When reflecting on the fifth round FA Cup ties of 1972-73, it seems fitting that when the matches were played glam-rockers Sweet should be number one in the charts with ‘Blockbuster‘ – a phrase which could be used to describe a number of the eight FA Cup ties which took place on Saturday 24 February 1973.
As February 1973 drew to a close, the FA Cup was simmering nicely thank you very much. While the year had already brought a change in world boxing champion, challenger George Foreman taking the title from Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamacia inside two rounds, the cup was also packed with heavyweights aplenty – anyone of whom looked capable of going the distance.
Holders Leeds United and beaten finalists of the previous year Arsenal continued to make their cup presence felt, befitting teams currently third and second respectively in the table, with reigning champions Derby County themselves making headway.
Also enjoying the ride were Chelsea, Wolves and Manchester City, whose ‘on their day‘ capabilities made each a threat – exemplified by the Maine Road outfit ousting league leaders Liverpool in the previous round.
For Coventry City the cup was providing welcome distraction from a fitful league campaign, the relief even greater for West Brom whose weekly woes had seen them anchored in the relegation zone since before the clocks had changed.
Outside the top flight Division Two had strong representation in the form of promotion chasing QPR, while Millwall (Everton), Sheffield Wednesday (Crystal Palace), Luton (Newcastle), Carlisle (Sheffield United) and Hull City (West Ham), had all accounted for sides above their station in round four.
With the second division accounting for almost half those still occupying places in the draw, the number was completed by Sunderland, where manager Bob Stokoe had steadied the ship since taking the Roker Park wheel ten weeks before. The other looking side looking forward to fifth round action were Bolton Wanderers, the fifteen years since the ‘Lofthouse’ final of 1958 resulting in the Trotters suffering an inglorious fall from grace – but at least Burnden Park now had a decent cup run to shout about, even if it came with the unwanted caveat of being a third division club.
February 1973 saw transmission of the final episode, after 13 years and 432 shows, of cowboy drama ‘Bonanza‘ but the very first airing of sitcom ‘Last of the Summer Wine‘. It was a programme the BBC would broadcast for the next 37 years, so in terms of long-running sagas it should be no surprise to find Manchester City and Leeds United in FA Cup action this week, 50 years later…………..
FA Cup Fifth Round – Saturday 24 February 1973:
Seven days on from taking a creditable point off their 1970 FA Cup Final adversaries at Elland Road, Chelsea made a quick return to South Yorkshire where a meeting with Sheffield Wednesday awaited.
An attendance of almost 47,000 was testament to the sparkle still exuded by the Stamford Bridge sophisticates and while some of the early 70s fizz had started to go flat, they arrived at Hillsborough with six turn-of-the-decade FA Cup winners in the starting XI – and in similar fashion to the 1970 FA Cup Final replay, Dave Sexton’s men came from behind in order to win.
Northern Ireland international Roy Coyle gave Wednesday a 25th minute lead, but Bill Garner had the visitors level before half-time, adding to his FA Cup tally for the season that included both goals in the fourth round victory over Ipswich.
Given this is Chelsea in the first few seasons of the decade, it seems inevitable Peter Osgood should settle the issue, his 65th minute strike securing a place in round five, but not before the late drama of Garner being sent off by referee Ken Burns.
As Chelsea were saving their better displays for the competition, some may have thought their name was on the trophy – the name of Burns, however, would definitely be in the FA Cup Final programme, later being selected to officiate at Wembley on Saturday 5 May.
It was a date 1972 finalists Leeds and Arsenal would have noted, looming even larger after they advanced on attending to fifth round responsibilities.
England striker Allan Clarke displayed all his predatory instincts in twice scoring from close range as West Brom were effectively dealt with before half-time at Elland Road, while England team-mate Alan Ball and Scottish international Frank McLintock scored either side of a Dennis Martin reply as Arsenal went through on making the long trek to Carlisle.
By a strange twist of fate, high-flying Arsenal and basement boys Albion met at The Hawthorns three days later, Tony Brown on target as the Baggies secured their first league win since December while ending The Gunners run of fourteen games without defeat. Both, however, would come to see their respective Division One ambitions thwarted, Arsenal falling short in the title race and Albion relegated.
At Highfield Road there was another first v second division encounter – yet Coventry and Hull were comparable in regard to recent form, or more pertinently lack of it.
The Sky Blues had recorded only win league victory in the first two months of the year, while the solitary success enjoyed by the otherwise timid Tigers in the past five weeks was an FA Cup triumph over West Ham.
Both went into the fixture on the back of recent poor showings, but there was still top-flight pedigree to be taken into account, Scottish strikers Brian Alderson and Colin Stein netting before the break as the home side asserted control. Former Rangers man Stein headed home a third in the second half to put the outcome beyond doubt – Coventry erasing the memory of a fourth round home exit against the same opposition twelve months before.
Luton Town, currently sitting comfortably in Division Two, would not have been relishing a trip to third division pacesetters Bolton – the hosts with a twenty six match unbeaten home record to preserve.
In the event The Hatters secured a sixth round berth when striker Alan Garner headed home a corner taken by 1968 Manchester United European Cup winner John Aston – consolation for the home side coming in the form of the biggest gate drawn to Burnden Park for some time, Bolton losing only once more in advancing to win Division Three by four points.
While Derby had been unable to muster a convincing title defence, Brian Clough saw his side make steady European and FA Cup progress. Through the season consistent excellence had given way to intermittent brilliance, emphasised by the 5-0 November hammering dished out to Arsenal – and a first half FA Cup demolition of QPR.
Giving the Loftus Road side insight into the fundamentals of top flight finishing, on a rutted but unusually firm Baseball Ground pitch for the time of year (the North Midlands presumably seeing no rainfall in the latter days of February 1973), Derby take the lead with a Roger Davies header – although the real expertise in front of goal is provided by prolific marksman Kevin Hector, who before the half-time whistle helps himself to a typically opportunistic hat-trick.
To their credit a QPR outfit boasting future England internationals Phil Parkes, Dave Clement, Dave Thomas, Stan Bowles and Gerry Francis, keep playing the attractive football that very soon would cut a dash in Division One and although their nine match unbeaten run was over, Rangers manage to reduce the arrears with well-worked second half goals from Mick Leach and Don Givens.
If the most FA Cup goals of the day were scored at Derby then the best atmosphere was undoubtedly at Maine Road where Sunderland were paying a visit – this area of Manchester rarely seeing so much red and white even on days when United headed across town.
While Bob Stokoe had quickly put the house in order, evident in a 4-0 thumping of Middlesborough the previous week, to the world beyond Wearside anything other than a hiding off a star-studded City team looked a tall-order – more so when Tony Towers, destined one day to be a Sunderland player, fired the home side into a 15th minute lead.
But the twenty minutes that followed would be the last time Sunderland trailed in an FA Cup tie for the rest of the season.
Unbeaten in their last nine games, the thoughts of the City defence appear to be on who they might face in the next round rather than job in hand, Sunderland midfielder Micky Horswill (who would later swop Roker Park for Maine Road), gifted a 36th minute leveler. With a tight rein being kept on the likes of Lee, Marsh, Bell and Summerbee, the visitors carry a constant threat on the counter-attack, the home side found over committed when Billy Hughes breaks away to give Sunderland the lead with a fine individual goal.
With twenty minutes left to find an equaliser Malcolm Allison’s men force a replay in unlikely circumstances, Sunderland goalkeeper Jim Montgomery palming an in-swinging Summerbee corner into his own net.
Yet after hanging on through Montgomery’s fingertips, City were beaten hands down in the replay three days later – their FA Cup road running into a wall of sound during the most celebrated ninety minutes in the long history of Roker Park.
Ahead through centre-forward Vic Halom on the quarter hour, the noise level increases to such an extent when Hughes extends the lead, legend has it a ship out in the North Sea twelve miles away hears the Roker Roar. Ten minutes into the second half Francis Lee reduced the deficit but Sunderland, their momentum unstoppable, ensured victory with a second from Hughes.
While they strode on into the last eight, defeat for City set in motion a seven match malaise of one draw and six losses – Allison resigning his Maine Road post to take charge at relegation-threatened Crystal Palace thirty one days after the Roker Park reversal.
Despite the passing of half a century, the sight of a group of Millwall followers converging on Molineux dressed in white shirts and formal black hats left a lasting impression on the boy queuing beside his dad at a South Bank turnstile – your genial host here at SAMTIMONIOUS.com unaware of the ‘A Clockwork Orange‘ appropriations until finally watching Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 dystopian crime film, some forty years later.
It is tempting to say on the pitch things went like clockwork for Wolves – seven minutes in and the Dougan-Richards partnership has clicked for the umpteenth time, Richards receiving a nod down from the ‘Doog’ to lash the hosts ahead with his 23rd goal of the season.
It was enough to secure Wolves a quarter-final place, although in light of the off-field pandemonium in and around Molineux that day, it is perhaps fitting Sweet were replaced at number one the following week by Wolverhampton’s very own glamsters Slade.
Ironic also, considering the rampaging and broken windows occurring in their home town the previous Saturday, the latest Slade chart-topper should be entitled ‘Cum On Feel the Noise‘………….
FA CUP ROUND FIVE – (24/2/1973):
Sheffield Wednesday 1 Chelsea 2 (46,910); Bolton Wanderers 0 Luton Town 1 (39,556); Derby County 4 QPR 2 (38,100); Manchester City 2 Sunderland 2 (54,478)/(R) Sunderland 3 Manchester City 1 (51,782); Coventry City 3 Hull City 0 (31,724); Carlisle United 1 Arsenal 2 (23,922); Leeds United 2 West Bromwich Albion 0 (39,229); Wolves 1 Millwall 0 (31, 668);
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NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE‘ – an acclaimed thriller available as an Amazon Kindle book.
