Baggies and Blues clash in Texaco Cup
DO you recognise yourself or anyone else among these young football fans of 46 years ago?
If you were with the 18,643 crowd at the Hawthorns on August 3, 1974, they you may be among these kids waving at the camera.
They were there to see West Bromwich Albion take on near neighbours Birmingham City in the group stages of the Texaco Cup.
The competition first ran in 1970-71 when it was contested by 16 clubs from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic Ireland that had not qualified for European competitions. It was a straight knock-out competition with ties played over two legs.
Wolves
The first competition was won by Wolverhampton Wanderers, who beat Heart of Midlothian 3-2 on aggregate.
Irish clubs withdrew after the 1971-72 competition, which was won by Derby County.
For the 1974-75 competition the format was changed. The English clubs were divided into four groups of four, with the winners of each group going forward to the quarter finals, where they were joined by four Scottish clubs. The four groups were: A: Birmingham City, Norwich City, Peterborough United, West Bromwich Albion.
B: Leyton Orient, Luton Town, Southampton, West Ham United.
C: Blackpool, Manchester City, Oldham Athletic, Sheffield United.
D: Carlisle United, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United, Sunderland.
The Baggies and the Blues met on the opening day of the competition but the encounter was not a classic and finished 1-1. In their other group games, Albion thumped Norwich
5-1 and lost 2-1 to Peterborough, while Birmingham drew 1-1 with the Posh and beat Norwich 3-1
That meant the Blues topped the group with four points with the Baggies in second place.
The other group winners were Southampton, Oldham and Newcastle and they were joined in the next stage by Aberdeen, Ayr United, Hearts and Rangers.
Each English club faced a Scottish opponent and Blues were drawn against Ayr, beating them 3-0 at St Andrew’s and then drawing 0-0 at Somerset Park.
All the Scottish teams were knocked out in the quarter-finals so Birmingham faced Newcastle in the semi-final. The first leg, played at St James’s Park, ended 1-1 but in the second, Newcastle were convincing winners, 4-1.
Newcastle went on to win the competition, beating Southampton 1-0 and 3-0 in the two-leg final.
That was the last time the Texaco Cup was played – the oil company ended their sponsorship and the following season the competition was renamed the AngloScottish Cup.
Above: The Baggies and the Blues played out a 0-0 draw