My early Football Memories in Lanarkshire – Part One 1973-76
1973/74
My first experience of watching live football was during the 1973/74 season, with my first trips due to the political situation in the UK, which became known as the winter of discontent. This led to the three day week, power cuts and football matches being moved to Sundays. The summer of 1973 saw Hamilton Accies play two glamour friendlies at Douglas Park , the first was a 3-1 defeat to English Second Division side Middlesborough managed by Jack Charlton who would go on to win the Second Division at the end of the season. Accies however made huge headlines when they beat one of the top teams in English Football at the time Leeds Utd 4-3. A Leeds team which included Scotland stars Frank Gray, Peter Lorimer & Joe Jordan, and who would go on to play in the 1975 European Cup Final in Paris.
In the League Cup of 1973/74 , Albion Rovers made headlines, qualifying for the second round after winning their group and the subsequent playoff 1-0 on aggregate over East Stirling. This set up a Lanarkshire derby where they would beat their neighbours Airdrie 3-0 at home and 1-0 v away sealing a 4-0 aggregate victory and progression to a rare Quarter Final. The Quarter Final saw the wee Rovers beat their more illustrious opponents Kilmarnock 2-0 at Cliftonhill before narrowly missing out on a semi-final place 5-4 on aggregate following a 5-2 defeat at Rugby Park. Albion Rovers took consolation by beating Airdrie & Motherwell to win the Lanarkshire Cup. During this period Scotland produced one of their most famous results when a diving header by the aforementioned and Lanarkshire born Joe Jordan saw Scotland beat Czechoslovakia 2-1 at Hampden to end a 20 year wait for qualification to the 1974 World Cup Finals in Germany.
Back in domestic matters a rare sight in those days were TV cameras appearing at Douglas Park to film match highlights for STV’s Scotsport programme in December 1973 as Accies and Airdrie both fighting for promotion at the top of Scottish League Division Two drew 0-0. My first experience of attending football matches came in February and March 1974, Sunday 24th February I saw Motherwell beat Ayr Utd 2-0, with Bobby Graham opening the scoring , before the following Sunday 3rd March I watched Hamilton Accies defeat Clydebank 3-0, a team which included a young Paul Hegarty as a striker partnered by the veteran Jacky McInally (father of Alan McInally). Motherwell became the second Lanarkshire team to reach a cup Quarter Final in the season when they drew 2-2 with Celtic away before losing in front of a large crowd at Fir Park 1-0 in the replay, their former star Dixie Deans with the goal. Hamilton Accies however concentrated on League matters recording the highest points total in the clubs history (under 2 pts for a win) 55pts but narrowly missed out on promotion behind Airdrie (60) and Kilmarnock (58). Kilmarnock’s ten consecutive wins meant they had won promotion before their visited Douglas Park for the final game of the season which ended in 2-2 draw, to deny Accies promotion.
1974/75
The 1974/75 season offered all teams in Scottish football a new challenge with this being the last of the two league set-up of 18/19 teams being replaced in the summer of 1975 along with the addition of the former Ferranti Thistle works team to be known as Meadowbank Thistle and a 10/14/14 league set-up. The First Division clubs fought for the top ten places to form the first ever Premier League with the Second Division clubs trying to win places in the new First Division by finishing in the top 6. Hamilton Accies were ultimately successful with a 4th place finish ensuring First Division football, however Albion Rovers would begin life within the new set-up as a Second Division club after finishing 12th, despite retaining the Lanarkshire Cup.
One of my first tastes of evening football was the Red Hackle Cup Final at Fir Park, I can still remember vividly the skyline lit up by the floodlights as we approached the ground. My local junior team East Kilbride Thistle beat Lanark Utd 3-1, with captain Martin Ferguson brother of Sir Alex lifting the trophy.
The 1975 Scottish Cup produced many notable performances from Lanarkshire teams, Albion Rovers began in the first round winning 4-1 at St Cuthberts Wanderers, before a 1-1 draw at Alloa led to a 2-0 replay win and progression to the third round. Hamilton Accies travelled to fellow Second Division promotion hopefuls Montrose and after a 0-0 draw took revenge for their defeat in similar circumstances two years earlier by winning in the replay 3-0 at Douglas Park, in front of a massive crowd, rumoured to be in excess of 10,000. Motherwell and Airdrie both drew 0-0 but won in replays against at Partick and Morton respectively while Albion Rovers won 1-0 at Highland League Inverness Caledonian , as all four Lanarkshire clubs progressed to the last 16. Hamilton Accies suffered huge disappointment losing 1-0 at home to Dumbarton as Albion Rovers lost 2-0 at Arbroath. Airdrie & Motherwell had routine home wins over Falkirk and Queens Park. The Quarter Finals saw Motherwell go to Pittodrie and a Bobby Graham goal saw them defeat Aberdeen 1-0. Aridrie followed up a 2-2 draw at Gayfield by beating Arbroath 3-0 at home. This saw Airdrie & Motherwell head to Hampden to face each other in the 1975 Scottish Cup semi-final, where a crowd of over 20,000 saw a 1-1 before Airdrie would emerge 1-0 victorious in the replay. A great effort from Airdrie to reach final was however to end in disappointment with a 3-1 defeat to Celtic. Motherwell took revenge by pipping Airdrie to 10th place to secure the final slot in the new Premier League finishing two points ahead of their Lanarkshire rivals and fellow 1973-74 promoted club Kilmarnock.
1975/76
My first trip to Hampden to see Scotland play was on 29th October 1975 as Denmark were defeated 3-1, in a European Championship qualifier, with the national team already eliminated.
The new league set up saw Motherwell have a very successful season finishing 4th after the 36 game season, only missing out on 3rd place and European football by 3pts to Hibs. The First and Second Divisions made up of 14 teams in each played only 26 League Games in the inaugural season with Airdrie and Hamilton Accies finishing 8th & 9th respectively in a rather poor if short league season. To fill the fixtures gap , the teams in the two lower leagues played in a completion – The Spring Cup. This saw the 28 teams split into 7 groups of 4 with every team playing 6 games. The top two in each group along with two best third place teams moved forward to the knockout phase of two legged ties. Airdrie topped their group , while Albion Rovers and Hamilton Accies qualified as the two best third placed teams. The Second round saw dramatic two legged ties for all three, Albion Rovers despite a 4-1 defeat at Clydebank came close with a 2-0 win in the second leg and go out 4-3 on aggregate. Airdrie survived after losing the first leg at Dunfermline 4-2 to win 3-0 at Broomfield to progress 5-4 on aggregate. Hamilton Accies followed up their Scottish Cup win over Montrose with an even more dramatic Spring Cup win , after losing the away leg 3-1 their produced an incredible 6-3 result at Douglas Park won win 7-6 on aggregate. This was where the heroics would end for Accies as they were comprehensively beaten by Airdrie in the quarter final with a 4-0 home defeat being followed by 5-0 away as their county rivals won 9-0 on aggregate. Airdrie then beat Morton 3-1 in the semi final at Love Street before beating Clydebank 4-2 after extra time in the final at Firhill. Airdrie were the only team to win the Spring Cup as the competition was scrapped in favour of team splaying each other three times in League games. Airdrie also won the Lanarkshire Cup. The Scottish Cup saw Albion Rovers beat Hawick Royal Albert & Glasgow University both after replays to progress to the Third Round where they lost at home to Partick Thistle. Hamilton Accies lost 4-0 to Dundee Utd at Tannadice , while Airdrie lost 4-2 at Ayr, Motherwell however produced the performance of the season coming back from 2-0 at half time down to knock out holders Celtic 3-2 in a highly entertaining and dramatic afternoon at Fir Park. A 2-0 win at Cowdenbeath set the Fir Park club up for a remarkable Quarter Final with Hibs. The first game saw teams draw 2-2 at Fir Park, however after the replay at Easter Road ended in a 1-1 draw the tie would finally be decided in a Second Replay at Ibrox with Motherwell winning 2-1. Motherwell arrived at Hampden as huge underdogs but amazingly led 2-0 at half time against Rangers. A controversial penalty decision gave the Ibrox side a foothold in the game, early in the second half before stunning Motherwell to win 3-2.
The period 1973-76 saw Scotland produce some impressive performances as a National team particularly in the 1974 World Cup. Lanarkshire had plenty highlights with Albion Rovers and Hamilton Accies minor giant killing successes being overshadowed by Airdrie’s Scottish Cup final appearance in 1975 and a Motherwell team led by the strike partnership of Willie Pettigrew and Bobby Graham who made the Semi Finals in 1975 & 1976. Willie Pettigrew ended the season as the top league goalscorer as playing 5 times for Scotland scoring on his debut against Switzerland, with Scotland winning all 5 matches. Bobby Graham would go to play for Hamilton Accies from 1977 to 1981 and Willie Pettigrew would also end his career at Douglas Park from 1985 to 1986. It was quite fitting that having seen the two strikers play together in my first match , I saw them both end their careers at Accies.
Part Two 1976-1979 to follow
Football is Academical 