According to Mott the Hoople, that most eloquent of early 70s English rock bands, ‘73 was a jamboree.’ While their charismatic songwriter/guitarist Ian Hunter was reflecting on a memorable period for the group in a song written the following year, his words could also be read as a near as dammit appraisal of top-level domestic football through the 1972-73 season.
On the surface – and from October through to May there were some particularly heavy ones – the English game looked in rude health. Some rude terrace chants and the increasing spectre of hooliganism aside, on the pitch things were positive and exciting. True, it may appear crude to those raised in the panna cotta years of the Premiership, but those of us, who figuratively speaking, cut our teeth on the Vienesse Whirls of Mr. Kipling, are not wrong in thinking the football (and cakes) were exceedingly good.
Indeed, few who remember the era would turn down a ‘Life on Mars‘ time travel opportunity of standing on a crowded terrace to witness John Richards dashing past floundering central defenders or Peter Osgood control the ball on a quagmire pitch as if there was Bostick on the instep of his boots.
The third full season of the decade brought another different winner of the league title, Liverpool ending a seven-year trophy hiatus in style by winning their third championship of the Bill Shankly era – on top of which they also enjoyed a first European success by lifting the UEFA Cup.
If the top three of Liverpool, Arsenal and Leeds United were a football equivalent of Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd (the analogy at its strongest in aligning Arsenal with the Stones as neither would cover themselves in glory again until later in the decade), then 1971-72 champions Derby County had a Kinks-like quirkiness, managerial duo Clough and Taylor having the ying and yang of Ray and Dave Davies.
Below them and representative of ‘glam rock’ were the likes of Spurs, Wolves, Stoke City, Ipswich Town and Newcastle, none of whom had the ‘Blockbuster‘ consistency to enter the recognised hierarchy, but like their Top Thirty counterparts could be relied upon for colour and entertainment – Spurs having sufficient accomplishment to win their second League Cup in three seasons, while a fifth-place finish was evidence Wolves were also among the best of the rest.
Even allowing for the fanciful connotations in the paragraphs above, second division Sunderland winning the FA Cup is still hard to fathom.
Emerging to become the most unlikely cup winners since the war, on one level there is a 1973 parallel with ‘Tubular Bells‘ – the architect of each triumph, Roker Park ‘messiah’ Bob Stokoe and multi-instrumentalist/composer Mike Oldfield, far from the forefront of their respective fields when the year began.
But before May was out each were being feted to enormous degree – Sunderland, in their Wembley triumph over Leeds, generating more excitement for this youth in the instant of goalkeeper Jim Montgomery producing the cup final save of the century than his teenage ears heard from the somewhat meandering instrumentals of Oldfield.
If there was a save to eclipse that of Montgomery it had been produced by all-time great Gordon Banks at the 1970 World Cup, the career of England’s World Cup winning custodian ending as the result of an eye injury sustained in a car crash seven weeks into the season – the game, his club side Stoke City and the England national team immeasurably poorer without him.
Fellow hero of ’66 Bobby Charlton, a defining football figure for close to twenty years, made the last of his 606 appearances for Manchester United, the final season of his illustrious Old Trafford playing career another to be labelled undistinguished for a club unable to grasp the 60s were over.
Yet even allowing for the sad or inevitable circumstances surrounding Banks and Charlton, there was still plenty to set the football heart within us racing. While old pals Bob Ferris and Terry Collier reunited in the brilliant BBC sitcom ‘Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads‘ to mourn times when football, beer, music and life in general was better, their nostalgic longing for bygone days did not really extend to football – as borne out by some remarkable league matches and enthralling cup ties.
Just a couple of weeks prior to the season Rod Stewart released a superb album entitled ‘Never A Dull Moment‘ – the same to be said of the 1972-73 campaign and highlighted by these twenty matches.
TWENTY GREAT GAMES of 1972-73
WOLVES 2 LIVERPOOL 1 (27/1/1973): As a yardstick for just how exciting and competitive the domestic game could be, this January 1973 Molineux encounter nicely serves the purpose. Yes, its old school, with all the vigour and toil that implies, but the football is dashing and direct – proof that on any given day a team with title aspirations could meet their match in a fine side blessed with a touch of good fortune and superb finisher.
Wolves ride their luck with the Emlyn Hughes own goal that opens the scoring but are pegged back when the John Toshack-Kevin Keegan pairing combine for the England man to level. At the other end the Derek Dougan-John Richards partnership is at its peak, the ‘Doog’ leading Larry Lloyd a merry dance before Richards finds a yard of space to fire home a second half winner.
ENGLAND 1 SCOTLAND 0 Home International (19/5/1973): On a six-year unbeaten run against the Scots, England were fortunate in extending the sequence into a seventh year – a well-worked second half goal from the ever-reliable Martin Peters (his last in international football), enough to see them home, although in truth victory is secured by the acrobatics of Peter Shilton.
After thwarting Peter Lorimer in the first half, the Leicester City goalkeeper excels to even greater extent as full-time looms, denying Scotland the draw on balance they deserve in saving brilliantly from Kenny Dalglish – England winning by a whisker this hard-fought, reassuringly feisty contest.
EVERTON 0 LIVERPOOL 2 (3/3/1973): If the balance of power in Merseyside football had shifted toward the red side of Stanley Park with the 70s still in their infancy, this March 1973 Goodison derby showed just how divergent the respective paths were becoming.
In fairness Everton do not appear to play that badly, but simply put they are nowhere near as good as their neighbours – Liverpool taking the points and another step toward the title with a second half brace from the unlikely source of Emlyn Hughes.
As the Anfield outfit headed toward the sunlit uplands of a trophy-laden paradise, a long period of dusk had already descended on the land of Evertonia.
LEEDS UNITED 0 SUNDERLAND 1 FA Cup Final (5/5/1973): Regular visitors to this blog will be aware that from time to time your genial host conjures an article where an episode in football history takes a different course (think ‘Casablanca‘ with an alternative ending). Sometimes fanciful, occasionally far-fetched, not even the workings of an over-active imagination could come up with something so outlandish as Sunderland winning the FA Cup.
It has all been widely documented; ‘Porterfield 1-0,’ Monty being miraculous, Stokoe galvanising a club and entire town on a par with the second coming. The fact they should overcome Leeds, a side with credible claims of being the best team in the country (proved in winning the league title 12 months later), made their feat even more remarkable and romantic.
As a ninety minute spectacle, the game was the embodiment of what made football so damn fascinating, instilling in a generation a belief the FA Cup Final was something sacred – a notion that would take years (and a succession of unwanted contrivances) to dispel.
CHELSEA 4 LEEDS UNITED 0 (12/8/1972): In the days long before a first team squad – even at one of the most successful clubs in the country – did not constitute a cast of thirty international players, being without two suspended England regulars meant significant depletion. For their opening day fixture in SW6 Leeds arrived without the suspended Norman Hunter and Allan Clarke – the visitors defence having an unfamiliar look with close season purchases Trevor Cherry and Roy Ellam (both from Huddersfield Town), lining up in a rejigged back four.
Given there was previous, shall we say, between the two clubs, the Bridge was the last place Leeds would have wanted the roof to come off (no Stamford Bridge redevelopment pun intended). But if fielding a makeshift side was not testing enough, Don Revie then saw his side hit by injuries to centre-forward Mick Jones and goalkeeper David Harvey inside the first twenty-five minutes, Leeds reshuffling to the point of having nine outfield players with Scottish international winger Peter Lorimer going between the sticks.
Odds already tipped in their favour, no other side at the time were so well equipped as Chelsea to expose opposition in disarray. Peter Osgood, Alan Hudson, Charlie Cooke, Steve Kember and Chris Garland have a field day with the extra space on offer – Osgood, Cooke and Garland (2) all on target as Leeds are well and truly skewered, Hudson pulling the strings in inflicting the heaviest defeat suffered by the Elland Road side in four years.
In truth, Leeds at full strength may not have been able to cope with a Chelsea side in such irrepressible form, but from that day forth the recognisable ebb and flow of an early 70s season would take hold with Revie’s men rarely out of the top three – Chelsea, on the other hand, for all their style were beginning to lack substance, a mid-table finish indicative of their inconsistency.
LIVERPOOL 4 BIRMINGHAM CITY 3 (2/12/1972): On a murky Merseyside afternoon, Liverpool put their name in bright lights as serious title contenders – twice coming from two goals down to win this epic by the odd goal in seven.
Playing with admirable adventure for early 70s visitors to Anfield, Birmingham go two up through Gordon Taylor and Bobby Hope. Liverpool hit-back with an Alec Lindsay free-kick, but future England international Bob Latchford – in time to become a goalscoring hero on the other side of Stanley Park – restores the two-goal advantage as an unlikely away win begins to take shape. Yet the action of breathless first half is still not done as Peter Cormack reduces the deficit with half-time fast approaching.
After the break Lindsay is on target again as Liverpool finally draw level – the outcome of this extraordinary fixture finally decided when John Toshack holds his nerve to shoot home from twelve yards.
At school on Monday morning my history teacher (a staunch Evertonian), dismissed Liverpool as potential champions by saying ‘they used all their luck up on Saturday.’ It became an expression that entered my vocabulary – on many occasions being proved as wrong as Mr Smith would be.
LEEDS UNITED 1 WOLVES 0 FA Cup Semi-Final (7/4/1973): Denied the title and by extension the League and FA Cup double in losing 2-1 at Molineux in the last match of the previous season, Leeds spent the next 11 months extracting revenge on Wolves – culminating in this tense, incident-laden clash at Maine Road.
Trailing to an opportunist goal from Leeds Scottish international skipper Billy Bremner, scored midway through the second half, Wolves attacked incessantly thereafter – going closest to restoring parity when a trademark low drive from John Richards defied any notion of spherical relativity by not finding the net after hitting the inside of a post.
Cup holders Leeds, therefore, made an immediate return to Wembley and for Sambrook snr (my dad) it was third time unlucky after previously seeing Wolves win FA Cup semi-finals in 1949 and 1960. They would lose two more in the next eight seasons, but neither hurt more than this afternoon of Manchester misery – his disappointment such it would remain a subject off limits throughout the remaining 48 years of his life.
MANCHESTER UNITED 1 SPURS 4 (28/10/1972): Those reading the football pages of this blog will be aware of the esteem in which Martin Peters is held and fascination with the early 70s malaise of Manchester United – this Old Trafford encounter providing plenty of scope for both.
If ever a footballer could be said to speak the language of football through his skill and reading of the game it was World Cup winner Peters – this virtuoso performance (including a first-half hat-trick) resulting in him scoring all four goals as Spurs hit an early 70s high point.
As for Manchester United it appears they are not even speaking to each other – the 18th month reign of manager Frank O’Farrell soon to end amid the wreckage of an ageing team whose effectiveness had not been truly seen since the years prior to decimalisation.
SUNDERLAND 3 MANCHESTER CITY 1 FA Cup fifth round replay (27/2/1973): When twenty years later Bob Stokoe described this as his ‘greatest memory‘ in the astonishing story of Sunderland winning the FA Cup, then clearly something astonishing occurred during 90 thrilling Roker Park minutes.
Having given a fine account of themselves three days earlier (even for a Manchester derby Maine Road had never seen so much red and white), Sunderland, full of Stokoe-infused effervescence, paid no heed to the reputation of their lauded visitors. They proved too inspired and too determined for City to cope with – manager Malcolm Allison resigning his post in the days following, while for Stokoe the glory march continued to gain momentum.
It has been said that on nights of a Wearside full moon the acclaim greeting the final whistle can still be heard – no less romanticised (but believed to be true) are claims the Roker roar could be heard miles out to sea when Vic Halom and Billy Hughes (twice) netted for the home side.
LIVERPOOL 0 ARSENAL 2 (10/2/1973): In what would prove the last notable triumph for the group of players who had secured the League and FA Cup ‘double’ two years before, Arsenal produced a performance of trademark attitude and application in overcoming the league leaders on a glue-pot Anfield pitch.
Six months after their glories of May 1971, World Cup winner Alan Ball had been added to their ranks, the former Everton man taking particular delight in putting the metaphorical skids under the Liverpool championship charge, scoring with a second half penalty before that paragon of consistency John Radford adds the second.
As the title race approached the home straight, victory for second placed Arsenal appeared a result of deep significance. Yet it was Liverpool who were most galvanised by the outcome, rarely taking a misstep through their remaining fixtures – Arsenal meanwhile were unable to find the consistency they were renowned for, falling short on the dual front of league and cup.
NEWCASTLE UNITED 3 LEEDS UNITED 2 (23/9/1972): If indeed, ‘never a dull moment‘ was a phrase to encapsulate the 1972-73 season, then this lively St. James’s Park meeting could be described as ‘not a minute’s peace‘ – certainly not in the first ten when each side scored twice, goals arriving with the frequency of concurrent industrial action at British Leyland.
To a football public used to Leeds either winning by a lot or suffer the occasional low scoring defeat, seeing them suddenly start to leak goals brought a certain amount of glee beyond the environs of Elland Road. Their defence, now consisting of new faces and older legs, on this occasion concede to Jimmy Smith and John Tudor (the redoubtable strike pairing of Mick Jones and Allan Clarke responding), before ‘Supermac’ himself settled the issue with a second half blast from his howitzer of a right-foot.
By the following season, however, a new look Leeds back four were all on the same wavelength, repelling most things coming their way through an unstoppable match on the league title.
SUNDERLAND 2 ARSENAL 1 FA Cup semi-final (7/4/1973): When the FA Cup semi-final draw was made, the form book suggested the final from the year before was about to be repeated.
Leeds were expected to squeeze past Wolves (which they did), while Sunderland, as likeable as they had so far been, could not expect much more than short shrift against Arsenal – who with only one defeat in their past 23 FA Cup ties (that being against the ’72 final against Leeds), were the most effective cup campaigners of the era.
But what transpired at Hillsborough was the most gripping FA Cup semi-final of the decade, the pluck that had carried Sunderland through to the last four now manifesting into purposeful play, solid defending, goalkeeping heroics and happy knack of scoring at crucial times.
As a way to settle nerves, centre-forward Vic Halom pouncing on a Jeff Blockley error (a leading contender for suicidal back-pass of the decade) to give Sunderland an early lead was manna from heaven – their advantage extended shortly after the break when Billy Hughes scored with a looping header.
In between Jim Montgomery came to their rescue more than once and although he was beaten late on by a low drive from Charlie George, those in front of him refused to yield in the face of intense Arsenal pressure.
Watching highlights of this superb contest, it is tempting to think football matches containing such excitement and drama do not occur anymore. Rarer still is the magnanimity of Alan Ball in giving Montgomery an acknowledging pat on the head after the Sunderland ‘keeper has saved brilliantly from George Armstrong – the gesture and save both top class.
MANCHESTER CITY 3 MANCHESTER UNITED 0 (18/11/1972): Looking for pointers to decide if City are terrific or United were terrible is the ultimate 1972-73 exercise in futility as it all amounts to the same thing – the most embarrassingly one-sided Manchester derby in memory.
There had been bigger margins of victory in recent times, but the losers had always shown some defiance in defeat – yet in reaching the nadir (as yet) of their post Wembley ’68 performances United look a limp, error prone bunch, European Cup glory nights consigned to a time when The Beatles were the band and George was indeed best.
From the moment Alex Stepney gifts Colin Bell a tap in to put City ahead the outcome is never in doubt, United labouring away in midfield to no discernible effect. The only surprise is City taking until the last quarter to put clear water between them and their fast-sinking neighbours, a Martin Buchan own goal and second from Bell making it a miserable last appearance at Maine Road for Bobby Charlton – whose final season will not even stretch to a decent FA Cup run, United losing to Wolves in the third round just six weeks later.
WOLVES 5 STOKE CITY 3 (30/9/1972): As a main feature this Midlands derby had plenty going for it (Richards, Dougan, Wagstaffe/Hurst, Greenhoff, Conroy) even before considering the subplot of last season’s UEFA Cup finalists hosting the League Cup holders (reigning Footballer of the Year Gordon Banks ruled out through injury). What followed was an afternoon of panoramic, widescreen entertainment – each forward line finding wide spaces in which to operate as the highest scoring Division One game of the season ensued.
Both sides are blessed with midfield men and attackers who could produce dream football but have defences liable to be collectively dreamy. No highlights of the match appear to exist so from the distant memory of SAMTIMONIOUS.com comes a notion of Stoke central defender Alan Bloor making it 4-3 in the closing stages – only for John Richards to complete his hat-trick with the last kick of the game.
As if to prove they could go anywhere and score plenty, in their next match Stoke netted three times against Spurs at White Hart Lane – on this occasion losing 4-3.
CHELSEA 2 ARSENAL 2 FA Cup sixth round (17/3/1973): On a glorious spring afternoon along the King’s Road there is a sense of ‘Sunset Boulevard‘ about this last eight London derby. With both sides reaching the outer limits of their early 70s glory orbit, for all the dash and dazzle on offer the underlying feeling is one of desperation – each realising an FA Cup Final appearance is the only tangible reward the season can offer.
The opening thirty-five minutes veer back and forth between the sublime and ridiculous. Peter Osgood scoops the ‘BBC Goal of the Season‘ award with a breathtaking edge of the box volley to put Chelsea ahead, but at the other end Arsenal level when a slumbering back four allow Alan Ball, the shortest player on the field, to head home unchallenged from a corner.
Twelve months before Bob Dylan would use it as song title, the Chelsea defence then give literal meaning to ‘tangled up in blue‘ – their self-inflicted chaos allowing Charlie George to score from close range. But what they lack in defensive efficiency Chelsea make up for with attacking flair, John Hollins levelling things up ten minutes before half-time with a sweetly struck drive.
With neither side able to muster a winner, things moved to a packed-to-the-rafters Highbury three days later, Arsenal coming from behind to win 2-1 and seal a semi-final place. But they would also find the road to Wembley blocked – a 2-1 defeat against Sunderland at Hillsborough heralding the start of some dismal mid-decade days at the marble halls.
To paraphrase Norma Desmond, the fading film star at the centre of ‘Sunset Boulevard‘ Chelsea and Arsenal stayed big clubs, it was just their horizons, for the time being, that got smaller………………
CRYSTAL PALACE 5 MANCHESTER UNITED 0 (18/12/1972): At risk of this piece becoming ‘Twenty Abysmal Manchester United performances of 1972-73‘ (note to self: basis for an article, surely), this pre-Christmas stuffing at Selhurst Park is the defeat which finally did for manager Frank O’Farrell. With United hovering perilously above the relegation zone, 48 hours later the Old Trafford board wielded the axe, transfer-listing George Best (now three weeks awol) at the same time.
None of the Best-Law-Charlton holy trinity started the Croydon capitulation (Law came on as substitute, Charlton injured, Best indisposed), but even their presence is unlikely to have made much difference as basement boys Palace take all the gifts on offer and spread some festive sparkle of their own.
Full-back Paddy Mulligan spends more time in the United penalty area than his own in scoring the first two goals, the visitors defence at a loss to deal with the deft touches and direct running of winger Don Rogers who also helps himself to a brace – the other goal is an impressive strike from Alan Whittle, the recently signed winger marking his debut on joining from Everton with an eye-catching effort.
By the end of the season Tommy Docherty, appointed to replace O’Farrell, had managed to steer United out of trouble, although the March arrival of Malcolm Allison from Manchester City could not save Palace from the drop – consolation of sorts, perhaps, for that December drubbing, but in reality, a sign of just how far Manchester United had fallen.
DERBY COUNTY 5 ARSENAL 0 (25/11/1972): Given this was a meeting between the last two winners of the league title, the amount of talent on view suggested a close fought classic or exercise in cancelling each other out. But what occurred was a Derby performance befitting that of reigning champions – Arsenal blown out of the water before half-time.
Which is not meant as subliminal reference to the oft-sodden state of the Baseball Ground pitch – looking no worse here than any other autumnal field of play across England – but on this particular Saturday it staged football not bettered anywhere. Two near misses from Charlie George (destined to one day be a Derby player) in the opening stages was the best Arsenal had to show for an afternoon that turned into annihilation – the most pugnacious defence around reduced to that of a pub side in the face of being ripped asunder by the sublime wing play of Alan Hinton.
After John McGovern opened the scoring, ITV commentator Hugh Johns reaches a state of near delirium when Hinton crashes home the second, the winger then turning provider as Roy McFarland and the prolific Kevin Hector turn things into a rout before half-time. By the time centre-forward Roger Davies heads home a second half Hinton free-kick Arsenal have long since reached the end of their tether – goalkeeper Bob Wilson and his back four in a state of collective shell shock due to the quality of crossing they have had to endure.
Sadly, Sir Alf no longer countenanced penetrating wing play as an attacking option – leaving us to ponder how differently his reign might have ended had an orthodox winger been given a run in the national team.
LIVERPOOL 3 BORUSSIA MUNCHENGLADBACH 0 UEFA Cup Final first-leg (10/5/1973): Arguably the most crucial period of this fixture occurred the previous night when Austrian referee Erich Linemar abandoned things after 27 minutes due to a waterlogged Anfield pitch. But it was time enough for Bill Shankly to clock the Borussia defence, in Dad’s Army terms, ‘did not like it up ’em‘ – thus selecting towering totem John Toshack to lead the attack instead of Brian Hall for when things resumed.
Come hell or high water (from the highlights we can only surmise how heavy the going must have been the night before, the pitch hardly firm now), the game duly goes ahead – and wily old Shanks has pulled a masterstroke. The visitors, boasting an array of ’72 European Championship winning West German internationals – including England Wembley scourge Gunter Netzer – find Toshack unplayable. The Welshman creates the opening goal scored by Kevin Keegan, then wins a penalty, only for the England striker to have his spot-kick saved.
By sticking to the aerial assault of Plan A, Keegan makes amends by slotting home the second after his strike partner has caused more havoc – the German back-line still under the kosh from Tosh when centre-half Larry Lloyd is left unmarked to head home a third on the hour.
While the plaudits went to Shankly, Toshack and Keegan for their part in the triumph, the contribution of goalkeeper Ray Clemence cannot be underestimated. Superb in the second leg when Liverpool lose 2-0 but hold out to win 3-2 on aggregate, his brilliant first-leg penalty save from West German international ace Jupp Heynckes denied Borussia a crucial away goal.
EVERTON 0 MILLWALL 2 FA Cup fourth round (3/2/1973): Judged on the diminishing returns of the past two seasons and ploughed field state of the Goodison pitch, by spring 1973 the ‘School of Science‘ had become an agricultural college – but at least progress in the FA Cup beckoned when the fourth-round draw brought Everton a home tie against second division Millwall.
Under pressure throughout the first half, the visitors are kept in the contest by the reflexes and bravery of Bryan King, who adds to his renown as ‘the best goalkeeper outside the topflight.’
But on the hour, it is East End voices making themselves heard as stalwart defender Harry Cripps heads the Division Two side in front – Millwall sealing their place in round five when Gordon Bolland delivers a cross crying out to be met, former Shrewsbury Town man Alf Wood obliging with a header that is meat and drink to any centre-forward worth their salt.
With hindsight Everton were probably as well going out at that point. In the fifth round Millwall were beaten by a John Richards goal at Wolves – the same player scoring a hat-trick when the Toffees lost 4-2 at Molineux later in the season.
LIVERPOOL 1 SPURS 1 (31/3/1973): Once described to your genial host as ‘that match when Tottenham came to Anfield with just a goalkeeper‘ – the clear inference being the great Pat Jennings played Liverpool virtually on his own.
Kicking off at 11am to avoid clashing with the afternoon running of the Grand National at nearby Aintree (Red Rum pipping Crisp in winning for the first time), the luckiest punters on Merseyside that day were those who witnessed a display of world class goalkeeping – penalty saves in each half from Kevin Keegan and then with four minutes to go Tommy Smith, not even the pick of what Superman Pat produced.
This outstanding performance went a long way to Jennings being named ‘Footballer of the Year‘ – the award once again going to a goalkeeper after Gordon Banks had been the recipient 12 months before.
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NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE‘ – an acclaimed thriller now available in paperback and as an Amazon Kindle book.