There was no missing the abundant irony in circumstances attached to Bobby Moore winning his 100th international cap, England invited to contest a fixture against Scotland at Hampden Park on Wednesday 14 February 1973 – the match arranged to commemorate the centenary of the Scottish Football Association.
England captain Moore and the Scottish FA marked their milestone on a date synonymous not only with lovers exchanging cards but a long-ago massacre in faraway Chicago – a Valentines Day slaying of the football variety ensuing on a bitterly cold Glasgow night, England thrashing the home side 5-0 in recording their biggest ever win north of the border.
As Moore, now 31, lead out the team for the 82nd time in becoming only the third Englishman – Billy Wright (1959) and Bobby Charlton (1970) being the others – to reach a century of appearances for England, there was no guard of honour or Golden Cap presentation awaiting the 1966 World Cup winning captain. Indeed, he stepped out onto a pitch cleared of a heavy afternoon snowfall that put the match in doubt even at the point of the players arriving at the ground, the inclement weather a factor in the relatively low attendance of 48,029, the crowd less than half than when England last visited Hampden Park seven months before.
Prior to the game at the team hotel, Moore had been presented with a silver salver by the FA bearing flags of all the nations he had played against. Later in the confines of the dressing room, he received a short, yet apparently eloquent pre-match tribute from manager Sir Alf Ramsey, the normally taciturn England boss bestowing heartfelt praise upon his on-field aide-de-camp.
As things transpired, the outcome of a contest Ramsey had taken a particular delight in winning during his ten-year spell in charge, was decided inside the opening quarter hour when England scored three without reply. An own goal from Peter Lorimer (6), followed by strikes from Allan Clarke (12) and Mick Channon (14) soon had the visitors making light of hazardous conditions and haphazard opposition, Martin Chivers and Clarke again netting in the closing stages to complete the rout.
With a comprehensive whacking of their oldest rivals to celebrate on his landmark occasion, just six weeks into 1973 the year was shaping up very nicely for Moore. Still the most admired defender in the game, he was in suitably good form for West Ham who were enjoying (shock domestic cup exits notwithstanding), their best season for years. Soon to embark on a ten-match run when they lost just once, The Hammers eventually came sixth, the highest finish they would ever attain through the tenure of long-serving manager Ron Greenwood.
At international level Moore had already expressed hope of playing at the 1974 World Cup, England having already started on the qualification process. They had begun with a win over Wales in Cardiff, but a Wembley draw against the Welsh three weeks prior to the Hampden humbling of Scotland prompted a wave of dissent from the critics, who openly questioned whether Ramsey had the tactical acumen needed to keep pace with methods now favoured in the modern game.
To determine their fate England would require three points (in the form of a win and draw) in forthcoming games against Poland, the third team in qualification Group Five, to ensure participation in the 1974 finals being held in West Germany.
Yet as beer cans popped on the team bus as it departed Glasgow, there was plenty to suggest a team containing Moore along with fellow 1966 World Cup winning stalwarts Alan Ball and Martin Peters, but now usually comprising established talents such as Chivers, Clarke, Emlyn Hughes, Colin Bell, Paul Madeley and Roy McFarland (who had missed the Scotland game through injury), would have enough to prevail when time came to meet the Poles.
But little over twelve months later the picture for Ramsey and Moore, architects in winning the 1966 World Cup, would look markedly different. Neither would be present when England next journeyed over Hadrian’s Wall in May 1974, Ramsey sacked the month before in the wake of failing to achieve qualification for West Germany, while the changes for Moore, if anything, were even more pronounced.
What awaited were costly mistakes in a crucial game, transfer speculation, a dispute with West Ham, being dropped by England, a record breaking 108th international appearance, an injury problem and finally the end of his 18-year Upton Park career with a move to second division Fulham.
It was an altogether undulating, dispiriting, drama-filled period for a footballer long recognised as the epitome of composure – the outlook for Bobby Moore at the end of the 1973-74 season far different to what he would have envisaged just a year before…………….
The initial portents were good with Moore prominent as West Ham finished the 1972-73 campaign in impressive fashion. He then led England to a clean sweep in the end of season Home International Championship. Clinched with a hard-fought 1-0 Wembley victory over the Scots, a clattering foul by Moore on Lorimer was somewhat out of character, but indicative of the tempestuous nature of these games during the period.
Before May was out England began a schedule of four matches across Europe in 18 days. By far the most important was the World Cup qualifier against Poland on Wednesday 6 June, where victory or at least avoidance of defeat would take them to the brink of reaching the finals. It would also ease pressure on Ramsey whose increasingly fractious exchanges with the press were leaving him with few friends in Fleet Street.
The tour opened with a 1-1 draw against Czechoslovakia in Prague and while England extended their unbeaten run to seven matches there was little to truly enthuse over, an 89th minute leveller from striker Clarke earning the visitors a fortuitous share of the spoils. Afterward even Ramsey, who was always fiercely protective of his players, conceded a big improvement would be required against Poland.
Prior to facing the Poles he and Ball talked up the importance of Moore to England as both a captain and central defender. Their praise was justified and based on first-hand experience – neither aware of how much providence they were tempting.
In Katowice, a city in the south of Poland, before a crowd of over 74,000 (dangerously over capacity for the Stadion Slaski), England, in an unfamiliar strip of yellow shirts and blue shorts, were to endure a night of unmitigated mishap. After seven minutes, hesitancy between Moore and goalkeeper Peter Shilton allowed Jan Banas to put Poland ahead with a scruffy goal of the sort the visitors had rarely conceded when the England captain and Gordon Banks were in tandem – the World Cup winning custodian having been forced into retirement after sustaining an eye injury when involved in a road accident the previous October.
While for most of the first half England looked sluggish and uninspired they were not out of the game, not until two minutes into the second half that is when severe punishment was meted out for an error by their skipper.
Receiving a headed knock down from McFarland, Moore, positioned just inside his own half, resisted the option of long back pass to Shilton. Instead, he attempted to sidestep gifted Polish forward Włodzimierz Lubański with the intention of setting in motion an England attack. It is a manoeuvre he had executed with consummate skill many times, but the striker read the intent and on dispossessing Moore advanced to beat Shilton with a fierce low drive.
For a team showing traces of attacking threat salvaging a draw from this position would have been a tall order, but with England unable to muster a worthwhile effort, game and set became match when Ball was sent off for violent conduct with twelve minutes left.
Moore was mortified by his mistake, the blunder encapsulating a poor England performance that jeopardized their hopes of reaching the World Cup finals. In a column he regularly contributed to the Daily Mirror, the captain took a big share of the responsibility, ‘I let England down‘, ran the headline, summing up his personal despondency with the downcast comment of:
‘I never knew I could feel so bad about anything.’
The Katowice defeat cast a shadow over the remaining games on the itinerary. Ramsey’s men recorded a 2-1 win over Russia in Moscow, but on the occasion of Moore setting a new record of England caps with his 107th appearance they lost 2-0 in Rome, Italy defeating the visitors for the first time in forty years of matches between the two sides. With the Wembley return against the Poles in mid-October a match necessitating a home win to clinch World Cup qualification, it was now marked out as the fixture that would define the 1973-74 season from an English perspective,
Within days of the new campaign being underway Moore was back in the headlines, although curiously it had little to do with West Ham making an atrocious start in failing to win any of their first eleven games. In early September, Brian Clough, the brash, outspoken manager of Derby County, who had guided them to the league title in 1972, made an audacious attempt to sign Moore and Upton Park team-mate Trevor Brooking – Clough later revealing he was prepared to pay £400,00 for the duo (whether such a bid was sanctioned by the Derby board is far from certain).
What Brooking felt about the overtures did not come to light, but Moore apparently was keen on the move, his relationship with Greenwood long since conducted on a less than cordial basis. Despite temptation on the part of the West Ham directors to sell, the manager, already gearing up for a relegation struggle, advised against as suitable replacements had not yet been identified.
In a bid to force their hand, Clough put West Ham on the back pages by making his pursuit of the players public. But they refused to be manipulated in such a way and aware Moore had spoken privately to the Derby manager, Greenwood his current one, took the step of leaving Moore out of the side for a fixture against Manchester United at Old Trafford. When he explained the decision (before a match the visitors lost 3-1), there was inferred condemnation in his reasoning:
‘I thought it would be better for the team if I left Bobby out following the unexpected adverse publicity, which I thought was bad for morale.’
If being omitted from the Hammers line-up was a new experience for Moore, then three days later the sensation of being axed suddenly became acutely familiar when he was left out of the England side selected to play a Wembley friendly against Austria. The news broken to him by Ramsey on the team bus heading back to the hotel after training, Sir Alf later admitted that of all the tough decisions he had taken as manager, none was more difficult.
‘It was a bad moment for me,’ he recalled on deciding to drop his first lieutenant, Moore for years an automatic choice, ‘Bobby was shattered.’
From the substitutes bench Moore looked on as England doled out a 7-0 hiding and with each goal it became clear the team would not be changed for the forthcoming Poland game, the central defensive pairing of McFarland and Norman Hunter, who took over the number six shirt, not likely to be separated after such a decisive victory.
Many years later, however, when manager of Shrewsbury Town, John Bond, a former West Ham team-mate of Moore, told your genial host at here at SAMTIMONIOUS.com, when the match came up in conversation, it was ‘unbelievable‘ that Sir Alf should leave out his captain and most experienced player for such a vital match.
When the night of Wednesday 17 October 1973 finally arrived it proved a calamitous one for England. On dominating the first half but failing to score, they fell behind ten minutes after the interval when Hunter failed to clear his lines in the build-up to Jan Domarski firing Poland ahead.
Shortly afterward Clarke equalised from the penalty spot, yet as they laboured in search of the winning goal England were held at bay an inspired display from Polish goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski (afterward he was labelled a ‘clown‘ in a television studio by now ex-Derby boss Clough, whose resignation submitted in a fit of pique two days before had been accepted by The Rams board, his departure coming just three weeks after failing to land Moore and Brooking).
Down on the Wembley sidelines as time ticked by, England struggled to no avail in finding the necessary breakthrough. With the minutes remaining down to single figures, Moore according to some accounts made the suggestion of ‘get Kevin on‘ said to mean introducing Liverpool man Keegan against a tiring defence.
In the confusion Derby forward Kevin Hector entered the fray and during his 90 seconds on the field was unable to convert the half chance that came his way. As a result the World Champions of 1966 and quarter-finalists in 1970 failed to make the cut, Poland, by virtue of a 1-1 draw, having secured the point they needed to reach the 1974 finals.
If not the actual end of an era, it was pretty close to it, the qualification journey over partly due to finding every pot hole on the road, but also due to encountering a fine Polish team who would excel in finishing third further down the World Cup trail in West Germany.
Before 1973 was out there would be a Wembley swansong for Ramsey and Moore against whom the sands of time were now conspiring (as were senior figures at The FA in the case of the manager).
Ramsey restored his captain to the line-up when England played host to Italy on Wednesday 14 November, but a late Fabio Capello goal won a poor match for the visitors and in a year that was closing with the imminent threat of power cuts and three-day working week, that sunny afternoon of July 30 1966 now belonged to a fast-fading golden age.
Having won his 108th (90 as captain) and in all probability final cap in the defeat to Italy, Moore returned to West Ham who would begin December languishing at the foot of Division One. Despite their perilous position, a couple of 4-2 victories (over Chelsea and Norwich) through the festive period suggested they were far from doomed, yet the FA Cup third round when it came around on Saturday 5 January arrived with its own set of imponderables, The Hammers drawn at home to noted giantkillers Hereford United.
When members of the Southern League two years before they had caused the cup upset of the era in defeating first division Newcastle United. Now playing in Division Three of the Football League, in the opposition was Moore who appeared for his 642nd senior game in a West Ham shirt – this one ultimately proving his last.
During the first half and with West Ham trailing 1-0 he suffered a knee injury and left the field. The blushes of the home side spared in the last minute by a superb individual goal from Pat Holland, who had come on as substitute. With Moore unavailable, West Ham travelled to Edgar Street where they succumbed to their latest cup embarrassment, losing 2-1 after taking an early lead.
It did, however, produce from Greenwood’s side an excellent response that made a mockery of such a shock and their generally poor league results. Embarking on a ten-match unbeaten run (including five victories) they sailed into safer mid-table waters and with the side enjoying a marked upturn in fortunes, the manager faced no demand to recall Moore. When the sequence finally came to an end with a home defeat against Coventry City on Saturday 16 March a parting of the ways was imminent – Moore’s new club already waiting in the wings.
With Moore having returned from injury in early March for an Upton Park reserve match against Plymouth Argyle, rumours were already rife that he was available for transfer. At one stage Carrow Road where ex-Hammer Bond was in charge, looked the likely destination, but Norwich, currently bottom of Division One, could not meet his pay demands. First division rivals Stoke City and Leicester City also expressed an interest and while personal terms were agreed with second division Portsmouth, the deal stalled on his reluctance to leave London.
It then came as something of a relief when Fulham made an approach. His former England team-mate Alan Mullery, now captain at Craven Cottage, was sent on persuasion offensive by Alec Stock, manager of the Division Two outfit, which had the positive outcome of Moore agreeing to sign.
‘Bobby didn’t take much persuading,’ Mullery told Matt Dickinson, author of the excellent 2013 biography ‘Bobby Moore The Man In Full‘ going on to say, ‘I think he’d always had a soft spot for Fulham and was definitely up for the move.’
Ten weeks after being injured in the FA Cup tie against Hereford, Moore having committed to becoming a Fulham player the previous day, walked out at Upton Park prior to the Coventry match in order to wave goodbye to the West Ham supporters. He was pictured smiling in a handshake with Greenwood, the apparent cordiality hiding the anger Moore felt at the way West Ham had handled the transfer.
Harbouring a sense of injustice at not being granted a free transfer – after the club initially indicated, as he saw it, they would – the £25,000 fee paid by Fulham cut into his signing on package.
Moreover, after 16 seasons as a first team player, the last nine passing without West Ham winning a trophy, he felt leaving for nothing to make more money from switching clubs was a right he had earned, only for West Ham to now attach a price to him (both parties would have accrued much more had they accepted the offer from Clough earlier in the season).
Thus Moore was denied a bigger pay day, the resentment lingering to such an extent he and Greenwood barely spoke again thereafter.
The inclusion of Moore in the Fulham team to face runaway second division leaders Middlesborough on March 19 – managed by his ’66 World Cup central defensive partner Jack Charlton, now three quarters through a first season in management – put the Craven Cottage turnstiles in a state of perpetual motion, the average gate doubling to a figure of 18,114.
But the first page in a new chapter came with a rude awakening. The visitors, displaying the pedigree that had seen them build a commanding lead at the top of the table (they would win the title by a huge margin), netted four times during the first half in romping to a 4-0 victory.
Of the other nine matches Moore would play for Fulham before 1973-74 came to an end, they would win four, lose three and draw two, meandering along to finish 13th. The season closed on Saturday 27 April with a 2-0 defeat at Hull City, while at Upton Park FA Cup Finalists Liverpool were being held to a 2-2 draw, West Ham ending a convoluted campaign by finishing two places above the relegation zone in 18th.
Three days later – and a full seven months after England had missed out on World Cup qualification – The FA in ham-fisted and disrespectful manner dispensed with the services of Ramsey and while few disagreed the time was right for a change of manager, there was no excusing the shabby way in which his exit was conducted.
The chilly night air that had blown around Hampden when England blew Scotland away in February 1973 had switched direction in the ensuing fourteen months, the wind of change putting Ramsey in the wilderness, blown Moore into SW6 – and taken the Scots to the 1974 World Cup Finals.
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