By no means the player with the longest gap between winning two FA Cup winners’ medals, David O’Leary and Pat Jennings double-figure merchants in these terms, for me the deepest fascination in this regard lays with the years 1970-1976 – a period book-ended by Peter Osgood being on the winning side in the FA Cup Final.
Supremely talented, Osgood was the star turn in a Chelsea side who opened the 70s by defeating Leeds United after two blood and thunder encounters (mud and blunder another way of the describing the drawn Wembley meeting, Chelsea winning the Old Trafford replay 2-1), while six years later his second winners medal came courtesy of a surprise triumph for second division Southampton over Manchester United.
The six years in question conjure intriguing twists of fate in producing a few unlikely winners of the FA Cup.
Unlike Osgood, an era-defining footballer of the late 60s/early 70s, there were those whose cup final exploits happened on the back of sports page unanimity and lower division obscurity – this a time when an FA Cup Final team could have a smattering of journeymen players, opposed to a squad consisting entirely of multi-millionaire internationals.
Indeed, between 1970 and 1976 the FA Cup was won by a curious aggregation of seven different clubs; big-hitters, first time winners, one landing their first significant blow of the decade, another its first since the war.
The following year (1977) Manchester United recorded their first FA Cup success for fourteen seasons, the time between these triumphs not altogether unusual (neighbours City – 1956/69 – having to wait 13) and despite successive triumphs for Spurs in the early 60s, the twenty year period 1960-80 saw fourteen different clubs lift the trophy, with Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal each recording two, one less than West Ham (1964/1975/1980) and Spurs (whose 1967 victory was their third in seven seasons).
While there is something familiar in Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool tasting success (in this case FA Cup winners in 1970, 1971 and 1974), for those who remember the time, Leeds reaching the FA Cup Final was also commonplace.
The 2-1 replay defeat of 1970 was followed by victory over Arsenal in 1972 and then a stunning, against the odds reversal to Sunderland the following year, a match layered with such drama it put fantasy into football long before the phrase had any other meaning – in much the same way curmudgeons like me began socially distancing from the FA Cup Final about twenty years ago.
The 1976 1-0 defeat of Manchester United by Southampton (like Sunderland a second division side and less of a shock only by slight margin), was another curious anomaly of the period, Division Two also represented in 1975 when Fulham went down 2-0 against West Ham.
If recreating the picture today it is entirely feasible Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool will win the cup during the next seven seasons, but on a like-for-like basis, so will Burnley, Bournemouth and Middlesbrough, with QPR a one-off beaten finalist.
There are few FA Cup Finals with the lasting resonance of the 1970 meeting of Leeds United and Chelsea, the north/south, roundhead/cavalier perceptions considered in a previous article (see link at the bottom of this piece).
With their fancy Dan football and fancy line in celebrity supporters, victory for the Kings Road crusaders over Don Revie’s renegades was the last word in swing as 60s London swung to a close – the atrocious Wembley pitch and sporadic outbreaks of fine football between personal and collective vendettas, elevating the final and replay to a status way beyond most other FA Cup finals.
By scoring the replay equaliser in collecting a winner’s medal, Osgood had maintained his record of scoring in every round that season (the last time of such an occurrence and in these times of squad rotation, not likely to happen again), but for Leeds defeat was the final hard knock of a season that in the space of a month collapsed under the weight of an impossibly demanding fixture schedule.
Just a few weeks before they had been on a quest for three trophies (League, FA Cup, European Cup), but ended with nothing except painful experience – imbued, however, with steely resolve to come back more focused than ever.
When the 1971 FA Cup Final came around just over 12 months later (the previous year the final and replay were both played in April to assist England preparations for the Mexico World Cup), Leeds had been pipped to the Championship by Arsenal – arriving beneath the Twin Towers to face Liverpool with the League and FA Cup double on the line.
In sweltering conditions, the game failed to catch fire until extra-time, the deadlock broken when Steve Heighway fired Liverpool ahead. But even then, the redoubtable spirit which had carried Arsenal through the title run-in remained unbowed, substitute Eddie Kelly levelling before the change of ends.
Then, as if to prove how well they had struck a balance between dash and determination, the mercurial Charlie George blasted home the winner from twenty yards – in celebration he lay on his back, Liverpool out for the count.
Ten years on Arsenal had emulated North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in completing the double – and also followed suit in heading back down Wembley Way to defend the FA Cup a year later.
Aiming to wrestle the trophy from them, invariably, were Leeds, whose own intentions centred on pulling off the double, the first stage being a cantankerous, yet strangely compelling cup final – the antipathy between the teams evident in a booking apiece inside the first five minutes, the stall set-out for an old-fashioned set-to.
For those thinking Leeds only had a beef with London opponents, it is worth taking into account FA misconduct charges arising from clashes against Everton, Manchester United and West Brom. That said, there was previous with Arsenal dating back to the 1968 League Cup Final, one goalmouth melee containing more thrown punches than a title fight.
Conscious of over-using boxing analogies, Leeds were worthy winners of the 1972 cup final, victory on points (sorry) secured by a fine headed goal by Allan Clarke, their ‘double’ aspirations taking them to Molineux 48 hours later, (the Football League fixture secretary not inclined to do Leeds any favours).
But on a murky May night, their title hopes disappeared into the gloom, Wolves’ 2-1 victory combined with Liverpool being held to a goalless draw at Arsenal making Derby champions, Leeds missing out on the title by a whisker for the second season running.
Leeds had another double in their sights when the 1973 FA Cup Final brought them up against Sunderland, whose fortunes had revived during the five-month stewardship of manager Bob Stokoe – overseeing a group of seasoned players now performing to the limit of their capabilities.
Even accounting for a notable fifth round defeat of Manchester City and a shock, but deserved semi-final success against Arsenal, they were still of second division ilk. In contrast, Leeds were brimming with class and experience, their retention of the trophy expected to be done in perfunctory manner.
The folklore attached to the game is a treasure trove in itself. The red and white bedecked Sunderland supporters were at the ‘lucky’ end of the ground, a team in stripes had yet to lose a post-war FA Cup Final, 73 was the reverse of 37 (the last time Sunderland had won the cup) – and all that before ‘Porterfield 1-0‘,’ the acrobatics of goalkeeper Jim Montgomery and the subsequent dashing of Stokoe onto the pitch at the final whistle to embrace him.
As ever with Leeds there was a sub-plot, Stokoe later alleging that when manager of Bury in the early 60s his players had been offered cash inducements by Revie to ‘limit’ their efforts in a second division fixture Leeds were desperate to win.
If scoring the most unlikely of FA Cup triumphs was not retribution enough, the London-based football media forming a glee club to revel in Leeds’ embarrassment at surrendering the cup to such low-rank outsiders, would have fueled Stokoe’s sense of justice being served – Leeds ending the 1972-73 empty-handed in losing 1-0 to AC Milan in the European Cup Winners Cup Final eleven days later.
While not suggesting Leeds were unjustly maligned, their unrelenting pursuit of honours under Don Revie is to be admired and neither should numerous examples of the hard-edged, dynamic football they produced during this era be overlooked. Let’s face it, they were not alone in fielding players who could dish out rough stuff, Leeds just more brazen about it, happy with a notoriety that often had them at a psychological advantage before a ball (or opponent) was kicked in anger.
One immune to intimidation was Liverpool defender Tommy Smith. Among the high-profile ‘disher-outers’ of the time, he returned to Wembley in 1974 a member of an Anfield side who had won through to face Newcastle United.
Along with team-mates Ian Callaghan and Chris Lawler, Smith was a survivor of the 1965 cup final victory over Leeds (and beaten 1971 side), their nine-year gap between winners’ medals little more than formality after Liverpool went ahead early in the second half. All ‘lucky end’ and ‘team in stripes’ connotations were, like the Magpies, put to flight as a 3-0 demolition ensued.
The ruthless way in which Newcastle were dismantled was a foretaste of many such trophy-winning performances about to ensue – the resignation of charismatic manager Bill Shankly in the weeks that followed seeing the baton passed to Bob Paisley, who would soon usher in year-on-year off the scale success.
Back in 1965 they had followed West Ham in winning the competition, these roles reversed in the mid-70s as 12 months on from Liverpool winning in 1974, The Hammers saw their name go back on the trophy. West Ham had nobody left from eleven years before, although lining up for second division Fulham was their 1964 cup winning skipper Bobby Moore, England’s World Cup winning captain switching East London for West the previous year.
As a football fairy tale one last Wembley hurrah for Moore would take some beating, but in the weeks leading up to the final the expression ‘playing badly enough to win the cup‘ was heard in relation to first division also-rans West Ham, who on the day won without undue alarm or having to play that well – the cup final fable of the year based upon their young striker Alan Taylor, who emerged from the fourth division shadow-lands of Rochdale to score twice in the quarter-final, semi-final and final, Fulham unable to answer his second half brace.
After spending 1974-75 in Division Two following their relegation of April 1974, Manchester United returned to the topflight in August 1975, manager Tommy Docherty assembling an exciting young team whose re-entry to the big time looked certain to be rubber-stamped with an FA Cup triumph over Southampton – with whom United had been relegated two seasons before, the Saints march as yet not taking in a return to Division One.
Despite boasting greater FA Cup Final experience – alongside Osgood were skipper Peter Rodrigues (beaten finalist, Leicester City, 1969) and Jim McCalliog (likewise Sheffield Wednesday, 1966) – Southampton appeared to have little chance of a Sunderland-style upset, United with too much energy and imagination to countenance such an outcome.
Yet despite alternating between periods of pressure and patience, they were unable to force a breakthrough, thwarted on more than one occasion by Saints’ keeper Ian Turner whose more unorthodox saves were reminiscent of Pole Jan Tomaszewski on the October night in 1973 when he denied England a World Cup place.
With extra-time looming McCalliog lobbed a pass into the path of Bobby Stokes who drilled an 83rd minute winner past Alex Stepney, the FA Cup seven minutes away from once more being in the possession of a second division club. With the second tier providing the winner in two of the last four seasons were the big-guns suddenly placing less-emphasis on winning the FA Cup?
In the short-term history would suggest not as during the seasons to come victories for Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham would offset unsuccessful attempts to win the league title, Ipswich (1978) meanwhile showed it was possible to beat the big lads in their own playground – with the second division flag flown once more in 1980 when West Ham came away winners, the last side, currently, from outside the topflight to do so.
Far removed from the days when the FA Cup Final was a major collective experience for much of the population, people gathering in a front room for that rare instance of watching a football match live on television, it continues on greatly reduced in circumstances and status, the significance attached to winning the cup apparently lost on at least one generation of those who follow the game.
With the enormous financial rewards of the Premier League came the importance not just of success but staying there – the expanded Champions League making a top four finish far more financially beneficial than FA Cup glory. Simple economics makes avoiding Premiership relegation more important than any cup run, while in the Championship securing Premier League riches is the hard and fast reality, winning the FA Cup an airy-fairy notion belonging to yesteryear.
But back in the 70s for Sunderland and Southampton supporters it was the stuff of dreams.
Between 1970-76 your genial host went from primary school pupil to near wage-earner, from an avid reader of ‘Goal’ to obsessing over ‘Rubber Soul‘ – but in May 1976 when Peter Osgood disappeared down the Wembley tunnel with his second cup winners medal in six years, my thoughts, shared no doubt by many more of similar age, had already turned to what the FA Cup Final next year might bring.
Hello – hope you enjoyed another exclusive production from SAMTIMONIOUS.com
In order to create the best experience for when you drop by to read a page or two, those with the power to ordain such things (me, actually), have decided to remove all external advertising from the site – in other words articles will no longer be subject to intrusive pop-up ads. BUT – and ain’t there always one – should you wish to make a donation toward the on-costs of the most entertaining and original blog-site around, please press on the – ‘DONATE’ – button below. It will be greatly appreciated.
Stay safe everyone and thanks for dropping by – best wishes Neil
SAMTIMONIOUS.com – films, football and fabulous music at The Dominion of Opinion
NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE‘ – an acclaimed thriller now available in paperback and as an Amazon Kindle book.
