Whether it was the annually acclaimed ‘Best Football League in the World‘ or widely acknowledged ‘Greatest Rock Band on the Planet‘ these were testing times for top-flight English football and the Rolling Stones as 1973 entered its final quarter.
On the surface Division One appeared to be ticking over very nicely, the 1973-74 season beginning with a series of fixtures producing some reassuringly exciting football – yet less than three weeks into October the England national team had come up short in their efforts to qualify for the 1974 World Cup.
In their sphere Mick, Keith and co had put out ‘Goats Head Soup‘ (August 1973), an album where the parts were greater than the sum, a couple of undistinguished tracks making it the first non-essential Stones set of the decade. That said, their front two of Jagger and Richards in coming up with songs as strong as ‘Angie‘ remained the masters of riff and rhetoric – poignant lines in this big-selling autumn single ‘when will these clouds disappear/where will it lead us from here?’ as effective in describing a doomed love affair as the failure of England to qualify for the World Cup in West Germany.
To a large degree 1973-74 was the season threatening to occur – on the domestic front at least – since the decade began. Beginning the campaign by going unbeaten through 29 league matches, Leeds United, runners-up in two of the three full seasons of the 70s, hit the front before the school summer holidays were over and still there when the clocks changed in Spring.
The Elland Road championship challenge withstood a General Election, two significant waves of industrial action, a three-day working week, numerous power cuts and Slade having the 1973 Christmas Number One with ‘Merry Xmas Everybody‘ – all consigned to history (well, almost all) by the time Leeds experienced some March jitters.
They recovered to cross the finish line in impressive style – the irony not lost on anyone beyond the Gelderd End that Don and his domineers (Revie soon to be named England manager), had become champions playing the most expressive football of his 13-year reign, Leeds becoming disarmingly likeable in winning their second title in five seasons.
There was also a sense of the inevitable attached to Liverpool winning their first FA Cup in nine years. The League Championship had been surrendered, but their name looked on the FA Cup some way from the Wembley walk-in-the-park final against Newcastle. Yet like Revie, for Bill Shankly, his great top-flight rival through the past ten seasons, it would prove the last hurrah of a success-laden managerial career – the charismatic Scottish manager resigning in July 1974 after 14 years at the Anfield helm.
In the League Cup, Liverpool had come to grief in a Molineux quarter-final against Wolves, whose catalogue of top six finishes, semi-final exits and a losing UEFA Cup Final appearance finally had a trophy page when they beat Manchester City in a memorable League Cup Final.
They succeeded Tottenham Hotspur in winning the competition, whose 1973 success resulted in another run to the UEFA Cup Final (where they had overcome Wolves in 71-72) – but on this occasion they were turned over by debonair Dutch side Feyenoord, the Rotterdam second leg marred by incidents of crowd trouble that would sadly become a feature of English clubs playing in Europe.
Spurs failure to return from Holland with the UEFA Cup meant Division One lost possession of a trophy it had come to think of as its own, English clubs winning the competition (and its Inter-Cities Cup forerunner) for the past six seasons.
Indeed, the cupboard was entirely bare in terms of success in Europe, although important lessons were learned at Anfield in relation to their European Cup exit at the hands of Red Star Belgrade. The possession-based game now favoured on the continent and reaping success for the likes of Ajax (Holland) and Bayern Munich (West Germany) and their respective national teams, was adopted by Liverpool – who would go on to develop a Merseyside method of ‘total football‘ that would stand them in good stead further down the road.
Their surprise second round elimination was not the only shock departure to occur, the game in England rocked by the abrupt way Brian Clough left his post as Derby County manager just 18 months after guiding them to the league title. Forthright and frequent in voicing his opinions, Clough had become a distinctive and defining football voice of the era. He would, after a couple of bizarre chapters in his story, return no less outspoken but even more successful later in the decade.
But even events surrounding the resignation of Clough in October 1973 were eclipsed by those at Old Trafford, where Manchester United, just six years on from being Champions of Europe, dropped out of Division One. In truth a season of catastrophic proportion had been in the post for a couple of years, a group of players, (including a number of internationals), widely considered too good to go down, touched several depths before their fate was all but confirmed in a late season visit from neighbours City.
When the inevitable hit United in late-April 1974 the Stones were already laying down tracks for their next LP. One stood out amongst some largely uninspired work. Too good for the album, too good to go down. For the Rolling Stones it sounded easy to say, ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll‘ – but for Manchester United it was, very much, relegation.
TWENTY GREAT GAMES of 1973-74:
NEWCASTLE UNITED 2 BURNLEY 0 – FA Cup Semi-Final 30/3/1974: Throughout the 1970s there were numerous FA Cup semi-finals hosted in blustery conditions on dry, late season pitches, which added to the pervading tension often made for high anxiety, low entertainment encounters.
Not so this last-four Hillsborough meet-up when it is caution thrown to the wind, each side sensing the game is there to be won.
After chances aplenty at both ends, the tie is ultimately decided by two superbly taken second half goals from ‘Supermac’ – Tyneside talisman Malcolm Macdonald twice bursting through to score, his second courtesy of a sublime through pass from Terry Hibbitt that still warrants warm applause today.
Winning through to Wembley at the same venue as North East rivals Sunderland 12 months earlier, the portents at this stage for Newcastle looked good – alas, their performance in the final not so.
WOLVES 1 LIVERPOOL 0 – League Cup Quarter-Final 19/12/1973: Played on a Wednesday afternoon due to restrictions placed on the use of floodlights, coal supplies to power stations limited as a result of industrial action by mine workers who were in conflict with the Tory government of Edward Heath, a grey, mid-winter Molineux day was illuminated by a superb solo goal from John Richards – the prolific Wolves striker leaving Emlyn Hughes and Tommy Smith to flounder as he advanced to shoot past Ray Clemence.
As lethal as any front man of the period, Richards would score the winner in both the semi-final and final as Wolves progressed to win their major first trophy since the Stan Cullis era – although truth be told his sublime last eight winner was not witnessed by your genial host, whose parents resisted all overtures in him being allowed to skip school in accompanying his dad to the match.
The time instead was spent watching a class showing of the 1970 Oscar winning film ‘Waterloo‘ – which for a young, wandering mind, was far too long and nowhere near as exciting compared to what might be happening at Molineux.
ENGLAND 1 POLAND 1 – World Cup Qualifier 17/10/1973: Even at a distance of almost fifty years it is still hard to fathom how England fail to win a game they dominated from the first whistle – all the theories to have perpetuated since visible in even the briefest glance at the highlights.
Needing victory to secure a World Cup berth at the expense of the visitors, England attack incessantly, playing with frantic intent from the off as if they want the whole thing done and dusted long before the nine o’clock news, thus sparing the crowd and television audience a night of anxiety and drama.
But as the game unfolds chances go begging and with the Polish defence, through a mix of good fortune and inspired, if often unorthodox goalkeeping of Jan Tomaszewski, managing to survive it becomes the stuff of nightmares.
English anxieties increase twelve minutes after half-time, Poland capitalising on lapses in defensive concentration to score through Jan Domarski, although level terms are quickly reestablished when Allan Clarke levels from the penalty spot. Back to needing a winning goal to secure qualification, England continue to thrash away at the front gate, overlooking the option of picking the back-door lock with some natural width – and even when Tomaszewski (dubbed a ‘clown‘ by ITV pundit Brian Clough), juggles or struggles with his positioning, defenders are on hand to block or clear.
In the end a combination of their determination and English frustration sees Poland through, the reign of Sir Alf Ramsey effectively ending when one final goalmouth scramble draws a blank.
For England the recriminations of failing to make the World Cup cut brought the cack-handed dismissal of World Cup winner Ramsey by the Football Association – who pledged qualifying for the finals of major tournaments would be the minimum requirement of the next incumbent. Poland acquitted themselves well in West Germany and again four years later at the 1978 finals in Argentina, where England were once again absent – as they had also been from the latter stages of the 1976 European Championships……………..
WOLVES 2 QUEENS PARK RANGERS 4 – 20/10/1973: Three days after the national team had failed in their bid for World Cup qualification, the current vagaries of English football were evident in this top quality, topflight match.
Behind to a John Richards goal at half-time, the recently promoted West Londoners have West End poise aplenty in the form of Stan Bowles and skipper Gerry Francis, running away with the second half as wide-man Dave Thomas offers a timely reminder in the value of penetrating wing play – the home defence unable to cope with his dash and trickery.
While not exactly banishing the midweek woes this memorable encounter did enough to suggest England could return as an international force if the right manager harnessed talents such as Richards, Bowles Francis and Thomas.
ENGLAND 7 AUSTRIA 0 – International Friendly 26/9/1973: After a dispiriting summer when they had lost a crucial World Cup qualifier in Poland and played poorly in friendlies against Russia and Italy, England and beleaguered manager Sir Alf Ramsey were in urgent need of some respite – so it is tempting to suggest their biggest win in nine years could not have come at a more timely juncture.
True, the Austrians offered little in the way of resistance (no subliminal World War Two pun intended), but it was still gratifying to see England play with a freedom absent from their make-up for too long. Elsewhere on the same night, Poland easily overcame Wales in their penultimate Group 5 World Cup qualifier to set up a make-or-break Wembley meeting in October that will see them or England advance to West Germany.
With goals shared between Allan Clarke (2), Mick Channon (2), Martin Chivers, Tony Currie and Colin Bell, English means and morale were greatly buoyed by the rout of Austria – even if the Football League immediately refuse a request from Ramsey to have affected Division One fixtures postponed on the Saturday prior to the Poland clash.
WEST BROMWICH ALBION 0 NEWCASTLE UNITED 3 – FA Cup Round Five 16/2/1974: After their humbling at non-league Hereford two years before, no cup-tie involving Newcastle during this period could be viewed as a foregone conclusion, even if the hosts were struggling to find their feet on dropping into Division Two the season before.
On a sticky surface the Hawthorns’ full-house see Albion and their topflight hosts both make attempts to play fluid football, Newcastle the first to sense greater headway could be made on taking a more direct approach – having a distinct advantage in this regard with Malcolm Macdonald leading their attack, his header from raking Jimmy Smith centre giving the yellow-shirted visitors a half-time lead.
After the break their midfield axis of Terry Hibbitt and Terry McDermott begin asserting themselves, Newcastle rewarded for their artistry when the lead is increased by winger Stewart Barraclough and then John Tudor, both goals prompting a handful of black and white clad youngsters to celebrate on the pitch – which in the context of this fifth round triumph could be passed off as over-exuberance, not so the full-blown, aggression-induced invasion that plunged their quarter-final tie into controversy.
MANCHESTER UNITED 0 MANCHESTER CITY 1 – 29/4/1974: It is a football truism that teams who go down are not relegated on the consequences of just one result – that said, it is hard to ignore the ramifications of this monumental Manchester derby.
From the moment things unfolded it has oft been recalled for producing ‘that’ goal in ‘that’ game all of which ended up with Manchester United going down. The home side required nothing less than victory (and favourable results elsewhere) to maintain slender hopes of beating the drop – providence conspiring in such a way it should be United icon Denis Law who administered the last slight.
Released by United boss Tommy Docherty 12 months before, Law made the switch to Maine Road (having previously played for City 13 years before), but on returning to his former Old Trafford kingdom and with what proved the final touch of a ball he would make in league football, back-heeled the goal that brought City victory (Law, who did not celebrate was substituted on scoring) while consigning United to Division Two.
There was of course more to the story than this remarkable twist of fate. Rarely has such a star-studded team so routinely under-performed, one who week on week looked devastating on paper but were disastrous on grass – a squad who won only once between December and late March, whose first home win of the year came in mid-April. The side selected by Docherty to face City (who themselves underwhelmed in 1973-74), contained nine internationals, three of whom would shortly join Law in the 1974 Scotland World Cup squad.
Back at Old Trafford on that late April afternoon, United followers, sensing defeat and demotion were imminent, swarmed onto the pitch in their thousands, their apparent intention to have the match abandoned and then replayed. As only three minutes remained when the referee called proceedings to a halt, the Football League decided the result would stand – although in truth the game had been up for United some weeks before.
STOKE CITY 3 LEEDS UNITED 2 – 23/2/1974: Twenty-nine league matches unbeaten and needing to chalk-off one more to break a topflight record of over fifty years standing, top of the pile Leeds United arrived in the Potteries with talk of not just registering another victory on their unrelenting match toward the title, but of perhaps going through the entire season without blemish.
The midweek FA Cup replay defeat against visiting second division outfit Bristol City might have put a brief crimp in their outlook, but when skipper Billy Bremner and goal-poacher extraordinaire Allan Clarke put them two up at Stoke inside twenty minutes, Don Revie and his table-topping bandwagon looked to be rolling again.
Fifteen minutes later, however, Leeds looked unusually fallible, their lead wiped out by replies from full-back Mick Pejic and new midfield recruit Alan Hudson, Stoke boss Tony Waddington recently spending £240,000 to sign the gifted playmaker from Chelsea.
Midway through the second half commanding central defender Dennis Smith threw himself at a headed cross from John Ritchie to nod home the winner – Leeds, about to suffer their first league defeat of the season, repeatedly pinned down by some exquisite passing from Hudson, to whom most of a near 40,000 Victoria Ground were already in thrall.
One of those looking on was soon to be ousted England boss Sir Alf Ramsey, who during a second half the former Stamford Bridge man more or less dominated, must have thought: Poland-Wembley-Hudson-hmm……………
HEREFORD UNITED 2 WEST HAM UNITED 1 – FA Cup third round replay 9/1/1974: It would not be the 1970s without an FA Cup giant-killing story to set the football world talking – these being days when the games themselves were the best source of publicity the competition could have – this also an era when Hereford United were invariably at the centre of a major upset episode.
Two years on from knocking out Newcastle when a Southern League club, Hereford struck again – and although by now members of Division Three (having been elected to the Football League and promoted in the ensuing months), their reputation for slaying the rich and famous was further enhanced when they disposed of West Ham.
Indeed, they almost did the job at Upton Park, a brilliant last minute solo goal from substitute Pat Holland spared the Hammers an undignified exit on home soil – Holland on since the first half when he replaced an injured Bobby Moore whose thirty minute appearance would prove his last in a West Ham shirt, the World Cup winning England captain sold to second division Fulham six weeks later.
But winning on the first go would have reduced the mystique of it all and denied Edgar Street another dramatic afternoon of FA Cup football, the team resuming four days later at half past one – floodlights again prohibited after a Christmas suspension of electricity shortages.
Despite West Ham taking the lead with a Clyde Best header, the power surges mostly belong to Hereford who are level by half-time through a Tommy Naylor penalty. In what was proving a dismal season, the visitors appear less Hammers and more feathers, their tentative approach exploited when centre-back Alan Jones seizes on an uncleared corner to smash home the winner.
Cue another pitch incursion from the celebrating youth of Herefordshire and although not quite numbering the swarm who dashed on to acclaim Ronnie Radford and Ricky George for their February 1972 heroics against Newcastle, West Ham also found their number up.
IPSWICH TOWN 7 SOUTHAMPTON 0 – 2/2/1974: Perhaps one of the less recognised themes of early 70s English football, but one to recur nevertheless, is the annual hiding away from home Southampton would cop for.
The 1971-72 campaign had brought an eight pasting at Goodison and seven leathering off Leeds, the current season already involving being hit for six at Derby. Thus Bobby Robson’s men, destined to finish fourth and reach the UEFA Cup quarter-finals, filled their boots in this Suffolk slaughter – familiar Ipswich names of the time Lambert, Hamilton (2), Mills, Whymark (2) and Beattie all in on the act as Saints receive a Portman Road pummelling.
It was this defensive fragility (almost fifty conceded on their travels), that did for Southampton, who in the first year of three down/three up finished third bottom, although a tally of 36 points would have been more than enough to survive in any number of ensuing seasons.
The intriguing anomalies of 70s football are apparent in both sides winning the FA Cup before the decade was out – the irony from this East Anglia annihilation being Southampton (1976) as a second division side, would do it two years before Ipswich.
MANCHESTER UNITED 2 CHELSEA 2 – 3/11/1973: It was somewhat ironic that Hollywood should chose 1973 in producing an updated adaptation of the classic Raymond Chandler novel ‘The Long Goodbye.’ This excellent film, starring Elliot Gould as laconic private eye Phillip Marlowe has a constant theme of good times drawing to a close – a thesis easily applied to these two sides as they contest a thought-provoking Old Trafford draw.
With glory days disappearing further into the past, under slate-grey Manchester skies there are flashes of fading brilliance, a drop of the shoulder and dart from George Best, brief smatterings of Kings Road quality circa 1970, two instances of which (both originating from the always reliable Peter Houseman) result in an early tap-in for Tommy Baldwin with Peter Osgood adding the second with a header on the hour – the visitors now firmly in control against opposition who on one hand are badly-misfiring and on the other still attracting near 50,000 gates.
Displaying a defiance absent from their play for much of the campaign, United rouse themselves to score through full-back Tony Young with 90 seconds left, then in what could be called ‘Tommy‘ rather than ‘Fergie‘ time, manager Docherty witnesses his side draw level through Brian Greenhoff – a point redemption of sorts, but not overly significant in a run of one win in 14 matches.
Not much either for Chelsea to enthuse over – ‘King of the Bridge‘ Osgood moving on to Southampton in March 1974 with SW6 playing host to second division football eighteen months later.
SCOTLAND 2 ENGLAND 0 – Home International Fixture 18/5/1974: For no other reason than the distinct differences between the two camps, this Hampden Park clash is arguably their most curious meeting of the decade.
Where to begin? Well for a start Scotland are confident, cocky even and in forthcoming World Cup terms, qualified – everything England are not.
The two scruffy goals that take the Scots to victory do not reflect some enterprising play or their overall dominance, a team that has taken shape over the past eighteen months consisting of good players (very good in some cases), serving the common purpose by virtue of being selected in their rightful positions.
England on the other hand look dour, disjointed and quite frankly there for the taking – the biggest dent to English pride being the last twenty minutes, which the hosts stroll through with an air of having more important things on their plate in the weeks ahead.
In the wake of England missing out on World Cup qualification few doubted it was time for Sir Alf to go, former Manchester City manager, Joe Mercer, placed in temporary charge after the World Cup winner Ramsey had been relieved of his duties the previous month. Had he survived for one more Home International bun-fight there is little doubt England would have been sent out at Hampden of all places, with attitude and anger in the ranks rather than the listlessness that characterised this poor performance.
LEEDS UNITED 4 WEST HAM UNITED 0 – 3/11/1974: On the same afternoon Manchester United and Chelsea were sleep-walking through their roles like two once great performers reduced to taking demeaning parts (think Richard Burton and Sophia Loren in the appalling 1974 remake of ‘Brief Encounter‘), across the Pennines Leeds United were producing another Oscar winning turn in their demolition of hapless West Ham.
There is no doubt that in the preceding seasons Leeds had played some excellent football, but the villainous element in their play brought vilification from those who saw as much skulduggery as skill.
While it would be easy to accuse them of ‘southern softism’ (something West Ham were often charged with during this era), simply put Leeds are just too good for them – although that made the visitors no different from any team in the land at this time.
Okay, teams more rigorous in their defensive work might have kept out the second or third goal, but no side, however good defensively, would have prevented the fourth – a sublime seven pass progression, beginning with goalkeeper David Harvey, takes Leeds to a dangerous wide position outside the West Ham penalty area, from where Mick Bates delivers a sumptuous cross that is headed home with great aplomb by Allan Clarke.
Beside the fact it was a dazzling move, Leeds had just left nobody in any doubt they were worthy champions in the making.
LIVERPOOL 4 IPSWICH TOWN 2 – 17/11/1973: Over the course of a present-day weekend there is ample opportunity to watch top level teams with their abundant skills and athleticism offer up the gilded spectacle that is 21st Century football in all its streamlined form.
Yet for all the advances in technique and tactical acumen, up on my high horse progress seems to have come at the expense of full-on excitement, which comes in abundance on this Merseyside afternoon – Liverpool in fully-fledged front-foot mode, visitors here to make a game of it (who come at full-strength with no thought given to saving their better players for more ‘winnable’ games ahead), an expectant Anfield ready to be entertained.
With Ipswich struggling to contain Steve Heighway, Kevin Keegan benefits with an early brace, but Bobby Robson’s men refuse to fold and hit back through former Everton striker David Johnson, who in time will don the red of Liverpool. Scottish international midfielder Peter Cormack lashes home a third as The Kop see the two-goal buffer restored before half-time, the outcome thrown back in the balance when Bryan Hamilton reduces the arrears with twenty minutes left.
There are chances aplenty at both ends as neither side seem happy with what they have, the issue not settled until the final seconds when Keegan completes his hat-trick on Liverpool being given a generously awarded penalty.
Perhaps things haven’t changed as much as we think…………….
LUTON TOWN 0 LEICESTER CITY 4 – FA Cup fourth round 4/2/1974: If you were to gather all the elements associated with an FA Cup shock – in-form underdogs, swamp of a pitch, a breeze so stiff it brings to mind Bob Dylan’s ‘Idiot Wind‘ given how foolhardy it would be to play intricate football in such circumstances – then Leicester must have turned up at Kenilworth Road under the impression events were conspiring against them.
Indeed, for the first twenty minutes they have to front it out in the face of quagmire quirks and Luton pressure, but on breaking with superb purpose to score through Steve Earle, take the initiative – which is not all they will take during the afternoon.
In no time there appears no treachery in the surface whatsoever as Leicester start popping passes about as if playing on concrete. Early in the second half Earle scores again to end all notion of an upset and start the extravaganza exhibition, showboating perhaps too strong a word despite the centre-circle surface water.
Keith Weller plonks a delightful centre on the head of Frank Worthington who cannot fail to score the third – thirty seconds of keepy-uppy from midfield man Alan Birchenall in front of a packed away terrace bringing some Filbert Street flash to a soggy Bedfordshire afternoon.
Whatever the conditions these were days when Leicester rarely played without a nice sense of style – the pitch de resistance on this occasion saved until last, Weller, soon to become an England international, gliding past a succession of defenders to put a spectacular seal on things and in the process score the ‘Goal of the Season.’
BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION 2 BRISTOL ROVERS 8 – 1/12/1973: Had someone suggested in August that nine weeks into the season Brian Clough and Peter Taylor would have left Derby County – scene of their 1972 league title triumph – and be ensconced at a club in the south, most would have predicted their unique style of management was ruling the roost at say West Ham or Chelsea.
Yet if that was considered far-fetched with a degree of plausibility, nobody would have forecast them turning up at a third division club on the south coast, which is exactly what they did on November 1 1973 – two weeks after one final bust-up with the Derby directors who called their bluff in accepting the resignations of Clough and Taylor, the board asserting control as another Baseball Ground power struggle boiled over.
Persuaded to the Goldstone Ground on highly lucrative terms, four weeks into the job, (which had already included an embarrassing 4-0 FA Cup first round against the amateurs of Walton & Hersham), Division Three high-fliers Bristol Rovers made a December 1 visit to Brighton – inflicting on the hosts the biggest home defeat in their history.
For someone who the football public generally regarded as the man best equipped to lead the England team into the second half of the decade, particularly in light of their recent failure to qualify for the 1974 World Cup, it must have been a humbling experience to watch his new charges once again capitulate.
Rovers strike duo of Alan ‘Smash’ Warboys (4) and Bruce ‘Grab’ Bannister (3) help themselves to all but one of Rovers’ tally – Clough still displaying a sure touch (unlike his defenders) in dealing with tricky situations, appearing alongside Brian Moore on his Sunday afternoon ‘On The Ball‘ programme the following day to explain the defeat.
Despite only winning twelve matches on the watch of Clough and Taylor, Albion managed to avoid relegation in finishing 19th, ending the season by holding promoted Rovers to a 1-1 draw.
Nine months before not a soul would have envisaged Clough managing a team at Eastville as the campaign came to a close – the only notion more outlandish was him being the next manager of Leeds United………………
NEWCASTLE UNITED 4 NOTTINGHAM FOREST 3 – FA Cup sixth round 4/3/1974: By 1974 the spectre of football related disorder had become impossible to ignore, instances of hooliganism increasing in violence and frequency. That the 1970s, a time which produced some of the most enthralling domestic football ever seen, should also be the decade giving rise to crowd trouble as a perpetual blight on the game, turns what should be pleasurable memories into bittersweet recollections – none more so than the FA Cup quarter-final under review.
In normal circumstances a team who come storming back from 3-1 down and having a man sent off to win 4-3 with only seconds remaining would be afforded the highest acclaim – and in strictly football terms there is plenty to admire in the way Newcastle produce a blistering final twenty minutes during which they score three times to win by the odd goal in seven. But their response came on the back of a ten-minute second half delay, during which time the players went back to the dressing rooms as a safety measure when home supporters invaded the pitch to fight with visiting fans at the opposite end of the ground.
At the time of the incursion, second division Forest had just established a 3-1 lead – the third goal a penalty, the award of which had seen Newcastle centre-back Pat Howard sent off for arguing the decision. Had the game not been subject to interruption, would the visitors have seen out the remaining time with their one man, two goal advantage? Or put another way, was their concentration affected by having to leave the field as some in the Forest camp claimed?
Newcastle in contrast, seemingly reinvigorated by the stoppage, attack incessantly and with their opponents wilting in the face of such pressure, the shift in momentum is also recognised by an increasingly fervent home crowd.
In the event Nottingham Forest lodged a protest against the circumstances of their defeat, the FA upholding their complaint – the result declared void with the tie ordered to be replayed on a neutral ground (inevitably, the replay, at Goodison Park was drawn, the second, again hosted by Everton, settled in favour of Newcastle by a Malcolm MacDonald goal).
When hooligans rather than footballers were the headline makers from a thrilling FA Cup tie, there could be no escaping the fact English football had a serious problem – but rather than leave the matter on a dispiriting note, the last word goes to four bona fide pitch protagonists from that day at St. James’ Park, Newcastle duo Frank Clark (Nottingham Forest) and Terry McDermott (Liverpool) along with Forest pair Ian Bowyer and Martin O’Neill all winning European Cup winners medals before the decade was out.
LEICESTER CITY 3 v BIRMINGHAM CITY 3 – 6/4/1974: Three days after Leicester City had made an FA Cup semi-final replay exit at the hands of Liverpool, reasons behind an excellent cup run and cause of their last four demise are all prevalent as they share six goals with Midland rivals Birmingham City.
Keen to put midweek disappointments behind them Leicester sweep into a two-goal lead inside twenty minutes, quick, inventive football resulting in central defender Graham Cross and winger Len Glover appearing on the scoresheet. But just as it seems a calculator will be required to keep score, the Leicester rearguard badly miscalculate a straightforward down the field clearance which allows Blues’ Scottish centre-forward Kenny Burns to lob past Peter Shilton (later as a central defender with Nottingham Forest, Burns was rarely prone to such defensive hesitancy).
Looking destined for relegation a month before but now in the midst of a run that would eventually carry them to hair’s breath safety, Birmingham draw level before half-time when Burns lashes in his second – the match turned around completely four minutes after the restart, Burns completing his hat-trick with a low drive on Leicester again failing to clear their lines.
Always capable of punishing a defence whose concentration is not up to scratch, Keith Weller catches Birmingham flat-footed with a centre from which Glover cannot fail to head home the equaliser, Leicester maintaining a top ten berth with their share of the spoils – the visitors meanwhile improve their defensive durability to go unbeaten through the last five matches of the season, ensuring against the odds that St. Andrews will once again host topflight football come August.
POLAND 2 ENGLAND 0 World Cup Qualifier – 6/6/1973: Seven years on from reaching the highest plateau on the mountain of world football, England found themselves in the early 70s searching for purpose and qualification points – both issues brought into the sharpest focus on travelling behind the Iron Curtain for this Group Five qualifier.
The decade to date had been a perplexing one where the national team were concerned. While they had suffered only two defeats in twenty three matches since being dethroned as World Champions at the 1970 Mexico World Cup, England operated in the face of critical negativity, their detractors decrying the low-risk approach and tactical rigidity of ’66 World Cup winning boss Sir Alf Ramsey – its limitations shown up in the first-leg 3-1 European Championship quarter final defeat the previous year against West Germany, whose possession-based counter-attacking game made the home side look laboured by comparison.
But if the Germans had taken England by surprise on their Wembley visit of March 1972 (West Germany advancing to win the competition with their modernist style of play), English stoicism had been restored by grinding out a second-leg goalless draw in Berlin – and on the strength of this attritional display they had pretty much attacked and defended in the same old way since.
Suffice to say they lined up to face Poland with a team absent of natural full-backs and lacking any obvious width, Sir Alf content to pick his most experienced players opposed to best team (the opposite strategy bringing glory in ’66), with several selections based on reputation rather than current renown, as many as half the side showing indifferent club form during the season just ended.
Even so, repute alone looked enough to see off a team England had never lost against and although a draw in Chorzow was unlikely to placate the critics, it would at least put them in command of the group with a Wembley return still to come.
If things had gone to plan in all likelihood England would have left with a point, but it all unfolded in a way the visitors could not decipher and worse still deal with. In the seventh minute they are punished for slack defending and fall behind, the English response one-dimensional as Plan A makes little headway.
Just after half-time Bobby Moore is caught in possession (it would prove the last competitive appearance in an England shirt of the World Cup winning captain), his error punished with a second goal for the Poles, who have already proved they are a much better side than given credit for, although England play into their hands somewhat – not just by having no variety in their attacking play, but by virtue of Ramsey failing to make any substitutions and World Cup winner Alan Ball being sent off for violent conduct in the closing stages.
Even in the wake of such a dispiriting display England still had the safety net of an October Wembley meeting against the Poles – a night that would conjure all manner of myths and eventualities, one of which being Poland are a bogey team to England.
Of them all that is the easiest theory to disprove, in eighteen meetings since England have never lost to Poland – but it still feels scant consolation for that fateful afternoon in Chorzow.
LIVERPOOL 1 RED STAR BELGRADE 2 – European Cup second round second-leg 6/11/1973: It is fair to say a chilly autumnal wind blew through English football as 1973 drew to a close. Less than three weeks after England saw their World Cup qualification hopes disappear on an October breeze, a footballing gale of Richter scale proportion blew through Anfield as the League Champions made a sorry, but significant exit from the European Cup.
After suffering a 2-1 first-leg defeat in Belgrade where full-back Chris Lawler grabbed the vital away goal, on a noisy November Anfield night, Liverpool, also the UEFA Cup holders, would have been expected to progress. Yet what they again encountered was a method of play so alien that in terms of the 70s football space-race, Bill Shankly’s men were still on the launchpad while Red Star were already off discovering new planets – the way to the stars seen right across Europe, but as yet not taking hold on the other side of the English Channel.
In winning 2-1 on Merseyside (where Lawler again netted for Liverpool), the visitors were applauded from the field, the crowd and more pointedly the brains trust in the Anfield boot room, appreciative of what they had witnessed and convinced change had to come.
Short term pain, however, manifested into long term gain – or as Shankly remarked, after what transpired to be his last European fixture as Liverpool manager, ‘They (Red Star) showed us the only way to play is building from the back.’
Lessons were clearly heeded – Liverpool, now in the charge of Bob Paisley, winning the European Cup when they next appeared in the competition, retaining the trophy 12 months later in 1978.
If only those overseeing the fortunes of the England team had been so responsive.
MANCHESTER CITY 1 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 2 – Football League Cup Final 2/3/1974:
When recalling what was after all a 90-minute football match, it is hard for your genial host to seperate events from emotion.
The seven am departure in order to take in Watford v Shrewsbury Town at midday before continuing on to Wembley, my dad a veteran of Wolves’ FA Cup wins in 1949 and 1960, the impressionable 12-year-old son besotted by the sheer scale of it all when looking down on the goalmouth that even in his lifetime had made legends of Geoff Hurst, Charlie George, Jim Montgomery – and, even more recently, Jan Tomaszewski.
In a little over two hours it would make one of John Richards, a thunderous low drive from the Molineux goal machine deciding the outcome with five minutes left. Wolves had been dominant for much of the first half but outplayed in the second, their half-time lead courtesy of Kenny Hibbitt wiped out on the hour by England international Colin Bell.
As goalkeeper Gary Pierce kept Wolves in the match with a string of brave and acrobatic saves, from behind me dad said, ‘think the best they can get from this is a replay‘ – his words put to flight and entering family folklore for eternity when Richards struck the winner 60 seconds later.
Through most of the next 46 years we rarely let March 2nd pass without raising a glass, as much to a loving relationship as happy recollections, football memories a strong adhesive through all of that time – and for whatever permutation of dads, sons, mums and daughters may it ever be so.
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NEIL SAMBROOK is also the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE‘ – an acclaimed thriller now available in paperback and as an Amazon Kindle book.