OK, we didn’t pay 30 quid to get in as many Premier League fans do today. I think they fleeced us for just  two shillings (the equivalent of 10p today) for adults and ninepence (less than 4p) for kids.

My dad would give me half a crown (12.5p) just to get rid of me on a Saturday – so I’d hop on a train with my male pals from Caerphilly to Ninian Park Halt (yes, the ground had it’s own railway station in those days) and watch the Bluebirds.

It’s amazing to think that for 12.5p, I’d get a return rail ticket, entrance to the game, a programme – and (Dad would be spinning in his grave if he knew) five Woodbines for me and my pals to puff on and think we were grown up.

It was on March 11, 1961 that Spurs came to South Wales on their all-conquering travels. I’ll never forget the occasion – because we beat them 3-2. But where, I wonder, did all the gate money go?

If I remember rightly there were no substitutes in those days, so there would have been 22 players to pay at £20 – that’s £440 altogether. Presumably the managers didn’t get a lot more – let’s say another £30 each for team bosses Bill Jones and Bill Nicholson.

So the people who made it all possible got £500 altogether. Now for the money that came in through the turnstiles.

Let’s be generous and say 12,000 of that 47,000 crowd were juniors. That’s 35,000 at 10p (£3,500) – and we are assuming here that EVERYONE paid the same minimal entrance fee -  plus 12,000 at around 4p (£480). Total gate money - £3,980.

That leaves around £3,500 unaccounted for. OK, there were groundstaff and a modicum of stewards to pay as well (there was no trouble at games in those days, so the police presence would be only mimimal).

But presumably some £3,000 of those takings went into the pockets of the directors – SIX times as much as all the players and the two managers got between them.

Or have I got something wrong here? I never was much good at mathematics but I’d love to know where all the money actually went.  Can anyone enlighten me – or am I the only one left who remembers that far back!

Looking back at the way players were remunerated in the 1960s, perhaps we shouldn’t be so harsh on today’s overpaid prima donna players. They are the people we pay to watch, so it’s only fair they get a big slice of the gate money.

Problem is that their ever-escalating wage demands are responsible for ever-escalating ticket prices that many of us just can’t afford.

The solution is so obvious – cut top players’ wages by half (which would still leave them in a life of luxury) and cut admission prices by 50 per cent. But that would be too logical, I suppose.

PS. According to research by Virgin money, dedicated fans today will spend £100,000 in their lifetime supporting their club - or £1,875 a season. And that doesn’t include providing replica kits and other items for the kids. Presumably that rounds it up to £1m in a lifetime for a Man United fan, then…