In 1953, only two clubs in the history of the game, Preston North End and Aston Villa had achieved what was the ultimate achievement in the game back in that era, the League Division One Championship title and English Cup, now known as the League and F.A Cup double. At the end of the 1953/54 campaign, Vic Buckingham’s side would come so agonisingly close to becoming the third side in history to achieve that accolade, but the many hands of fate would conspire to destroy the club’s ambitions.
Mr Buckingham’s tenure would certainly dominate the decade, as his Albion side full of brilliant players regained their composure, and started playing that free-flowing, hard hitting, attacking brand of football, that was first instilled in them by Jesse Carver, and would terrorise First Division defences, with Ronnie Allen and Johnny Nicholls the pivotal two pronged attack formation supplied with ammunition by two deadly wingers in Frank Griffin and George Lee. Irish international ‘Paddy’ Ryan was the gritty ball winning inside forward, the mid-field dynamo if you like, playing just in front of a half back line that composed of three quite outstanding players, Scottish wing half Jimmy Dudley, a superb ‘pivot’ in the young Jimmy Dugdale, who had signed for Albion as an amateur and had now made that centre half slot his own after Jack Vernon had returned home to Ireland.
The third man in that trio was perhaps, the most influential in the side, one of the very finest players to pull on an Albion shirt, wing half Ray Barlow, whose speed and guile on a football pitch, along with amazing skill, would grace The Hawthorns throughout the decade. Stan Rickaby, an import from Middlesbrough of course, was one of the finest full backs of his generation, and complimented the long serving skipper Len Millard, who was now having one of his finest seasons with the club, and the last line of defence was one of the bravest goal-keepers of his time Norman Heath who would suffer a career ending injury towards the end of the season at Sunderland, and along with the also injured Rickaby, would miss out on a Wembley victory, Joe Kennedy and Jim Sanders stepping into the breach.
There were many reasons why the ‘Throstles’ did not achieve the ‘coveted double’ ambition. It is a ‘Throstles story’ that has been mulled over and discussed in pubs and clubs throughout the Borough of West Bromwich for many years.
Albion’s poor run of results at the back end of the season after heading the table for so long, was certainly one major factor, that cannot be denied, it allowed their Staffordshire neighbours Wolverhampton Wanderers to leapfrog the ‘Throstles’ and ‘steal’ the League Championship. Injuries to key players, including Norman Heath, Stan Rickaby and arguably the worst of all, Ray Barlow, all contributing to a loss of rhythm and form that scuppered those ‘double’ ambitions, the players, it was suggested, perhaps more focused at times on getting to Wembley in the F.A Cup Final, therefore taking their ‘eye off the ball’ in terms of the First Division title. Certainly, in the opinion of many, one real factor centred around two games on the same day April 3rd 1954, Albion’s home game against Wolverhampton Wanderers at The Hawthorns and the Scotland versus England Home international match at Hampden Park.
On that Saturday that Albion would play their rivals Wolves at The Hawthorns, without both Ronnie Allen and Johnny Nicholls who were selected to play for England at Hampden Park for their debut internationals. Certainly both men were the top two goal scoring forwards in the country at the time, but with no ‘international break’ back in 1954, and neither player minded to turn down their international call-up, Albion were robbed of their attacking ‘match winning’ formation, which of course caused enormous problems within a side that were already missing key players through injury, the most recent just three days before, being goalkeeper Norman Heath at Sunderland, Jim Sanders stepping back into the side for his third game of the season.
Stan Rickaby had been injured against Chelsea in March and ruled out for the rest of the season, with Stuart Williams stepping up from the reserves, with reserve winger Reg Cutler given his first game of the season against Wolves due to George Lee’s injury, also sustained at Sunderland. Ray Barlow, so commanding at left half and so versatile was called up to replace Ronnie Allen at centre forward, and Wilf Carter stepped into the number ten shirt in place of Johnny Nicholls, Joe Kennedy replacing Ray Barlow at wing half. It was without doubt a much changed side, and the fluency just wasn’t there. To make matters worse, Ray Barlow was the subject of a cynical ‘assassinating’ challenge from Wolves hard man Bill Shorthouse, early in the game and his ability to make any real difference in Albion’s attack was severely limited. Barlow would also miss the next game against Cardiff City at Ninian Park, Albion suffering another damaging 2-0 defeat. I spoke to Ray Barlow about that Shorthouse challenge years later, and let’s just say Ray was ‘less than impressed’ with the challenge and more to the point what Shorthouse actually whispered in Barlow’s ear after the tackle. It wasn’t “Happy Easter!”
Quite simply three points from the last six league games just wasn’t good enough, but with so many team changes, for the reasons outlined, it was perhaps understandable. There was of course serious doubts over the fitness of quite a few of the players who would line up at Wembley in the final against Preston North End, including Ronnie Allen, Ray Barlow, George Lee and Johnny Nicholls, but no one in the football world could doubt Albion the right to be at Wembley, the ‘Team of the Century’ so dubbed, by a prominent Journalist of the day, were there for two good reasons, they deserved to be, and they ‘Were’ the Team of the Century.
The Cup run to Wembley had been an incredible journey for the players, and of course the fans. Beating Chelsea, Rotherham, Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United and Port Vale to get to Wembley had certainly been a real ‘roller-coaster’ ride, with record attendances at The Hawthorns, the lowest being 35,294 against Chelsea in the third round, and the highest a quite staggering 61,088 against Newcastle United in the fifth round. True with the exception of the Semi-Final at Villa Park, all Albion’s games were played at The Hawthorns, but the draw or in this case the ‘luck’ of the draw is part of the competition that makes it the greatest in the world of football, perhaps not today, the Football Association and the Premier League conspiring to downgrade the competition since the 1990’s.
Saturday May 1st 1954, was a ‘D’ day for all Albion fans, as well as the players, as Ronnie Allen with two special goals, one being a dramatic penalty that got the ‘Throstles’ back into the game when they were trailing 2-1, perhaps the most dramatic Cup Final spot kick of all time. Whether it was a penalty of not is open to debate, Tommy Docherty said “No” Ray Barlow said “Yes”, the match official Mr Arthur Luty of West Riding said “Yes” and that was all that mattered. When Len Millard collected the cup and raised it up into the May sunshine at Wembley Stadium, Albion had won the cup! Whether it was deserved or not, there were those including Mr Docherty who said “Not”, but the answer to Tom was “Look at the result in the morning paper Tom!”
With cup won, and the accolades for such a brilliant season taken on the chin, given the failure to win the First Division title, it was in fact time for some reflection on the positives, apart from winning the cup of course. The bumper crowds that attended the Hawthorns increased the footfall by an estimated 340,000 through the turnstiles, with an increased income of around £150,000, a lot of money back in the early fifties, creating a new club record of over one million spectators. That of course included Albion’s share of away gate receipts, and after all taxes, entertainment duty and income taxes it left Albion with a clear profit of over £11,000 on previous seasons. The question that was no doubt on the lips of everyone at the club was “Can the Throstles kick on and go that one step further,” in the following season.
The answer to that was “No” In fact the 1954/55 was a great disappointment, considering what had been achieved in the previous campaign, Albion flirting with relegation for much of the season, after a brilliant start, beaten just twice in the first eleven games, the first two games of the season in fact, before going on a great run of nine games of seven wins and two draws, actually topping the First Division table after defeating Leicester City 6-4 at The Hawthorns in late September, and drawing 4-4 in spectacular fashion with Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux in the Charity Shield game on September 29th, both teams sharing the trophy, the highlight of the game without doubt a wonderful hat trick by Ronnie Allen, pulling the game for the ‘Throstles out of the fire’.
The following week the Albion players travelled over to Brussels to play the Hungarian champions Honved, Ferenc Puskas included, in what was billed as ‘an international club game’ Albion losing 5-3 late in the game, after more than holding their own.
Four subsequent defeats against Tottenham, Sheffield Wednesday, Wolves and Aston Villa, resulted in Albion sliding down the table to eleventh place, in almost ‘freefall’ which they never really recovered from. There was however, one bright moment in a season that would never turn heads, the emergence of another bright and exciting prospect, a young seventeen year old inside forward by the name of Alec Jackson. Born locally in Tipton and coming straight from the factory floor at WG Allen’s, a local firm, Jackson was given his opportunity, making his debut against Charlton Athletic at The Valley on Saturday 6th November 1954 by manager Buckingham, who was at that time recovering in a Hereford Hospital, having been unconscious for three days following a car crash on the way home from Albion’s benefit match against Southern Leaguers Hereford, at Hednesford a benefit game played in aid of former Albion player Jack Sankey and Hereford’s coach, West Bromwich born Reg Bowen.
Jackson along with another 21 year old reserve winger named Alan Crowshaw, were given their opportunities, Buckingham sending a telegram to the Albion players, saying “The only tonic I need is victory.” Well, he got just that, with Jackson scoring on his debut in a 3-1 victory, along with a ‘double’ from Ronnie Allen. Jackson incidentally actually played at inside left in the game against Hereford scoring one of Albion’s five goals in what was no more than an exhibition match, that a mixed first and reserve team combination would lose 10-5.
The victory at Charlton, certainly stopped the slide down the table and by the turn of the year results had stabilised, with Albion still holding to that mid-table position. In January 1955, after beating third Division Bournemouth in the third round of the F.A Cup at Dean Court, defending the trophy they won in May of course, winning 1-0 thanks to a spectacular effort from Stuart Williams, bad weather hit football for a couple of weeks and by the end of January, the ‘Throstles’ would lose their grip on ‘their’ cup, beaten 4-2 at The Hawthorns by Charlton Athletic and also slumped to the bottom four in the First Division following a 3-1 defeat at Blackpool. Another hugely disappointing defeat against Aston Villa at Villa Park at the end of March, Villa’s 3-0 victory completing the league ‘double’ over the Throstles, was almost certainly the very low point of the season, especially with Staffordshire neighbours Wolves sitting proudly at its summit, but improved results in the ‘end of season run-in’ at least eased any fears of relegation, but a humiliating 5-0 defeat away to already relegated Sheffield Wednesday on the last day of the season, just about summed up Albion’s quite frankly puzzling season, considering the ‘highs’ of 1953/54.