Given the significant amount of trophies which went the way of Old Trafford and Anfield during the 1960s, it is somewhat ironic to reflect (your genial host here at SAMTIMONIOUS.com spending many of his waking hours contemplating such things), that only once during the decade did Manchester United and Liverpool contest the Charity Shield.
Eleven years on from a 2-2 curtain-raiser to the 1965-66 campaign (hosts United league champions/ visiting Liverpool FA Cup winners), as May 1976 dawned, there appeared every likelihood the clubs would again be meeting (honours reversed) as a prelude to the 1976-77 season.
Such an assumption was based on the distinct possibility of Liverpool clinching the league title at relegation-threatened Wolves on Tuesday 4 May – an eventuality set to follow the near certainty of Manchester United lifting the FA Cup on the opening day of the month.
With the soundtrack of ITV drama ‘Rock Follies‘ currently number one in the U.K. album charts, it seemed sheer folly to predict anything other than United being triumphant at Wembley.
Tommy Docherty’s rampaging Red Devils (his dynamic young team that is, rather than a wayward element among their support), were perceived too strong in every department for Division Two opponents Southampton – who similar to fellow second-tier finalists of last season Fulham, would likely give a creditable account of themselves before succumbing to opponents of superior pedigree and higher standing, which in that instance had been West Ham.
Besides, the once in a generation thunderbolt of a second division club actually lifting the FA Cup had struck as recently as 1973, a year when Sunderland defied the odds on defeating star-studded Leeds United in creating the greatest post-war FA Cup Final upset.
That said, it did the competition no harm whatsoever to have another side from the less-fancied masses to walk out beneath the twin towers, thus perpetuating the notion that when January and the third round rolled around every year, each club in the top two divisions had license to dream big.
In regard to those biggest in stature, Manchester United in this case, the Old Trafford club could have been forgiven in thinking that up until just a few weeks before they might have been contesting the next Charity Shield as champions. In fact barely a month earlier a league and cup double was in the realms of possibility.
When they recorded a 2-0 semi-final victory over reigning league champions Derby on Saturday 3 April, United secured their first FA Cup Final appearance for 13 years, yet at the same time stood third in the table, three points behind leaders Queens Park Rangers, but with two matches in hand.
Already it had proved a remarkable first division return for the club following their one-season second division stay of 1974-75, an exciting, expansive style of play proving too much for many of those they encountered.
But while the energy expended in challenging on two fronts appeared to have dropped a level since winning through to Wembley (three defeats in five outings since ending their title tilt), they still had sufficient fire power and finesse to make short work of the challenge being presented from the South Coast.
At the end of their second season in Division Two since a hard to fathom relegation in 1974 (England striker Mike Channon topping the first division scoring lists in a year Saints went down), it appeared Lawrie McMenemy’s side were still adjusting to life in reduced circumstances.
His charges were a side not lacking for experience or attacking ingenuity. Channon had 30-odd caps and a dozen international goals to this name, while they arrived at Wembley with three players, skipper Peter Rodrigues (Leicester City, 1969), midfielder Jim McCalliog (Sheffield Wednesday, 1966) and striker Peter Osgood (Chelsea, 1970), who had FA Cup Final connections. Yet in the weekly grind of league fixtures, Southampton amounted to an erratic ensemble.
Indeed, only second division champions Sunderland could claim to have scored more second division goals, but down in 14th Hull City had conceded fewer. Since their semi-final victory over third division Crystal Palace, Saints had won five and lost two of the seven matches that brought their league campaign to a sixth-placed finish (four points shy of the promotion frame) – and while reaching the FA Cup Final was a commendable achievement, they had not met a side of higher ranking since the third round.
Between 1964 and 1973 closely contested FA Cup Finals had become the norm, all ten played through this period decided by a one-goal winning margin. But the previous two, (Liverpool 3-0 v Newcastle, 73/74 and West Ham 2-0 v Fulham, 74/75), had brought more emphatic victories – the balance of probability suggesting a similar outcome in 1976 to that of 1939, when Saints’ near neighbours Portsmouth inflicted a 4-1 defeat on Wolves.
From the first whistle, blown by referee Clive Thomas, described by BBC Match commentator David Coleman while the teams are warming up as ‘respected and liked for his officiating‘ (an opinion soon to be disputed on the blue side of Stanley Park following an FA Cup semi-final faux pas by the Treorchy official the following season), there were portents for the next 45 minutes and the four months that lay ahead.
Played on a warm, sunny day it was not quite commencement of the long, hot summer soon to ensue, (as anyone who saw The Who play a storming set while soaked to the skin at Charlton on May 31st would attest), but there are quick indications of Manchester United being ready to dominate.
With red shirts rapidly involved in attacking moves, Southampton, wearing a change strip of yellow and blue, not dissimilar to the one worn by Arsenal in the 1971 final – as omen observers would have been quick to point out – are quickly forced onto the defensive.
With United driving forward in expected fashion, goalscoring opportunities fall the way of winger Steve Coppell and Northern Ireland international midfielder Sammy McIlroy. At the same time, the nervy, unorthodox goalkeeping of Saints custodian Ian Turner brings to mind the display of Poland ‘keeper Jan Tomaszewski through a bewildering Wembley occasion in October 1973 – although fortune would ultimately favour him as well.
As the half unfolds there is no question that United hold sway, but with it comes a sense they have come not only to win the cup but set out all their attacking credentials in doing so – this epitomized when Scottish full-back Tom Forsyth fires over from an advanced position when wide man Gordon Hill is better placed.
Signs that things are not following their expected course appear as the second half progresses. United winger Hill, who has been in excellent form all season (he and Coppell giving the team penetration on both flanks), is withdrawn after 65 minutes in being replaced by Belfast-born teenager David McCreery.
Meanwhile, McCalliog, signed by Southampton from the Old Trafford club 14 months before, has begun to deliver some telling passes, one of which puts Channon clear of the United defence. His low shot, however, is blocked by the feet of goalkeeper Alex Stepney, the only survivor from their last Wembley visit, the 1968 European Cup Final triumph over Benfica.
On that momentous May date eight years before, United prevailed in extra-time. But just when it appears an additional half-hour may be required for the deadlock to be broken, McCalliog lofts a probing through ball into the path of Saints forward Bobby Stokes – who fires a low, left-foot drive beyond Stepney and into the net.
With seven minutes to respond, United are frantic, yet ineffective in their efforts and with no plan-B to call upon, enter a gridlock of being caught offside and ambitious passes that fail to find the intended target. As a result Southampton, for all their underdog status, advance to the final whistle without undue alarm.
What was perceived as the latest major honour to be won by Manchester United, had become the first in the 91-year history of Southampton, the cup final form book turned upside down for the second time in four years by a victorious second division team. The first (and to date only) Welshman to captain an FA Cup winning side in the post-war era, Rodrigues received the trophy from Queen Elizabeth II on what proved the last time she would attend the event.
The coincidence that Manchester United had defeated the Saints (a semi-final victory) en route to their last FA Cup success in 1963 – a point raised once or twice in the build-up – was now irrelevant. Not that anyone during pre-match talk thought United would need superstition on their side to be successful that afternoon.
So, after Liverpool secured the championship at Molineux four days later, it would be they and Southampton who would compete for the Charity Shield a few months down the line, while superstition could go hang.
Which is no doubt what was thought when Southampton and Manchester United faced each other in the FA Cup fifth round ten months later – this being the 1976-77 season…………
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