The Story of Steve Cooper's Dad - and Alan Birchenall

Like many others on here, the more I look into Steve Cooper's history, the more optimistic I feel about next season. Forgive me though if I don't write the usual retrospective. With Forest featuring so prominently I'll give it a miss this time.

Instead, here's something a little different - the story of Keith Cooper - Steve's father, who was a top level referee. It's a tale  @ADAMSKI97 and @Golden Fox  have already alluded to, and as we'll see, it climaxes in a remarkable evening at Filbert Street in 1994.

1) Playing Career Cut Short

Keith Cooper was brought up in the Welsh town of Rhydyfelin, on the eastern bank of the River Taff. His dream was to be a professional footballer, and in 1965, he was well on his way:

He was at Ninian Park at the same time as future Leicester right back Peter Rodrigues, and he played in the same Cardiff youth team as John Toshack. But an anke injury forced him to give up the game in the late sixties.

He took up the whistle, and quickly made a name for himself in the local leagues around Pontypridd. No doubt his experience at Cardiff helped him build a rapport with players, and he made it on to the Football League list in 1975, when he was just 27:

He was quickly promoted from running the line to being the man in the middle:

Neil would soon have a brother.  On Monday December 10th 1979, Steven Daniel Cooper was born. 

Welcome to Leicester

Keith made his first visit to Filbert Street just after Steve's third birthday, on December 18th 1982. We were playing Oldham Athletic in a Division Two fixture, five months into Gordon Milne's reign at the club. 

On that day, Keith had a big decision to make before the game even started. The pitch was frozen, and both Milne and Oldham boss Joe Royle thought the game ought to be postponed. But Keith gave the go-ahead, and the 'lottery', as Bill Anderson in the Mercury called it, kicked off as scheduled.

Ten minutes into the game, Royle shouted over to Milne in the home dugout - 'Let's call this off. We'll flip a coin for the points!'  Perhaps he'd already noticed that Leicester were adapting better to the conditions.

We won the game 2-1, though according to Anderson, the winning penalty from Kevin Macdonald was a bit lucky, 'referee Cooper failing to take into account the surface' when he judged that Paul Ramsey had been fouled. 

Milne was delighted with the points, but said: I had to tell them to forget all they had been taught and just keep knocking the ball up field all the time. The match was as good a case for summer soccer as I have seen.

We had been down in 15th place at the start of the month, but the Oldham game was the third win in a row, taking us up to 6th. That good form continued, and Milne's side clinched promotion on the last day of the season.

Up The Football League We Go

Keith Cooper's career was heading in the same direction. In March that season, he achieved his ambition of taking charge of a game in the top flight. He was chosen for the game between Coventry and Spurs, and the Pontypridd Observer marked the occasion by sending a reporter to accompany him on the trip, setting off for Coventry before sunrise. His wife Gill did a fine job getting the kids up and dressed for the photo. You can see young Steve holding her hand. 

When the game started, 'the man from Ponty had an eventful opening ten minutes. Coventry's Gary Gillespie was the first to go into the book, and team-mate Mark Hateley was given the same punishment for dissent. Then, midway through the half, Coventry's Jim Melrose was sent sprawling in the penalty area. Keith instantly pointed to the spot, as Spurs keeper Ray Clemence gave him a rather pained look. Steve Hunt confidently dispatched the spot kick'. 

Melrose had recently been half of the swap deal that took Tommy English from Coventry to Filbert Street. Here he is action that day:

The game finished 1-1 - the first of hundreds of top flight matches Keith would take charge of in the next 15 years.

He was quite a star in his home town. Since the demise of Pontypridd AFC (they played in the Southern League and came close to being elected to the Football League in the 1920s), fans of the round ball game hadn't had much to shout about. Cooper's presence at the highest level of the Engish game was some kind of substitute. The Observer would regularly report on his upcoming schedule, and often do in-depth features on his life as a referee. 

In one such feature, Keith talked about taking charge of the first game at Anfield after the Hillsborough tragedy:

Under The Spotlight

In another interview in January 1990, he said that an ambition of his was to be chosen for a game on live TV. That chance soon arrived. He took charge of Everton 4 Nottingham Forest 0, featured on ITV's 'The Match' in April 1990, with Tony Cottee scoring twice.

In May 1994, he was given the honour of refereeing the League Cup Final, with Aston Villa beating Man U 3-1.  Shortly after that came another big game - the second leg of the play-off semi-final between Leicester and Tranmere, which was quite an explosive night.

This is a poor quality clip, but it shows David Speedie's winning goal, which came from a free kick Tranmere thought should never have been awarded.  Shortly after that, it all kicked off:

Keith sent off both Tranmere keeper Eric Nixon and David Speedie, who thus missed the play-off final against Derby.

Just five months later, Keith was back at Filbert Street, and the drama was unrelenting. Having beaten Derby in that play-off final, we were now in the Premier League, and Sky chose our game against Coventry for their Monday Night Football slot.

Here's the key moments:

Gary Gillespie, you'll recall, was the first player Keith ever booked in a top flight match. 

After the game, the two managers both said it was time to introduce video replays. Coventry boss Phil Neal said; We should do what cricket has done - stop the game so the ref can see a vital incident again'. Brian Little agreed: 'Both players were unlucky. Videos are used to show things that refs miss, and perhaps that sort of evidence should be used to highlight incidents like this'. 

But it wasn't those comments that caused the fuss:

Birch told us what happened next in his book:

Sure enough, a few days later a letter dropped through the Filbert Street letterbox informing that the FA were considering charging me for bringing the game into disrepute. What a load of nonsense. I was hardly in a mood to back down, but against my better judgement I allowed a letter of apology to be submitted to the FA. As a result of this letter, no further action was taken against me.

Now, what would Steve Cooper have made of all that? He was still at school at the time, approaching his 15th birthday. His classmates knew all about his dad's job, and, well, you know what schoolkids are like. This is what Steve said when asked whether he'd ever considered becoming a ref like his dad:

The morning after that Leicester v Coventry game may have been the worst it ever got.

It's good that he can laugh about it. But now that he's at Leicester, what would happen if his dad and Birch met up in the hospitality area before a game? Would it be awkward?

Birch isn't the sort to bear grudges. And nor, in fact,  is Keith. How do we know? Well, look what happened after the very last game he took charge of - Blackburn 1 Arsenal 1 in April 1996:

Heart warming stuff, huh?

Welcome to Leicester, Steve. And best wishes to your dad.