‘They’ say that good things come to those who wait, and while it is debatable as to exactly who this mythical ‘they’ is, or even if it exists, what is undeniable is that it has been a wee while since part two of our look back at the calendar year that was 1970 hit the shelves, so as to speak,
So, with no further ado let’s trawl back in time to a period when the whole nation was suffering somewhat from a collective hangover. England’s grip on the World Cup had been loosened with not a small degree of anti-climax in the summer’s Mexico tournament by West Germany who had in turn lost to Italy who had the been defeated by Brazil; the Beatles were done and dusted, with Paul Macca taking the opportunity to make the official announcement during a press conference to promote his upcoming solo album; and Harold Wilson and his Labour buddies had been bounced out of Number 10 in the wake of economic dissatisfaction and, he claimed in what was surely the greatest mixture of sour grapes and clutching at straws in the modern era, general disillusionment brought on by Sir Alf Ramsey and his boys’ World Cup woes.
The 1970-71 season kicked off on the 15th of August with Elvis Presley sitting atop the charts warbling happily away with ‘The Wonder of You’ and champions Everton playing at home against Arsenal in front of a massive gate of 50,248. The supporters were treated to a classic with four goals being shared equally between the sides. However, while Everton were amongst the favourites to retain their title, they would get off to a poor start with no wins in their first six games and just three points.
On television, Coronation Street celebrated its 1000th episode, while ‘Scooby-Doo’ and the ‘Pink Panther’ cartoon shows made their respective debuts on British TV. Jimi Hendrix, the legendary American rock star, was found dead the day before the first Glastonbury Festival was held.
European competitions started in September with England being represented by Everton in the European Cup, by FA Cup winners Chelsea and holders Manchester City in the European Cup Winners’ Cup, and by Arsenal, Liverpool, Coventry City, Leeds United and Newcastle United in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. All eight clubs successfully negotiated the opening round held as the autumn nights began to draw in.
In the league, Leeds United were once again making much of the early running, hitting the top of the table early on and staying in a challenging position for most of the early winter months.
Amongst the chasing pack was Liverpool, undergoing the first signs of retransformation under Bill Shankly. Having allowed the successful mid-1960s side to arguably go past its sell-by date, possibly due to misplaced confidence in the side following a decent run at the title in 1969, Shankly had begun to ring the changes after a disastrous FA Cup defeat at the hands of Watford the previous March. The defeat at Vicarage Road signalled the end for stalwarts such as Tommy Lawrence, Ian St.John, and Ron Yeats and in their places came youngsters such as Emlyn Hughes, Ray Clemence and Larry Lloyd.
Although not yet the finished article, Shankly’s side would go on to have a good 1970-71 season, culminating in an appearance in the FA Cup Final and the Inter-City Fairs Cup semi-final.
Also emerging from a period of relative slumber were Arsenal, led by Bertie Mee and ably assisted and coached by the legend that was Don Howe. The start of October would see Arsenal sitting comfortably in third place with 15 points from eleven games, behind Manchester City on goal average and three points behind Leeds United.
With “Band of Gold” by Freda Payne (nope, no idea) beginning the first of six weeks at number one in the charts, and Fiji becoming independent from the United Kingdom (I’ve been there – lovely place), the nation mumbled and grumbled its way into the winter months.
In the European Cup second round, Everton made history by becoming the first British club side to win a penalty shoot-out in a competitive European match when they defeated Borussia Mönchengladbach in this manner following two 1-1 draws. Chelsea and Manchester City both progressed to the last eight of the ECWC, courtesy of 2-0 and 3-0 aggregate wins over CSKA Sofia and Budapest Honvéd respectively, and in the Inter-City Cup Arsenal, Leeds United and Liverpool all progressed while Coventry City’s run came to a decisive end when they were defeated 7-2 on aggregate by Bayern Munich. Meanwhile, Newcastle United experienced the opposite side of the coin to Everton when they were knocked out of the competition on penalties by Hungary’s Pécsi Dózsa following two identical 2-0 home victories.
Missing from Europe were Derby County, managed by a certain Brian Clough, who had finished the previous season, their first back in the top flight following promotion, in fourth place and so should have by rights been in the Inter Cities Cup. The Rams had, however, been prevented from taking their place in Europe due to alleged financial irregularities said to have involved their erstwhile manager.
Whatever the details and the rights and wrongs of the affair, Clough was certainly building a profile in the media at this time. As a result of the perceived success of having managers and footballing experts in the studio in the recent World Cup, managers were becoming more in demand for their opinions and thoughts on the game in general, and younger men such as Clough and Malcolm Allison of Manchester City were certainly not shy in coming forward.
In international football, England played no competitive games in the falling months of the year but warmed up for European Championship qualifying matches in the new year with a friendly at home to East Germany. In front of 93,000 rather optimistic souls, Sir Alf and his chaps attempted to put their World Cup woes behind them and in doing so managed to cheer the nation up slightly with a 3-1 victory. Keen to avoid ever suffering a goalkeeping debacle such as that experienced in Mexico, Sir Alf saw fit to field new blood between the sticks. So began Peter Shilton’s twenty-year stint as England goalkeeper.
Back in the news November 1970 was a time of beginnings and ends. The ten shilling note ceased to be legal tender but on a positive note the comedy series, ‘The Goodies’ was shown on television for the first time and in a sign of the times, the first ever ‘Page 3 Girl’ appeared in The Sun newspaper.
As Dave Edmunds cocked his ear to take in the knocking of an admirer and sat atop of the poppers in doing so, the league season continued in earnest. Leeds United and Arsenal had opened up a considerable gap by the time the Christmas decorations were going up, with Leeds sitting three points clear of the Arse and third-place Chelsea a further seven points behind.
Meanwhile, all was not well and dandy at Old Trafford. Since winning the European Cup in 1968, United had slipped somewhat in the league with 11th and ninth-place finishes being the best they could achieve. Feeling his years, Sir Matt Busby had ‘retired’ to an upstairs role, and reserve team manager and former United player, Wilf McGuinness had taken over in time for the 1969-70 season. Unfortunately for McGuinness, the spectre of Busby still ran over Old Trafford and despite reaching three domestic cup semi-finals in two seasons, league results were not good. The 1970-71 season started slowly for United and when December came around, they suffered two demoralising home defeats within seven days in the shape of 3-1 and 4-1 losses at the hands of Arsenal and Manchester City respectively.
For McGuinness, his time was up and he was shown the door. Sir Matt was coaxed out of retirement and took charge temporarily for the rest of the season and United’s season picked up marginally from then on in.
Before the end of the calendar year, there was just time for Liverpool, Arsenal and Leeds United to continue to fly the flag in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup as all three sides made it through to the quarter-finals to make it six English sides in the last eight of the three major European competitions.
The year ended with Paul McCartney once more taking the chance to grab the headlines when he publicly sued his Beatles bandmates in a legal manoeuvre to bring about the dissolution of their mutual contract and so effectively end the band. Fifty-odd years later, Sir Macca, displaying an opportunistic flair as sharp as ever, orchestrated a ‘reunion’ of the Beatles, despite having to exhume two of his former comrades in the process.
Well, on that slightly ungracious footing, it’s time once more for us to leave the year behind and look ahead. 1970 had been a year that had promised much but had failed to deliver – especially for those connected with the England national team and Leeds United, who had been in the running for a treble of League, FA Cup and European Cup, before – rather amusingly – ending up with nothing. Also on the outside looking in was Harold Wilson – bounced out of office, he believed – on the back of England’s collapse in Mexico.
While Wilson’s time would (briefly) come again, what would the future look like for Don Revie, Bertie Mee, Bill Shankly and the ‘young guns’ of Brian Clough and Malcolm Allison?
As for Sir Paul Macca, well, he’d be OK, I guess.
