1974/75: Bridge Over Troubled Water
My match day experience is not complete unless I am able to get a programme. Over the years there have been just four games when this has happened. Thanks to the Internet the ability to try and get hold of those missing programmes has become easier. Just this week I managed to track down one of the missing four. The game in question was an FA Cup 4th Round game between Chelsea and Birmingham City at Stamford Bridge in 1975. One of the things about programmes for me is the memories that they evoke, in the same way songs, smells or photographs do for other people. They are in their own way a piece of social history. But it is also for me about being there, the shared experience and a confirming of your existence.
So it was a real joy to get my hands on the programme and get the nostalgic juices flowing. The cost of admission that day for standing was 50p (adults) and 25p (juniors), with the programme 10p and seats ranging from 80p to £2.00 – that seems incomprehensible when you consider that a programme alone currently at many Premier League and Championship clubs is at least £3.00.
Looking inside I found the results section and details of the game from the previous Saturday (details below):
Division One – Saturday 18th January 1975 (Attendance: 34,733)
Chelsea: Phillips, Locke, Harris, Hollins, Hinton, Hay, Kember, Wilkins, Garland, Hutchinson, Cooke. Substitute (Did not play): Stanley
Leeds United: Harvey, Reaney, Gray (F), Bremner, McQueen, Madeley, McKenzie, Clarke (Yorath), Lorimer, Giles, Gray (E).
On a near waterlogged pitch and in incessant rain, Chelsea contributed to a fine match, but conceded the season’s double to the reigning Champions. Harvey made magnificent saves from Hollins and Wilkins in the first half. When Leeds were opened wide by Kember’s brilliant free-kick, scooped over the “wall” to Hay, he pulled his shot wide. McKenzie shot the first goal after 32 minutes, when Clarke headed down Eddie Grays’s cross. Clarke (pulled hamstring) was substituted early second half by Yorath, who from close range, netted Leeds’ second ten minutes from the end, when Philips pushed up Frank Gray’s cross-shot.
I realised that I had been at that game and had gone along with a friend from school. It was the first time I had seen Leeds United “in the flesh” – the reigning Champions. I was in awe of the Leeds names on display in what was a traumatic season for the club. For Leeds United 1974/75 started with the rather less than glorious 44 day stewardship of Brian Clough and ended with the great rock and roll swindle that was the European Cup Final in Paris. For Chelsea it was no better either as the season ended in relegation.
Elsewhere in the programme for the Chelsea v Birmingham games were details of the other FA Cup games taking place. It then dawned on me that I wasn’t meant to be at Stamford Bridge at all. There in black and white was listed Fulham v Nottingham Forest (then managed by Brian Clough). However, the rain has put pay to us attending that game and so the short journey to Chelsea was made instead. My other abiding memory of the day relates to the end of the game. Birmingham had secured a 1-0 win and as my dad and I left the ground, somebody in front with a radio was relaying the action from Elland Road where Leeds United had been awarded a penalty against Wimbledon. We all stopped in our tracks and waited for the spot kick to be taken and gasped as we shared the news that Dickie Guy had saved Peter Lorimer’s penalty.
Interestingly I was to watch Birmingham City in action later that season. Quite incredibly it was again in the FA Cup at Hillsborough, as a Fulham side containing Alan Mullery and Bobby Moore drew 1-1 with the Midlands team, before winning the replay and getting to their only FA Cup to date. Like Leeds in Paris, Fulham succumbed to a 2-0 nil defeat, although not in such controversial manner.
Finally, just as I was putting the programme away, my eye caught the date the Chelsea match took place. Saturday 25th January 1975. The relevance of that date? 20 years later my son Liam was born. One date, so many memories.