As we enter international week having started our third successive year in the Premier League, Palace in Perspective looks back at the two other times when Palace spent a third season in the top flight.
The first of these two seasons was 1971/72, the third season of Palace’s first experience in the top tier.
Selhurst Park now had the Arthur Wait covering the ‘South Norwood’ side of the ground, but still with two large open terraces behind the goals.
The home shirts had changed from claret with the yellow collar and light blue stripe, to white shirts with the single thick claret and blue stripe down the front. This was to be the last claret and blue home kit before the change to the Barcelona-style red and blue two seasons later.
The team was still managed by Bert Head, who had led the team to promotion in 1969. At the start of the season the core of his promotion team remained – the likes of keeper John Jackson, John McCormick and Mel Blyth in defence, the long-serving (and still regular Selhurst stalwart) David Payne, and the young dashing Steve Kember.
These old timers had been supplemented by players mainly signed from the Scottish League – the likes of Gerry Queen from Kilmarnock and Jim Scott, a Scot signed from Newcastle, joining other Scots from the 1968/69 promotion side such as McCormick, John Loughlan and Tony Taylor. In addition we had signed Chelsea legend Bobby Tambling the season before
Soon after the start of the season, there was a flurry of transfer activity. The club accepted a bid from Chelsea for Kember, and also sold Alan Birchenall and Phil Hoadley, and replaced them with John Craven from Blackpool (no, not that one), Bobby Kellard from Southend, and more Scots, such as Sam Goodwin from Airdrie but also two high profile players from Celtic – John ‘Yogi Bear’ Hughes and Willie Wallace.
These signings came only four years after Celtic had been Champions of Europe and a season after Celtic had lost in the semi-finals to AC Milan. Wallace had played in both games. Hughes was on the bench for the final and played against AC Milan.
These were the days of a twenty-two team top division, and two points for a win. It was an era of very competitive football – the 1971/72 season saw one of the tightest finishes to the season ever.
It was also an era of open terraces, muddy pitches – especially the Baseball Ground in Derby – and hard men, the likes of Tommy Smith at Liverpool, Ron Harris at Chelsea, Billy Bonds at West Ham and everyone at Leeds.
The season was affected by a miner’s strike, which meant that clubs were not allowed to play games under floodlights in January or February 1972 because of a shortage of power supplies.
Palace never threatened to challenge the top sides, but it was a very open league that season.
The season before had seen Arsenal win the double, but the Gunners would only finish fifth in 1971/72, despite boosting their team by signing Alan Ball. They did get to the Cup Final again, only to lose Bob Wilson (yes, that Bob Wilson) on the day of the final to illness.
Manchester United were in decline as the 1968 European Cup winning side grew old. Matt Busby had retired, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law were ageing and George Best was spiralling out of control, disappearing and retiring mid-season shortly after scoring one of his most famous goals, running past the Sheffield Wednesday defence at an angle then beating the keeper and cutting the ball back into the goal.
Liverpool were putting together the team that would dominate later in the decade with Kevin Keegan emerging as a star. They made a late run for the title but just falling short.
Manchester City were also strong having won the league before Arsenal, and boasting stars like Colin Bell, Francis Lee and Mike Summerbee, along with a very charismatic first-team coach by the name of Malcolm Allison.
The surprise package were Derby County, managed by Brian Clough, assisted by Peter Taylor. They had won Division Two the year before but did not have any household names and were not expected to threaten the top sides. Despite challenging for top spot, they were humiliated after announcing the signing of forward Ian Storey-Moore from Nottingham Forest – he appeared in public with Brian Clough confirming the move, only to be persuaded, apparently by his wife, to sign for Manchester United instead!
The most feared team were still Leeds – and this was the era of The Damned United.
Leeds were still managed by Don Revie, but their season was dogged by controversy. They had to play their first four home games, including one against Palace, at neutral grounds because of hooliganism. Revie spent much of the season complaining about Leeds plight, as injuries to an ageing squad and fixture congestion caused by cup runs and the miner’s strike took their toll.
Next week I look at the fantastic finish to the season and how Palace fared.
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