Not many English football fans will be celebrating the initial penalty shoot out held by our Football Association. On this day in 1970, Manchester United and Hull City could not be separated in what was the Watney Mann Invitational Cup (the Watney Cup), a competition played only four times until 1973. For those not informed, this as sponsored by a beer manufacturing company, very popular at this time.
George Best was the first United player to step up and he dispatched his spot kick at Boothberry Park and although Denis Law became the first British player to miss under "official" conditions. United still went on to win the shoot off 4-3. The First English Competition to Sell Naming Rights
The tournament invited the two highest-scoring teams from each of the four English football leagues into an eight-team knockout tournament. (what a good idea!) Promoted teams or teams that qualified for one of the European competitions from the previous season were not eligible. This move incentivised high-scoring games during the season in order to potentially qualify, apparently.
The games took place in pre-season and the finalists would play at the home ground of one of the clubs rather than a neutral venue. Each club received an equal share of the gate receipts and TV revenue as well as a prize fund for the winners. The FA also benefitted from the contest, receiving £50,000 from The Watney Mann brewing company for the naming rights. The wonderful Watney Cup was an experiment, with many changes including the first sponsorship deal, the first penalty shoot out, and changes to the offside rule.
The Watney Cup experimented with a change to the offside law during its 1971 and 1972 tournaments. In these years, the offside rule (law??) was modifiedso it could only be "called" insidde tghe penalty area rather than from the halfway line. This change aimed to encourage more attacking play and goal-scoring opportunities!!
Due to the short lifespan of the contest, only four teams managed to lift the Watney Cup. These lucky few are Derby County, Colchester United, Bristol Rovers, and Stoke City. These games helped shape modern football and led the way in increasing revenue for clubs. The successful integration of penalty shootouts will be a lasting legacy of the Watney Cup.
Brian Clough’s Derby County faced Fulham at Craven Cottage in the first round on Saturday 1 August 1970. In the matchday programme, it described the competition as: “deliberately constructed to help the game. It will encourage the playing of more open, exciting football throughout the season.”
It went on to say: “What Watneys do today, Europe and the World will do tomorrow”. Undoubtedly, this was a comment on the newly introduced penalty shootout system that UEFA and FIFA would announce the following season. The cup itself held games that epitomised the magic of the cup. Halifax Town vs Manchester Utd 1971, saw global superstar George Best, Bobby Charlton, and Denis Law visit the Shay.
In front of 19,965 supporters, plucky Halifax Town were victorious with a 2-1 win. Giant killings were much more likely in the Watney Cup by guaranteeing smaller clubs entry and by using a knockout structure. This unique blend of teams gave the smaller clubs a shot at glory. In 1972, the Third Division Bristol Rovers beat much higher opposition to lift the trophy. Rovers beat two top league entrants along the way, Wolves, and Sheffield United.
The first tournament was watched by an average of 21,000 supporters, the second just 12,000. The average fell again in the third year to 11,500 but picked up again to 13,000 in the fourth. The falling attendances led to the demise of the Watney Cup in 1973. The lack of prestige seemed to scupper the contest. Fan interest waned and instead of innovating the Watney Cup, it was phased out in favour of larger-scale tournaments.
The Watney Mann Invitation Cup, joined the fixture list at the start of the 1970/71 season. It was the first sponsored competition played for by Football League clubs - Watney's being a major brewer back then with Watney's Red Barrel providing the bulk of my liquid intake at the time. The competition was made up of 8 clubs - two from each of the four divisions who in the previous season had been the top scorers in their division and who had not been either promoted or won a place in a European competition.
It initially proved to be a popular competition adding a bit of competitive spice to the normally pedestrian pre-season friendly fixture list. It also proved to be innovative by introducing to the British game the penalty shoot-out to settle drawn matches. In the second season of the competition there was an experiment with the rules with offside being restricted only to the penalty area. It proved to be a success with fewer stoppages and less defensive football.
It also opened the eyes of the football world to a new and eventually lucrative source of money from sponsorship. Competing clubs not only had a share of gate receipts and TV income but each participating side received £4,000 for entering. Another £500 went to each first round winners, £500 more for a victory in the semis and £1000 for the winners. In addition The Football League and Football Association shared £50,000 from the sponsors. So perhaps not surprisingly only one club ever declined an invitation to enter.
With proven goalscorers making up the competing clubs the first season saw each match averaging over 4 goals and 21,012 spectators a game going through the turnstiles. That second statistic was helped by Manchester United's participation and the fact that - for the only time in the four years of the competition - both finalists were from the First Division.
Manchester United competed in the second season and their 2-1 first round defeat at Halifax saw the top attendance in the competition - 19,765 (gate receipts £7,782) - but overall the average dropped to 12,196. Manchester United qualified for the third Watney Cup in 1972 but declined the invitation. Presumably following their early defeat at Halifax in 1971 they wanted a more secure pre-season fixture list and arranged friendlies in Torquay, Bournemouth, Copenhagen and Berlin when the Watney Cup was being decided. Bristol Rovers won the 1972 tournament with average attendances slipping again, to 11,648. The giant-killing of 1971 and 1972 came to an end in 1973 when First Division Stoke won the competition and that helped increase the average crowd to 13,196 but despite that improvement the 1973 tournament proved to be the fourth and final staging of the competition.
Full results -
| 1970/71 | ||||||||
Competing clubs - First Division - Derby County & Manchester United Second Division - Hull City and Sheffield United Third Division - Fulham & Reading Fourth Division - Aldershot and Peterborough United First Round (Saturday August 1st 1970) | ||||||||
| Aldershot | 0 | - | 6 | Sheffield United | ||||
| Fulham | 3 | - | 5 | Derby County | ||||
| Peterborough United | 0 | - | 4 | Hull City | ||||
| Reading | 2 | - | 3 | Manchester United | ||||
| Semi Final (Wednesday August 5th 1970) | ||||||||
| Derby County | 1 | - | 0 | Sheffield United | ||||
| Hull City | 1 | - | 1 | Manchester United | ||||
| Manchester United won on 4-3 penalties | ||||||||
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The Watney Mann Invitation Cup, joined the fixture list at the start of the 1970/71 season. It was the first sponsored competition played for by Football League clubs - Watney's being a major brewer back then with Watney's Red Barrel providing the bulk of my liquid intake at the time. The competition was made up of 8 clubs - two from each of the four divisions who in the previous season had been the top scorers in their division and who had not been either promoted or won a place in a European competition. It initially proved to be a popular competition adding a bit of competitive spice to the normally pedestrian pre-season friendly fixture list. It also proved to be innovative by introducing to the British game the penalty shoot-out to settle drawn matches. In the second season of the competition there was an experiment with the rules with offside being restricted only to the penalty area. It proved to be a success with fewer stoppages and less defensive football. Did this change much??
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