One of the great traditions of Christmas past was playing the same side home and away over the course of a couple or three days. Very often, these would be derby affairs to ensure that supporters of both teams could easily get to the games, but it wasn’t exclusively so.
Photo from WBA archive
As Albion reached the festive period in 1967, the challenge that lay before them was Manchester City, first at The Hawthorns on Boxing Day and then at that great old theatre of football, Maine Road, four days later. A fierce enough task at the best of times, but in 1967/68, City were the acid test because the side run by Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison was supplanting their rivals from the other side of Manchester as the finest team in England, and this just two years after they’d been promoted back to the top flight after a three season long aberration in the division below.
With Christmas approaching, City were clearly a team on the upward slope, free scoring, exciting, feared. They’d put six past Leicester City, five past Sheffield United, then knocked in a host of fours, against Southampton, Fulham, Burnley, Tottenham and, in the previous game, Stoke, a 4-2 win that had pushed them into second place with 30 points.
Didn’t frighten the Baggies though. After all, we were only seven points behind, in terrific form of our own, increasingly seen as potential FA Cup winners and desperate to take points off City to boost our own hopes of a high finish in the league and a place in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup – forerunner of the UEFA Cup – as a result. For the punters, the Throstles against City couldn’t have been a better Boxing Day bash.
People poured through the turnstiles for the game, setting a new ground record of 44,897 for The Hawthorns in its new configuration, capacity reduced by the replacement of some of the terracing with the Rainbow Stand, a fabulously exciting, sparkling structure in its day, hard though that was to imagine just before we knocked it down and built the East Stand instead.
Photo from WBA archive
The changes did not meet with universal approval as Ray Matts noted in his “Inside Albion” column. “It is unfortunate that in a bid to provide better spectator amenities, such as the Rainbow Stand, the capacity of the ground should have been reduced to around the 45,000 mark. That some of the gates had to be closed shortly after the start of the game, and that some people had difficulty getting a good view, highlighted the accommodation shortage.
“But the Albion board are alive to the need for more terrace room to compensate for that lost by ground improvements. In the club’s annual report, plans were revealed to extend the Birmingham Road end of the ground to accommodate an extra 10,000 people next season.”
Another 10,000 might easily have come to his Boxing Day game and would have enjoyed the fare on offer. The game was hard fought, close, enthralling, everything that the pre match publicity had suggested that it might be, a head on collision between two of the form teams of the First Division. With City missing the magnificent midfield presence of the injured Colin Bell, early on, it looked as if home advantage was going to prove crucial as the Baggies gradually took greater and greater control of proceedings, Bobby Hope again earning the plaudits for a masterful display in the middle of the park, and setting up Albion’s opening goal 28 minutes in.
According to the Birmingham Post, “It was Hope’s well directed corner that Astle converted to put them ahead. It was, for my money, goalkeeper Mulhearn’s ball, but centre-half Heslop went for it. In the confusion, Astle towered high over Heslop’s shoulder to nod in a brilliant goal.”
Full of confidence after that strike, Albion swarmed forward and it was no great shock when nine minutes later, it was 2-0 to the Albion. Bobby Hope started the ball rolling again, picking out Dick Krzywicki with a precise ball into the box. The Welshman cushioned a header back into the path of Tony Brown, arriving late in the box to crash home a thunderous volley – he scored about 120 of them in Albion’s greatest career.
Photo from WBA archive
Even so, City served notice that they were a long way from being out of this game, Francis Lee marauding forward to crash his own volley just a foot over the bar, but Albion saw out the half, the Post reporting that the players should have “tremendous confidence in their defence, a sector in which John Talbut and Graham Williams tackled like kamikaze pilots.”
The Baggies could have done without half time because the resumption signalled a turning of the tide as City started to impose on the game more and more. Had Mulhearn not found a good save to deny Krzywicki after 50 minutes, the game would probably have been over, but from there, it was all City for a time and, on the hour mark, Lee had them right back in the hunt. Bustling on to a through ball from Cheetham, he struck “an oblique shot which goalkeeper John Osborne should have had covered. As it was, he knocked it one handed against an upright and it deflected into the net.”
With 75 minutes gone, City were level, perhaps deservedly so on their second half performance. The flamboyant Stanley Bowles, the man of whom Brian Clough once said, “If he could pass a betting shop the way he passes a football he’d be an England regular”, crossed the ball into the box and Mike Summerbee drilled in the equaliser. Moments later, Albion’s net came away from the posts and “we had the sight of linesman Gale from Shrewsbury being hoisted on Osborne’s shoulders while he repaired the rigging.”
Some moments can dwarf an occasion, and such a moment followed at The Hawthorns. With Clive Clark struggling, he was replaced on the field by Graham Lovett, 367 days after he had broken his neck in a dreadful car accident. The crowd rose as one to greet him, and it might have been a storybook return for Lovett who belted a shot against the bar with two minutes on the clock, John Kaye diving to head the rebound just over.
It seemed that that would be an end to it and that the game would end in stalemate. But if City were sick of hearing about Manchester United’s “Holy Trinity” of Best, Charlton and Law, they were about to discover that Albion had one of their own – Astle, Brown and Hope. As the crowd began to think about shuffling home, Hope got free down the left and played in a precise cross to Bomber. He got the ball under control and steered it into the path of Astle who slotted a shot beyond Mulhearn to collect both points for the Throstles. City were clearly rattled and in the dying seconds, after a heavy tackle from Graham Williams, Summerbee lost his rag and went for a spot of retaliation, referee Spittle talking loud and long to him in the aftermath, but taking no action. That particular battle would resume at Maine Road four days hence…
And so we trekked up to Maine Road on the Saturday, grateful to discover that Bell was still missing, Clive Clark passing a fitness test for the Baggies. Unbeaten at home for three months, City had every reason to be confident of getting revenge for Boxing Day, but Albion were growing in confidence game on game and, quite simply, they were the stronger side on the day.
The Birmingham Post preached the importance of the collective in the turnaround in Albion’s season: “Too many teams glorified in success, produce their quota of men who forget it was the team that made them, not they the team. Ashman has, in half a season, welded one of the most effective sides in the First Division without buying a player and without losing those crowd thrilling qualities which were present even in the club’s most inconsistent period.
“At Maine Road, there was little doubt who were the gaffers. They were Albion all the way. In every department, Albion had them en to underline their superiority. Goalkeeper John Osborne never faltered against a series of low shots which skidded in the mud.
“The back four – full-back and centre-half supplemented by wing-half Doug Fraser – presented a disciplined front throughout, never failing to cover the committed defender. At times, particularly when they were under heavy second-half pressure, Albion had eight or nine men back, but this never prevented them tearing up the field to make dangerous raids on the City goal.
“The real strength of the side was based on the midfield trio, Bobby Hope, Johnny Kaye and Tony Brown, who also found some time for some lucrative runs up to the centre-forward position. Up front, Jeff Astle, Clive Clark and Dick Krzywicki ran their legs off and a little more sharpness from Clark would have produced more goals.
“What I particularly liked about the whole West Bromwich performance was its calmness, its authority and, as the game developed, the sense of inevitable victory to come.”
That was very much the case from the moment Albion grabbed a 19th minute lead. Hope started things off, collecting the ball on halfway, switching play to the right hand side with a raking pass which found Brown. Wasting no time, Bomber shoved the ball in the middle and Dick Krzywicki came racing on to it to thrash the ball in for 1-0. Speaking afterwards, Krzywicki, in the form of his young life, said, “It shows what confidence can do and it all comes from playing in a team in which we all rely 100 per cent on each other. I have never played with this sort of confidence before. It is the result of playing in a good side.”
City were not going to take things lying down however and in Neil Young in particular, they had a player out to reap a harvest of goals. But there was to be no after the goal rush for Young, Osborne redeeming himself for his error at The Hawthorns by producing a string of fine saves.
The old year was going out in a storm of Biblical proportions, thunder, lightning, rain and hail assailing the players, Albion also needing to stand firm against a tide of City attacks, Talbut marshalling the defence superbly in front of the under fire Osborne. But with City pouring forward in ever increasing numbers, they were always vulnerable to a quick break, and so it was that the Throstles completed their victory with two minutes to go. The old combination did the job, Bobby Hope picking out Tony Brown who nipped round Heslop and fired a low shot past Mulhearn.
The year ended with Albion in fifth place, the most improved team in the First Division. What would happen in 1968 as we passed from the summer of love into a street fighting year?
One of the great traditions of Christmas past was playing the same side home and away over the course of a couple or three days. Very often, these would be derby affairs to ensure that supporters of both teams could easily get to the games, but it wasn’t exclusively so.
As Albion reached the festive period in 1967, the challenge that lay before them was Manchester City, first at The Hawthorns on Boxing Day and then at that great old theatre of football, Maine Road, four days later. A fierce enough task at the best of times, but in 1967/68, City were the acid test because the side run by Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison was supplanting their rivals from the other side of Manchester as the finest team in England, and this just two years after they’d been promoted back to the top flight after a three season long aberration in the division below.
With Christmas approaching, City were clearly a team on the upward slope, free scoring, exciting, feared. They’d put six past Leicester City, five past Sheffield United, then knocked in a host of fours, against Southampton, Fulham, Burnley, Tottenham and, in the previous game, Stoke, a 4-2 win that had pushed them into second place with 30 points.
Didn’t frighten the Baggies though. After all, we were only seven points behind, in terrific form of our own, increasingly seen as potential FA Cup winners and desperate to take points off City to boost our own hopes of a high finish in the league and a place in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup – forerunner of the UEFA Cup – as a result. For the punters, the Throstles against City couldn’t have been a better Boxing Day bash.
People poured through the turnstiles for the game, setting a new ground record of 44,897 for The Hawthorns in its new configuration, capacity reduced by the replacement of some of the terracing with the Rainbow Stand, a fabulously exciting, sparkling structure in its day, hard though that was to imagine just before we knocked it down and built the East Stand instead.
The changes did not meet with universal approval as Ray Matts noted in his “Inside Albion” column. “It is unfortunate that in a bid to provide better spectator amenities, such as the Rainbow Stand, the capacity of the ground should have been reduced to around the 45,000 mark. That some of the gates had to be closed shortly after the start of the game, and that some people had difficulty getting a good view, highlighted the accommodation shortage.
“But the Albion board are alive to the need for more terrace room to compensate for that lost by ground improvements. In the club’s annual report, plans were revealed to extend the Birmingham Road end of the ground to accommodate an extra 10,000 people next season.”
Another 10,000 might easily have come to his Boxing Day game and would have enjoyed the fare on offer. The game was hard fought, close, enthralling, everything that the pre match publicity had suggested that it might be, a head on collision between two of the form teams of the First Division. With City missing the magnificent midfield presence of the injured Colin Bell, early on, it looked as if home advantage was going to prove crucial as the Baggies gradually took greater and greater control of proceedings, Bobby Hope again earning the plaudits for a masterful display in the middle of the park, and setting up Albion’s opening goal 28 minutes in.
According to the Birmingham Post, “It was Hope’s well directed corner that Astle converted to put them ahead. It was, for my money, goalkeeper Mulhearn’s ball, but centre-half Heslop went for it. In the confusion, Astle towered high over Heslop’s shoulder to nod in a brilliant goal.”
Full of confidence after that strike, Albion swarmed forward and it was no great shock when nine minutes later, it was 2-0 to the Albion. Bobby Hope started the ball rolling again, picking out Dick Krzywicki with a precise ball into the box. The Welshman cushioned a header back into the path of Tony Brown, arriving late in the box to crash home a thunderous volley – he scored about 120 of them in Albion’s greatest career.
Even so, City served notice that they were a long way from being out of this game, Francis Lee marauding forward to crash his own volley just a foot over the bar, but Albion saw out the half, the Post reporting that the players should have “tremendous confidence in their defence, a sector in which John Talbut and Graham Williams tackled like kamikaze pilots.”
The Baggies could have done without half time because the resumption signalled a turning of the tide as City started to impose on the game more and more. Had Mulhearn not found a good save to deny Krzywicki after 50 minutes, the game would probably have been over, but from there, it was all City for a time and, on the hour mark, Lee had them right back in the hunt. Bustling on to a through ball from Cheetham, he struck “an oblique shot which goalkeeper John Osborne should have had covered. As it was, he knocked it one handed against an upright and it deflected into the net.”
With 75 minutes gone, City were level, perhaps deservedly so on their second half performance. The flamboyant Stanley Bowles, the man of whom Brian Clough once said, “If he could pass a betting shop the way he passes a football he’d be an England regular”, crossed the ball into the box and Mike Summerbee drilled in the equaliser. Moments later, Albion’s net came away from the posts and “we had the sight of linesman Gale from Shrewsbury being hoisted on Osborne’s shoulders while he repaired the rigging.”
Some moments can dwarf an occasion, and such a moment followed at The Hawthorns. With Clive Clark struggling, he was replaced on the field by Graham Lovett, 367 days after he had broken his neck in a dreadful car accident. The crowd rose as one to greet him, and it might have been a storybook return for Lovett who belted a shot against the bar with two minutes on the clock, John Kaye diving to head the rebound just over.
It seemed that that would be an end to it and that the game would end in stalemate. But if City were sick of hearing about Manchester United’s “Holy Trinity” of Best, Charlton and Law, they were about to discover that Albion had one of their own – Astle, Brown and Hope. As the crowd began to think about shuffling home, Hope got free down the left and played in a precise cross to Bomber. He got the ball under control and steered it into the path of Astle who slotted a shot beyond Mulhearn to collect both points for the Throstles. City were clearly rattled and in the dying seconds, after a heavy tackle from Graham Williams, Summerbee lost his rag and went for a spot of retaliation, referee Spittle talking loud and long to him in the aftermath, but taking no action. That particular battle would resume at Maine Road four days hence…
And so we trekked up to Maine Road on the Saturday, grateful to discover that Bell was still missing, Clive Clark passing a fitness test for the Baggies. Unbeaten at home for three months, City had every reason to be confident of getting revenge for Boxing Day, but Albion were growing in confidence game on game and, quite simply, they were the stronger side on the day.
The Birmingham Post preached the importance of the collective in the turnaround in Albion’s season: “Too many teams glorified in success, produce their quota of men who forget it was the team that made them, not they the team. Ashman has, in half a season, welded one of the most effective sides in the First Division without buying a player and without losing those crowd thrilling qualities which were present even in the club’s most inconsistent period.
“At Maine Road, there was little doubt who were the gaffers. They were Albion all the way. In every department, Albion had them en to underline their superiority. Goalkeeper John Osborne never faltered against a series of low shots which skidded in the mud.
“The back four – full-back and centre-half supplemented by wing-half Doug Fraser – presented a disciplined front throughout, never failing to cover the committed defender. At times, particularly when they were under heavy second-half pressure, Albion had eight or nine men back, but this never prevented them tearing up the field to make dangerous raids on the City goal.
“The real strength of the side was based on the midfield trio, Bobby Hope, Johnny Kaye and Tony Brown, who also found some time for some lucrative runs up to the centre-forward position. Up front, Jeff Astle, Clive Clark and Dick Krzywicki ran their legs off and a little more sharpness from Clark would have produced more goals.
“What I particularly liked about the whole West Bromwich performance was its calmness, its authority and, as the game developed, the sense of inevitable victory to come.”
That was very much the case from the moment Albion grabbed a 19th minute lead. Hope started things off, collecting the ball on halfway, switching play to the right hand side with a raking pass which found Brown. Wasting no time, Bomber shoved the ball in the middle and Dick Krzywicki came racing on to it to thrash the ball in for 1-0. Speaking afterwards, Krzywicki, in the form of his young life, said, “It shows what confidence can do and it all comes from playing in a team in which we all rely 100 per cent on each other. I have never played with this sort of confidence before. It is the result of playing in a good side.”
City were not going to take things lying down however and in Neil Young in particular, they had a player out to reap a harvest of goals. But there was to be no after the goal rush for Young, Osborne redeeming himself for his error at The Hawthorns by producing a string of fine saves.
The old year was going out in a storm of Biblical proportions, thunder, lightning, rain and hail assailing the players, Albion also needing to stand firm against a tide of City attacks, Talbut marshalling the defence superbly in front of the under fire Osborne. But with City pouring forward in ever increasing numbers, they were always vulnerable to a quick break, and so it was that the Throstles completed their victory with two minutes to go. The old combination did the job, Bobby Hope picking out Tony Brown who nipped round Heslop and fired a low shot past Mulhearn.
The year ended with Albion in fifth place, the most improved team in the First Division. What would happen in 1968 as we passed from the summer of love into a street fighting year?
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