When looking for context with regard to English football in the 1970s, it often seems, just as routine takes hold, the unexpected flies in the face of normality.
Given my declared interest in the football and music of this era, it is tempting to reference a status quo in relation to clubs competing for honours, thus creating an ‘open goal’ analogy between rock and football – although the best allusions (and this may be stretching credulity to the limit) may be found in highlights from the career of Neil Young, he of Canadian genius fame opposed to winning goalscorer in the 1969 FA Cup Final.
In 1970 Young saw ‘mother nature on the run in the 1970s,’ football like conservationism, experiencing some dark days in the years ahead. The domestic game, blighted by hooliganism and undermined by several abject displays from the national team, on occasion seemed destined for a precipice over which oblivion lay waiting.
As the decade unfolded music absorbed and discarded various trends, although by 1979 Young felt able to state, ‘rock and roll can never die.’ By the same stage, football had managed to come through these testing times – front page headlines depicting industrial strife, terrorism, a three-day week and ailing UK economy, offset by dramatic title races and surprise FA Cup wins.
It was a period when footballing bastions were built, rebuilt, received a temporary refurb or crumbled altogether. Indeed, there were moments when it appeared events just beneath the surface had greater impact on the game than those upon it – or, as Young also sang in 1979, ‘there’s more to the picture than meets the eye.’
While on the face of it the August 1970 Charity Shield meeting of Chelsea and Everton may not appear to have ramifications beyond the 90 minutes, with hindsight it would become a defining game for both sides.
Having won the title in Corinthian style – rooted in the sublime Kendall/Ball/Harvey midfield axis – Everton, a losing League Cup Final appearance apart, would spend much of the decade floundering, their fall from grace an unsolved mystery of the era.
If anything, the years ahead for 1970 FA Cup winners Chelsea were even worse – a 1971 European Cup Winners Cup triumph kept the good times rolling a little while longer, but unexpected defeat to Stoke City in the 1972 League Cup Final landed them on a snake leading to a couple of mid-70s seasons outside the topflight. They found a ladder back in 1977 but with a parlous financial position adding to their woes, the decade ended with Chelsea once more in Division Two.
In winning the League and FA Cup in 1970, Everton and Chelsea had both pipped Leeds United to secure their honours. Under Don Revie Leeds, the predominant northern powerhouse in English football, spent the first five years of the 70s on a relentless quest for trophies that returned an FA Cup and league title.
With capacity to be brilliant and brutal in equal measure, their near misses (thwarted double in 72, losing cup finals, various, 73-75), grew in significance as the decade turned barren for a club used to high-end involvement – or as an England manager of the new millennium was fond of saying, ‘first half good, second half, er, not so good.’
For the first couple of 70s seasons George Best remained the most exciting player in the game, his aura and extraordinary skills ensuring Manchester United stayed a major ticket office draw. But over-reliance on the gifted Irishman to carry an ageing team precipitated his messy Old Trafford exit – and on a downward spiral soon after the European Cup triumph of 1968, United tumbled out of Division One in 1974.
They made an immediate return and before the 80s dawned managed one win from three FA Cup Final appearances, but as years passed the halcyon days of Best, Law and Charlton came to resemble a daydream – winning the league again no more than a pipedream.
Without a trophy to adorn the marble halls of Highbury since the days of post-war rationing, the early-70s brought a glut – the European Fairs Cup success followed by the league and cup double 12 months later.
Manager Bertie Mee and coach Don Howe assembled an Arsenal team ideal for the modern game; combative, organised, to which a touch of flamboyance was added by gifted youngster Charlie George, the loose canon in their arsenal so to speak.
Although it took Liverpool boss Bill Shankly longer than he would have envisaged to rebuild his, quote, ‘bastion of invincibility‘ after their mid-60s glory days, the league title returned to Anfield in 1973 – the charismatic Scot retiring on winning the FA Cup the following year. But not even Shankly would have dared dream the trophy haul his successor Bob Paisley would soon be amassing, three league titles and two European Cups the meat and potatoes of a veritable late-70s feast.
With the decade less than five years old, Mee, Revie and Shankly had won a league title and FA Cup apiece but were no longer on the domestic scene when Paisley began cleaning up. His only rival was enjoying a second flush of success after some rocky days mid-decade – 44 of them spent at Leeds in the summer of 1974.
If Brian Clough leading Derby County to the league title in 1972 (they would regain it under Dave Mackay in 1975), was an against the odds triumph, then his achievements with Nottingham Forest almost defy belief.
After a skin of their teeth promotion in 1977, Forest came up to win the title (by a margin of seven points), doing at a stroke what Manchester United, Spurs, Manchester City and Chelsea all found beyond them – and to cap it all then wrestled the European Cup away from Anfield, Nottingham Forest ending the 1970s as champions of Europe.
As Clough, in tandem with Peter Taylor, led Forest to previously un-imagined levels of achievement, the predominant musical genre of the day was labelled, somewhat appropriately, new wave.
Its foremost proponent, Elvis Costello, included a song entitled ‘Green Shirt‘ on his brilliant 1979 album ‘Armed Forces,’ a somewhat ironic title given the colour of jersey Clough was often seen wearing in the dug-out.
Both renowned socialists, it would not have been lost on Clough or Costello that Britain began and ended the 1970s by electing a Tory government.
Plus ca change………….
UPFRONT TOP RANKING
Football Seasons of the 70s:
1. 1971-72: On Monday 8 May, Leeds (after winning the FA Cup less than 48 hours before) and Liverpool went into their respective fixtures at Wolves and Arsenal, knowing victory could well land the title – Manchester City having shot their bolt, leaders Derby also no fixtures left.
But with Leeds losing and Liverpool held to a draw, the most unlikely outcome came to pass – Derby remaining top of the pile by a point to become champions for the first time. Management and players were on an end of season break in Majorca when news came through – cue much merriment on the Costa del Clough.
2. 1970-71: Another momentous Monday night (3/5/1971). After matching Leeds step for step through the spring, Arsenal travelled a few North London postcodes – arriving at White Hart Lane needing victory to land the championship.
Spurs kept them at bay until an 87th minute header from Ray Kennedy settled a tense derby and the title race – the double completed with an FA Cup Final victory over Liverpool five days later.
3. 1975-76: Tuesday night title tension (4/5/76) as Liverpool head to Wolves seeking the win needed to dislodge already finished QPR from top spot – the home side desperate for points to maintain hopes of avoiding relegation. Wolves lead for over an hour, but eventually Molineux is overrun, on and off the field, by the Red Army as Paisley secures his first title.
Losing out by just a point, their tally of 59 would have been enough for QPR (the best 70s side not to win the league) to be champions the season before – and after.
4. 1977-78: Outside the top flight since 1972, few expected a side under the stewardship of Clough and Taylor to struggle, but what nobody saw coming was a blend of talent and team work which enabled them to dominate virtually from August. The signing of England goalkeeper Peter Shilton was a masterstroke, a 4-0 December demolition of Manchester United a portent for the months ahead – they even had the temerity to beat Liverpool in a replayed League Cup Final on the way to being crowned champions. Astonishing.
5. 1973-74: In many respects a season where Leeds ran away with the title had been in the offing since the 70s began. Runners-up in three of the past four seasons, a 29-match unbeaten league run stretching from the opening day to late February saw off most of the field and despite a slight falter coinciding with the clocks going forward, Leeds were soon ticking over again.
Hence, the Revie-era came to an end (he would shortly be appointed England manager), brought to a close with the title and plaudits for the most consistently attractive football produced during his 13-year Elland Road tenure.
6. 1969-70: In acknowledging the unrelenting fixture schedule faced by Leeds as the season drew to a close (chasing honours on three fronts, they finished empty-handed), overstating the case does disservice to champions Everton – whose haul of 66 points looks pretty unassailable anyway (bettered only by Liverpool as a 70s tally in 1979).
Under Harry Catterick Goodison Park had been christened the ‘School of Science,’ numerous eye-popping displays of his 1970 title winners elevating it to the ‘College of Class.
7. 1976-77: Across Stanley Park seven years later, Liverpool became the first team since Wolves in the late-50s to retain the title, Manchester City running them close but ultimately finishing a point short.
The end of an Anfield-era of sorts with Kevin Keegan soon to depart, the two-trophies a season phase was already underway, Liverpool becoming European Champions for the first time after wrapping up the league – having been denied an unprecedented treble in losing to Manchester United in the FA Cup Final.
8. 1972-73: Beaten in the 1971 FA Cup Final, then missing out on the league by a whisker 12 months later suggested Liverpool were either on the verge of success – or developing a tendency to fall short.
His renovation work more or less complete (but incorporating retained 60s stalwarts Chris Lawler, Tommy Smith and Ian Callaghan), Shankly handled the situation with typical aplomb, The Kop acclaiming their first title (first trophy) since 1966.
The overhaul saw them home with three points to spare – and extended to a first European success with the UEFA Cup also secured.
9. 1978-79: Noses put firmly out of joint by those arrivistes from the East Midlands, Liverpool responded to relinquishing the title with their most comprehensive Championship conquest – forged in sufferance of an early-season European Cup exit, elimination from a competition won for the past two seasons coming at the hands of said upstarts (destined themselves for glory in Europe).
League-wise Forest were pick of the also-rans as Liverpool racked up a record 68 points (under two for a win), scored 85 goals, conceded just 16 and were unbeaten at home – effects of the severe weather and ‘Winter of Discontent‘ felt everywhere bar Anfield.
10. 1974-75: Without doubt the most curious season of the decade, Derby emerging to take a title it seemed nobody wanted to win. Runners-up Liverpool let in far fewer goals, fourth-placed Everton lost two less games and with only three points separating the top four, Derby prevailed with a modest 53 points – the lowest championship winning return for twenty years.
Their second title in four seasons was testament to the core-strength of an accomplished team, who unlike many before (and since) held their nerve and seized the moment.
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NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE‘ – an acclaimed thriller now available in paperback and as Amazon Kindle book.
