Football Re-Heated: Stoke City Vs Arsenal – 1972 League Cup Final
Bit of a different Re-Heated that usual this time. This marks the first occasion that I’ve done a review without watching the whole match minute by minute. The match I am reviewing today has been condensed down to roughly 45 minutes of highlights. It is the official release, but what they’ve done is essentially rip The Big Match television show and put in on a DVD.
I’m not sure if I will review matches in this form all the time, mainly because a highlights package can be somewhat misleading as it doesn’t show you the whole match. The match can be edited in a way that distorts the contest.
What with the current league season still in it’s infancy, we’ve reached the point now where every team has been entered in the League Cup, with the draw being held last Wednesday. It seemed like a relatively good time to do a League Cup Final review.
Anyway, time for me to quite my jibber jabber. To the review-mobile!
Back-Story
This was an interesting contest at the time due to quite a few factors. Stoke City had been in existence for 108 years and had yet to win a major trophy. Meanwhile, Chelsea had won the FA Cup two years earlier and were enjoying a spell where they were known for playing attacking football were a certain sense of razzmatazz.
Chelsea came into the final as favourites, based on past glories and also the fact they had a slightly stronger side when it came to “name” players. In particular, newsworthy and prolific striker Peter Osgood.
Stoke occupied more of the underdog role and also had taken hold of the “feel good factor”, thanks in part to the participation of George Eastham. Eastham, 35 when the Final took place, had long toiled in the game without a winners medal to show for it. He had just returned that season from a failed turn as a manager in South Africa. As far as the neutrals were concerned, they wanted to seem him get the winners medal that had so far alluded him.
On a personal note for me, what drew me to this match was less the men expected to get the goals but more the men designed to stop them. Stoke City had the legendary Gordon Banks as their goal keeper where as Chelsea had the services of the talented Peter Bonetti, so often unfairly lambasted for England’s exit in the 1970 World Cup. Seeing these two talented keepers square off against each other only enticed me to watch the match.
Stoke City Line up
- Gordon Banks
- John Marsh
- Mike Pejic
- Mike Bernard
- Denis Smith
- Alan Bloor
- Terry Conroy
- Jimmy Greenhoff
- John Ritchie
- Peter Dobing
- George Eastham
Substitute
12. John Mahoney
Chelsea Line up
- Peter Bonetti
- Paddy Mulligan
- Ron Harris
- John Hollins
- John Dempsey
- David Webb
- Charlie Cooke
- Chris Garland
- Peter Osgood
- Alan Huson
- Peter Houseman
Substitute
12. Tommy Baldwin
Referee is Norman Burtenshaw
The Match
The match itself is an interesting one, even though what we’re viewing is the ITV anointed “best bits”. Right from the off Chelsea seemed to be the more aggressive attacking side. From what we see, the impression is gained that Chelsea players were slightly more technically proficient than their Stoke opponents.
However, Stoke themselves were no slouches and showed it very early in the contest. A long throw into the box from Dobing led to disarray from the Chelsea defenders. It was a desperate scramble as the Chelsea defence desperately tried to clear while the Stoke attack tried to force a shot past the keeper. After two bungled shots and two further bungled clearances, the ball found it’s way to the welcoming ginger head of Terry Conroy, who lifted the ball into the empty side of the net. After just 5 minutes of play, Stoke had found themselves 1-0 up in the Final.
Although the goal hadn’t technically against the run of play, it certainly had come after Chelsea had enjoyed some attacks of their own. Despite the goal being a bit of a sucker punch, Chelsea didn’t let their heads drop and continued to mount attacks in the rampaging way they were known for at the time. Stoke defended doggedly but a couple of late challenges saw two of their players in the book after only 20 minutes of play. Chelsea’s seemingly superior pace was making it difficult for the Stoke players to time their tackles correctly.
Chelsea were lucky that Osgood didn’t get his name taken as he scythed down Greenhoff in the Stoke box. Throughout the game, the Stoke players weren’t too shy to kick and scratch for the ball. You’d imagine that quite a few Chelsea shins would have been sore the next morning.
Banks was in excellent form, as usual, and made a number of saves during both halves. Bonetti kept up with his opposite number and England rival though, making his own share of decent saves. Both keepers acquitted themselves well. There was one particular save by Banks from a Garland in the first half that was truly superb. The header was looping and looked dangerous, but not only did Banks stop it, he caught it to boot.
Banks could not maintain the cleanliness of his sheet forever though and Osgood scored a scrappy goal just before the end of the first half. The ball had found itself in the Stoke box and, following a tussle with the defence, Osgood had found himself on the ground, the ball within kicking distance. He struck out towards it and the ball trickled past Banks almost in slow motion to tie the contest at one a piece.
The game seemed to really peak in the second half, or at least the best parts of the match happened during that period. Chelsea continued to attack the Stoke goal but Stoke did not sit back and welcome the pressure. They were playing proactively and looking to get another goal, which they eventually did.
The goal itself was pretty harsh on Bonetti. He had made an excellent save following a delightful Greenoff volley. However, he had not been able to hold onto the ball and it trickled to the feet of Eastham, who calmly slotted it into the net to give Stoke a 2-1 lead.
Chelsea now upped the pressure and forced save after save from Banks, each one met with the usual icy precision saves that we’ve come to know the great keeper for. Not only did Banks guard his goal well, but the Stoke defence held firm and stifled most Chelsea attacks. Chelsea were also quite unlucky as just nothing seemed to go their way. The odd bounce of the ball or the direction of a rebound wasn’t in their favour. It was a rough day at the office for them to be sure.
Their closest effort came from a rare Stoke defensive error. Bernard tried to play a back pass but the ball was intercepted by Garland on the edge of the penalty area. Garland made his way to shoot but he was stopped by a rampaging Banks, who had sprung from his line to intercept the Chelsea player. Garland’s shot was muzzled as a result and ball went out for a corner that ultimately led to nothing.
Stoke held on and were able to savour their first ever major silverware.
Final Whistle Thoughts
This was a viewing experience that really flew by, thanked in no small part I suppose to the main feature being cut up into a more digestible 45 minute chunk. That being said, the footage on offer is exciting stuff. Regardless of what the full match was like, the version we get here on the DVD is fun viewing.
The match itself has enough back and forth action that it’s interesting for the neutral viewer. The battle between Banks and Bonetti lives up to the hype and you can understand why both keepers were so well respected. Brian Moore makes sure that the narrative of it being essentially Eastham’s last stand is brought to fore and it pays off in the way that a neutral and Stoke supporter would be happy with. Chelsea are presented in a positive enough light by the coverage that there’s little they would be offended by other than the final score.
The DVD includes a couple of post match interviews with Stoke manager Tony Waddington as well as Conroy. There is also has a DVD extra of Eastham being interviewed by Jimmy Hill in the studio the day following the match.
Overall, ILC Media have done an excellent job with the DVD in all fairness to them. The Big Match itself was always a good watch in it’s day and the DVD catches that feeling and presents it here.
I’d recommend this tape quite strongly actually. Most Stoke fans will probably already have it and most Chelsea fans probably will be put off by the result, but their team play well and do them credit. The neutral can enjoy the match as well due to the excitement of the footage and also the Eastham storyline. I know I had little trouble getting into it and I have no stake in either club.
Thanks for reading
As always, if there’s a match you want reviewed, leave a message in the comments below and I’ll try and get to it.
I’m still working on the formatting for these reviews and it’s an ongoing learning process. Like something? Let me know. Dislike something? Let me know. I’ll crack this eventually. Like everything? Bless you, go and have a nice cake and know that I’m thinking fondly of you.
Thanks for reading. I’ll post the links below as usual.
Peace Out
Highlight Video
Link to the DVD on Amazon
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