Thursday May 19th 1977
Bristol City's first season in the first division of
the English soccer league for 85 years had been
packed with thrills and spills - but rather more
of the latter and less of the former.
Two weeks before the May 19th game, Bristol
appeared doomed to a swift return to Division Two,
but draws against Manchester United at home and
away at Middlesbrough, and two narrow home wins
against Liverpool and Leeds meant their survival
depended on this last game.
Tottenham Hotspur and Stoke City were already
relegated to Division Two and on this critical night
Sunderland, the other team with more spills than thrills
trying to avoid the third relegation spot, also had their
last match of the season, at the Liverpool club of Everton.
Bristol, Coventry, and Sunderland were even on points,
but owing to goal difference, Bristol needed a single
point to confirm another season in the top flight. Coventry
needed both to insure against relegation by a Sunderland
victory.
[For the benefit of overseas readers, note that in UK
soccer in 1977, a team got two points for a win, one
for a draw and none for a loss.]
Coventry's small stadium stood packed to capacity with
some, 36,900 sup****ters. Kick off got delayed by five
minutes owing to crowd congestion inside and outside
the ground.
After 15 minutes Coventry took the lead with Hutchison,
their international winger, who duly struck again after
52 minutes.
Not to be outdone, Gow soon pulled a goal back for Bristol
and with ten minutes to go, Gillies equalised to sending the
Bristol sup****ters delirious.
Coventry were now in immediate danger and a battle royal
raged for the next seven minutes. Although the Coventry/Bristol
and Sunderland/Everton games were supposedly
synchronous, the Coventry game was running some four
minutes late due to the crowd congestion/injury time.
Accordingly, the result of the Sunderland game came
became available whilst the Coventry/Bristol players
were still locked in a feverish survival struggle on the field..
But not for long.
On the instructions of the Coventry director, the ground
staff flashed the final score of: Everton 2 Sunderland 0
onto the giant scoreboard visible everywhere inside the
ground.
The footballers on both sides duly noted the result, and to
the frustration and amazement of match referee Ron
Challis - but to the ecstatic cheers of all the crowd, who
just one minute earlier had been arch enemies - slowed
the game down to walking pace and gently patted the
ball about amongst themselves with neither side making
little effort to score or tackle whatsoever.
Final score Coventry City 2, Bristol City 2.
Final league positions of bottom five teams (lowest three relegated):
Bristol City 35pts
Coventry City 35pts
Sunderland 34pts
Stoke City 34pts
Tottenham Hotspur 33pts
(Adapted from Chapter 12 of Richard Dawkins:
'The Selfish Gene' and Pete Tully's account of the match at:
http://www.bristolcity.vitalfootball.co.uk/sitepage.asp?a=10803)
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