December 1970

As appeared in Rothman's Football Yearbook 1971-72 (2nd year) The Queene Anne Press, London 1971

1 Malcolm Allison given 'final warning' by his club, Manchester City over publicly airing his views on the club's boardroom problems. . . F.A. announced that the two clubs reaching the 1971 F.A. Cup Final would each receive 4,000 more tickets. . . so it meant the quota for Arsenal and Liverpool totalled 20,000 each. . . Peter Osgood, Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst accepted invitations to play in World XI against Benfica's Mario Coluna's benefit team in Lisbon. . . Bob Stokoe turned down offer to manage Blackpool to stay at Carlisle . . . later changed his mind. . . Charlie Paynter, known as Mr West Ham, died, aged 91 . . . had been player, coach, trainer , secretary and manager of the club. . . Bournemouth signed Mel Machin, Gillingham defender for 9,000 pounds. . . Frank O'Farrell named Bell's Whiskey Manager of the Month. . . Wales held England to goalless draw in Under-23's International. . . Leeds U. beat Sparta Prague 6-0 in Fairs Cup, and Arsenal beat Belgian team Beveran Wass 4-0 . . .

2 Juventus, eventual finalists, won their third round Fairs Cup match in Budapest. . .

3 For second time within a month Blackpool caretaker-manager Jimmy Meadows suspended a player for breach of club discipline. . . First it was centre-forward Fred Pickering, then goalkeeper Harry Thomson . . .

4 Swaythling goalkeeper Mike Harris was sent off in Amateur cup-tie with Woking . . . Leeds U. refused to release Johnny Giles for Eire European Nations Cup Match with Italy. . .

5 Landmarks for famous players. . . George Best scored his 100th League goal for Manchester U. . . . he's the boy for the big occasion. . . chose White Hart Lane with season's largest gate inside and thousands locked out. . . Jimmy Greaves scored his 351st league goal in his 500th league game, for West Ham U. at Derby . . . George Jones of Bury scored four goals in 55 minutes at Reading. . .John Jackson set up record for Palace. . . his 239th league game was a goalkeeper record for the club. . . Notts Co. beginning to draw away in Fourth Division. . .

6 Chelsea sent C. Palace an unusual request. . . please include Bobby Tambling in your party for the match at Stamford Bridge whether he is playing or not. . . idea was to present Bobby, holder of the Chelsea scoring record before leaving Stamford Bridge with a testimonial. . . it was duly carried out later in the season. . . Bristol C. 's lamed striker, Terry Bush, out of action with leg injury, taped his own commentary on Tottenham H. team due to meet City in League Cup semi-final. . . on eve of Fairs Cup match with Liverpool, Hibernian sacked manager Willie McFarlane, and appointed Dave Ewing, former Manchester C. centre half, who had been named as coach. . . alas, no happy ending. . . Hibernian lost at home 1-0 to Toshack's goal. . .

7 Benfica beat Rest of Europe team which included half a dozen Britons. . . No Italians though, they were busy defeating Eire in the European Championship. . . Leeds U. won 3-2 in Prague, with 9-2 aggregate over Sparta . . .

9 George Yardley, Tranmere striker and hat-trick specialist, did hat trick of another kind. . . emigrated to Australia for the third time. . . Cambridge beat Oxford in 87th University match 1-0 at Wembley . . . Terry Mancini, member of the famous boxing family, wore a gum shield to protect injured teeth when playing for Orient at Swindon . . . W.B.A. signed Peterborough U centre-half John Wile for 30,000 pounds.

10 Stockport Co., in financial crisis, lifted their minimum charge to 10 shillings. . . first gate was 1,846, 3rd lowest of season. . . caused by joint disaster of power cut on the Friday and Manchester derby game Saturday. . . previous lower gates, 1,827 Newport Co. v Chester, 1,562, Hartlepool v Oldham Ath. . . .

11 With power cuts threatening countryside, League gave permission for 2.15 start on Saturday. . . most clubs were able to operate on normal three o'clock kick off . . . any mention of transfer approach to Manchester C. for striker Francis Lee would mean 250,000 pounds as starting point, says Manager Joe Mercer. . . Top referee Arthur Dimond, forced to quit because of knee trouble, stoutly defended Football League players. . . quoted 'I am full of admiration for the players and the standards they are achieving,' coincided with official announcement that sending-offs so far are eleven down on last season. . .

12 Antonio Rat tin, the only man to date to be sent off in top soccer game at Wembley (England v Argentina, World Cup 1966) announced his retirement. . . George Best booked after clash with Glyn Pardoe, Manchester C. defender who broke leg. . . City won 4-1 at Old Trafford . . . Tony Brown hat-trick beat Tottenham H. . . . this helped the W.B.A. striker to finish top of the First Division scorers at end of May . . . in second round of F .A. Cup, aspiring League club Wigan Ath. easily drew the largest gate, 17,300 against Peterborough U. . . . beat them with 89th minute penalty. . . Yeovil won at Bournemouth, to reach the Third Round for eighth time since 1934, easily a non-league record. . . 'now we want Manchester U. at home' prayed Manager Mike Hughes. . . in fact they got Arsenal. . .

13 Sunderland offered Rotherham U. 100,000 pounds for centre-half turned striker Dave Watson of Sunderland . . . eventually got him for that, equalling record figure for a Third Division player. . .

14 Everton moved swiftly in for David Davies, 22-year-old Swansea goalkeeper who had kept out the England Under-23 forwards. . . paid bargain price of 15,000 pounds. . . stars in the wars. . . Ian Hutchinson out for three weeks with right arm break . . . Eddie Gray for two months with ankle break . . . and Glyn Pardoe missed the rest of the season after breaking his leg against Manchester U. . . . announced that all mid-week night football banned until the end of the power emergency. . . in Third Round draw, C. Palace v Chelsea, Manchester C. v Wigan, Barnet v Coichester U.-and Yeovil v Arsenal. . .

15 Announcement that Yeovil have increased Cup prices from 4/6 (22 1/2p) to 15/-(75p), standing, and 6/6 (32 1/2p) to 30/- (1 Pound 50p) for seats agreed to by Arsenal, and fans. . . the Bogota mystery continues. . . Colombian Consulate in London denied that Bobby Moore was due there for further discussions on the infamous missing bracelet. . . in first leg games of League Cup semi-final Bristol C. held Tottenham H. 1-1, and Aston Villa drew 1-1 at Old Trafford before 49,000 crowd. . .

16 Steve Heighway, in first full professional season as Liverpool striker, voted one of AII-Ireland's top sport stars for 1970. . . Boston ban, for four weeks, the man whose foul cost the penalty which knocked them out against York City. . . Geoff Hurst forced out of football for at least two weeks. . . his back in plaster bore mute testimony to the continual pounding he gets in the goalmouth . . . F.A. Disciplinary Committee unable to decide on punishment for Peter Dobing, up on second count of three bookings, on crutches with a broken leg. . . Glyn Pardoe quoted on collision with George Best which cost him broken leg. . . 'it was a complete accident'

17 Next year's Fairs cup will be known as EUF A Cup, to come under aegis of European Football Union. . . David Simmons signed for Colchester U. from Aston Villa. . .

19 Bookings'galore . . . three at Everton . . . five at Middlesbrough . . . four, and a sending-off at Orient. . . smallest crowd at Hillsborough since the war, 11,134, saw Oxford U. draw 1-1 with Sheffield W. . . . Newport Co. set up dismal record of worst start to the season. . . no wins in 23 games beats Bolton W.'s worst in 1903 . . . League attendances totalled 562,000, double the total for similar Saturday in 1969, proverbially the worst of the season because of Christmas shopping. . . second highest total for the weekend before Christmas in twelve years. . . even so, only 33,182 were at Manchester U. v Arsenal. . .

20 After change of mind, Blackpool and Carlisle U. almost in agreement over switch of Bob Stokoe in manager's job. . . Harry Bloom, 61year-old motor trader, joins Brighton Board. . . in Scottish Cup Third Round draw, Clachnacuddin get Cowdenbeath, and Stranraer go to Edinburgh to meet Hearts. . .

22 Liverpool beat Hibernian in Fairs Cup, 3-0 aggregate. . .

23 Crowd of 62,500 (receipts 28,260 pounds) saw Aston Villa qualify for Final of League Cup. . . knocked out Manchester U. at Villa Park. . . Wembley opponents to be Tottenham H., who beat Bristol C. . . . Phil Boyer, York C. free-scorer, signed for Bournemouth for 20,000 pounds. . . Wolverhampton W. lent Walsall Jimmy Seal. . . Sir Alf Ramsey, in choosing 26-man squad for England training, again left out the Charlton brothers. . .

26 Snow hit Boxing Day soccer. . . all-ticket match between C. Palace and Chelsea (with 40,000 programmes printed) among the ten league games postponed. . . in those which were played Derby Co. drew 4-4 with Manchester U. and Hull C. drew with Sheffield W. the same score. . . and Tranmere R. 3-3 with Preston N.E. three of the highest scoring score-draws of the season. . . Notts Co., oldest league members beat Cambridge U., League's newest club 4-1 . . . Alan Warboys signed by Cardiff from Sheffield W. in Boxing Day deal for 45,000 pounds. . .

28 Manchester U. staggering under biggest crisis since 1958 sacked Wilf MacGuinness as team manager. . . he reverted to reserve team trainer as Sir Matt Busby assumed command in the crisis. . . Carlisle U. at last released Bob Stokoe to take over at Blackpool . . .

30 Tony Green, 31-year-old assistant secretary at Chelsea, followed into the big job vacated by John Battersby . . . Coventry C. applied to Football League for permission to play four experimental league games in March on Sundays. . . later turned down. . . first thumbs down came from League President Len Shipman who said proposition was impracticable until there had been a change in the laws relating to Sunday sport.