 Wednesday, 6th Jun 2012 10:00 Back in the old days, pre season tournaments were taken seriously and indeed there was nothing "friendly" about any game a football club played, here we look at one of the tournaments Saints entered. In the summer of 1974 things were not happy in Southampton, the club had just been relegated to the second division and rumours abounded as whether the team would lose its two stars, Mick Channon and Peter Osgood, in the meantime however the Club had been entered into the Texaco Cup a short lived competition that had a bit more substance to it than most. The initial games were played in a group stage, Saints were paired with Luton, Orient and West Ham, it was a round robin format with each club playing the others only once, our opening game was at Luton Town, the Hatters had been promoted to the top flight in our place and therefore a big crowd of 8,445 assembled for the game, including an unruly visiting element, Lew Chatterley scored shortly after the break to equalize and the game ended 1-1 with perhaps the most distinctive thing about the game, the fact that with Eric Martin coming on for Ian Turner in goal it was the first use of a substitute goalkeeper in a "competitive" match for Saints. Three days later saw Orient arrive at the Dell for an evening game, surprisingly 9,932 turned up to welcome them, Saints scored twice in two minutes though Peter Osgood and Mick Channon and Fairbrother got one back for Orient just before the break, that was the end of the scoring and Saints now just had to win their final group game. West Ham arrived on the Saturday and it was clear that for Saints at least the tournament mattered, Paul Gilchrist in the first half and Gerry O'Brien in the second sent most of the 11,364 home happy and talking about the 4-4-2 formation they had just seen, a change from the usual 4-3-3 of the time. There was now a slight break and the quarter finals would be played over two legs , Saints were paired with Glasgow Rangers and in September travelled to Ibrox and 35,000 howling jocks, who in fairness had not yet made Mick Channon public enemy number one, the game explodfed just before the break, Osgood put Saints ahead but the home side levelled on the stroke of half time, two minutes after the restart it was Osgood again and Gerry O'Brien gave Saints a 3-1 lead to take back to the Dell, the man of the match though was Channon who made all three. The return at the Dell has gone down in folklore, the 19,481 was the biggest of the campaign so far, bigger than the one for Pompey a few weeks earlier and Rangers brough more fans than our near neighbours, most of them seemingly blind drunk and up for fighting Bannockburn again, on the field however it wouldnt be Bannockburn but Culloden and after Paul Gilchrist had put Saints ahead on the night they had an unassailable aggregate lead, a spectacular own goal made it complete. The semi final first leg came a few weeks later, Saints travelled to fellow division two side Oldhame and beat them 3-1 in front of 13,082 a crowd that Oldham can onlyy dream of these days, Channon (2) and Mel Blyth doing the damage after Oldham had taken the lead, two weeks later 14,431 turned up at the Dell to see Channon and Bobby Stokes finish the job. The first leg of the final was at the Dell, Newcastle United were the visitors, the Geordies were of course in the First division and had played in the FA Cup final at Wembley only six months earlier, Mick Channon scored the only goal of the game and 17,100, a couple of thousand above the seasons league gate average celebrated a cup final win, my memories of the night are that it seemed like there were far more than 17k in the ground that night, but perhaps that was just my youthful enthusiasm and a couple of cans of Newcastle Brown we had drunk before the game. The second leg was going to be tough, 20,100 Geordies, I have yet to meet anyone who went to that game, but back then getting to Newcastle midweek was not only harder than getting to Australia these days, but a lot more dangerous, however for long periods Saints looked comfortable, they held their aggregate lead and it seemed like they would see the 90 minutes out and go home with the trophy, but with 17 minutes left John Tudor scored for the home side and it went to extra time, but still Saints looked comfortable and it seemed like we might sneak one, but 10 minutes into extra time Jim Steele was sent off and the game was up for Saints, Tudor hit a second with 7 minutes left and as Saints pushed foward Cannell got a perhaps undeserved third. Saints had a taste for cup finals now though, of the 11 who played that night (we didnt use a sub) 8 would be in the 12 at Wembley, the missing four being Peter Rodrigues & Jim McCalliog who where yet to join the club, Paul Gilchrist who had played in the earlier games including the first leg of the final and Nick Holmes who did get on as a sub against Oldham and who would establish himself as a first team regular in the second half of the season. The Texaco Cup of 1974 had the same air about it as the Zenith Cup campaign of 1991/92 and the Johnstones Paint Trophy two years ago, we just seemed to focus on it and knew our destiny was to reach the final. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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