On This Day – 16th April
It was the first day of the Football League Centenary Tournament on this day back in 1988. Never heard of it? Neither had I, until I started researching football on this day!
English clubs were in the third season of their ban from all European competitions and the Football Association kept coming up with more tournaments to fill their schedule.
The Football League Centenary Tournament was played over the weekend of Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th April. Participants were chosen based on their form in the last few months, including a side from each of the lower divisions.
The Tournament was supposed to be a showcase event but the Football League were left looking rather embarrassed due to poor attendances.
41,500 fans clicked through the Wembley turnstiles on the first day of the competition and a paltry 17,000 came back for the second day.
This made be due to the fact that none of the top London clubs were involved and the tournament was being held in the Capital!
16 clubs in all were involved and the matches were shortened to 40 minutes in length. The clubs that took part in the competition were:
Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Crystal Palace, Everton, Leeds United, Liverpool, Luton Town, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Wednesday, Sunderland, Tranmere Rovers, Wigan Athletic, Wimbledon, Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Tranmere Rovers were the surprise team of the tournament. They were in the Fourth Division at the time and beat First Division sides Wimbledon and Newcastle United to reach the second day of the tournament.
Outspoken Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough showed how much he thought of the competition by not even bothering to show up for the first day!
Clough may have still been hurting from Nottingham Forest’s 5-0 defeat away to Liverpool three days earlier in the League. The performance from the Liverpool side was one of the best even seen at Anfield.
The Semi–Finals and Final lasted an hour as opposed to the 40 minutes played the day before.
Tranmere Rovers, the Fourth Division giant-killers from the first day lost to Nottingham Forest on penalties in the first semi-final of the day. Word must have got to the Forest manager as he decided he would turn up for the second day.
Sheffield Wednesday beat Manchester United 2-1 in the second semi-final. The Final between Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday was a drab affair, ending 0-0 and going to penalties.
Nottingham Forest won the shootout and the dubious honour of being the winners of a competition that the participants could have done without entering!
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