Even by the elasticated standards of SAMTIMONIOUS.com creating a link between my late, beloved dad and Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant is stretching things to the furthest away points of credulity.
One an undisputed titan of popular music whose penetrating vocals helped make the combo he fronted the most successful rock band of the 1970s, the other an unassuming, contented man who as the years rolled by was the much-loved tribal elder of a family whose extensions and offshoots he unfailingly embraced.
Discounting any connection between the two, however, would be to disregard football.
Despite everything else happening in their respective lives fifty years ago this week – Plant and Led Zep number one in LP charts across the world with ‘Houses of the Holy‘, Roy Sambrook embarking on a new job that improved the financial outlook of his nearest and dearest – there is a suspicion each would have swapped these gains in order that Wolverhampton Wanderers, the team they both followed, reached the 1973 FA Cup Final.
Through to the semi-finals for the first time since 1960, the last occasion on which they had lifted the FA Cup, there was a feeling time had come again for the Molineux men. Improved league standings since the turn of the decade were achieved in conjunction with a run to the 1971-72 UEFA Cup Final, where Wolves lost a two-leg aggregate final to Spurs.
The current season had already brought progress to the last four of the League Cup (their gallop again stopped by Tottenham), yet on a weekly basis Bill McGarry’s side were a useful proposition – the goalscoring threat of strike pair Derek Dougan and John Richards instrumental in maintaining a lofty league position, but also seeing them arrive at the first Saturday of April in the midst of a nine match unbeaten run.
Indeed, when studying FA Cup semi-finals of the period, it is generally the case at least one of the incumbents has no current form to speak of, fitful league showings masked by a decent cup run. But come Saturday 7 April 1973 you would be hard pressed to find another team so in clover as those who had reached the last hurdle before Wembley – a factor no doubt in producing two contests that were enthralling even by the high standard of 70s semi-finals.
The draw maintained the prospect of reprising the final of twelve months before, (not since Victorian times had such an instance occurred), holders Leeds United facing Wolves, with 1972 beaten finalists Arsenal paired with second division Sunderland, who in reaching this stage had already caused a minor sensation.
Since the turn of the year they had lost just two of eighteen league and cup games, the club galvanised by the appointment of Bob Stokoe as manager in late-November. Their fifth round replay victory over the big-shots of Manchester City was the most remarkable ninety minutes of the season so far, Roker rediscovering its roar on a night those present would never forget.
In reaching this advanced stage, Sunderland had exceeded all expectations and while Stokoe breezed in too late for a realistic promotion charge in the current campaign, confidence gained along the way would surely stand them in good stead for next term, if, as expected, the journey ended at Hillsborough. Few beyond Wearside expected them to prevail against Arsenal, who in truth were better placed now to land the league and FA Cup double than when at the same juncture two seasons before, when the feat had been achieved.
Having lost just twice in twenty three matches, they were the side league leaders Liverpool could not shake off, such unrelenting application turning draws into wins, the occasional loss a springboard for another profitable run.
Sunderland and the massed ranks of their support had spirit in abundance, but Arsenal had the steely know-how required on such occasions. The sole FA Cup reversal suffered by The Gunners in twenty four ties since January 1971 was defeat in the final last season, a team sheet containing World Cup winner Alan Ball and seven other international players (eight including substitute John Radford), blessed not only with talent, but the temperament to overcome the willingness Sunderland had to offer.
If having the better of the opening exchanges could be put down to underdog exuberance, the second division outfit then belie their status with a couple of incisive attacks a nervous Arsenal rearguard are fortunate to survive. Looking hesitant and generally out of sorts, manager Bertie Mee must have watched aghast when they contribute to their own downfall, an under hit back pass from centre-back Jeff Blockley, (in for the injured Frank McClintock, whose presence as defender and captain would be missed all afternoon), gifts the opportunity from which centre-forward Vic Halom gives Sunderland a 17th minute lead.
Playing with an energy and purpose that offers Arsenal little opportunity to address issues like why do skipper Bob McNab and Peter Storey both appear to be operating at right-back and what position is Charlie George playing in, Sunderland are only denied a bigger interval lead by the agility of Gunners ‘keeper Bob Wilson – although at the other end opposite number Jim Montgomery saves well from George Armstrong in protecting the advantage.
In an attempt to find some bearings, Mee makes an early second half change in replacing Blockley with striker Radford (a poor performance from the defender later put down to him carrying an injury, not that it gained forgiveness from the Highbury faithful who never forgave his hapless hour at Hillsborough), the reshuffle barely having time to take effect when Billy Hughes sends a looping header over Wilson in creating a score line reflecting the balance of play.
Two years before at the same venue – when also wearing their ‘lucky’ yellow and blue FA Cup strip – Arsenal had found themselves facing a 2-0 semi-final deficit against Stoke City, coming back that afternoon to force a replay. But while they could still summon the same intensity, the intent looks askew and while George exposes a tiring defence in reducing the arrears with five minutes left, defensive lynchpin Dave Watson displays his future England international capabilities by remaining a commanding presence as Sunderland hold their nerve to secure an unlikely, yet deserved victory.
On the packed terracing behind the goal they had just been defending, their triumph is greeted by a tumult of noisy euphoria – most staying put until Stokoe has appeared to receive the rapture and acclaim of thousands. Clad in an all-white change strip, Sunderland have also become the first second division side since Preston North End nine years before to reach the FA Cup Final.
While the Rokerites now had a date with destiny ahead – although eight league games before hand was plenty to be going on with – defeat was to have significant consequences for Arsenal, whose Hillsborough humbling appeared something they could not come to terms with. On an otherwise sobering afternoon in Sheffield, the only good news for The Gunners was a surprise 2-1 reversal for Liverpool at Birmingham that kept the title race alive.
Ultimately, however, it had no real impact on the outcome – Arsenal recording just one win in their final five outings, finishing three points short as The Kop acclaimed its first championship since 1966.
With five weeks of the 1972-73 campaign to go optimism abounded in red and white territory of North London, but a season that promised much ended with the embarrassment of a 6-1 shellacking at Leeds – the mid-decade malaise that gripped Highbury, indeed, break-up of the ’71 double side, often traced back to ninety misfiring minutes in South Yorkshire.
Across the Pennines, a team more familiar in all-white had designs on another visit to Wembley, Leeds about to contest their fifth FA Cup semi-final in nine years when facing Wolves at the Maine Road home of Manchester City.
With only two defeats in their last twenty fixtures, Elland Road supremo Don Revie had good reason to feel upbeat about the fixture, Leeds already registering a win and draw against their last four opposition during the season. But being a man susceptible to superstition – good and bad – the choice of ground may have caused a sleepless hour or two, the venue hosting its first semi-final in thirteen years, 1959-60 the season their opponents had last won the trophy.
Unable to call upon defender Norman Hunter and winger Eddie Gray, two of his most consistently effective performers, Revie saw the team he sent out dominate the opening half hour as Wolves, restricted to counter-attacks, struggle to contain a side for whom a goal often looks imminent.
Shortly after Leeds have been denied by a smart save from Phil Parkes, they are forced into a positional rethink when veteran defender Jack Charlton pulls up with a hamstring strain. In leaving the field eight minutes before half-time, the England World Cup winner has just started his penultimate game in a twenty one year, 629 game Leeds career, the last coming three weeks later at Southampton, when injury would again curtail his afternoon.
Despite the moving around of personnel to accommodate the introduction of striker substitute Joe Jordan, Terry Yorath dropping back from midfield to partner Paul Madeley in central defence, Leeds continue to hold sway – but it takes until the 70th minute for them to finally break the deadlock.
After the Wolves rearguard clear a corner, the ball is hoisted back into the penalty area by Peter Lorimer and with gold shirted defenders at sixes and sevens, Leeds inspirational number four, skipper Billy Bremner, shoots past Parkes from eight yards.
On falling behind Wolves’ response is positive and direct, the increase in their goal threat culminating in a shooting chance for Richards whose angled drive beats David Harvey all ends up. The Leeds ‘keeper, like everyone else present, in that split-second expecting Wolves to be level – only for the ball to hit the inside of the post, rebounding back into play before being cleared.
‘What astonishing bad luck,’ exclaims ‘Match of the Day‘ commentator David Coleman, ‘nine times out of ten it would have spun back into the net.’ In the Platt Lane stand sitting next to your genial host, our tribal elder expressed the same sentiment only in stronger terms…………..
As the match builds to a gripping conclusion, Jordan breaks clear of a pushed-up too far Wolves back-four, but on rounding Parkes sees his effort roll along the goal-line then beyond the far post. Coleman has just remarked ‘What a cup tie‘ when in the last minute Dougan sends a header from ten yards inches wide.
Out of the cup to the one goal they had conceded in the competition, Bremner, the architect of Wolves downfall, completed a notable hat-trick in scoring the only goal in a Leeds FA Cup semi-final victory for the third time – the sequence comprising of previous winners against Manchester United in 1965 and 1970.
The Scottish international had also netted at Molineux in the final game of last season where a 2-1 defeat denied Leeds the league and cup double – that reversal, now avenged, coming just forty eight hours after they had beaten Arsenal in the FA Cup Final.
While Wolves licked their wounds with a creditable end to the season, Richards scoring 36 in all competitions as they finished fifth and qualified for the UEFA Cup, Leeds drove away from Maine Road carrying hopes of a trophy treble in the form of league title, FA Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup.
It would require victory in every match they still had to play – but heading back to Yorkshire along the A580 on an evening when Luxemburg won the Eurovision Song Contest for the second year in a row, anything must have seemed possible.
As for Messrs. Plant and Sambrook (snr) their Saturday night mood would have been summed up by a track on the latest Zeppelin LP, both no doubt wishing to be ‘Over the Hills and Far Away.’ In the forty eight years he lived post-Maine Road misery, dad never showed any interest in watching highlights from the game, his photograph turned to the wall when the task fell to me at the weekend.
Having done it once, should the need arise again for his eldest son to revisit Manchester in April 1973, it will be done watching an episode of ‘Life on Mars‘………
FA Cup Semi-Finals 1972-73 – (7/4/1973): Sunderland 2 Arsenal 1 (Hillsborough, 55,000); Leeds United 1 Wolves 0 (Maine Road, 52,500).
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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.
Enjoyed that!
Hello David – hope you well.
Glad to hear you enjoyed it and thanks for saying so.
Much appreciated.
Regards
Neil
Good article, but I don’t know where you got the idea that Leeds dominated their semi-final. Every contemporaneous match report – along with the extensive highlights shown on “Match of the Day” that evening – suggested that the exact opposite was the case: that Wolves were the better team from start to finish, and were extremely unlucky to lose that game.
Hello Rob – hope you are well.
As you will have gathered from my article, the 1973 Wolves v Leeds FA Cup semi-final was an emotive match in our household!
My dad and I attended the game – I was 12 – and in the 48 years he lived afterward when ever it was discussed (not often) it always brought a wince from us both, dad never interested in watching the highlights. Indeed, there have been many nights when just before falling asleep I have seen John Richards shot hit the post and go in………
Talking of the highlights – and my impression of the match for years was that Wolves had been on top for much of it – I have just watched them again (the 15 minute version) and by my reckoning Leeds had eight noteworthy attempts on goal and Wolves four, David Harvey not having a save to make during the first half when Phil Parkes had been called into a action on a number of occasions.
While I would disagree (and it pains me to say it) that Wolves were the better side from start to finish, I would concur they were unlucky to lose, the Richards shot and late header from the Doog on any other day would have gone in – and in all likelihood have changed the outcome.
For dad it was a case of third time unlucky as he had seen Wolves triumph at the FA Cup semi-final stage in both ’49 and ’60 – but for me there was more ’70s FA Cup semi-final despair to come, reference obviously to the Villa Park nightmare of 1979.
Aside from a slightly differing view of the Maine Road encounter, glad to hear you enjoyed the article and thanks for saying so.
Thank you also for taking the time to comment. Much appreciated.
Regards
Neil