RETURN OF THE SAINT
Lawrie McMenemy’s underdogs stunned United.. and history could repeat itself
MANCHESTER UNITED hot favourites for a Wembley Cup final, while Southampton are the rank outsiders.
Sound familiar? It does to Lawrie McMenemy, who led Southampton to victory over United in the 1976 FA Cup final in the greatest moment in the club’s history.
McMenemy overcame even greater odds than Claude Puel’s side face tomorrow.
The Dell boys had finished sixth in the Second Division, while Tommy Docherty’s vibrant young Red Devils had come third in their first season back in the top flight.
More than 40 years on and McMenemy has perfect recall of the events that sunny May day at the start of the long, hot summer of ’76.
“That was the big thing, we were serious underdogs,” he told Mirror Sport.
“I remember on the morning of the game, Mick Channon ringing my room and in his distinctive voice saying, ‘Gaffer, have you seen the prices?’. I said, ‘No, what does that mean, Michael?’. He said, ‘we’re 6/1 and 7/1. We’re total outsiders’.
“On the day, everyone thought Man United were going to walk it, but they didn’t.
“We were a good mixture of old heads and young legs.”
Lawrie Mac did his homework on United and detailed skipper Peter Rodrigues who had been planning to retire and run a pub 12 months earlier, to mark danger man Gordon Hill.
“I told Peter Rodrigues to get tight on him and not to give him any room. About 20 minutes from the end, I saw the substitutes board go up with No.11 on it and I thought, ‘Hell, that’s good’.
“Gordon told me later as he walked past Tommy Doc and looked up at the number, he asked,
‘No.11, does that mean me?’ And Tommy replied, ‘No, it means the whole f ****** team!’.
“Then a few minutes later, came the goal. Jim McCalliog showed his class by knocking a lovely pass across and Bobby Stokes, bless him, hit it first time and it went right in the corner.
“Between the semi and the final, Bobby Stokes had more opportunities than anyone to score goals – and missed them! But he scored the one that mattered.”
So the Saints went marching in and the celebrations for their homecoming the following day are part of the city’s folklore. McMenemy said: “The next day is still talked about in Southampton. It went down in history and it’s still the biggest turnout for any event ever.
“The open-top bus parade was supposed to be a 45-minute ride round, but it took four-and-a-half hours. The scenes were incredible with people hanging off trees and lamp-posts. “I still get stopped regularly when I’m out. People stop for an autograph with their kid, and the parent or the grandparent will say, ‘This is the man who managed the Cupwinning team’.” McMenemy, 80, who lives in a village near Southampton, will watch tomorrow on TV rather than hit the Wembley trail. He believes Southampton can shock United again and says they should take confidence from their semi-final wins over Liverpool.
“I was at the home leg of the semi-final and Liverpool got away with a 1-0 defeat when it could have been two or three,” he said.
“They then beat them again at Anfield.
“Liverpool are as good on paper as Manchester United so the manager can remind them of that. They may be the under- dogs, like we were.
“But after Liverpool, why can’t they beat United?”