Season 1961-62 Part One

THIS was certainly not a good season for Black Country football. In fact every Midland club had a poor campaign.

Albion finished ninth and Wolves eighteenth in the First Division while Walsall took fourteenth spot in Division 2, and although they are nothing to do with the Black Country, Aston Villa claimed seventh spot in the top flight, Birmingham

City were one rung above Wolves in the ladder, and Coventry City came home seventeenth in Division Three.

Draws

Albion started badly and never recovered. They won only three of their first 15 League games, drawing another six, five in a row.

The Baggies’ form improved during the winter period and after another hit and miss spell, they ended the campaign with a flourish, winning six of their last ten fixtures, which included a 5-1 away victory over Wolves at Molineux.

Albion won 15 and drew 13 of their 42 League matches, scoring 83 goals (the fourth highest in the Division) and conceding 67, with a points tally of 43, 13 behind champions Ipswich Town and 10 adrift of runners-up Burnley.

The Baggies’ best win was a last-game 7-1 home win over Blackpool (when Derek Kevan netted a four-timer). They also walloped Bolton 6-2 at The Hawthorrns in February and defeated Cardiff 5-1 in early March.

Exciting

The two heaviest defeats, both by 4-1, came at Chelsea and Manchester United, while of the many drawn fixtures, the two most exciting battles ended 4-4 at Nottingham Forest and 3-3 at West Ham. In fact, the Baggies were 3-0 down in this game before staging a superb second-half comback.

Kevan top-scored with 33 League goals, followed by Keith Smith with 17 while four players – right-back Don Howe, centre-half Stan Jones, right-winger Alec Jackson and Kevan were ever-presents.

As for Wolves, they also started off on the back foot, winning only four of their first 14 games. They had a decent winter period and remained undefeated in February before ending the season rather poorly by winning only one of their last ten matches.

Trouble

In fact, at one stage Wolves were in serious relegation trouble and in truth it was only due to some poor performances by Fulham, Nottingham Forest and Cardiff City that they survived the drop.

In the end the stayed up with 36 points, only four more than relegated Cardiff with Chelsea at the foot of the table with 28.