Football in the Seventies

A little look generally at football during the seventies the era where my love of Football (soccer for American readers) particularly my team Cardiff City (the greatest team in football the world as ever seen) was nurtured. During the seventies Cardiff City were not ruling the roost there was many failures and little to get excited about but they were my club and still are.

I love to watch football considering myself more of a fan of League Football than the International game but still will watch.

While Liverpool stormed domestic football and Europe, some call it the golden age of football before greed began to take hold of the game and so did football hooligans. Liverpool under Bill Shankly and his successor Bob Paisley won several trophies including two European Cups and other managers coursed a stir the likes of Brian Clough and his side kick Peter Taylor as his assistant both took no prisoners when it came to interviews below are a few of Clough’s legendary quotes 

"We talk about it for twenty minutes and then we decide I was right." On dealing with a player who disagrees.

"You don't want roast beef and Yorkshire every night and twice on Sunday.” On too much football on television.

Dennis Tueart of Sunderland chased by 

Billy Bremner and Norman Hunter

Back then and still today who liked Leeds with Don Revie negative tactics, if he beats you kick him to death. They were like a battering ram a dirty bunch with Norman Hunter and Billy Bremner the leaders. Hunter was like a lumberjack felling any opposing player unlike today when he hit you, it was no rolling around with one eye on the ref for a foul, or red card you were hurt and in need of the magic sponge. Bremner for a little man was a dirty Scottish street fighter I hated him and I didn't even know him but I don't think I would like him anyway.

Brian Clough signing Francis

Fulham’s Johnny Haynes became the first £100 a week player, and just think Gareth Bale is on £600.000+ a week and having is tax paid as well back then they really didn’t know their worth to their clubs. Transfers in the seventies were nothing like today with rumour Bale could cost £200.000milion if he was to move on from Real Madrid. Alan Ball moved from Everton to Arsenal for £100,000, Martin Peters, England’s World Cup winner switched from West Ham to Spurs for £200,000 and Leighton James cost Burnley £300,000. It was still a while for the first million pound player. That happened at the end of the seventies when Clough signed Trevor Francis from Birmingham City for a million. Cardiff paid out £130,000 in 1979 for Billy Ronson.

But it was in Europe where English teams would make the most lasting impression. Liverpool won the first of their European Cups in 1977 with a victory in Rome over Borussia Monchengladbach. Another European Cup would follow against Bruges at Wembley. Nottingham Forest, under the miracle worker Brian Clough twice picked up the trophy with attack minded, swashbuckling football. Leeds also reached the final and lost. In the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup there were wins for English and Scottish teams having three winners, Manchester City, Chelsea and Rangers with Leeds and West Ham both losing their chance to lift the cup.

Goal … Brian Clark

Cardiff City had some European football thanks to winning the Welsh Cup five times and another twice due to losing to English teams who could not represent Wales by winning the Welsh Cup. The most famous European night must be reaching the quarterfinals of the Cup Winners Cup where we faced Spanish side Real Madrid. The first leg of the tie at Ninian Park where 47,000 fans watched one of the most famous victories in Cardiff's history when Brian Clark headed a goal to give Cardiff a 1–0 win. I was there that night, what a night although in the second leg they beat Cardiff 2–0 we had Ninian Park. In 1976, we beat Tottenham 1-0 in the FA Cup a major shock going on to beat Wrexham before losing 2-1 to Everton.

Tony Evans

In the league, the seventies started well for the Welshman ending the 1970/71 season just missing promotion to the old Division 1 by three points. The next three seasons were rough for any Cardiff fan as the club fought it out at the wrong end of the league table and finally in 1974/75 we succumb to relegation. 

The following season we bounced straight, back into Division 2 the same season of my first away game the League Cup game at Bristol Rovers. It was a great season 1975/76 with Adrian Alston and Tony Evans banging the goals in for fun and between the two strikers scoring 58 goals in all games with Tony Evans scoring 21 league goals when was the last time recently have we had a striker with a goal tally like that. 

It was back to the mundane world of Division 2 many fans thought that after the promotion we had in manager Jimmy Andrews had the team to go for promotion. Evans lost his foil in Alston as he moved to Tampa Bay Rowdies and it was a few months before he had a replacement, Robin Friday a great player but he had his problems. That was the highlight of the decade 1975/76 but for some individual games like those, I previously mentioned.

No welcome for Man Utd

Football Hooliganism was rife in the seventies at home, away Manchester United’s visit to Ninian Park is legendary, and visits from Chelsea would turn into a madhouse. I was never a hooligan but swung the odd punch for protection. The papers were littered with reports about trouble around the country and soon segregation of fans was brought in but it didn’t really work.