Yesterday Once More - 1976 and all that...

League Cup semi, 2nd leg at home to a North London team? Wallace Wilson opens a regular new column drawing on his 60 years following United with a topical trip back to 1976

It was inevitable that the prospect of a League Cup semi-final home leg against a Norf Landan club would get me thinking about the last time that happened in the 1975/76 season. Before 1976 it would have been a kindness to call Newcastle’s record in the League Cup appalling.

Since its inception in the 1960/61 season (when we were beaten 4-1 away to Colchester United in round 1) we had never made it past Round 3, even after we started getting a bye to Round 2 in 1963.

To be fair, we had a lot on our minds in 1960-61 what with trying (unsuccessfully) to avoid relegation. And we did manage to beat the mighty Scunthorpe United 2-0 in 1962 (including future record signing Barrie Thomas) with goals from Hale and Allchurch before being knocked out by the even mightier Sheffield United 2-0 at SJP, thus starting a sequence of disappointing cup results which lasted until 1974.

Even the Fairs Cup winning team succumbed to the League Cup hoodoo in their 1968/69 glory season.

Things started to improve a bit after our humiliation at Wembley at the hands of Liverpool in 1974 and we reached the Quarter Final in 1975.

Unfortunately, it was a false dawn as Third Division Chester won 1-0 in a replay after a 0-0 draw at SJP.

This was the sort of result that Mags have had to deal with since the start of this competition so we were sort of resigned to our fate.

It all meant there wasn’t too much excitement when we beat Southport 6-0 in the 2nd round with 4 goals from Alan Gowling. He may have been helped by Southport agreeing to switch the game to SJP as they needed the extra gate money.

Gowling rarely gets a mention when talking about NUFC centre forwards but he outscored Malcolm Macdonald by 30 to 24 in season 1975/76, helped by the 7 he scored in the League Cup run to Wembley.

He was brought in by Gordon Lee from Huddersfield Town in the summer of 1975 as Lee tried to move the emphasis from a collection of talented individuals that Joe Harvey had left to a more organised, possession-based team.

Not all of the team agreed with the change but Gowling epitomised the Lee approach, correctly saying of himself “I’m not a pretty player. I’m not good to watch”. He did look unco-ordinated with knees and elbows going in all sorts of directions. But he was effective - 30 goals worth.

Anyway, the Southport victory set us up for an away game at Bristol Rovers which we drew 1-1, bringing the Gas back to SJP where we turned them over 2-0. Round 4 saw us drawn away to QPR again.

We couldn’t quite match the previous season but a 3-1 win was good enough to take us into a second successive quarter final, this time against Notts County.

County were a Second Division (Championship) team and had already defeated another Second Division team from Wearside 2-1 in Round 2. County, managed by the legendary Jimmy Sirrel, would go on to finish 5th so the result was far from a forgone conclusion. In the end we needed an own goal at SJP to go through to the Semi Final against Spurs.

The first leg at White Hart Lane was dominated by Spurs who won 1-0. However, we might have forced a draw but legendary keeper, Pat Jennings, pulled off a blinding save from a Tommy Craig rocket so we had a bit to do if we wanted to get back to Wembley.

Newcastle, then as now, were a significant force at home. I had bought a season ticket after failing to get a ticket for the 1974 Cup Final despite going to all the previous rounds. I was determined that wouldn’t happen to me again.

It became a bit more of a challenge when I moved to Birmingham to go to Uni as our family didn’t own a car so I had to rely on British Rail or my thumb hitching up the M6 and A1.

You don’t see many people doing it nowadays but car ownership was less common then and people were less aware of serial killers.

My student grant paid for one train trip to uni and back at the beginning and end of each term but anything else was down to me (I know, we were hard done by). The League Cup campaign meant an additional four trips home as well as the 21 league home games and 3 FA Cup ties. I was up and down the M6 like a fiddler’s elbow.

However, I would not have missed the second leg at home to Spurs on 21 January for anything. The teams were:

Mick Mahoney; Irving Nattrass, Glenn Keeley Pat Howard, Alan Kennedy; Tommy Cassidy, Geoff Nulty, Tommy Craig; Mickey Burns, Alan Gowling, Malcolm Macdonald

Pat Jennings; Don McAllister Terry Naylor Willie Young Keith Osgood; Jimmy Neighbour John Pratt Steve Perryman Ralph Coates; Martin Chivers John Duncan

There were 49,657 in the ground that Wednesday evening and the atmosphere was as raucous as I’ve ever heard it.

We got off to great start with a goal after just 3 minutes from the Supermac/Gowling partnership, Gowling finishing off after a defence splitting pass from our centre forward (still the most exciting player I have ever seen in a black and white shirt!).

United started quickly again after half-time with Glen Keeley heading in a Tommy Craig corner just one minute after the restart. Keeley went on to have a long career at Blackburn Rovers but he had an unfortunate habit of scoring own goals when he was with us. Not this time though!

2-1 on aggregate became 3-1 in the 65th minute as captain Geoff Nulty crashed in a Tommy Cassidy cross. A 70th minute goal by McAllister caused a few flutters but we were back at Wembley.

It could have been an all-North East affair but Middlesbrough lost their semi-final against Man City so 1976 was a repeat of the last time Newcastle had won a cup at Wembley in 1955.

We were going with confidence even though we had lost 4-0 at Maine Road earlier in the season. Our partnership up front was scoring goals for fun and a creative midfield spurred on by the Tommies, Craig and Cassidy. Our young full backs, Irving Nattrass and Alan Kennedy were effective in defence and attack and our new keeper, Mick Mahoney was indeed a super goalie. The teams for the final at Wembley on 28 February were:

Mahoney; Nattrass, Keeley, Howard, Kennedy; Barrowclough, Burns, Cassidy, Craig (T); Macdonald, Gowling

Corrigan; Donachie, Doyle, Watson, Keegan; Oakes, Hartford, Booth; Tueart, Royle, Barnes

As it turned out, illness and injury a flu bug had a severe impact on the team we could field. We had lost captain Geoff Nulty with a broken jaw before the game and Nattrass and Mahoney were doubtful because of injury.

Add to this the fact that a number of players were confined to bed with flu symptoms in the week before the game and most supporters who were there felt that our team gave a good account of themselves, unlike the Liverpool humiliation.

Man City took an early lead through Peter Barnes after Joe Royle won a header in our box.

Barnes was the son of Ken Barnes who played against us the 1955 Cup Final. However, we equalised after 35 minutes after a burst by Supermac led to him flashing a cross from the right wing which Glowing reached before City keeper Joe Corrigan. 1-1 at half-time.

Unfortunately, a Newcastle lad, Dennis Tueart, formerly a mackem, scored one of the best goals ever seen at Wembley with a bicycle kick just a minute after the restart, right in front of 30,000 Mags.

I had a ‘great’ view as I was just behind the goal. Captain for the day, Tommy Craig, admitted afterwards “It was a great goal”.

The effects of the various illnesses and injuries took their toll in the second half and, despite the team showing great heart, we eventually went down 2-1.

We had recovered some of the pride lost in 1974 but it was still a heart-breaking defeat.

I headed straight back to Birmingham to receive sympathy from my mates. In some ways it was harder than them taking the piss in 1974. It felt like an opportunity missed.

I started going to games in 1963 and had had a pretty good run up to 1976 - promotion in 1965, winning the Fairs Cup in 1969, Cup Finalists in 1974, League Cup finalists in 1976.

We wouldn’t make a Wembley Final again until 1998 and this year commemorates 70 (seventy!) years since we last won a Cup Final there.

Hopefully our game against Arsenal is just the penultimate step to finally getting this monkey off our backs - HTL!

Wallace Wilson

Many thanks to Martin @wasnapper for the newspaper cutting images.