On 28th February 1976, Dubai was a desert shithole occupied by a few camels, and the Football League Cup Final took place between Manchester City and Newcastle United at Wembley Stadium. It was the sixteenth final and the tenth to be played at the famous, albeit crap, venue. The ’76 final was actually the third time City had reached Wembley in the competition (and, as the title of the post suggests, the last time the won any major silverware), after winning the competition in 1970 by defeating West Bromwich Albion, and finishing runners-up to the Sammy Chung inspired Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1974.
Manchester City won the match 2–1 to claim the competition for the second time. At the time, it (probably) felt like a continuation of the successes of the late ’60s and early ’70s. Who could have foreseen such a monumental barren spell? The match is best known for its winning goal, an overhead kick by Dennis Tueart, although among Man Utd fans it is more famous with each passing year for perfectly obvious reasons. One small consolation is that their opponents that day have fared even worse.
