to me.”

Ingram came through the youth ranks at Luton Town and scored six goals in 27 League appearances between 1977 and 1982.

He played for San Jose and then Cardiff before returning to the USA.

The prolific goalscorer, who netted more than 300 times during his career, eventually settled in America, playing for San Jose, Minnesota, Las Vegas, Pittsburgh, St Louis and Dallas during a 10-year stay.

Ingram is a qualified helicopter pilot who says: “When you’ve played in front of 28,000 at Ninian Park, flying a helicopter is no problem.”

Ingram is retired now, spending his time between America, the Bahamas and Jamaica.

https://twitter.com/CardiffCityFC/status/1165942116121481216?s=20

Manager Warnock has pledged to make changes to his Bluebirds’ starting line-up for the cup clash with Luton tonight.

Possible team, Cardiff City 4-4-1-1: Joe Day; Cameron Coxe, Ciaron Brown, Curtis Nelson; Callum Paterson, Junior Hoilett, Will Vaulks, Omar Bolger, James Waite; Isaac Vassell; Danny Ward.

Littlewood Cup

Cardiff City were drawn against Luton Town in the 1986-87 Littlewoods Cup, but the scheduled two-leg clash was never played.

The fixtures were called off by the Football League and the Bluebirds awarded a walkover.

A situation developed after First Division Luton banned visiting fans from League matches at Kenilworth Road.

League Cup rules, though, said all clubs were required to allow away fans access to games.

Luton refused to relax their League policy and maintained their ban for the scheduled cup tie against City.

The Football League insisted Cardiff fans must be allowed to attend – and threatened to expel Luton from the competition.

The scheduled first leg, due to be played in September, 1986, was cancelled and City went through to the third round where they defeated Chelsea 2-1.

The Bluebirds played Chelsea in round three and came from a goal down to win 2-1.

Nicky Platnauer scored both goals for City, who went out in the next round when they lost 1-0 at Shrewsbury Town.

Peter Kitchen scored his last Bluebirds goal against Luton Town in the final Second Division match of 1981-82, but it proved to be in vain.

Jason Koumas

A stunning second-half brace by Jason Koumas inspired a Cardiff City recovery from two goals down to draw at Luton’s Kenilworth Road ground.

Rowan Vine had scored two goals in two minutes to put Luton in control at half-time, heading home a left-wing cross and then clipping in Carlos Edwards’ pass.

Koumas scored from 25 yards, but a Chris Barker own goal scored an own goal to restore Luton’s two-goal lead.

Riccardo Scimeca headed Cardiff before another long-range Koumas effort secured a 3-3 draw.

“The most annoying game of the season so far for us,” said Luton manager Mike Newell. 

“It should have been over by half-time – it could have been four or five by then. We weren’t ruthless enough and paid the price at the end.”

Dave Jones was Cardiff manager and he felt his team should have been awarded a penalty for a foul on Koumas.

“For the referee and the linesman to miss that is unacceptable,” said Jones.

Luton Town: Beresford, Foley, Davis, Heikkinen, Barnett, Edwards, Nicholls, Brkovic, Morgan (Holmes 82), Vine, Howard. Subs not used: Perrett, Showunmi, Stevens, Brill.

Cardiff City: Alexander, Barker, Ardley, Purse, Cox, Koumas, Ledley, Cooper (Whitley 64), Scimeca, Jerome, Ndumbu-Nsungu (Ferretti 82). Subs not used: Weston, Boland, Margetson.

Attendance: 7,826

Mark Aizlewood

Welshman Mark Aizlewood had a successful time with Luton Town, helping them win the Second Division title.

He was the first signing for Luton manager David Pleat, paying a £50,000 transfer fee to Aizlewood’s home town club Newport County in 1978.

After four seasons at Luton ‘Aize’ moved to Charlton Athletic in 1982, again for £50,000.

In 1987 Charlton received an offer of £200,000 from Leeds United for Aizlewood. Despite resistance from manager Lennie Lawrence, Aizlewood accepted the move because Leeds were then managed by one of his boyhood idols, Billy Bremner.

In 1993, he returned to Wales to sign for Cardiff. 

In his one full season at Ninian Park, the club narrowly avoided relegation to Division Three and lost 2-1 against Barry Town in the Welsh Cup final.

Aizlewood was also named man of the match in the club’s 1–0 FA Cup Fourth Round victory against Premier League Manchester City.

During the following season, Aizlewood left Cardiff to become player-coach at Merthyr Tydfil FC.

Pontypridd-born Ceri Hughes made 175 League appearances for Luton Town between 1989 and 1997, while he ended his professional career with Cardiff City.

Wales international Hughes, who also played for Wimbledon and Portsmouth, did not make a first team appearance for the Bluebirds.

American goalkeeper Ian Feuer also signed for Luton and Cardiff. Las Vegas-born Feuer, now aged 48, made almost 100 appearances for Luton, but like Hughes, did not play in a match for the Bluebirds.