The Curse Of The 1976 FA Cup Final Part 2
Wednesday, 19th Apr 2023 07:45

In the second of this three part series, we take a look at what happened to our midfield trio from that warm May Day afternoon at Wembley and whether the Curse of the FA Cup Final, hit them.

In our first part we found that all five members of the defensive line up in Saints 1-0 victory over Manchester United in the FA Cup final of 1976, all saw premature endings to their career of one sort or other, 3 of them playing their final game for the club in the following season, so lets take a look at the midfield trio on that day.

Jim McCalliog

The Scottish International Jim McCalliog had ironically joined Saints from Manchester United in February 1975, I say ironically because Jim had scored a penalty on 20th April 1974 for United at the Dell to give the visitors the lead in a 1-1 draw, a Saints victory would have kept Saints up that year.

United were on their way back up to the top flight 10 months later and Jim was deemed surplus to requirements by Tommy Docherty and so the 28 year old joined Saints for £40,000 and he would miss only one game for the remainder of the season.

1975/76 season saw him play 37 of the 42 League games, one of the games he missed was the game at Portsmouth a few days after the semi final when he, Jim Steele and Peter Osgood would be suspended by Lawrie McMenemy for over celebrating, perhaps a bad move for Jim because he was replaced by a youngster called Steve Williams.

But his greatest hour for Saints was soon to come and it would be Jim who would knock that pin point through ball to Bobby Stokes to run on to with 7 minutes of the game remaining on the clock at Wembley.

But little did Jim know that his time at the club was nearing it's end, he too would be gone before the end of the following season, again a surprise to Saints fans in that he had played in virtually every game up to 15th January 1977, he had only missed one League game and also started both FA Cup games, but the arrival of Alan Ball who at age 31 was 1 years older than the 30 year old and the emergence of Steve Williams meant his days were numbered and like several others in the side his League days were virtually over before his 30th birthday.

I say virtually, McCalliog like Jim Steele headed to the USA joining Chicago Sting, but he did return in 1978/79 to join Lincoln City as a player coach, but this stint would not even make double figures in games played and his playing career was over.

He had a brief stint managing Halifax before taking over a pub and then a guest house in his native Scotland.

He took an active part in the celebrations for the 40th anniversary of lifting the FA Cup, in 2016 taking his place on the upper deck of the original open top bus for a drive from the Guildhall Square to St Mary's.

Paul Gilchrist

Paul joined Saints for £30,000 in March 1972 and initially struggled to get in the team, back then he was a centre forward and he had club legend Ron Davies in front of him.

In 1972/73 Davies started the season well but was sold to Portsmouth in April 1973 with Gilchrist coming in as his replacement, in fairness over the season he started 19 games in the league plus 3 as sub and scored 6 times, but he was no Ron Davies.

The following season Saints and Gilchrist started well and were high in the league, but then the descent to relegation started and in came Peter Osgood, Gilchrist was either out of the team or moved to a second striker, back then teams mainly played a 4-3-3 formation.

The following season was not a good one for him, Saints struggled in the second division, Paul would start just 16 games plus another 5 as sub but he would score 5 goals, so he was still a good member of the squad.

But as a striker his way was blocked in 75/76, Saints had Peter Osgood, Mike Channon and Bobby Stokes blocking his way up front and he was far from a regular, mainly getting in the side deputising when Peter Osgood or Bobby Stokes were out.

But Lawrie McMenemy had seen something in him, he saw him as a midfield player, the problem was , Hugh Fisher, Nick Holmes and Jim McCalliog had that area boxed off, but then came an spot of luck for Paul.

Hugh Fisher knew he was carrying a niggle going into the FA Cup semi final, he could have kept quiet and played through it and hoped it wouldn't go, but in those days of only 1 sub that was a risk and Fisher was a model pro he owned up to feeling the injury and dropped to the bench and Paul took his chance.

He hadn't scored and indeed wouldn't score in the league that season, but he had scored in the 5th round in the replay against West Bromwich and with the game poised at 0-0 against third division Palace at Stamford Bridge but on 74 minutes the ball fell to him and he hit it sweetly from 25 yards to give Saints the lead.

Gilchrist would keep Fisher out of the team now and the line up for the final was now complete, little did they know that this line up would only be together for a short period, it's first incarnation was at Stamford Bridge on 3rd April 1976, it would play just two league games after that and it's last competitive game would be at Wembley in the FA Cup Final.

The Iconic Saints XI would play just 2 FA Cup games and 2 League games on the same pitch in competitive games, that is a little know fact.

The cup final would be Paul Gilchrist's greatest hour, but he could not have dreamed that it would almost be his last for Saints, he started the opening League game against Carlisle United, was dropped and then returned for a 6-2 drubbing at Charlton on 24th September 1976, he would never play for the club again.

He would join Alhafi in Saudi Arabia for 3 months in December 1976 and then join Portsmouth in Division 3 in March 1977.

He was perhaps the player that was dumped the quickest in this team where no less than 7 of the 12 on duty would play their last game for the club before the 1st anniversary of the cup final win

So the curse of the FA Cup final would be very much in evidence for Paul Gilchrist who found himself dumped by Saints at 25, playing for Pompey where of course he wasn't that popular having played for Saints, then Swindon and Hereford, after the cup final he would just 69 League games before in the pre season of 1980/81 he suffered a broken cruciate ligament and his career was effectively over aged just 29.

He opened a fitness centre in Swindon before working in the motor trade back in his native Kent.

Some would say that Paul was a little unlucky the way he was dumped, but he out of all the side saw fate take a hand and Hugh Fisher's injury saw him take his chance with both hands, he was in the right place at the right time.

Nick Holmes

If there is one man who can claim that the curse of the FA Cup didn't affect him it would be Nick Holmes, back in the summer of 1975 Holmes was a 20 year old local lad who after making his debut in the final games of the relegation season, he started at the away game at Arsenal and was sub a few weeks later at Burnley, had forced his way into first team contention on a regular basis in the latter half of 74/75 season.

So 1975/76 Nick would have hoped would be a truly breakthrough year for him, that is the way it ended up in the league, he would start 39 of the 42 games and scored 11 goals, making him second to only Mike Channon in the League scoring stakes, however he could not have dreamed what his last game for Saints would be that season.

As mentioned there would be no curse of the FA Cup for Nick, he would be a first team regular through the golden years of the clubs history, being one of only two players to play in two Wembley Cup finals for the club and indeed like the other David Peach he scored in the second final, this time in the league cup in 1979 in a 3-2 defeat to Nottingham Forest, between 1975 & 1985 he would never play less that 39 league games a year and that season saw him play 36.

1984/85 would see him hit 30, but he would still play 29 times in the league, in 1985/86 he would play 26, but as the the 1986/87 season started he was slowing up and becoming more injury prone and a pelvic injury was hampering him, his last start was in the first leg of his second League Cup semi-final v Liverpool, in March 1987, his fifth semi-final in all for Saints, three in the FA cup and two in the league cup.

His final appearance came only a few miles from his first, this time when he came on as a sub in a 2-0 defeat at White Hart Lane, only a short distance from where he made his debut at Highbury.

In all that time he made a grand total of 535 starts plus 8 as sub making 543 appearances in total in all competitions, scoring 64 goals.

After leaving the Dell in 1987 he played a season at East Cowed Vics in non league before returning as a coach at the dell for a season.

That life didn't suit him and since then he has spent time lib=ving in Florida, back in the UK and now is back again in Florida.

No Curse of the FA Cup for Nick Holmes who truly enjoyed a great Saints career and can justly call himself a Southampton Football Club Legend.

With Thanks to Duncan Holley & Gary Chalk and all those at Hagiology publishing without whose excellent books, articles such as these would be impossible to write with such clarity and statistics.

Photo: Action Images

Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.