Taking the broad, if somewhat fanciful overview the domestic football seasons of the 1970s can be broken down into nine ten minute segments of a 90 minute match, then with commencement of the 1975-76 season things have moved into the second half.
Few would dispute the metaphorical first period had been a rip-roaring, dramatic affair. The game, in spite of associated ills such as racist chanting and terrace violence, had reached an unprecedented level of on-field excitement, the extraordinary becoming commonplace in the form of prodigiously gifted players, down-to-the-wire title races, a league and FA Cup double, unfathomable cup results and the biggest FA Cup Final shock of the post-war era.
The rise of some to a position of preeminence at times defied gravity, the drop like a stone predicament of others creating waves way beyond the recognised ebb and flow of the footballing tide. So while the second half of our contrived decade-encompassing game had plenty to live up to, half-time, (for the sake of argument, the summer of 1975), arrived with a number of imponderables to consider.
After what would prove the most perplexing season of the ’70s – in a strange way 1974-75 may also be the most compelling – neither league champions Derby County, nor FA Cup winners West Ham were expected to repeat such success in the campaign ahead. While the title had gone to the Baseball Ground for the second time in three seasons, The Hammers successful cup run was unforeseen rather than total surprise (maintaining the notion that everyone from mid-table top flight clubs to those drifting along in Division Two were entitled to dream big when it came to the FA Cup), the odds of repeating the trick were stacked against both.
This indeed, was for no other reason than the championship had not been retained since Wolves were back-to-back champions in the late-50s, the FA Cup last successfully defended by Spurs in 1962, the year an unknown Liverpool beat-combo named The Beatles had a minor U.K. hit with ‘Love Me Do.’
If John, Paul, George and Ringo had a football equivalent to the global fame they went onto achieve through the 1960s, it came in the form of Manchester United, whose precociously talented Belfast-born forward George Best – on occasion dubbed ‘the fifth Beatle‘ by the British press – became the outstanding, not to say, defining footballer of his generation.
After winning the FA Cup and two league titles through the ’60s, in 1968 they became the first English team to lift the European Cup, although for Manchester United, attaining the mantle of champions of Europe proved culmination rather than continuation of their achievements. Best, barely 22 when the European Cup was won, remained a wonderous talent as the subsequent seasons passed, but off the pitch his life became increasingly chaotic – a state of affairs mirrored in the declining fortunes of a club who six years after being crowned the best in Europe, could not preserve their first division status.
Their demotion to Division Two at the end of the 1973-74 season found Old Trafford in circumstances that were as baffling as they were reduced.
The team contained several international players (Best by this stage having left the club for good) and were managed by an experienced operator in Tommy Docherty, yet still they proved unable to stave off a fate it appeared well within their capabilities to avoid.
In many ways the reset brought on by relegation was negligible, but needed. Docherty was retained as manager and with virtually the same group of players United won the second division in such dynamic fashion it begged the obvious question of how they had arrived in such territory to begin with.
The only downside through a season when they produced exhilarating football on a weekly basis was a sizeable hooligan element among the vast army of support who accompanied them to away games – the on-field dynamism and off-field disorder set to continue from the moment they returned to the top flight.
After their valiant attempt to lift the European Cup in May 1975 ended amid rancour at the referee and riotous behaviour among a section of their support, it remained to be seen whether an aging Leeds United team could galvanise themselves for another championship challenge. Fancied to win the title for the first time since 1973 were Liverpool, whose inaugural season with Bob Paisley at the Anfield tiller ended in the frustration of a second placed finish, Derby crowned champions with the lowest points tally for twenty years.
There was similar Merseyside frustration on the blue side of Stanley Park. Everton in the final month of 1974-75 went from title-winners-in-waiting to continue their wait for a first trophy since the championship winning days of 1970. Presented with a favourable run-in, Billy Bingham’s side failed to hold their nerve, an untimely slump precipitating a drop from first to fourth when the title looked theirs for the taking.
The return of Manchester United, League Cup winners Aston Villa (their first Division One sighting for seven years) and Norwich City to the top tier gave the first division its strongest field of the decade, the three relegation candidates of 1975-76 harder to predict than those with title-winning potential. The most high-profile absentees were Chelsea, whose descent from winning early-70s honours at home and abroad ended with the ignominy of their recent relegation.
Indeed, the tumble of Chelsea into the second tier happened at a time when all around things were moving in an upward direction, a soaring U.K. inflation rate through the summer of 1975 taking the average cost of a pint of beer to a whopping 28p.
As Chelsea prepared for life outside the elite for the first time in twelve years, SW6 was not alone in the environs of the capital to be deluged on the eve of the 1975-76 season, London subjected to a dramatic rain downpour of 169mm in just two hours – an occurrence that had metrologists reaching for the record books.
As for their football counterparts, they were contemplating whether an assertion made by Malcolm Allison, (an innovative coach during trophy-laden late-60s/early 70s days at Manchester City), of English football reaching a peak in terms of accomplishment as the 70s unfolded, would still hold true into the sixth full season of the decade.
When the campaign began amid hot weather, play of the highest order (and unfortunately hooliganism), it appeared the point made by Allison – now in charge at third division Crystal Palace, but still receiving his share of headlines – continued to be borne out.
The Division One Opening Day fixtures of 1975-76 – Saturday 16 August 1975:
QUEENS PARK RANGERS 2 LIVERPOOL 0 (27,113):
Installed as title favourites, Liverpool, runners-up last time out, were opening day visitors to Loftus Road – but never before, or after for that matter in a decade they more or less dominated, would the Anfield outfit be so outplayed in the first match of a new season.
Rarely have a side set out their stall for the months ahead as they way QPR displayed their wares on this sunny afternoon in Shepherd’s Bush. In origin their sparkling football was more Holland than Holland Park, the theory of nothing being won in August debunked when the opening goal – a sublime five pass, ball on the floor passing sequence from ‘keeper Phil Parkes to scorer, recently appointed England captain Gerry Francis – was later named BBC ‘Goal of the Season.’
That a team with the organisational acumen of Liverpool (who in the second half concede a goal to Mick Leech), could be exposed in such fashion was testament to the ‘Total Football‘ principles of Hoops boss Dave Sexton.
Yet like the Dutch at the 1974 World Cup, Rangers in coming second by a whisker would win plaudits but not the main prize – Liverpool, on the other hand, ended the campaign with silverware in both home and European arenas.
WOLVES 0 MANCHESTER UNITED 2 (31,973):
Having not won at Molineux since December 1967 and been beaten on their last three visits (all of which attracted bigger crowds than this landmark contest marking their Division One return), Manchester United might have preferred to make their top flight re-entry elsewhere – but as things transpired they could not have had a more comfortable comeback.
During an era when statistical analysis of a game often related to the number of arrests and stabbing incidents (86/14 in this case), the recollections of your genial host at SAMTIMONIOUS.com from a distance of half a century are based more on the air of violence permeating from the terraces than long-standing memories of the match itself.
The facts in relation to football are that two goals from Scottish international midfielder Lou Macari, both scored in the final 20 minutes, decided the outcome of a contest the visitors came to dominate the longer it progressed.
Perhaps with the benefit of hindsight it is possible to conclude that on show were two sides who would finish virtually the length of the table apart (third bottom/third top). United, their Molineux hoodoo broken, would return later in the season to emerge triumphant from a thrilling FA Cup quarter-final replay by the odd goal in five – on a night when it was the football that would be remembered.
ASTON VILLA 1 LEEDS UNITED 2 (46,026):
The biggest crowd of the day assembled at Villa Park where the host club were contesting their first top flight fixture since 1967, the ensuing years including a two-season stay in Division Three.
While the fortunes of each club had differed greatly since Leeds were last seen in these parts for a league game (October 1966 to be exact), circumstance had finally brought them back together – although their paths were destined to diverge again in the not too distant future.
For now, however, Leeds took the opening day spoils, their hard-fought victory clinched by virtue of the footballing equivalent of a misfield, the description chosen specifically as a cricketer of some repute committed the error.
With 14 minutes left Villa goalkeeper Jim Coombes, whose mid-summer months involved bowling right-arm medium pace for Worcestershire in the County Championship, inexplicably allowed the ball to slip from his grasp. This mistake allowed Peter Lorimer opportunity to score his second of the afternoon, the Scottish international winger on hand to record the least spectacular strike of his career, 1974 World Cup Final referee Jack Taylor rarely asked to award a goal in such easy circumstances.
Earlier in the afternoon Welsh international midfielder Leighton Phillips had fired the home side ahead in front of a rapturous Holte End, Villa passing up several chances to extend their advantage before a first handling misdemeanor allowed Leeds back into the match – Lorimer levelling from the spot after Villa full-back John Gidman was penalised for a handball offence.
At the end of the season Leeds would look down upon 16th placed Villa from fifth, but over the seasons to come a League Cup (76-77) and league title (80-81) would go the way of Villa Park, the gap between the clubs at its most significant as the 1981-82 season came to end – one conquering Europe, the other dropping out of Division One……….
SHEFFIELD UNITED 1 DERBY COUNTY 1 (31,316):
Given the congested nature near the top of Division One when the 1974-75 season finally came to rest, it is not outlandish to ponder this fixture as top against sixth – only with the two clubs in reverse positions.
With a touch more consistency an accomplished Sheffield United side might just have clinched the title (as it was they just missed out on UEFA Cup place), Derby ultimately having the durability to see off a clutch of contenders.
Beginning their fifth top flight season since returning in 1971, when a 58th minute Keith Eddy penalty put Sheffield United ahead against the reigning champions, while giving them the upper hand in this contest it also represented a last hurrah not just for the season, but the 70s as a whole – the campaign slipping away to such an extent The Blades were racing relegation certainties long before mathematics confirmed their fate.
As for Derby they rallied to take an opening day point from Bramall Lane, new signing Charlie George coming to the rescue as a late strike from the former Arsenal double winner earned a draw. The months ahead proved more disjointed (4th place/FA Cup semi-final defeat/tough-to-take second round European Cup exit against Real Madrid) than dispiriting – although like Sheffield United time in the shadows was also beckoning, The Rams, after surviving one close call, relegated in the spring of 1980.
STOKE CITY 1 WEST HAM UNITED 2 (24,237):
This Victoria Ground curtain-raiser brought together two sides who as much as anyone had good reason to approach the campaign ahead with anticipation.
Stoke were another side whose title aspirations of 1974-75 had been thwarted in the final straight, UEFA Cup qualification their reward for the free-flowing football that eventually saw them dock in fifth.
West Ham meanwhile had started badly in the first season with John Lyall in charge, hit an inspired run of form through the autumn and although they fell away with the turn of the year, repeated progress in the FA Cup led all the way to a Wembley victory over second division Fulham.
While cup success still appeared the best chance for either to prosper (both having two domestic and a European trophy to contest, West Ham being Cup Winners’ Cup entrants), more reliable league form would not go amiss. In this regard it was The Hammers who made the better start, first half goals from FA Cup Final scoring hero Alan Taylor and Bobby Gould proving too much for The Potters, who replied late on through striker Ian Moore.
While for Stoke 1975-76 would prove hit and miss (dropping seven places to 12th), West Ham indulged in their own form of deja vu, competent until Christmas, collapsing thereafter, Cup Winners’ Cup advancement finally coming to an end with defeat to Anderlecht in the final.
EVERTON 1 COVENTRY CITY 4 (32,343):
Having suffered the fewest number of top division defeats while still failing to win the championship, there was at least renewed optimism in the land of Evertonia – this after the decade had begun with a run of lean years, a UEFA Cup berth giving the faithful cause to believe a corner had been turned.
Alas the season ahead would prove to be more old twilight than new dawn, the first instance of one step forward but two back occurring in this disconcerting defeat on home soil.
David Cross netted twice inside the first 20 minutes as the Sky Blues made hay in the face of hapless defending. Toffees’ central defender Roger Kenyon was able to cut the deficit, but indications a fitful season at Goodison was in the offering arrived when Cross (72) completed his hat-trick before Alan Green (78) put the outcome beyond all doubt.
While Coventry would maintain their reputation as steady mid-table merchants (finishing 14th for the second season running), for Everton slipping from 4th to eleventh was significant regression, a situation made worse by the neighbours bringing home a couple of trophies.
IPSWICH TOWN 0 NEWCASTLE UNITED 3 (27,860):
In the context of a singular game this result made little apparent sense and even less in the final reckoning, these two sides finishing in opposite halves of the table – indeed, same as they had done the previous term.
Curious then Newcastle should open the campaign with such a resounding victory in East Anglia, although not such a surprise England striker Malcolm MacDonald should be so quick to open his account for the season. After his 21-goal personal tally had kept the Magpies out of a relegation scrap in 1974-75, ‘Supermac’ netted an opening day brace (28/63) that was supplemented by a Tommy Craig penalty on the stroke of half-time.
In the course of the next nine months, Newcastle would have a losing League Cup Final appearance, 19 goals from Macdonald and a run to the FA Cup sixth round to reflect upon, yet indifferent league form would once again see them finish 15th.
While Ipswich would recover from this poor Portman Road showing to produce more of the positive play which had become their trademark under future England manager Bobby Robson, dropping from third to sixth would deny them UEFA Cup involvement for the first time in four seasons.
MANCHESTER CITY 3 NORWICH CITY 0 (29,103):
After five seasons without a trophy Manchester City had become an entity where style rather than silverware was becoming the order of the day. Capable of being sublime or slipshod (sometimes within the same fixture), when they turned up and turned on, City were a handful for anyone, but year-on-year inconsistency repeatedly left them empty-handed.
True, with their array of top draw talent they were always likely to be too strong for newly-promoted Norwich, although it would need three goals in the last half hour – Colin Bell (61) and Dennis Tueart brace (72/81) – to finally see off the Carrow Road outfit, although long-term the clubs would finish closer than this one-sided contest proved to be.
From week-to-week the Maine Road men remained a strange mix of flash and crash. The trophy drought finally ended with a second League Cup triumph in six years, but an erratic league campaign saw them meander home in eighth – just two places above the Canaries, whose enterprising style under the guidance of John Bond set the template for the next few seasons, making them welcome additions to the top flight.
LEICESTER CITY 3 BIRMINGHAM CITY 3 (25,547):
Based upon final placings of the previous campaign, (hosts 18th/visitors one place above), this opening day encounter doubled as the first must-win relegation clash of the new season.
Judging by what transpired both were again expected to make hard work of staying up given the porous nature of each defence. Two former 1970s title winners Jon Sammels (Arsenal) and Howard Kendall (Everton) scored with first half penalty kicks, Kendall responding for the visitors shortly before the break – who then with 20 minutes remaining found themselves in touching distance of a rare (only four in 74-75) away success.
Given a two goal cushion through regular marksman Bob Hatton and another Kendall goal, Blues looked home and hosed until their rearguard also began leaking like a sieve – a Brian Alderson strike and John Roberts own goal resulting in the spoils being shared.
Leicester would, by and large, plug their defensive holes, which was just as well, the Filbert Street side were outscored by everyone else who finished in the top half, relegated Wolves on target more often than the 7th placed Foxes.
But for Blues it proved another season of suffering with only bottom of the pile Sheffield United conceding more – yet for all that a meagre points tally of 33 was enough to stave off relegation in ending up fourth-bottom.
SPURS 1 MIDDLESBROUGH 0 (25,502):
After avoiding the drop in skin-of-their-teeth fashion, there could only be hope of an upturn in fortunes at White Hart Lane, the September 1974 departure of trophy-winning managerial titan Bill Nicholson casting a shadow over 1974-75 from which Spurs never emerged – the only light from a dismal campaign being the fact three sides finished deeper into the darkness.
In contrast positivity had abounded for Middlesbrough on their return to Division One, a seventh-placed finish testament to the tactical organisation manager Jack Charlton had instilled into his well-drilled unit.
As such this first up fixture went off script in going the way of the home side, a well taken goal from long-serving midfielder Steve Perryman securing the points just after the hour mark.
While for Spurs an eventual ninth position was tangible improvement, it was no return to the silverware-per-season times of earlier in the decade and if anything was a conspicuous false dawn – second division football arriving on the Seven Sisters Road barely two years later.
By way of irony, in the campaign leading on from this afternoon at the Lane, Tottenham would finish above ‘Boro who bumped along to come in 13th – and while a slight drop off from their 1974-75 achievements, many since would have welcomed this as second season syndrome.
BURNLEY 0 ARSENAL 0 (18,603):
After the momentous league and FA Cup double exploits in the first full season of the decade, by the midway point there is clear evidence that Arsenal have completely lost their way. The 62 points accrued in becoming champions in 1970-71 had dropped to just 37 in the campaign most recently ended.
The average gate for a Highbury league fixture had gone down to below 20,000 (a decrease of over 15,000 from the double-winning season), swathes now staying away due to a distinct lack of entertainment – the manifest an acute lack of goals, the Gunners managing just 47 in their 42 first division fixtures of 1974-75.
In this respect Arsenal had been embarrassed by Burnley whose impressive 74-75 haul of 68 was the biggest in the top flight.
Thus it appeared these were two clubs moving in opposite directions, Burnley a top-half proposition, the visitors roaming about just above the relegation zone, respective 10th and 16th placed finishes last time out indicative of these differing perspectives.
While things would remain in an uninspired state in Islington, (double-winning supremo Bertie Mee about to start what proved his final season at the Highbury helm), the campaign would turn calamitous for the Clarets, whose relegation would be as emphatic as it was unexpected – Burnley scraping together just 28 points in finishing second bottom, this through a season when they barely spent any time outside the relegation zone.
If there was something perplexing about Burnley and their sudden fall from grace, the only surprise attached to Arsenal was that they acquired six more points than necessary in beating the drop – that said, a final position of 17th was hardly likely to send the North Bank into rapture.
For a club whose glory a few years earlier had stemmed from their resilience and resolve, Arsenal (even now outscored by two sides who finished below them, including one of the relegated trio), looked for all the world bereft of spirit.
After beginning the decade on the crest of a wave, N5 shaped up for the second half of the 70s looking out from their lowest league berth since 1925 – Arsenal’s decline from the heady days of the double to their present 1975-76 predicament, another anomaly to keep the ’70s football-theorist busy…………
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NEIL SAMBROOK is also the author of MONTY’S DOUBLE – an acclaimed thriller available in paperback and as an Amazon Kindle book: