In the second of our series about the FA Cup run of 1976 we take a look at what is perhaps the forgotten game of the sequence, Blackpool at the Dell in the 4th round.
It is fair to say that when Saints fans look back at the 1976 season the game they will struggle to recall in the run was the 4th round against Blackpool.
The 3rd round against Villa had the drama of a last minute equaliser and a backs to the wall replay, the 5th round at West Brom saw a 12,000 strong army descend on the Hawthorns, the 6th round at Bradford had a quirky goal and mass violence on the terraces and then of course there was the semi and the final, but in all that excitement the 4th round against Blackpool pales a little, it wasn't against glamorous opposition, it had no real distinguishing features to mark it out from the rest, so here we take a look at what is the "Forgotten Game"
Saints and Blackpool were both in the old Second Division in 1975/76 and had met at Bloomfield Road back in September when the Tangerines won 4-3 in a game that was not as close as it looks now with the home side leading 4-1 at half time and Saints pulling back two goals in the final two minutes to make the score look respectable in front of 9, 564.
Was it a poor Saints side that day ? well 8 of the line up that would start at Wembley were on the pitch with Hugh Fisher as sub the role he would also play some eight months later in North London.
This perhaps showed that from the start of the season Saints had the nucleus of the side in situ, the problem was inconsistency, the likes of Mick Channon & Peter Osgood were big game players and they shone in front of big crowds not the sparse terraces of Blackpool.
So when Saints were drawn against Blackpool, or rather I should say after Saints had beaten Villa in the replay and could consider the game against Blackpool it was seen firstly as a potential banana skin and secondly as a game that was very winnable.
Perhaps the esteem the FA Cup was held in back then can be seen by the crowd, 21,583 were in attendance, it doesn't sound big but Saints average attendance that year was 17,648 and that had been boosted by a few big gates nearing the end of the season and this figure would only be bettered by two other attendances in the League.
So although Saints fans saw it as a winnable game, cup fever had not yet caught on, although given that Blackpool themselves had relatively few supporters in attendance, probabably no more than 1,000, there were more Saints fans in the ground than had attended the Villa game taking into account Villa had probably bought around 6,000.
Ten of the side who would start at Wembley were named against Blackpool, replicating the team that had won in the replay at Villa Park, the only difference to the team that would start at Wembley being Hugh Fisher started and there was no place on the bench for Paul Gilchrist the sub at Villa, Pat Earles fulfilling that role.
Blackpool had spent most of the season in mid table, despite beating Saints earlier in the season they were well behind them in the League so the home side started as favourites, a position strengthened by the fact that Blackpool had an injury crisis and were claiming to only have 13 fit professionals for this game.
Saints were in the driving seat from the very start, they almost scored in the first minute and did in the fifth when David Peach, perhaps the first modern overlapping full back, got down the wing and put in the perfect cros for Mick Channon to head home. The only real puzzle for the rest of the half was that Saints did not add more to their tally, although agains Ian Turner did have to produce a couple of saves to make sure that his team went in ahead at the break as snow fell on the Dell.
The fact that they were still in the tie seemed to inspire the visitors in the second half and they pressed forward as they had done in the final minutes of the first sensing that they could grab something, but their eagerness proved to be their undoing, on 56 minutes they had a free kick in a dangerous position, they made a mess of it and Saints cleared to send Channon away hotly pursued by Blackpool,s Walsh who scythed him down.
Now that would probably be an automatic red card but Walsh certainly escaped that, but his team were punished as from the resulting free kick again taken by crossing maestro David Peach the ball fell to Peter Osgood who miscued with the ball falling to Bobby Stokes who opened his FA Cup goal account to put Saints two up.
Blackpool were now well and truly beaten and the game was put unequivocally beyond their reach on 67 minutes when another Peach dead ball cross, this time from a corner found Mick Channon for his second goal of the game.
Blackpool scored a consolation in the final minute, but they knew they had been comprehensively beaten.
This was perhaps the tie of the Cup run with the least incident and drama, it had gone completely to form and there was nothing that sticks out at least not on the pitch.
Off it though is perhaps my best memory of this game, Blackpool had a few hundred fans gathered on the Archers Road end and they had a long banner saying something like "Blackpool for the Cup" this was a season when for the first time the more volatile of Saints support were abandoning the Milton Road End in favour of lets say "banter" with the away supporters in the Archers, late in the game after a short scuffle the aforementioned banner was no longer being waved by the visiting supporters, but by several young scamps in the Saints mob next to them.
Suddenly both in League and Cup Saints fancied their chances and after this game there was a feeling in the City that this could perhaps be our year, the A Cup draw on Monday morning brought a tie at West Bromwich Albion three weeks later and every man and his dog wanted to go with over 100 coaches booked plus two special trains, but that is for tomorrow's installment