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Given how many old certainties were no longer in their familiar place, there has rarely, if ever, been such an uncertain feel to a new season in English football as there was with commencement of the 1974-75 campaign.
Twelve months prior would have found managerial stalwarts such as Sir Alf Ramsey, Don Revie, Bill Shankly and Brian Clough in the jobs that had defined them. Yet in the course of the previous year, whether by chance or design, change had affected them all – giving the domestic game a curious, almost unfathomable dimension as the mid-point of the 1970s approached.
In many respects 1973-74 had been a season threatening to happen since the decade began. Leeds under Don Revie, effectively breezed to the league title after a number of near misses in the preceding years (almost every year in fact since their previous championship triumph of 1968-69). Bill Shankly meanwhile had steered Liverpool to the second FA Cup success of his Anfield tenure, a Wembley walkover against Newcastle securing a third major honour in 53 weeks following their league and UEFA Cup double of the previous season.
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But in light of recent events the achievements of Leeds and Liverpool in 1973-74 could now be viewed as golden sunsets rather than new dawn of ongoing dominance as the respective managers assembled their latest trophy winning teams – the continued push for silverware in the second half of the ’70s now in the hands of new incumbents.
Indeed, the most recent accomplishments of Revie and Shankly had been parting gifts, the mantle of league champions and FA Cup winners the notes on which they bade farewell from roles they had excelled in since the early years of the 1960s. On the failure of England to qualify for the 1974 World Cup, the eleven year reign of Sir Alf Ramsey had come to a dispiriting end, both on and off the field, the 1966 World Cup winning supremo finally ousted in April 1974.
That Revie was appointed his successor ten weeks later came as no great surprise, although there was a sense of incredulity, not least in the Elland Road ‘home’ dressing room, when the Leeds directors appointed Clough to be his replacement.
Witty and abrasive, Clough had guided Derby County to the league championship in 1972, only to leave the club a year later after the Baseball Ground board finally tired of his outspoken nature. Many of his verbal broadsides had been levelled at Leeds, whose more forceful methods in relation to winning football matches he was quick to condemn.
On the face of it he and Leeds were unlikely bedfellows, but take up together they did – Clough leaving Brighton and Hove Albion, whom he had managed for six months after departing Derby, for the withering welcome awaiting him in West Yorkshire.
The football world had also spun wildly on its axis when on July 12 1974, Liverpool announced they had ‘with great reluctance‘ accepted the resignation of sixty year-old Shankly, whose decision was attributed to wanting to spend more time with his family after fifteen intense years at the helm. Charismatic and adored by the Kop, Shankly, with a long list of cups and titles to look back upon, was the foundation stone on which Liverpool had built their success. The Anfield hierarchy filled this sizeable void by promoting second-in-command Bob Paisley to the frontline role – although Shankly, by sheer force of personality, seemed an impossible act to follow.
Despite the upheaval of having to replace revered bosses, Leeds and Liverpool were still the two clubs regarded most likely to succeed as a new campaign came into view. But the stock of both had taken a tumble, in more ways than one, when on the Saturday prior to the opening day league fixtures, they had contested the Charity Shield at Wembley.
This previously lacklustre encounter ignited in the second half when Leeds skipper Billy Bremner and Liverpool forward Kevin Keegan were sent off for fighting – the incident becoming even more unruly when each played discarded their shirts in heading to the tunnel.
With domestic football needing catharsis after England had failed to reach the World Cup in West Germany that summer, the sight of two high profile players behaving in such a manner brought another round of soul-searching into why the English game had taken so many wrong turns. The two combatants received lengthy bans and a £500 fine from The FA, the suspensions, lasting until the end of September, would have a significant impact on both clubs as to varying degrees Leeds and Liverpool moved fitfully though the opening weeks of the season.
If the image of Clough in the Leeds dug-out when they opened the season at Stoke was one tale of the unexpected, then Liverpool travelling to Luton Town, back in the top flight for the first time since 1960, was another. Although neither were as startling in appearance as the fixture at Stamford Bridge, where Carlisle, members of Division One for the first time in their history, were the visitors.
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The fact that Chelsea, who had recently splashed out almost quarter of a million pounds in signing Scottish international midfielder David Hay from Celtic, should be entertaining a side containing players with little first division experience between them, was remarkable in itself – although by the end of 1974-75 the two clubs had much more in common than they ever could have imagined.
Across from SW6 in E10, Leyton Orient were also incredulous at who they were hosting for a second division contest. Usually a visit to London for Manchester United meant time-honoured trips to the Bridge, White Hart Lane, Highbury, or for those with longer memories, Wembley.
But following their tumble out of Division One at the end of last term, it was less salubrious surroundings such as Brisbane Road and The Den where the European champions of six years before would now be stepping out – the opening day fixture listings for the top two divisions making real the reality of relegation.
Looking at top flight games for Saturday 17 August 1974 is to immediately recognise the absence of Manchester United. How long they would be out of Division One nobody knew given the malaise to have taken hold at Old Trafford.
Appropriate then as the first division looked down on their current station a level below, the UK Number One that week should include the line ‘Is this the beginning or is it the end?’ within The Three Degrees hit, ‘When Will I See You Again.’
DIVISION ONE – SATURDAY 17 AUGUST 1974:
STOKE CITY 3 LEEDS UNITED 0 (33, 534):
With the Charity Shield furore hanging over them from the previous Saturday – Billy Bremner permitted to play in this game before imposition of a three match ban (soon to be extended by The FA), the league title triumph of four months before was already beginning to feel a long way past when Leeds headed to the Potteries for their first post-Revie league outing.
Nineteen days into his Elland Road reign, Clough and his new charges had yet to find much common ground. Indeed, their lack of mutual empathy was about to be exposed by a buoyant home side, primed to continue the fine form in which they ended the previous season, an unbeaten nine-match run earning a UEFA Cup berth.
Without injured England internationals Norman Hunter and Allan Clarke, Clough gave a debut to Duncan McKenzie, his recent highly-priced acquisition from Nottingham Forest. Despite there being experienced, top class players all around him, Leeds look sullen and unsettled. Even then their efforts look set to secure a hard-earned point, that is until Welsh midfielder John Mahoney fired Stoke ahead with twelve minutes left.
Leeds duly rally but in truth the game looks up, Stoke twice countering with purpose to claim set and match with goals from Jimmy Greenhoff and John Ritchie.
In the middle of the following week the two-way antipathy between manager and players manifested in Leeds suffering a 1-0 home defeat to QPR – a night that marked the halfway point of the 44-day Elland Road reign of Brian Howard Clough.
CHELSEA 0 CARLISLE UNITED 2 (31,268):
Like Manchester United, the recent fortunes of Chelsea had gone into decline and while descent into the doldrums had begun later, the fall from grace was gaining pace – the club remaining in a parlous financial state despite the recent departure of star names such as Peter Osgood and Alan Hudson.
Therefore you could think of worse places than SW6 for top flight newcomers Carlisle to take their first step into the unknown, the Chelsea defence looking unknown to each other when central defender Bill Green tapped the Cumbrians into a second minute lead.
With the home side in accommodating mood Carlisle saunter around Stamford Bridge, Division One clearly not the daunting place it was cracked up to be. Chelsea are breached again fourteen minutes from time when neat approach play results in Les O’Neill curling the ball beyond Peter Bonetti to secure a notable win for the visitors – who seven days later, after three straight wins, would sit top of the table after a remarkable opening week.
Chelsea, meanwhile, no doubt smarting from being made opening day fall-guys, took their frustrations out on Burnley for 45 minutes four days later, leading the visitors 3-0 at half-time. But a second half collapse saw the Turf Moor side fight back to claim a point.
Things were also too good to last at Brunton Park, the season quickly becoming a slippery slope for both Carlisle and Chelsea.
LUTON TOWN 1 LIVERPOOL 2 (21,062):
The inaugural Saturday of 1974-75 brought differing experiences for the other two promoted sides – the first week of the new season bringing quick reacquaintance for them all.
At Kenilworth Road Luton faced a Liverpool line-up including Kevin Keegan for the last time until October (he like Bremner about to receive a lengthy ban for his part in the Charity Shield fracas), the home side announcing their presence back in Division One by taking a 17th minute lead through striker Barry Butlin.
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But in the first league match of the Bob Paisley era it took the visitors just four minutes to respond, defensive enforcer Tommy Smith on target with the equaliser. Later in the afternoon Liverpool secured an opening day victory in roughly the same fashion as they had 12 months earlier – Steve Heighway securing victory in Bedfordshire with fourteen minutes left, the winger also scoring the winner when Stoke were beaten by the only goal at the start of the previous season.
While Heighway finished 1974-75 with thirteen goals and the accolade of being top scorer at Anfield, a lack of firepower would account for early exits from the League, Cup Winners’ and FA Cups – a modest league tally (when offset by the best defensive record in the land) impinging on a title bid that would fall just short.
BIRMINGHAM CITY 0 MIDDLESBROUGH 3 (32,019):
On their reappearance in Division One, runaway 1973-74 second division champions Middlesbrough wasted no time in finding their feet – taking both points from St Andrews with a minimum of fuss.
In with the big lads after an absence of twenty years, after leading them back to the top flight in his first season as a manager, Jack Charlton saw ‘Boro score through John Hickton and Alan Foggon before the break, former Newcastle winger Foggon then wrapping things up with still half an hour to play.
An Ayresome Park defeat to Carlisle and draw against Luton in the two games that followed suggested it would not all be plain sailing for the well-drilled outfit Charlton had assembled, but an impressive campaign saw them come home seventh, Middlesbrough falling just three points shy of a UEFA Cup spot.
As had become their want, Birmingham kept their heads above the lapping of relegation waters by finishing seventeenth – although a decent FA Cup run, that saw them overcome ‘Boro at the quarter-final stage, finally came to grief at the hands of second division Fulham just one step from Wembley.
BURNLEY 1 WOLVES 2 (20,144):
Despite finishing tenth, Burnley outscored everybody – the first of their 68-haul something of a consolation as they raised the curtain with a home defeat to Wolves.
The visiting League Cup holders took a sixth minute lead through John Richards, their Wembley hero of six months before – the accomplished striker appearing for the first time since the March defeat of Manchester City beneath the Twin Towers, injury keeping him out of action thereafter.
Ray Hankin opened the Burnley account for the season five minutes before half-time, but 90 seconds later Wolves retook the lead and with it the points back to Molineux with a rare goal from full-back Geoff Palmer.
Through a meandering season for both (Wolves finishing two places below the Turf Moor side), they each appeared capable of winning well (Chelsea on the end of 7-1 Molineux thrashing in the spring) and losing to anyone (Burnley undone by non-league Wimbledon in round three of the FA Cup).
Such wayward form resulted in the irony that two years later they would meet on the opening day of 1976-77 but as second division clubs – neither able to avoid relegation the previous season.
MANCHESTER CITY 4 WEST HAM UNITED 0 (30,240):
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In his first major fixture since taking charge of the recent West Germany v Holland World Cup Final, Wolverhampton referee Jack Taylor was on duty at Maine Road where a far more one-sided encounter occurred – the home side indulging in an opening day rout of West Ham.
Dennis Tueart put City ahead on 11 minutes, while a quickfire brace from Rodney Marsh early in the second half landed City in a comfort zone, the issue long since decided when skipper Mike Doyle added a fourth late on.
Strange days, however, were ahead for both as 1974-75 unfolded. City, with a roster of top notch performers, could be classy or clueless, often within the same match, as they bumbled along to finish eighth, hamstrung by an awful away record.
West Ham recovered from their Maine Road mauling to do most of their important league business before Christmas, attention switching to the FA Cup from early in the new year…………..
NEWCASTLE UNITED 3 COVENTRY CITY 2 (35,950):
Through the 1970s few clubs did anomalies like Newcastle. The campaign about to ensue proved no exception as they produced the top goal scorer, but along with relegated Chelsea (72) conceded the most goals.
Malcolm Macdonald, who would go on to top the goal charts with 21, wasted little time in finding the net – his 67th minute strike adding to a first half effort from Alan Kennedy as Newcastle eased into a 2-0 lead.
The Highfield Road visitors pulled one back through Scottish striker Brian Alderson, but a goal from central defender Pat Howard ultimately secured the points for Newcastle – although not before late jitters were sent around St James’ Park when Tommy Hutchinson, recently seen on World Cup duty with Scotland, gave the Sky Blues a last minute glimmer of hope.
That pretty much, would be the way of things for the next nine months. The goals of ‘Supermac’ kept Newcastle out of relegation trouble, draw specialists Coventry scraping together enough points to finish one place above in fourteenth.
SHEFFIELD UNITED 1 QPR 1 (16,032):
If finishing eighth last season (and the highest-placed London club to boot) on their return to Division One was not evidence enough things were ticking over nicely in Shepherd’s Bush, then an opening day point at Bramall Lane was reminder of the progress being made – a second half strike from future England captain Gerry Francis cancelling out an early Steve Cammack goal.
Four days later a 1-0 success at Elland Road gave QPR every encouragement for the season ahead, but what looked promising in mid-August was in tatters a month later, much-respected manager Gordon Jago losing his job in late-September on the back of only one win in their first ten games.
The West London managerial merry-go-round took another turn on October 3 when Dave Sexton was relieved of his duties by Chelsea – whereupon he was installed at Loftus Road barely a fortnight later.
Sexton oversaw an upturn in fortunes that eventually saw Rangers to a comfortable mid-table berth and while they again finished as top dogs in London by coming in eleventh, it said as much about the decay elsewhere in the capital as it did about the level QPR were at – although in 1975-76 they were very nearly the best side in the country, let alone south of Stanmore.
While Rangers made gradual improvement through 1974-75, Sheffield United were generally impressive throughout. Thirteenth the previous season became an eye-catching sixth and with a shade more consistency or avoidance of a curious defeat here and there, Bramall Lane could have been hosting European football when the next season rolled around.
As it was, the Blades fell prey to one of the great mysteries of mid-70s English football as the following year they made an inglorious exit from Division One in finishing bottom.
SPURS 0 IPSWICH TOWN 1 (26,444):
While Gordon Jago and Dave Sexton made it through August in post, the upheaval engulfing London clubs came to a head before the opening month was out at White Hart Lane – Spurs boss Bill Nicholson, the manager with the most prizes in English football to his name over the past 15 years, resigning with immediate effect on August 29.
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Nicholson, a venerable figure in the domestic game, sickened by hideous behaviour from an element of Tottenham followers during the second-leg UEFA Cup defeat against Feyenoord in May and miffed at a group within the Spurs dressing room who thought they knew the game better than he, called time on his sixteen year tenure at the Lane – Nicholson more a victim of the times than through any long-term lack of direction.
That said, opening the new season with four straight league defeats had not helped, the first of which was a reversal against visiting Ipswich, for whom centre-forward David Johnson secured the points with a second half header.
For Bobby Robson’s side it would be another season of platitudes if not prizes, their positive, enterprising football resulting in a climb from fourth to third and another crack at the UEFA Cup – defeat to eventual winners West Ham ending Portman Road FA Cup hopes at the semi-final stage.
As for Spurs, an experienced old hand such as Nicholson was inevitably missed, Tottenham pummeled at Anfield in their first away match without him. His successor, former Arsenal defender Terry Neill, managed to keep top flight football at White Hart Lane although Spurs avoiding relegation had more to do with the paucity of others rather than any great means of their own.
LEICESTER CITY 0 ARSENAL 1 (26,448):
While they did not part company with manager Bertie Mee, neither was there much to write home about across North London at Arsenal – where despite an opening day away win, Highbury was about to endure its most disheartening season since Elvis Presley was just a Tupelo truck driver.
At Filbert Street Leicester found themselves facing seven of the 1970-71 Arsenal double-winning squad, but not World Cup winner Alan Ball, who would be sidelined through injury until late-September. In the event a second half goal from debutant Brian Kidd, a £110,000 summer purchase from Manchester United, was enough to overcome the Foxes – who like Arsenal were in for a dour campaign.
Earlier in the decade finishing two rungs on the ladder below the Gunners would have meant a creditable placing, but while Arsenal plummeted six places from tenth in 1973-74 to 16th, Leicester found themselves falling even further as they dropped nine to 18th, dodging relegation with only three points to spare.
EVERTON 0 DERBY COUNTY 0 (42,293):
Two sides whose destiny it was to improve on their 1973-74 showing faced each other at Goodison Park, not that a largely dull affair in the Merseyside sunshine offered any pointers to such things.
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For a generation of Evertonians, 1974-75 remains the title that got away. With only eight defeats (just two on home soil), they lost fewer games than anyone, yet eight points dropped to relegated sides proved costly in the extreme.
Holding down pole position as March came to an end, losses in quick succession to Carlisle and Luton put paid to their title bid – the land of Evertonia having to settle for third after the championship had looked within reach.
While it represented their best effort (and with it a return to Europe) since the title-winning triumph of five years before, Everton could only look on enviously as their opening day opponents climbed from third in 1973-74 to top of the pile.
In the first full season of Brian Clough-successor Dave Mackay at the wheel, Derby survived a late Everton onslaught in the opening match in returning to the Baseball Ground with a point – this early example of them holding their nerve serving The Rams in good stead for what lay ahead.
Improving their points tally by one from the previous term proved enough for Derby to secure a second league championship in three seasons – and while 53 was the lowest title-winning tally for twenty years, Mackay’s men were able to seize the moment when those around them could not.
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