Four Four Two - UK (2022-06)

and Gemmill’s tidy through-ball was met by
McGovern, who duly fizzed the game’s only
goal past England goalkeeper Ray Clemence.
Derby thus finished their campaign top of
the table, but had to wait a week fearing the
superior goal average of both Leeds (a point
behind them) and Liverpool (two points off).
Five days later Leeds won the FA Cup final
against Arsenal, leaving them needing just
a draw at mid-table Wolves, who’d lost five
of their previous seven matches, to secure
the Double. Liverpool had a tougher task,
needing to win at fifth-placed Arsenal, but
the bookies still had Derby at 8-1 outsiders.
If Leeds and Liverpool were both away,
Derby were even farther so. Clough took his
wife, kids and parents to the Isles of Scilly,
while Taylor and Webb led the players on
a post-season jaunt to Mallorca. On May 8,
1972, Taylor ended up in the hotel lobby,
listening via payphone to the last 15 minutes
at Molineux via a friendly press box journalist.
By that point, Leeds had gone 2-0 down
but halved the deficit. It was 0-0 at Highbury,
and although Toshack had the ball in the net

with two minutes left, the referee disallowed a likely title-winning goal. That match ended goalless, and when events also concluded at Molineux, Taylor raised his free arm into the warm Mediterranean evening. For the first time ever, Derby were champions of England. Finally found in Tresco, Clough said, “I don’t believe in miracles, but one has occurred tonight... this has given me far more pleasure than I can adequately express.” Even the great orator was lost for words. Well, nearly.

“There wasn’t a clash of personalities. Half of the people we were clashing with didn’t have personalities”

That was Clough’s high-water mark at Derby, but it could have been higher. Having broken the British transfer record on David Nish from Leicester for £225,000 (without asking the board), he led the Rams to the European Cup semi-finals, where they were eliminated by Juventus and some questionable refereeing decisions; Clough, who usually insisted his players respected officials, called the Italians “cheating bastards”. Six months later, Clough and Taylor were gone. Longson tired of the off-field mayhem, which had overshadowed the surge to the title. The February 1972 win over Nottingham Forest was augmented by winger Ian Storey- Moore being paraded on the Baseball Ground pitch by Taylor and secretary Webb as a new signing... from Nottingham Forest. Unusually, Clough decided to duck the limelight at the last minute. Perhaps he was aware that the paperwork wasn’t quite complete: Storey- Moore eventually agreed to join Manchester United instead. Even in mid-April, amid the four-way title tussle, there were still some Machiavellian machinations taking place behind the scenes.

Coventry wanted Clough to become boss at Highfield Road; the offer was accepted, used to leverage pay rises at Derby, then rejected. In October 1973, Longson locked the drinks cabinet in Clough’s office and demanded the manager cease his newspaper articles and TV appearances. Clough and Taylor played the card that had worked for them before: they resigned, hoping it would spark another Ord-style boardroom reshuffle. Instead, their resignations were accepted. Four days later, the Rams hosted Leicester. There were demonstrations among talk of a player strike and two perhaps inevitable Clough appearances – first he turned up at the Baseball Ground to watch, then he went on BBC1’s Parkinson chat show, telling his fellow Yorkshireman to “relax” and bullishly insisting, “anything that’s good can last”. But Longson cannily quelled the rebellion by appointing Dave Mackay. At the end of the following season, Derby won the title again, with Mackay managing what was still largely Clough and Taylor’s team. By then, Clough – after strange spells at third-tier Brighton and, unfathomably, the Leeds team he detested – was back in the East Midlands, 15 miles east up the A52 at second-tier Nottingham Forest, where he did it all again and more.

TOM WATSON A good 80 years before he became a famous golfer (OK, it’s not the same bloke), Watson steered Sunderland to top spot in only the fourth ever season of the Football League, in 1891-92. He repeated the feat twice more with the North East outfit, then headed to Liverpool and won their first two league titles as well. He’s still the Reds’ longest serving gaffer, having managed them for 19 years.

Pre-Clough, these two managers had won the First Division title with more than one team

HERBERT CHAPMAN Initially banned from football for life after previous club Leeds City were found guilty of financial irregularities, the Yorkshireman successfully appealed and led Huddersfield to First Division glory in 1924 and 1925. He was then two times a champion at Arsenal, and set to make it three at Highbury when he tragically died from pneumonia midway through the 1933-34 campaign, aged 55.

TWO-CLUB CHAMPIONS

FourFourTwo June 2022 67

THE FINAL TABLE, 1971-72 P GA Pts 1 DERBY 42 2.091 58 2 Leeds 42 2.355 57 3 Liverpool 42 2.133 57 4 Man City 42 1.711 57

CLOUGH

Four Four Two - UK (2022-06)

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