DAYS OF GLORY

Successful seasons for the Black Country’s football clubs

Season 1966-67 Part Two

MOVING onto the League Cup … and honestly speaking Albion should have retained the trophy!

After eliminating Astion Villa 6-1, Manchester City 4-2, Swindon Town

Northampton Town 3-1 and West Ham 6-2 on aggregate in the semifinal, they were 2-0 up in the final – the first to be staged at Wembley – against Third Division champions Queen’s Park Rangers.

But somehow they conceded three goals in the second-half – one rather dubious and debatable following an obvious foul on keeper Dick Sheppard – and eventually lost 3-2.

Perhaps it was a mistake, an error in judgement by manager Jimmy Hagan, when he elected to play Dennis Clarke at centre-half and ask John Kaye to help out in defence! We may never know.

Wolves were dumped out of the League Cup in round 3, hammered 5-0 at Fulham, while Walsall ousted Port Vale, Stoke City and Exeter before losing to Sheffield United in round 4.

In the FA Cup competition, Wolves knocked out Oldham Athletic in a 3rd round replay before losing to Everton (also in a replay). Albion beat Northampton Town before crashing out 5-0 at Leeds in round four and Walsall beat St Neots and Gillingham only to lose to Bury in round three.

And Albion made their debut in a major European competition. Competing in the Fairs Cup, they beat DOS Utrecht 6-3 on aggregate in round 2 but were then knocked out by Italian club Bologna 6-1 over two legs in the next round. Bobby Hope had the pleasure of scoring the Baggies’ first-ever European goal, in the 1-1 away draw with DOS.

Other facts from 1966-67: Bob Hatton scored after just 29 seconds on his debut for Wolves against Portsmouth in October; Wolves had two players sent off (Dave Woodfield and Dave Wagstaffe) in 0-0 draw at Blackburn in January; Pat Buckley scored 33 Central League goals for Wolves; and in the summer of 1967, Wolves, masquerading as Los Angeles Wolves, and won the USA International tournament, beating Aberdeen 6-5 after extra-time in the final.

Every game

Albion winger Clive Clark became the first player to score in every game of a League Cup tournament; overall Clark bagged 29 goals this season – a record for an Albion winger. And it was the third season in succession he had been Albion’s leading marksman.

Albion signed goalkeeper John Osborne from Chesterfield and defenders John Talbut from Burnley and Eddie Colquhoun from Bury, while keeper Ray Potter left the club for Crystal Palace after making 238 senior appearances.

Dick Krzywicki was the first Albion substitute to score, doing so in the League Cup win at Northampton, and Albion reached the milestone of playing their 100th League games against both Burnley and Everton.

And between them, Walsall players missed four penalties during the course of the 1966-67 season. Frank Gregg was one of these culprits, although he did net from the spot twice, while wing-half Norman Sykes of Doncaster conceded two owngoals in his side’s 4-0 defeat at Walsall.