Of the pivotal matches that ultimately shaped English football during the 1970s, there is none more defining than the visit of Liverpool to Wolves on the night of Tuesday 4 May 1976.
The outcome of the game had both immediate and long term ramifications. If the visitors won, which they preceded to do, the league title would be Anfield-bound, while in contrast their Molineux hosts would be relegated.
In the event Liverpool came from behind to score three times in securing a 3-1 triumph and on doing so landed the first trophy of the Bob Paisley era. But should an improbable turn of events transpired and they had lost to finish second for the third season in a row, would say England forward Kevin Keegan have stayed for another year without the incentive of a European Cup campaign?
Indeed, how might the Anfield boot room have responded to the frustration of being perennial runners-up?
Such were the imponderables. In actuality, despite conceding an early goal, Paisley’s side pretty much dominated the Molineux contest and in the process of becoming champions, assigned the hosts to second division football.
The other forlorn party that night were Queens Park Rangers. Upon completing their fixture programme ten days earlier they had sat atop of the first division table, aware a one point lead and hopes of the league championship going to Loftus Road would be extinguished if Liverpool avoided defeat at Wolves, where a draw would be enough for them to take the title.
For the home side an eighth home defeat of a dispiriting campaign proved somewhat academic. Their survival also hinged upon already-relegated Sheffield United recording a rare home win that season when Bramall Lane received fourth-bottom Birmingham City, who Wolves would climb above if the portents aligned – which at half-time in these concurrent fixtures appeared a possibility, Bill McGarry’s side ahead while their West Midlands neighbours trailed 1-0.
But changing second half scenarios at both venues (Birmingham responding to draw 1-1), sentenced Wolves to the drop, setting up the prospect of second division visits to Hull and Hereford. On the other hand Liverpool, in the midst of their celebrations, were looking forward to continental challenges in the European Cup, a trophy they had yet to lift.
Given the huge crowd that descended upon Molineux it was somehow ironic all roads should lead there, given that four years earlier the destination of the championship was also determined in these surroundings.
In May 1972, just 48 hours after defeating Arsenal in the FA Cup Final, Leeds United arrived in Wolverhampton with designs on achieving a cup and league double – victory over Wolves necessary for Don Revie’s men to end the 1971-72 campaign by emulating the achievement of Arsenal the previous season and the 1960-61 feat of Spurs.
Should Leeds fail, as proved the case in losing 2-1, then a win for Liverpool at Highbury would secure the third championship of Bill Shankly’s Anfield tenure. They, however, also stumbled, the ensuing goalless draw enough to land top of the pile Derby, who had finished their fixtures, a first league championship – Wolves, not for the last time, giving Baseball Ground boss Brian Clough, a timely helping hand.
When they lined up to face Liverpool in early May 1976, Wolves, with the spectre of being relegated looming large, had enough anxieties of their own to contend with. Yet parallels with 1972 persisted as league leaders QPR would also have their fate decided at Molineux.
They had wrapped up their fixtures on 24 April (the final Saturday of the 1975-76 season), with a 2-0 home win over Leeds United. This eighth victory in nine games during the run-in was indicative of the attractive, possession-based football Dave Sexton had instilled in his charges since taking the reins at Loftus Road in September 1974.
Boasting talents such as midfield talisman Gerry Francis, dashing winger Dave Thomas and virtuoso maverick Stan Bowles, in 18 games since the turn of the year QPR had taken 29 points from a possible 36. When they finally journeyed to Molineux only Liverpool were moving in the same realms of consistency, turning up on the back of seven wins and a draw from their last eight outings.
Originally scheduled to take place on April 24, Liverpool received dispensation to postpone the fixture due to John Toshack and Joey Jones being selected by Wales for a European Championship quarter-final fixture against Yugoslavia in Cardiff on the same day (only Toshack featured in the match day squad).
In the interests of fairness, the Sheffield United v Birmingham fixture was also held in abeyance as a draw against the Blades was enough to ensure survival for the St Andrews side. In turn that would have done QPR a disservice, Wolves left with nothing to play for when Liverpool came calling, their fate already sealed.
As Liverpool had a first-leg UEFA Cup Final to contest in the week following, (where they would record a 3-2 home victory over Club Brugge), and with the FA Cup Final still considered the flagship fixture of the season, Saturday 1 May was discounted – that being a day when second division Southampton defied the odds in defeating Manchester United at Wembley.
Thus Tuesday 4 May was designated to resolve matters appertaining to the top and bottom of Division One.
From a distance of 50 years, your genial host here at SAMTIMONIOUS.com offers these fuzzy, but first hand recollections of that night.
Upon our late afternoon arrival in Wolverhampton, my dad parked the car and we walked toward Molineux through streets already thronged with those wearing red and white. This created the notion that reaching a turnstile, let alone going through one, would be a task equal in magnitude to the one Wolves faced in preserving their first division status.
It was also disconcerting to hear my dad say, ‘I’ve been through all this before.’ This I took as reference to the increasing likelihood of us being among thousands who looked destined to miss the match due to a closing of the gates long before kick-off. (There is no personal recollection of the game coming under consideration for all-ticket status).
Taking his comment as allusion to a high-profile Molineux encounter of the 1950s from which he had been locked out, he qualified the comment by adding, ‘I was here in May ’47 for the last game of the season when Liverpool were here and whoever won that day would be champions.’
Well aware by this stage of my life the years in which Wolverhampton Wanderers had won major honours, the portents for the rest of the conversation were not good:
‘They beat the Wolves 2-1 and won the league. Albert Stubbins scored their winning goal.’
Only a short while later, when my fascination with The Beatles had fully developed, I would certainly have made reference to Stubbins (the favourite footballer of Fred Lennon, father of John) being on the cover of ‘Sgt Pepper‘.
At the time, however, I was in thrall to The Who and as interesting as that historical titbit had been, my immediate concern was gaining entry to see Liverpool hopefully denied a repeat.
Those fears showed no sign of abating when queues for entry into the main stand and North Bank stretched back across Waterloo Road, dad showing a worrying lack of urgency as we squeezed through one line after another to arrive at the car park designated for players and officials behind the North Bank.
Retrospective estimates have suggested 35,000 Liverpool supporters converged on Wolverhampton and while the number inside the ground can only be guessed at, the official attendance figure of 48,900 has always seemed to exact in being correct – some hazarding a guess the gate was closer to 60 than 50 thousand.
Despite the imminent likelihood of us failing to cross the threshold, we squeezed through one line after another to reach the car park designated for players and officials behind the North Bank.
Following him up the steps into the ‘Promotions Office‘ his long-standing friendship with Wolves Lottery Manager had stood him in good stead. Cordial greetings were followed by an invitation to ‘Follow me’ with dad and I taken behind the counter to a door that when unlocked opened onto the narrow concrete concourse beneath the North Bank terracing.
From there we went through the entrance onto the terrace, finding a place among an apprehensive congestion of old gold and black, down by the corner flag where that end of Molineux joins the Waterloo Road stand.
There are several accounts from that night of Liverpool supporters gaining entry without paying when an exit gate to the South Bank was forced open. So in respect of balance I make the same claim on behalf of two Wolves supporters, not that it provided much consolation some two and a half hours later.
From memory I would also dispute assertions the travelling Kop were crammed into all four sides of Molineux. There were indeed pockets on both sides of the ground, although if some gained entry into the North Bank they were a quiet minority.
The South Bank, however, was an altogether different story. Never had that colossal terrace been so congested with the supporters of one club. Not Tottenham Hotspur in the May 1972 UEFA Cup Final first leg, Leeds United in their league title decider of a few days later, or Manchester United in an FA Cup sixth round replay just a few weeks earlier, had filled that end of Molineux to such an extent.
The sight of spectators perched precariously up floodlight pylons was something I would see repeated in another large, antiquated football stadium before the month was out – but for now with every gangway and exit overflowing, from the opposite end the South Bank stood like a red and white Mount Everest.
As for the 90 minutes of football (slightly truncated according to some reports due to a celebratory pitch invasion when Liverpool scored their third goal) for Wolves there was always a greater sense of fatalism than fairytale.
True, striker Steve Kindon fired them ahead on 14 minutes and even though Sheffield United were a goal to the good at half-time to fuel survival talk, Liverpool were simply too good, incessant second half pressure resulting in Keegan equalising with 13 minutes left.
In the 85th minute Toshack put Liverpool ahead to settle any doubt in regard to where the league title was heading, (accounts of the QPR team leaving the ground en masse at this point are also a misconception as they were watching events at the BBC studios in West London).
Just a few seconds after Ray Kennedy completed the scoring with a goal recorded at 88 minutes, referee George Courtney blew for time – prompting a charge of light-brigade proportion from the South Bank to end a night of domination for Liverpool, despite trailing in the match for just over an hour.
For Wolves relegation, which ended a nine season first division stay, was far more painful than the 3-1 defeat they had just suffered, the Molineux result from their perspective rendered irrelevant on Birmingham taking a point from their visit to South Yorkshire.
Nine days later manager McGarry, who had guided Wolves to two top six Division One finishes, the UEFA Cup Final, two domestic cup semi-finals and their League Cup triumph of 1974, was sacked and replaced by his assistant Sammy Chung.
Retaining such excellent players as John Richards, Kenny Hibbitt, Steve Daley, Alan Sunderland, Derek Parkin and Willie Carr, they won Division Two at the first attempt in making a rapid return to the top flight.
Far sooner than expected I came to terms with Wolves being relegated, my disappointment dissipated on the last day of May 1976 when witnessing The Who deliver a stunning set at The Valley, home of Charlton Athletic F.C.
On a day when the rain fell in torrents on South London, those among the vast crowd who had clambered up perilously wet floodlights for a better view of Daltrey, Entwistle, Moon and Townshend (hearing them was not a problem for anyone in the Home Counties that night) were unceremoniously told The Who would not take the stage until they came down.
No such instruction was issued at Molineux three weeks earlier.
As for Liverpool they were bound for an horizon laden with silverware. After succeeding Shankly at the Anfield tiller in the summer of 1974, at the end of his second season in charge Paisley was able to stand the UEFA Cup beside the league title won at Molineux, Liverpool clinching the trophy with a 1-1 second-leg draw in Brugge on May 19.
Just over a year later they had not only retained the title, but in May 1977 swept Borussia Monchengladbach aside to become European Champions for the first time – their relentless accrual of trophies now well underway.
QPR meanwhile were left to console themselves with the achievement of reaching Europe for the first time, their second placed finish and by virtue the highest-placed London club for the third season in a row, ensuring UEFA Cup involvement.
Had it been in the European Cup, which they arguably deserved given the progressive nature of their football, one can imagine a narrow semi-final exit at the hands of savvy Spanish or Italian opposition.
As it was Sexton’s side reached the last eight of their designated competition, suffering a surprise quarter-final defeat (on penalties) against AEK Athens, although Bowles being the top scorer in the UEFA Cup that season with 11 goals was no such shock.
On the domestic front QPR suffered something of a hangover after their near-miss title tilt in finishing 14th. While they reached the League Cup semi-finals, it only added to rueful wondering in W12 when their 1975-76 points tally of 59 would have made them champions the following season – and won it by a street (or a South Africa Road for want of a better phrase) in 1974-75.
But perhaps the most far-reaching ramifications of that May night in 1976 when Liverpool soared and Wolves sank, occurred 375 days later in the unlikely surroundings of Burnden Park, Bolton.
With the second division championship already clinched, Wolves ended their fixtures with a game that if won by the home side would see them promoted. For all their second half pressure Bolton were unable to overcome a first half deficit created by a smartly-taken Hibbitt goal – even when visitors’ goalkeeper Gary Pierce left the field injured, striker Bobby Gould going between the sticks for the final five minutes.
As a consequence, Wolves 1-0 win combined with a last day victory for Nottingham Forest over visiting Millwall, resulted in the City Ground celebrating promotion – the Molineux side doing Forest boss Clough a second good turn five years after the first.
It created an opportunity for Clough and Forest they had no intention of passing up……….
Wolves 1 Liverpool 3 – Tuesday 4 May 1976 (48,900):
Wolves (1) 1 (Kindon 14): Pierce, Sunderland, Palmer, Daley, Bailey, Parkin, Hibbitt, Carr, Kindon, Richards, Kelly (Gould 68).
Liverpool (0) 3 (Keegan 77, Toshack 85, Kennedy 88): Clemance, Smith, Neal, Thompson, Kennedy, Hughes, Keegan, Case (Fairclough 65), Heighway, Toshack, Callaghan.
Referee: G Courtney (Spennymoor).
Hello – hope you enjoyed another exclusive production from SAMTIMONIOUS.com
In order to create the best experience for when you drop by to read a page or two, those with the power to ordain such things (me, actually), have decided to remove all external advertising from the site – in other words articles will no longer be subject to intrusive pop-up ads. BUT – and ain’t there always one – should you wish to make a donation toward the on-costs of the most entertaining and original blog-site around, please press on the – ‘DONATE’ – button below. It will be greatly appreciated.
Stay safe everyone and thanks for dropping by – best wishes Neil
SAMTIMONIOUS.com – films, football and fabulous music at The Dominion of Opinion
NEIL SAMBROOK is also the author of MONTY’S DOUBLE – an acclaimed thriller available in paperback and as an Amazon Kindle book: