Mel Blyth: An appreciation

Born in Norwich in 1944 – he never lost his East Anglian burr – Mel turned pro with Scunthorpe United in 1967 before joining Crystal Palace a year later. Arriving at newly-relegated Saints in September 1974, his job was clearly to settle a defence that had been the leakiest in Division 1 the season before. Initially his central defensive partner was Paul Bennett, but as the following season progressed, it was Steele sweeping up behind Blyth that became the settled order.

Mel continued to live in south London and would often drop in to Crystal Palace’s training ground on his way home from training with Saints, but all that ended when Saints were drawn against Palace in the semi-final of the 1976 FA Cup. When writing Tie a Yellow Ribbon – How The Saints Won The Cup, Mel told me that his former manager, Malcolm Allison banned him, “in case I saw something we might find useful” in the forthcoming Stamford Bridge showdown.

Allison, ever the showman, had taken to wearing a fedora as Palace’s cup run progressed and Mel bet him £50 against the hat that Saints would be victorious. Mel was confident that, “if we played our A game we would win” and so it proved. After the 2-0 victory he said, “the dressing room door opened and the hat flew in”.

Mel (centre) celebrates Saints' finest hour with the FA Cup trophy

The 1-0 May 1st Cup Final victory over Manchester Utd led to an extended period of celebrations, which started with a most memorable tour of the city the following day. Whilst most of the team had made their way to The Dell in the morning, Mel found himself caught up in long queues of traffic with fans wanting to join in. Luckily a traffic policeman spotted him and was able to escort him through in time to join the bus parade which started at The Dell and ended at the Civic Centre.

Another red (and white) letter day for Blyth came along in October 1976 when Fulham, with George Best and Rodney Marsh in their ranks, came to The Dell for a league match. By the end of the afternoon Marsh had gone off injured, Best was sent off and Saints had a 4-1 victory with two of the goals, both towering headers at the Archers Road end, scored by Mel. Since that amounted to exactly a third of his total league goals for us in 104 appearances, it stood out as a great memory for him.

Mel’s time with the Saints came to an end when, towards the end of the 76/77 season, he “had a few words” with the manager for breaking up the Cup-winning side too quickly. Many years later he was sure that with hindsight Lawrie would have agreed with him. He went back to Palace on loan before globe-trotting and playing in South Africa, Hong Kong and the USA.

His last league club was to be Millwall, but, after his playing days ended, he kept an involvement at Crystal Palace where he could be seen in more recent times. Always an enthusiastic attendee at ’76 Cup reunions, Mel was also a popular guest whenever he came to St Mary’s for hospitality appearances.

He becomes the third member of that ‘76 Cup-winning side to leave us, after Bobby Stokes and Peter Osgood.

Melvin Bernard Blyth
28th July 1944 – 11th January 2024