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Saturday 29th December 1973, Kick off 2pm, Carrow Road, Norwich, SEASON 73-74
Norwich 1 CITY 1
(MacDougall 7) (Law 39)
Attendance: 24,303
Next to bottom Norwich City, still reeling from losing manager Ron Saunders to City, gave the Blues a fright in this fixture, taking the lead through ex-Bournemouth centre forward Ted MacDougall, before City pulled level through Denis Law, deputising for the suspended Francis Lee. Once again, City had to be content with a point from a fixture that they had been looking to secure two points from and a season rooted in inconsistency continued along its less than merry way. There was, however, a bright side to the day’s toils.
Norwich had been promoted at the end of 1971-72 and had survived the previous season by the skin of their teeth. With only West Brom and Crystal Palace below them, they survived only because three up, three down was still a year away from being introduced. They were, thus, the last team to finish third from bottom and escape relegation. Norwich were once again embroiled in a desperate struggle against demotion in this their second ever top flight season, a struggle that would eventually prove too much for them. Saunders’ replacement, John Bond, himself to tread the same route to Manchester after Malcolm Allison’s departure from Maine Road in 1980, used his programme notes to introduce himself to the Norwich faithful in typical avuncular fashion. Topical themes of whether a cup run was good for a side trying its best to concentrate on the league campaign show that, in some respects, little changes in football. Norwich were still in the League Cup, where they were due to face second division Millwall for a place in the semi finals, and had already booked a berth in the less taxing Texaco Cup semi finals.
“The next few months are going to be exciting. And if we can string together a good Cup run along the way, then so much the better. I used to think that at times a cup run could hinder progress in the league, but now I am not at all convinced in this belief…” – John Bond, newly installed Norwich City manager.
The programme also featured a guest page, written by the Daily Mail’s Ronald Crowther, concerning another topical problem, that of how to make the national team more competitive, after its failure to qualify for the 1974 World Cup finals in West Germany. In two simple snapshots of life at the end of 1973, we can see that life goes around in giant circles…
This result kept Norwich anchored to the foot of the table. City, gradually losing ground on those chasing UEFA Cup places in mid-table, remained 14th, a point ahead of another big club continuing to misfire, Tottenham Hotspur. While 14th was way below the expected level pre-season, City remained only 6 points off Everton in 4th place.
At this point, everything was clearly still to play for in a season that would see 8th-placed Southampton occupying one of the three relegation places by May. At the top, however, Leeds remained unbeaten and had by now opened up an eight point gap over Liverpool, making the race for the league title all but over.
| Pos | Final | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GA | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Leeds United | 23 | 16 | 7 | 0 | 42 | 12 | 3.500 | 39 |
| 2 | 2 | Liverpool | 23 | 13 | 5 | 5 | 29 | 18 | 1.611 | 31 |
| 3 | 6 | Burnley | 22 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 30 | 21 | 1.428 | 29 |
| 4 | 7 | Everton | 23 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 27 | 21 | 1.285 | 27 |
| 5 | 9 | Leicester City | 23 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 30 | 24 | 1.250 | 26 |
| 6 | 3 | Derby County | 23 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 25 | 22 | 1.136 | 25 |
| 7 | 4 | Ipswich Town | 22 | 10 | 5 | 7 | 34 | 33 | 1.030 | 25 |
| 8 | 20 | Southampton | 23 | 8 | 9 | 6 | 30 | 31 | 0.967 | 25 |
| 9 | 15 | Newcastle United | 22 | 10 | 4 | 8 | 31 | 25 | 1.240 | 24 |
| 10 | 8 | Queens Park Rangers | 23 | 7 | 10 | 6 | 34 | 32 | 1.062 | 24 |
| 11 | 10 | Arsenal | 24 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 27 | 31 | 0.870 | 23 |
| 12 | 16 | Coventry City | 24 | 9 | 5 | 10 | 25 | 29 | 0.862 | 23 |
| 13 | 13 | Sheffield United | 22 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 29 | 27 | 1.074 | 22 |
| 14 | 14 | Manchester City | 22 | 8 | 5 | 9 | 24 | 25 | 0.960 | 21 |
| 15 | 11 | Tottenham Hotspur | 23 | 7 | 6 | 10 | 23 | 32 | 0.718 | 20 |
| 16 | 5 | Stoke City | 22 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 31 | 27 | 1.148 | 19 |
| 17 | 12 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 23 | 6 | 7 | 10 | 28 | 35 | 0.800 | 19 |
| 18 | 17 | Chelsea | 22 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 34 | 33 | 1.030 | 18 |
| 19 | 21 | Manchester United | 22 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 20 | 27 | 0.740 | 16 |
| 20 | 19 | Birmingham City | 22 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 23 | 38 | 0.605 | 16 |
| 21 | 18 | West Ham United | 23 | 3 | 7 | 13 | 22 | 39 | 0.564 | 13 |
| 22 | 22 | Norwich City | 22 | 2 | 9 | 11 | 15 | 31 | 0.483 | 13 |
With cup ties approaching versus Oxford United (FA Cup 3rd round) and Coventry City (League Cup 5th round replay), tension was beginning to mount as to whether City’s weak league form could be forgotten when the cups came round. The talent was quite evidently still there, with the side still containing many elements of the team that swept all before it under Malcolm Allison and Joe Mercer, but a feeling of end of empire was beginning to permeate through the squad.
Domestically, the fuel crisis was still in full swing and had an effect on this game, Norwich deciding – like Ipswich had done before them – that an earlier kick-off would be necessary to make use of the light, thus impeding many Blues fans from travelling the long distance from Manchester, as the trains would not arrive in time for the new kick off time of 2 pm.
Having scored the opener for the home side Ted MacDougall did not reappear for the second half owing to an injured hip, which the press speculated might keep him out of the midweek crunch with MacDougall’s former club and fellow strugglers West Ham United. Norwich would lose that game 4-2 and would follow that up with a defeat at Highbury, but were destined to reach the League Cup semi finals in a season that would end with relegation for the Canaries.
Despite the disappointing final score, there was praise for City’s football and delight at the equaliser, crafted by some of the star names that had persuaded manager Saunders to move north in the first place. Colin Barret, playing in place of Glyn Pardoe, had released the galloping Colin Bell with an astute pass. After a typically energetic run, Bell crossed accurately to Denis Law who had no trouble dispatching the ball beyond ‘keeper home Kevin Keelan.
The match programme, a modest 16 page issue, printed a photograph of new signing Mel Machin in the centre pages. Machin, yet another to later move to City as manager, would feature as a lively full back for Norwich, having followed Bond from Bournemouth and would later coach and manage the club, along with team mate John Benson, yet another name to crop up later at City, as Bond’s assistant manager and caretaker manager after Bond resigned. Benson it was who was in charge when City lost their first division status in 1983.
City lined up thus: MacRae; Barret, Donachie, Doyle, Booth; Towers, Carrodus, Bell; Marsh, Law, Leman. Substitute George McBeth
The appearance of George McBeth (pictured) on the sub’s bench was a first for the youngster, who would eventually fail to make the grade at City, later turning out for Stockport and Macclesfield Town in the late 70s. maintaining the family link with the club, McBeth’s granddaughter Alex would walk City out as club mascot for the Community Shield against Chelsea in August 2012.
Norwich were advertised like this in the programme: Keelan; Machin, Benson, Stringer, Forbes; Prophett, Anderson; MacDougall, Suggett, Cheesely, Briggs.
“I never talk about the opposition…” – Ron Saunders, when asked what it was like to return to Norwich so soon after leaving for Manchester.
Gallery above shows the nature of a struggling club’s season: pages are from Autumn issues of Goal magazine, but already many of the featured players have either left Norwich (Paddon to West Ham and Cross to Coventry) or arrived in East Anglia to help the relegation fight (MacDougall from West Ham). Bond had also raided old club Bournemouth for Mel Machin and John Benson.
no repartee 