Rant about football

1971-72 was quite a season for young Brian Clough who, at the tender age of 37, won the first major trophy of his managerial career by guiding Derby County to their first ever league championship. This was no ordinary title triumph but the mother of all four-way battles. They overcame not only the mighty Leeds United to win the four-horse race but also duked it out with Liverpool and Manchester City. If you want to see how close it was, check out the final top four, separated by a mere point.

1971-72 Top Four

For the team that would be champion, the start of the 1971-72 campaign saw new skipper Roy McFarland missing through flu, but after the first 12 matches Derby were the only unbeaten team in Division One and lying third in the table. By New Year, the Rams had slipped to fifth after four successive defeats, but by the beginning of February they were back in contention, in third place after wins over Chelsea, Southampton and Coventry.

In March, Stoke City enjoyed their finest hour, winning the 1972 Football League Cup Final to claim the only major trophy in their history thus far. Chelsea went into the match as strong favourites having won the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in the previous two seasons, whereas Stoke were attempting to win their first major silverware. The result was a significant upset, with Stoke winning 2–1, the 35-year-old George Eastham scoring the winning goal late on. Stoke City goalkeeper Gordon Banks would later add the FWA Player of the Year Award to his League Cup winners medal.

By Easter Saturday, Derby had moved up to second in the league, and after playing their last game of the season – a thrilling 1-0 win over Liverpool – they were top. They also won the Texaco Cup against Airdrie. Despite heading the league, having completed their campaign before any of their rivals, no-one still expected the Rams to be champions. Leeds needed only a point against Wolves to claim the double, having won the FA Cup on May 6th. Consequently, the players had headed off to Majorca with Peter Taylor, while Clough was with his family in the Scilly Isles.

In the Cup Final, Leeds were the better team throughout. Their back four had no trouble in mastering the Arsenal attacks and negating the threat posed by strikers George and Radford, who were unusually lacklustre on the day. By contrast, the Leeds front men, Clarke and Jones, continually harassed the Arsenal defence. Indeed, it was the Jones-Clarke combination produced a goal in the fifty-third minute. Jones sent across a hard, shoulder-high centre and ‘Sniffer’ Clarke headed powerfully past Barnett’s left hand from fifteen yards. Leeds’ jubilation at the end was tempered not only by a last-minute injury to Mick Jones, who dislocated his shoulder and had to be helped up the steps by Norman Hunter to receive his winners’ medal, but also by the knowledge that they would have very little time to recover before attempting to complete a League and Cup double.

So it was then, on Monday, May 8th, 1972, only two days after their physically and emotionally draining Cup final, Wolves pulled off a shock 2-1 win: Derby, with Brian Clough and Peter Taylor at their head, were champions of England. There were later bribery allegations from The Sun newspaper regarding Leeds manager Don Revie and Leeds’ final league opponents Wolverhampton Wanderers. However, the footballing authorities never investigated these allegations to decide whether they were true or not. Even more amazingly, Birmingham City beat Stoke City 5-4 on penalties after a 0-0 draw in a third-place playoff, held three months after the final.

At the other end of the First Division table, Nottingham Forest and Huddersfield Town lost their First Division status. By the end of the decade, Forest had made an explosive comeback to the top flight, claiming a first league title and two European Cups, but 1971-72 was to be Huddersfield’s last season in the top flight to date; within a few seasons they would be in the Fourth Division.

In the Second Division, Norwich City and Birmingham City were promoted. This marked the first time that Norwich City had ever reached the top flight in their history, less than 70 years after the club was founded. Charlton Athletic and Watford were relegated. As for the Third Division, sleeping giants Aston Villa ended their two-year spell in the Third Division by gaining promotion as champions, and by the end of the decade would be firmly re-established as a First Division club. Brighton & Hove Albion followed Villa into the Second Division, but would not reach the heady heights that the midlanders would experience. Mansfield Town, Barnsley, Torquay United and the mighty Bradford City were relegated. In the Fourth Division, Grimsby Town, Southend United, Brentford and Scunthorpe United were promoted. These were, relatively speaking, still the footballing dark ages, and the team that finished bottom of the pile were voted out of the Football League, rather than being automatically relegated. Although this rarely happened, Barrow did indeed suffer the indignity of being voted out at the end of this season, being replaced by Hereford United, probably largely due to having achieved a shock FA Cup victory over Newcastle United.

In Europe, the 1972 UEFA Cup Final was the final of the first ever UEFA Cup. It was played on 3rd May and 17th May, 1972 between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur. Tottenham Hotspur won the tie 3–2 on aggregate, largely thanks to big Martin Chivers.

England were eliminated from Euro 1972 in the quarter finals after losing 3-1 on aggregate over two legs (1-3 at Wembley and 0-0 in West Berlin) to West Germany, who went on to win the tournament.