March 1971

As appeared in Rothman's Football Yearbook 1971-72 (2nd year)

The Queene Anne Press, London 1971

Note : The news from thirty years ago has an archive below

March 1971

2 Pop Robson, signed from Newcastle U. to West Ham, U. feared that he would lose his percentage of transfer fee when Football League announced a probe. . . later granted him the amount he sought. . . Burnley, in deep relegation trouble, paid Bolton W. 60,000 pounds for Paul Fletcher, inside forward. . .

3 . . . Spate of transfers took Geoff Vowden and Bert Murray from Aston Villa. . . Vowden to Birmingham C. and Murray to Brighton . . . also Brian Heslop from Sunderland to Northampton T. . . .

4 . . . Stephen Powell, son of former Derby Co. player Tommy Powell, named as captain of England Boys against Northern Ireland at Wembley . . . Proud Dad, delighted, said 'I never had the chance of playing at Wembley' . . .

5 England amateurs beat Eire 1-0 in an international in Dublin. . . all Holland league matches off through frozen weather. . .

6 . . . Colchester's fabulous Cup run ended at Goodison when Everton scored five. . . but the crowd of 53,028 paying 26,000 pounds compensated a little. . . Tottenham H. and Arsenal forced goalless draws at Liverpool and Leicester C. . . . Alan Warboys scored all four goals for Cardiff against Carlisle U. to take his team to the top of the table. . . Tony Brown hat-trick for W.B.A. in 4-3 win over Manchester U. . . . Celtic scored seven against Raith R. in Scottish Cup. . .

9 . . . Bill Baxter and Ken Knighton figured prominently in Hull C.'s 2-1 top of the table win at Sheffield . . . In Fairs Cup Arsenal beat Cologne 2-1 at Highbury, but Everton were held to 1-1 draw at Goodison by Greek team, managed by Ferenc Puskas, Panathinaikos . . .

10 Ajax of Amsterdam crushed Celtic 3-0 in Amsterdam, a resounding European Cup triumph. . . in Cup Winners Cup, Chelsea lost 0-2 in Bruges, and Manchester C. by same score in Gornik . . . Cardiff City with a goal by Clark beat Real Madrid in one of the greatest matches ever seen in the Principality. . . Leeds U. and Liverpool both won their Fairs Cup games. . . Alun Evans, playing his first full game for four months, scored all three goals in the Liverpool triumph. . . . . . Transfer embargo, and some sort of history made, when there were more loan deals than straightforward cash or player-exchange transfers. . . biggest cash deal was the 17,000 pounds which took Carl Gilbert from Bristol R. to Rotherham U. .

13 Leicester C. take over on top of Second Division with goal by Bobby Kellard at Swindon T.. . . Aston Villa and Halifax T. drew before the biggest Third Division crowd of the season, 33,522 at Villa Park. .. Yeovil and Hereford qualified for semi-finals of F.A. Challenge Trophy, but eventual winners Telford U., held to a draw by Tamworth . . . Mike Summerbee broke his right leg in goal less drawat Derby Co. . . . Alan Oakes suffered knee injury which meant a cartilage operation . . . both players out for rest of season. . . Jeff Astle fined 100 pounds and lost the club captaincy when W.B.A. took action after he had disclosed that he 'made' 200 pounds by selling Cup Final tickets. . . later banned for life from receiving tickets from Football Association. . .

15 Arsenal, with goal by George, beat Leicester Co in Cup replay. . . Chelsea's John Hollins and John Boyle cleared at F.A. Commission when referee admitted he had made a mistake over the bookings. . . John Jackson stepped in for first representative honour when Gordon Banks pulled out of the Football League team against Scottish League. . . Buenos Aires police stated they would prosecute all nineteen players sent off in First Division match between Boca Juniors and Cristal of Peru. Full-scale battle ended the game two minutes from time with three players in hospital. . .

16 A second-half goal by Steve Heighway won a tight Cup replay for Liverpool at Tottenham H. . . . so they went forward to an all-Liverpool semi-final against Everton . . .

17 Football League won a 1-0 triumph over the Scottish League at Hampden Park. . , unlike the international match which is a sell-out, only 17,657 watched the game. . . Aston Villa drew their sixth game at home out of 18 league games. . . loss of points which eventually cost them promotion. . .

19 . . . On from the 15th and the saga of the brawl in Argentine. . . when the Sporting Crista! players arrived back in Peru from the Argentine, having had their 30-day sentences for disorderly conduct immediately annulled so as not to impair the 'exceptional relations' between the two countries, the Peruvian Head of State took over. . . said that the Peru players had defended their colours 'with honour and nobility' . . .

20 Leeds U. (34 games 54 points) still six points ahead of Arsenal. . . Notts Co., Fourth Division pacemakers, drew at Northampton T. to take nine points lead over Bournemouth, even though their challengcrs won at Darlington . . Bournemouth's Ted MacDougall, insured by his club for 85,000 pounds, scored his 40th goal of the season, to equal the club record. . .

22 Football League rejected the 'five per cent' request from Pop Robson for his 6,000 pounds share of the transfer fee from Newcastle U. . . later the decision was reversed by the independent tribunal, to whom Robson appealed 0-0 . . . A penalty goal in the first half gave Cologne a Fairs Cup victory over Arsenal, who lost by the away goal scored by Cologne at Highbury . . . Leeds U. announced a record profit of 171,951 pounds last season. . . previous year they lost 45,863 pounds. . . seven of their players claimed to have earned between 10,000 pounds and 12,500 pounds . .

24 . . . Everton drew no goals in Athens, but Panathanaikos move on to semi-final with a win on away goals 0-0 . similar triumph for Athletico Madrid against Legia Warsaw . . . Chelsea triumphed 4-2 over Bruges, scoring twice in extra time. . . Peter Osgood made great come-back after being out for eight weeks, scoring twice . . Real Madrid picked up two goals, enough to beat Cardiff C., but Manchester C. could only score twice, enough to earn them a play-off with Gornick . . . Liverpool and Leeds u. both through without much trouble in the Fairs Cup. . .

25 Colchester chairman Bill Graver resigned, but manager Dick Graham refused to withdraw his resignation. . . changed his mind later. . .

27 . . . Liverpool made second-half comeback to beat Everton in semi-final before 62,144 crowd paying 75,000 pounds at Old Tralford . . . Stoke felt they were robbed when Arsenal snatched a last-minute draw with a Peter Storey penalty. . . Gordon Banks said he had been fouled before the corner which led to Arsenal's life-saver. . . meanwhile Chelsea helped Arsenal by beating Leeds U. . . . in Amateur Cup replay, Dagenham beat Slough 2-1. . .

30 . . . West Ham U. put themselves into the clear at the bottom of the First Division by winning at Everton . . . an own goal by Kendall did the trick. . .

29 Fast, and loud talking Malcolm Allison, Manchester C.'s brilliant strategist, banned for two months, and fined 200 pounds by F.A. . . . then they put him 'on probation' for the next two years and nine months. . .

30 Manchester C. won Fairs Cup play-off against Gornik 3-1 in Copenhagen. . . now meet Chelsea in semi-final. . . and Arsenal easily qualified for Wembley with 2-0 win over Stoke C. . . . meanwhile Rangers held in semi-final of Scottish Cup to goalless draw by Hibernian. ,