History repeating -
luton and nottingham forest fa cup 1971
By Will Foster
An FA Cup 3rd Round tie at the City Ground on a freezing cold day, between a 1st Division Nottingham Forest and a 2nd Division Luton? It’s just another case of history repeating.
On the 2nd of January 1971 masses of Town fans made the trip to the midlands for a first meeting with Forest since 1960. They had reason to be confident. Stock’s team, with millionaire chairman Tony Hunt behind the scenes and national attention never far away through director Eric Morecambe, were flying. A win at Watford had cemented 2nd place in the table and they were unbeaten since the end of October. What’s more, they had a young brash striker by the name of Malcolm Macdonald always raring to go. It was no surprise therefore that payback for the 1959 FA Cup final, and progression to the FA Cup 4th Round for the first time in a decade, seemed a distinct possibility.
The poor form of their opponents helped raise confidence levels. Though Forest hadn’t suffered anywhere near Luton’s downturn in fortune since that FA Cup final, they had found themselves mired in the bottom half of the top flight since a 2nd place finish in 1966/67 and the current campaign was proving to be particularly disastrous. With no win since a 3-1 home victory against Blackpool on the 10th of October, Forest headed into 1971 3rd from bottom and with the threat of a first relegation since 1949 looming large.
It was soon apparent that form would mean little. In terrible conditions, with the pitch closely resembling an ice-rink, Forest took control. With Peter Cormack making them tick, an error by Tony Read from a John Winfield free-kick allowed young Jim McIntosh to put the home side ahead. The only question at this stage was how many Forest would win by.
The free-kick wasn’t to be Winfield’s most telling contribution to the game.
In the 33rd minute came the turning point. A poor back pass from Bob Chapman gave Malcolm Macdonald a chance and though his shot hit the side netting it would result in Winfield, charging back, tumbling into the net and then, to everyone’s surprise, finding the goal collapsing around him as a post snapped! Water which had seeped in at ground level had frozen in the icy conditions, leaving it brittle.
Below: Oh dear! Winfield breaks the post.
A frantic search for a new goal-post meant a 15-minute break in play, in which Town coach Jimmy Andrews set about re-organising the side. He moved Don Givens further forward, allowing Jimmy Ryan more freedom.
‘We were not going well and I was glad to be able to get the blokes together to sort it out,’ Andrews would say after.
The plan worked. Keeping the game in central areas rather than on the wings suited Luton. The equaliser came twenty minutes from time and was well deserved. Jimmy Ryan was able to beat two defenders and set up Malcolm Macdonald. Super-mac fired towards goal, and though it was kept out by a desperate defender, he was able to nod home his 20th goal of the season.
This hardly endeared the already fed-up Forest supporters to their side. ‘Gillies out’ they chanted, referring to manager Matt Gillies, who was approaching two years in charge after a decade at local rivals Leicester. At least they held on for the draw, though not many gave them a chance at Kenilworth Road, with the match due to be played in just three days’ time.
Macdonald was typically confident during the train journey home, ‘they are scared to death of coming to Luton. The don’t like the idea at all. We’ll beat them this time.’
Meanwhile Alec Stock was just amazed the game, during which some of his players had taken to wearing plimsolls in an attempt to keep their footing, had taken place at all. ‘When you have chaps who don’t know what to wear for a First Divison cup tie you know it’s not really right to play in it.’
Below: Town's players celebrate Macdonald's equaliser.
The 4th Round draw pitted the winners of the replay against either Sunderland or Orient at home. Sunderland’s boss Alan Brown would be taking no chances and made the decision to travel down south to watch the replay, even though his own side still needed to beat Jimmy Bloomfield’s in-form Orient to win through.
His journey would be in vain. Local referee Roy Sheppard, of Dunstable, carried out various inspections of the frozen surface of the day of the game before eventually postponing it. It was an early enough decision to prevent most fans travelling, but not early enough for Brown.
The bad weather had lifted enough by the following Saturday to allow a home match with QPR to take place. Interest in the game was huge and the gate was expected to be the 2nd highest of the season, after the League Cup visit of Arsenal earlier in the campaign. In the end the two teams played out a nil-nil draw in Gordon Jago’s first match in charge of the visitors, a result that kept Town well in the hunt for promotion back to the top flight.
Then, just two days later, it was back to the cup.
Anticipation had been increased by the 4th Round draw. A home tie against fellow 2nd Division opponents, whether it be Sunderland or Orient, felt eminently winnable. But first Forest still had to be seen off. Thousands milled around the locked gates before the start. Those who didn’t find a way in missed a classic.
Though Forest came into the game on the back of a confidence boosting away win at West Bromwich Albion, it was Town who started the faster and could easily have been two or three goals ahead by the time Peter Cormack lashed in a rebound to put the visitors ahead in the 17th minute firmly against the run of play.
It didn’t take long for a leveller however. Two minutes later Malcolm Macdonald pounced on a mistake by Forest ‘keeper Jim Barron after good work from John Ryan on Luton’s right. From there Town should have put themselves two or three ahead before half time, with good chances missed by Don Givens and Barron making a good save from David Court. Still, at half time the tie was level, with thoughts perhaps turning to a potential 2nd Replay, scheduled to be played at Villa Park in just 48 hours time if required.
Then the fun and games really started.
Below: Macdonald's equaliser hits the back of the net.
‘Trying to make sense of this ring-a-ding Cup-tie was like trying to follow one of..Eric Morecambe’s zaniest comedy routines,’ wrote legendary Fleet Street journalist Peter Batt after the game.
Graham Collier put Forest ahead again in the 65th minute, the 19-year-old scoring with his first touch of the game, nodding home Peter Cormack’s centre just seconds after coming on as a substitute. Then, before the dust could settle, Bert Lyons had raced clear to make it 3-1 to the visitors and leave Town, who should have been well ahead themselves, suddenly reeling.
Not that it took long for the large crowd to be roaring again. Just two minutes later and John Ryan was brought down in the box, allowing Malcolm Macdonald to slam home the penalty and notch his third goal over the two ties. If the noise for that was deafening, it was nothing compared to the cheers which greeted Macdonald’s hat-trick goal eight minutes from time following good work from Jimmy Ryan and David Court.
Below: Never in doubt. Macdonald pulls one back from the spot.
Surely now Luton would finally go on to win the tie? With extra time looming Alec Stock made his way to the bench to supervise the team talk. As he did so, Ronnie Rees, who looked suspiciously offside to many, raced clear of the Town defence after a through ball. The crowd could only watch in something approaching disbelief as the ball was slammed past a ‘thoroughly miserable’ Tony Read.
4-3 to Nottingham Forest.
There was no more script to be written. Luton had gone toe-to-toe with a 1st Division side and had been unlucky to go out, but still it would be Nottingham Forest who’d eventually meet Orient in the 4th Round.
Forest’s assistant manager Bill Anderson summed the replay up, ‘of course, Luton should have won, but the fact was that they did not get the breaks. Had we been 3-1 down at half-time we could not have grumbled…no-one can win a cup-tie of this nature without luck, and Luton certainly did not enjoy their share tonight.’
Jimmy Andrews, who didn’t like his teams conceding goals at the best of times, was slightly less impressed, ‘the secret of our success has been in not giving goals away…from one point of view, it was a good job this happened in a cup-tie and not a vital league match.’
The win was the start of a slightly better 2nd half of the season for Forest. They’d beat Orient in a replay before falling to Tottenham in the 5th Round. More importantly an improvement in league form would eventually see them finish in 16th and secure a 15th straight season in England’s top flight.
Luton had less to celebrate in the coming months. The collapse of chairman Tony Hunt’s insurance company would spell financial disaster for the club, possibly costing a promotion and certainly necessitating the sale of Malcolm Macdonald to Newcastle. In his final game Super-mac slammed home a hat-trick against Cardiff. Well, of course he did!
Below: Town's coach Jimmy Andrews
