DAYS OF GLORY
Successful seasons for the Black Country’s football clubs
Season 1969-70
THIS turned out to be another disappointing Cup season for the Albion, who lost 2-1 to Manchester City after extratime in the League Cup final at Wembley.
For the Baggies this was their fourth appearance in a major cup final in five years, having earlier won the League Cup in 1966, lost it in 1967 and lifted the FA Cup in 1968.
After knocking out neighbours Aston Villa 2-1, Ipswich Town 2-0 in a replay, Bradford City 4-0, Leicester City 2-1, also via a replay and Carlisle United 4-2 in the two-legged semi-final, Albion played their Maine Road opponents in a quagmire of a Wembley pitch – soon after the annual Horse of the Year Show had been staged on the same turf!
Lead
Jeff Astle headed Albion into an early lead and they should have increased their advantage before Mick Doyle equalised on the hour – and 12 minutes into extra-time, fullback Glyn Pardoe popped up inside the Baggies’ penalty area to win the trophy for City.
A crowd of 97,963 saw the action and Albion’s ‘King’ (Mr Astle) had the pleasure and honour of becoming the first player to score in both an FA Cup and League Cup final at Wembley.
Astle, in fact, netted an overall total of 30 goals this season – 25 in the First Division which was the most by any player in the top flight – and five in the League Cup, as Albion finished a disappointing 16th in table with 37 points – 10 clear of disaster!
They won 14 of their League matches with 4-0 versus Nottingham Forest at home and 3-0 over Manchester City and Sheffield Wednesday, while their heaviest defeat was a 7-0 hammering by Manchester United at Old Trafford, and they also lost 5-1 at Leeds.
Albion’s Black Country rivals Wolves finished in 13th place in the top Division with 40 points. They should easily have ended up in the top six but for an awful second half to the season when they failed to win any of their last 14 matches. Indeed, they lost six of the eight encounters.
Wolves, in fact, won two fewer games than the Baggies and their best victory was that of 3-0 versus Chelsea, while their heaviest defeat was a 4-2 reverse at Nottingham Forest five days before Christmas.
Hugh Curran with 20 goals was Wolves’ top League scorer … 12 more than Derek Dougan.
In the League Cup, Wolves went out in the 4th round, beaten 3-0 at QPR, having earlier ousted Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 and Brighton & Hove Albion 3-2.
Dropping down into Division Three and Walsall had another mixed season, finishing 12th in the table with 46 points. Scoring goals was a huge problem for the Saddlers
who managed only 55 in their 46 League games.
Their biggest win was 4-0 versus Southport at home, while their heaviest defeat was that of 4-0 at Fulham. In fact Walsall played one of their ‘home’ League games at The Hawthorns – losing 3-0 to Brighton in late February. The Saddlers were also defeated by Brighton in the League Cup.
Colin Taylor with a total of 13 goals in all competitions was Walsall’s top marksman.
Stunning
And for the record, in the 1969-70 FA Cup competition, all three of our teams went out in the third round – Albion lost 2-1 at Sheffield Wednesday (despite a stunning Tony Brown goal), Wolves lost 3-0 at Burnley and Walsall went down 2-0 at Crystal Palace.
Checking around the grounds … Albion signed their first £100,000 player, Colin Suggett, from Sunderland and goalkeeper Jim Cumbes arrived at The Hawthorns from Tranmere Rovers, while Danny Hegan switched from the Baggies
to Wolves, who also signed Jim Mccalliog, full-back Bernard Shaw and Mike O’grady.
John Talbut scored his only goal for Albion in a 4-0 home win over AS Roma in an Anglo-italian Cup-tie.
Derek Dougan was sent off
twice this season – against Sheffield Wednesday and Everton, and for the first time in the club’s history, both fullbacks scored in the same League game – Derek Parkin and Les Wilson obliging in a 3-2 win at Southampton.
Hugh Curran became the first Wolves player to win a full cap for Scotland (versus Austria in Vienna) and in September 1969 Peter Knowles famously announced that he was quitting football to become a Jehovah’s Witness.