' Cohen Griffith's '
Sun May 24, 2020 9:07 am
How life turned out for Cohen Griffith, the payroll clerk who found glory at Cardiff City
In the latest in our series of interviews from the class of 92/93, we catch up with Cohen Griffith to chat about his times in a Cardiff City shirt and what he's been up to since
By Glen Williams
Sunday 24th May 2020
It all happened so late for Cohen Griffith.
By the time he had conquered the semi-professional leagues and earned his career-changing and life-altering move to Cardiff City, he was 27 years of age.
By today's standards, that is a big chunk of a professional career which has already passed you by.
COHEN GRIFFITHS:
"Without sounding big-headed, if I'd have managed to get into the game earlier, then I could have probably played at a higher level," he tells WalesOnline.
"But, who knows? You can't have ifs and buts. It is what it is."
But he was determined to make the most of his big break and that switch from Kettering Town to the Bluebirds back in 1989 prefaced a wondrous era for the Welsh capital club.
Having been born in Guiana in 1962, Griffith's parents moved to Leicester when he was just 18 months old, where he would stay until the day he signed for Cardiff City.
That in itself raised an eyebrow with me. I ask him how he stayed at home during his two seasons playing for Bath City, per his Wikipedia page, between 1980 and 1982. His answer makes us both burst into hysterics.
"You know what, I can't even remember that!," he laughs. "Maybe I did play for Bath... but I can't remember it. I couldn't have been very good, I bet they don't remember me!
"I know I played one game for Weston-super-Mare and it was a right hassle, so I decided I didn't fancy it, because I didn't like travelling.
"I can't say it is wrong but... I don't know."
I tell him that Wikipedia cites a record of 14 goals in 28 appearances for Bath.
"Me?!," he says, perplexed. "No chance! Actually... I'll take that!"
We put it down to an administration error on behalf of the website, because it was actually in the parks of Leicester where Griffith was really honing his skills, playing for a host of semi-pro teams, such as Wigston Fields, Houghton Rangers and Leicester United, before earning a move to Kettering in 1988. It was enough to cover his petrol back then, he reckons,
To supplement himself while his fledgling career as a footballer was taking shape, he worked as a dark room technician at Glenfield Hospital before landing himself a role as a payroll clerk at County Hall, a job he kept until he signed for the Bluebirds.
After an eye-catching season with Kettering in 1988-89, there were a number of clubs sniffing around, Griffith recalls.
He says he later learned that Tottenham were one of the interested parties, although he hastily retreats after once again admitting a poor memory: "I don't know, I probably dreamt it!"
But what he is sure about is how then Bluebirds manager Len Ashurst lured him to Cardiff City, where Griffith settled quickly in a B&B on Cathedral Road, a hub for that extremely close group of City players in that time.
In the latest in our series of interviews from the class of 92/93, we catch up with Cohen Griffith to chat about his times in a Cardiff City shirt and what he's been up to since
By Glen Williams
Sunday 24th May 2020
It all happened so late for Cohen Griffith.
By the time he had conquered the semi-professional leagues and earned his career-changing and life-altering move to Cardiff City, he was 27 years of age.
By today's standards, that is a big chunk of a professional career which has already passed you by.
COHEN GRIFFITHS:
"Without sounding big-headed, if I'd have managed to get into the game earlier, then I could have probably played at a higher level," he tells WalesOnline.
"But, who knows? You can't have ifs and buts. It is what it is."
But he was determined to make the most of his big break and that switch from Kettering Town to the Bluebirds back in 1989 prefaced a wondrous era for the Welsh capital club.
Having been born in Guiana in 1962, Griffith's parents moved to Leicester when he was just 18 months old, where he would stay until the day he signed for Cardiff City.
That in itself raised an eyebrow with me. I ask him how he stayed at home during his two seasons playing for Bath City, per his Wikipedia page, between 1980 and 1982. His answer makes us both burst into hysterics.
"You know what, I can't even remember that!," he laughs. "Maybe I did play for Bath... but I can't remember it. I couldn't have been very good, I bet they don't remember me!
"I know I played one game for Weston-super-Mare and it was a right hassle, so I decided I didn't fancy it, because I didn't like travelling.
"I can't say it is wrong but... I don't know."
I tell him that Wikipedia cites a record of 14 goals in 28 appearances for Bath.
"Me?!," he says, perplexed. "No chance! Actually... I'll take that!"
We put it down to an administration error on behalf of the website, because it was actually in the parks of Leicester where Griffith was really honing his skills, playing for a host of semi-pro teams, such as Wigston Fields, Houghton Rangers and Leicester United, before earning a move to Kettering in 1988. It was enough to cover his petrol back then, he reckons,
To supplement himself while his fledgling career as a footballer was taking shape, he worked as a dark room technician at Glenfield Hospital before landing himself a role as a payroll clerk at County Hall, a job he kept until he signed for the Bluebirds.
After an eye-catching season with Kettering in 1988-89, there were a number of clubs sniffing around, Griffith recalls.
He says he later learned that Tottenham were one of the interested parties, although he hastily retreats after once again admitting a poor memory: "I don't know, I probably dreamt it!"
But what he is sure about is how then Bluebirds manager Len Ashurst lured him to Cardiff City, where Griffith settled quickly in a B&B on Cathedral Road, a hub for that extremely close group of City players in that time.
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Re: ' Cohen Griffith's '
Sun May 24, 2020 9:08 am
The Bluebirds' drinking culture was notorious in those days, it is why many believe the players and the fans have never enjoyed a closer bond.
But Griffith wasn't too big of a drinker back then and in fact took a different stance when it came to the heavy midweek sessions.
COHEN GRIFFITHS:
"I wasn't really one of the Beverley crew, which I'm sure you've heard about," he says of the infamous Wednesday drinking club the Bluebirds players were part of, named after the pub on Cathedral Road.
"I'm not a big drinker. I would go out after the games on a Saturday, not on a Wednesday night.
"I always felt you were giving the fans ammunition, 'Oh, no wonder he was rubbish, he was out drinking on Wednesday.'"
There is no doubting, however, the fans' close bond with the players was a huge factor in that 1992/93 season and Griffith agrees.
The former winger's overriding memory of that campaign is, of course, the scenes of carnage and euphoria after the Bluebirds' final home game of the season, a win over Shrewsbury Town which sealed promotion.
"It was really hard to get off the pitch," he recalls. "I had a really big cut on my head, because they had a big centre half who had elbowed me.
"When the whistle blew all the fans ran on and they were all smashing me on the head!
"They were asking me for my shirt, so I would give it to them, which didn't go down well with Harry Parsons, our kit man.
"You are literally getting stripped and then somebody took my boots and ran off with them!"
He managed to wrestle his boots back with the help of another supporter, because, of course, the job wasn't done, there was the final game of the season, away at Scunthorpe, still left to play. The game in which City could crown themselves Division Three champions.
"Driving up there, the roads were packed with Cardiff City fans in fancy dress," he remembers fondly.
City clinched the title that day, with Bluebirds supporters flooding three sides of the ground, but Griffith managed to make his way into the changing rooms unscathed that time.
That season ranks among the highest points of the former midfielder's career, however there was one aspect he certainly didn't enjoy; the South Wales Echo player ratings.
"I used to get five all the time," he laughs. "I used to say, 'Well hang on, how am I getting five every week?'
"Six is OK, but five is not OK. The lads used to ask me what I'd done to the reporter to deserve a five!"
Steve Jenkins and Cohen Griffith doing battle in 1995
But he speaks in jest, of course, because the effusiveness with which he talks about that time is evidence of his love for those brilliant days in blue.
It is why it stings when he talks about his exit in 1995. Eddie May wanted him to sign another contract, but Griffith says then chairman Rick Wright thought differently.
May left and, consequently, so did Griffith, and that's when he moved to Barry Town.
"I thought I was worth another contract," he says. "I was still contributing and could have carried on contributing.
"I hung on, they didn't appoint the next manager (Kenny Hibbitt) in time and, because I always played well against his sides, he was surprised that I'd gone.
"But I had already signed for Barry then, so that was a done deal.
"I was disappointed, even a few fans would probably say it was a little bit too early for me to go, I was only 32.
"I was a little bit gutted to have gone that quickly."
After a couple of successful seasons at Barry Town, alongside his former Bluebird team-mate Chris Pike, Griffith signed for Merthyr in 1998.
But it was there he suffered a horrendous injury when his studs got caught in the ground and the effects of the incident were lasting.
"I'm still not really right now," he says of the knee injury, which preceded his swansong season at Rhayader in 2001/02.
He went into coaching once he hung his boots up. He admits he never really put much thought into what he wanted to do once the screaming stopped, but undertook his badges because he enjoyed working with youngsters.
It's how he wound up in his current role as a lecturer at Coleg y Cymoedd in Ystrad Mynach, working in the sports department.
He runs the football team there, too, passing on those little nuggets of information and experience to the next crop of talented youngsters bursting through the ranks.
Griffith, now 57, has an infectious laugh and a seemingly happy-go-lucky character when he speaks. It is easy to see why, even though he was not part of the infamous 'Beverley crew', former team-mates have nothing but kind words to say about him.
In search of Cardiff City's most loved team: The class of 1992/93
They were the Cardiff City team that defined a generation. A group of players who sparked something within the Bluebirds fanbase few others have been able to replicate since.
In 1993, Eddie May's side delivered promotion for his barmy army at the end of a season those who were there will never forget.
This was the team of Dale, Stant, Blake, Searle, Pike and the rest. It was the year of that glorious, iconic kit.
Over the coming weeks, WalesOnline will be tracking down the men who became heroes 27 years ago to hear their stories of yesteryear and discover what became of them.
You can read about Carl Dale, the cult striker who became an electrician here.
Here, we tracked down Derek Brazil, the Man United kid who became a Bluebirds hero.
Chris Pike spoke about his days as a Bluebirds goalscoring machine and the moment he knew his 11-year-old nephew, Gareth Bale, was going to be special.
He worked tirelessly for Cardiff City during his stint at the club, leaving everything out on the pitch and undertaking a number of roles to suit each manager's system, moving from the wing into central midfield later on in his career. The ultimate team player.
You can imagine, then, that he would have slotted in seamlessly with the staff at Coleg y Cymoedd in his new career as a lecturer, but he has not escaped the ribbing which would have been commonplace in those Bluebirds dressing rooms of yesteryear.
Because when Griffith was initially contacted about this interview, he replied to say he was happy to do it, but that he had received some flak from colleagues about the articles which had preceded it.
"There are a few Cardiff fans in there, one of them is the biggest Phil Stant fan ever," he laughs. "He would have Phil Stant down in his World XI.
"But they were all saying, 'Ah they are starting the series with all the good players'."
Not at all, Cohen, that we can assure you and your colleagues.
For the winger's six years of service to Cardiff City Football Club is regarded as a bona fide success, as thousands of Bluebirds fans of a certain vintage will agree.
But Griffith wasn't too big of a drinker back then and in fact took a different stance when it came to the heavy midweek sessions.
COHEN GRIFFITHS:
"I wasn't really one of the Beverley crew, which I'm sure you've heard about," he says of the infamous Wednesday drinking club the Bluebirds players were part of, named after the pub on Cathedral Road.
"I'm not a big drinker. I would go out after the games on a Saturday, not on a Wednesday night.
"I always felt you were giving the fans ammunition, 'Oh, no wonder he was rubbish, he was out drinking on Wednesday.'"
There is no doubting, however, the fans' close bond with the players was a huge factor in that 1992/93 season and Griffith agrees.
The former winger's overriding memory of that campaign is, of course, the scenes of carnage and euphoria after the Bluebirds' final home game of the season, a win over Shrewsbury Town which sealed promotion.
"It was really hard to get off the pitch," he recalls. "I had a really big cut on my head, because they had a big centre half who had elbowed me.
"When the whistle blew all the fans ran on and they were all smashing me on the head!
"They were asking me for my shirt, so I would give it to them, which didn't go down well with Harry Parsons, our kit man.
"You are literally getting stripped and then somebody took my boots and ran off with them!"
He managed to wrestle his boots back with the help of another supporter, because, of course, the job wasn't done, there was the final game of the season, away at Scunthorpe, still left to play. The game in which City could crown themselves Division Three champions.
"Driving up there, the roads were packed with Cardiff City fans in fancy dress," he remembers fondly.
City clinched the title that day, with Bluebirds supporters flooding three sides of the ground, but Griffith managed to make his way into the changing rooms unscathed that time.
That season ranks among the highest points of the former midfielder's career, however there was one aspect he certainly didn't enjoy; the South Wales Echo player ratings.
"I used to get five all the time," he laughs. "I used to say, 'Well hang on, how am I getting five every week?'
"Six is OK, but five is not OK. The lads used to ask me what I'd done to the reporter to deserve a five!"
Steve Jenkins and Cohen Griffith doing battle in 1995
But he speaks in jest, of course, because the effusiveness with which he talks about that time is evidence of his love for those brilliant days in blue.
It is why it stings when he talks about his exit in 1995. Eddie May wanted him to sign another contract, but Griffith says then chairman Rick Wright thought differently.
May left and, consequently, so did Griffith, and that's when he moved to Barry Town.
"I thought I was worth another contract," he says. "I was still contributing and could have carried on contributing.
"I hung on, they didn't appoint the next manager (Kenny Hibbitt) in time and, because I always played well against his sides, he was surprised that I'd gone.
"But I had already signed for Barry then, so that was a done deal.
"I was disappointed, even a few fans would probably say it was a little bit too early for me to go, I was only 32.
"I was a little bit gutted to have gone that quickly."
After a couple of successful seasons at Barry Town, alongside his former Bluebird team-mate Chris Pike, Griffith signed for Merthyr in 1998.
But it was there he suffered a horrendous injury when his studs got caught in the ground and the effects of the incident were lasting.
"I'm still not really right now," he says of the knee injury, which preceded his swansong season at Rhayader in 2001/02.
He went into coaching once he hung his boots up. He admits he never really put much thought into what he wanted to do once the screaming stopped, but undertook his badges because he enjoyed working with youngsters.
It's how he wound up in his current role as a lecturer at Coleg y Cymoedd in Ystrad Mynach, working in the sports department.
He runs the football team there, too, passing on those little nuggets of information and experience to the next crop of talented youngsters bursting through the ranks.
Griffith, now 57, has an infectious laugh and a seemingly happy-go-lucky character when he speaks. It is easy to see why, even though he was not part of the infamous 'Beverley crew', former team-mates have nothing but kind words to say about him.
In search of Cardiff City's most loved team: The class of 1992/93
They were the Cardiff City team that defined a generation. A group of players who sparked something within the Bluebirds fanbase few others have been able to replicate since.
In 1993, Eddie May's side delivered promotion for his barmy army at the end of a season those who were there will never forget.
This was the team of Dale, Stant, Blake, Searle, Pike and the rest. It was the year of that glorious, iconic kit.
Over the coming weeks, WalesOnline will be tracking down the men who became heroes 27 years ago to hear their stories of yesteryear and discover what became of them.
You can read about Carl Dale, the cult striker who became an electrician here.
Here, we tracked down Derek Brazil, the Man United kid who became a Bluebirds hero.
Chris Pike spoke about his days as a Bluebirds goalscoring machine and the moment he knew his 11-year-old nephew, Gareth Bale, was going to be special.
He worked tirelessly for Cardiff City during his stint at the club, leaving everything out on the pitch and undertaking a number of roles to suit each manager's system, moving from the wing into central midfield later on in his career. The ultimate team player.
You can imagine, then, that he would have slotted in seamlessly with the staff at Coleg y Cymoedd in his new career as a lecturer, but he has not escaped the ribbing which would have been commonplace in those Bluebirds dressing rooms of yesteryear.
Because when Griffith was initially contacted about this interview, he replied to say he was happy to do it, but that he had received some flak from colleagues about the articles which had preceded it.
"There are a few Cardiff fans in there, one of them is the biggest Phil Stant fan ever," he laughs. "He would have Phil Stant down in his World XI.
"But they were all saying, 'Ah they are starting the series with all the good players'."
Not at all, Cohen, that we can assure you and your colleagues.
For the winger's six years of service to Cardiff City Football Club is regarded as a bona fide success, as thousands of Bluebirds fans of a certain vintage will agree.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Re: ' Cohen Griffith's '
Sun May 24, 2020 10:34 am
I knew Cohen very well when in the 90s when I was club Leader of Ystrad Mynach Boys & Girls Club, Cohen came as a part-time youthworker, a great guy, the kids loved him and as a Welsh League referee I had a few interesting conversations with Cohen and we also crossed our paths when Cohen managed Treodyrhiw in the Welsh League. I think he used to live in Quakers Yard, I great guy, very humble 
Re: ' Cohen Griffith's '
Sun May 24, 2020 11:50 am
Whistler wrote:I knew Cohen very well when in the 90s when I was club Leader of Ystrad Mynach Boys & Girls Club, Cohen came as a part-time youthworker, a great guy, the kids loved him and as a Welsh League referee I had a few interesting conversations with Cohen and we also crossed our paths when Cohen managed Treodyrhiw in the Welsh League. I think he used to live in Quakers Yard, I great guy, very humble
Yes he lived in Quakers Yard. Very humble as you say.