Even at a distance of 50 years it is still possible to recall the sense of anticipation that would grip a (this) coming of age football obsessive when a late-60s, early ’70s FA Cup Final drew near.
The fact it was one of the few matches in the course of a season to be broadcast live was enthralling by itself, but the unrelenting television coverage attached to the event, spread effectively across the two channels in operation, began well before midday and incorporated all manner of spurious connotations.
Indeed, not even ‘Cup Final It’s A Knockout‘ could induce big day burn out, minds refocused by the time cameras boarded one team bus or another for the twenty minute journey to Wembley – crowds beyond the coach windows increasing in number and noise as the stadium became ever closer.
As for the match itself, by 1974 a close, one goal either way, contest had become the cup final norm, the ten finals since Manchester United defeated Leicester City 3-1 in 1963 all decided, on the scoreboard at least, by a narrow margin.
On the face of it another tight game looked possible on May 4 1974 – Liverpool and Newcastle United crossing swords with the FA Cup once more at stake.
Based on results from the turn of the year Liverpool were clear favourites. Having lost only two of their nineteen league matches since, a run that guaranteed runners-up spot (even with one game still to play), they followed their title winning triumph of the previous season by finishing second to champions Leeds United.
Their strong second half to the campaign had resulted in charismatic, long-serving manager Bill Shankly guiding Liverpool to their second FA Cup Final of the decade, three years now having elapsed since they lost to double-clinching Arsenal at this stage – and to be denied a second FA Cup success to join the 1965 victory over Leeds, would mean several pages being ripped from the form book.
In contrast to their Merseyside opponents, Newcastle had drifted into a post-Christmas slump that showed no sign of abating even now Easter had come and gone. Their last nineteen league games had yielded just three wins, none of which had occurred in the previous six matches, United falling from second in November to seventh at New Year, entering May in the lower reaches of mid table.
Yet being the epitome of that old adage of a team playing badly enough to win the cup – Manchester United were equally lamentable on the league front when they won it eleven years before – the chances of Newcastle lifting the trophy for the first time in nineteen years could not be discounted.
While for Liverpool the route to Wembley had not been entirely straightforward, requiring replays to progress from rounds three, four and the semi-final, it had been nowhere near as convoluted nor controversial as that of the Tynesiders – most notably the sixth round fixture against Nottingham Forest.
On Saturday 9 March the second division visitors to St James’ Park were leading 3-1 early in the second half, when a pitch invasion by Newcastle fans led to the tie being halted for almost quarter of an hour.
When the match resumed the home side mounted a stirring comeback in recording a 4-3 victory. But on receiving a protest from Nottingham Forest, who claimed a number of their players had been assaulted during the fracas, The FA, in resisting calls for Newcastle to be expelled from the competition, declared the game null and void – ordering the sides to play again on March 18 in the neutral surroundings of Goodison Park.
When that game ended goalless the teams reconvened 72 hours later, once more at the home of Everton, whereupon Newcastle won 1-0 with a goal from England international centre-forward Malcolm Macdonald – his feat of scoring in every round maintained with the semi-final brace that accounted for Burnley in sending Joe Harvey’s side to Wembley.
Winning through to the final at Hillsborough, where the previous year north east rivals Sunderland had done likewise on their way to a stunning triumph over Leeds in the final, was among the accumulating omens suggesting it could well be Newcastle’s year.
Most pointedly of all was a team playing in stripes had yet to lose a post-war FA Cup Final, The Magpies themselves winning three, Sunderland in their red and white variation recording the most sensational triumph of all twelve months before.
Victory over Liverpool would not rank as a surprise on the scale of Bob Stokoe’s Wearside victors of 1973 and in Macdonald they had the means, his 28 goals during the season the difference between Newcastle and a relegation struggle. This strike rate had also made him a contender for Footballer of the Year – a contender, but not winner of the coveted award, which a couple of weeks before had been bestowed on Ian Callaghan.
In his 14th year as a member of the Liverpool team, Callaghan was now performing in midfield after making most of his several hundred appearances playing on the wing, the switch not affecting such manifest consistency he could have been named Footballer of the Year in any of the past ten seasons.
Hence, there were portents and subplots a plenty, the 1973-74 season in need of a compelling FA Cup Final at the end of a campaign fraught with difficulty while blighted by the growing spectre of crowd disorder.
On the final Saturday of the league season seven days before, an Old Trafford pitch invasion brought premature end to the Manchester derby, United supporters pouring onto the field with their side losing and consigned to relegation. Through the winter months the fixture programme had come under strain due to implications arising from power shortages and the Three-Day week (there was any never any suggestion mind you of scrapping FA Cup replays), English football undergoing a period of soul-searching on England failing to qualify for the 1974 World Cup.
The main repercussion of not securing qualification had been the sacking of Sir Alf Ramsey as England manager. There was general acceptance the eleven year tenure of the 1966 World Cup winning boss had reached its end, yet his departure was still handled in tawdry, disrespectful manner by The Football Association.
Ultimately the match that sealed the fate of Sir Alf occurred at Wembley in October 1973 (The FA indulging in six months of procrastination before wielding the axe in April 1974) when England, despite dominating the game were held to a 1-1 draw by Poland – a result that saw the Poles through to the forthcoming finals in West Germany.
By way of irony, the FA Cup Final quickly developed overtones of that fateful autumn night, Liverpool in the guise of England, laying siege to the Newcastle goal virtually from the off.
Aside from a 63rd minute penalty that levelled the scores, Polish goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski had defied the home side, some of his more unorthodox saves moving television pundit Brian Clough to call him ‘a clown.’ While Newcastle ‘keeper Willie McFaul was certainly not that, ‘juggler‘ perhaps a more appropriate label, Liverpool in mounting a series of dangerous left wing raids caused panic among black and white shirted defenders, one of whom, centre-half Pat Howard, cleared from under the crossbar after a fierce Steve Heighway cross eluded his goalkeeper.
For much of the most one-sided first half of an FA Cup Final since 1960 when Wolves proved far too good for Blackburn Rovers (who in fairness were reduced to ten men through injury in the days before substitutes were permitted), Liverpool ‘keeper Ray Clemence had been little more than a spectator. With the onset of the second half he resumed his role as onlooker, the deadlock apparently broken five minutes after the restart when full-back Alec Lindsay crashed a fierce shot past McFaul and into the Newcastle net.
Yet no sooner had BBC match commentator David Coleman described the goal as ‘different class in every sense‘ the effort was disallowed as Kevin Keegan had strayed into an offside position. Some may have taken it as a key moment, that incident on which the game turned, Newcastle taking advantage of their let-off to fashion an unlikely outcome after failing so far to muster a worthwhile effort.
But if deemed a turning point then it only served to make Liverpool even more concerted in asserting their superiority – no raised flag from a linesman saving McFaul and his defence when Keegan, with a smartly executed volley, finally opened the scoring on 58 minutes.
Finding little to contend with as Newcastle offered nothing as an attacking threat, Liverpool skipper and central defender Emlyn Hughes began spending more time closer to the opposition penalty area than his own. Shortly after he sent a rising drive just inches over, Heighway seized on a John Toshack flick to send a low shot past McFaul in doubling the lead with fourteen minutes left.
After scoring at every stage along the way, Macdonald had spent an afternoon barely receiving a kick while leading a shot shy Newcastle attack – ‘Supermac’ unable to do anything but look on as the rout was completed with ninety seconds remaining, Keegan scoring his second and Liverpool’s third in converting a Tommy Smith cross from barely two yards out.
For a generation relatively new in following the game, it was an altogether perplexing experience to see one team so completely out play another in the FA Cup Final. Some were not even born the last time the cup had been won by such a decisive margin, the 1960s just a few months old when Wolves overcame Blackburn by the same 3-0 score line.
True, it did not turn out the closely contested FA Cup Final many were hoping for, but in retrospect 1973-74 was the season, what with Leeds lifting the league title and Liverpool the FA Cup, that had threatened to happen since the ’70s began.
But barely two months later both clubs would be in the charge of new managers as the long reigns of Don Revie and Bill Shankly reached their conclusion. Revie departed Elland Road to became England boss, while on the red half of Merseyside their 60 year-old Scottish talisman resigned on taking the FA Cup to Anfield for a second time. The defeat of Newcastle proved farewell of sorts, (Liverpool would draw 1-1 at White Hart Lane four days later in completing their league fixtures), his July 12th exit totally unforeseen and unthinkable as he took acclaim from the travelling Kop on the first Saturday in May.
Newcastle, who seven days later ended the season by suffering a 2-0 defeat at UEFA Cup finalists Spurs, had seen all the cup final coincidences in their favour collapse during a near ninety minute Wembley mauling. The weekend, however, was not without irony for Liverpool either. Just hours after their triumphant afternoon of May 4 1974 had come to an end and with celebrations in full swing, BBC One broadcast a new sitcom.
Entitled ‘Happy Ever After‘, it certainly appeared so as Shankly, FA Cup in hand, waved and smiled at his devoted red and white multitudes…………..
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