1970 January - June

As reported in 'Kevin Keegan. The Seventies Revistited.' With Norman Giller. 1994 Queen Anne Press, London.

1970

2 January: George Best starts the 'seventies with a four-week suspension for the after-match incident with referee Jack Taylor following the League Cup semi-final.

8 January: Alan Ball is suspended for five weeks and fined 100 pounds after collecting three bookings. It's a worrying blow to championship leaders Everton.

14 January: England and Holland draw 0-0 at Wembley. Nottingham Forest winger Ian Storey-Moore wins his only international cap and is unlucky when he has a perfectly good-Iooking headed goal disallowed.

19 January: Tommy Docherty is sacked by bottom-of-the-Second-Division Aston Villa after just 397 days as manager at Villa Park. He is number 712 on the list of managers who have lost their jobs since the war. It sounds much too precarious a profession for my taste !

30 January: Bill Nicholson axes half his Tottenham side - including Jimmy Greaves, Alan Gilzean and Cyril Knowles - following an FA Cup defeat at Crystal Palace.

6 February: Derby County manager Brian Clough agrees to pay a club record fee of 110,000 pounds to Nottingham Forest for Welsh international Terry Hennessey.

7 February: George Best returns after his month's suspension with a stunning six-goal solo show against Northampton Town in the fifth round of the FA Cup. Kim Book, brother of Manchester City skipper Tony, is the unlucky goalkeeper on the receiving end.

19 February: Sir Alf Ramsey turns down a 'name-your-price' offer to manage Benfica.

20 February: Watford produce an FA Cup shock by beating Liverpool to earn a place in the semi-finals for the first time in their history.

25 February: England beat Belgium 3-1 on a snow-carpeted pitch in Brussels with two goals from Alan Ball and one from Geoff Hurst. Peter Osgood makes his international debut. 1 March: Southend United appoint Arthur Rowley, the a!l-time record League goal-scorer, as their 7,000 pounds-a-year manager.

4 March: England are leading Scotland 3-1 in an Under-23 international at Sunderland when a blizzard forces the game to be abandoned after 62 minutes.

7 March: Manchester City win the Football League Cup with a 2-1 extra-time victory over West Bromwich Albion at Wembley.

14 March: Chelsea hammer Watford 5-1 to reach the FA Cup final. Manchester United and Leeds go to a semi-final replay.

16 March: Martin Peters moves to Tottenham and Jimmy Greaves to West Ham in a British record 200,000 pounds transfer deal. Greaves, who scored a club record 220 League goals during nine years at White Hart Lane, is valued as a 54,000 pounds makeweight.

18 March: Arsenal bury Dinamo Bacau under a seven-goal avalanche as they power through to the semi-finals of the European Fairs Cup. Two goals from Jeff Astle and another from Don Rogers give the Football League a 3-2 victory over the Scottish League at Coventry.

21 March: Jimmy Greaves scores two goals for West Ham at Manchester City to maintain his record of always scoring on major debuts.

23 March: Manchester United and Leeds draw 0-0 in their FA Cup semi-final replay at Villa Park.

26 March: Leeds skipper Billy Bremner scores the goal that breaks the FA Cup semi-final deadlock against Manchester United at St Andrew's.

1 April: Leeds are beaten 1-0 by a George Connelly goal in the first leg of their European Cup semi-final against Celtic at Elland Road. Manchester City also lose 1-0 in the first leg of their European Cup-Winners' Cup semi-final against Schalke.

2 April: Leeds right-back Paul Reaney breaks a leg during a League match at West Ham. His place in England's World Cup squad is offered to his team-mate Paul Madeley, who turns it down for family reasons. Arsenal left-back Bob McNab does accept the invitation.

8 April: Arsenal beat Ajax, including Johan Cruyff, 3-0 in the first leg of their European Fairs Cup semi-final at Highbury. England beat Bulgaria 4-1 in an Under-23 international at Plymouth, with Roger Morgan (2), David Nish and Tony Currie scoring the goals.

10 April: Manchester United beat Watford 2-0 in a play-off for third place between the losing FA Cup semi-finalists. The experimental match is a flop, with only 15, 105 fans turning up at Highbury.

11 April: Chelsea and Leeds draw 2-2 after extra time in the FA Cup final at Wembley. It's the first time that a Wembley final has gone to a replay.

15 April: Celtic beat Leeds 2-1 at Hampden Park to clinch their place in the European Cup final. Manchester City reach the Cup- Winners' Cup final by beating Schalke 5-1. Arsenal go through to the Fairs Cup finals with a 3- I aggregate victory over Ajax.

18 April: George Best is sent off while playing for Northern Ireland against Scotland in Belfast after throwing mud at the referee. Scotland win 1-0. Arsenal club-mates Terry Neill and Frank McLintock line up against each other as rival captains. England and Wales draw 1-1 in Cardiff, Francis Lee salvaging a draw with a spectacular goal after Dick Krzywicki gave Wales a deserved lead.

21 April: Bobby Charlton celebrates his 100th England cap with a goal in a 3- I victory over Northern Ireland at Wembley. George Best, Charlton's United club-mate, scores for Northern Ireland but goals from Hurst and Peters make the game safe for England.

22 April: Scotland and Wales draw 0-0 in their home championship match at Hampden. Arsenal are beaten 3-1 by Anderlecht in the first leg of the European Fairs Cup final in Brussels.

25 April: England and Scotland draw 0-0 at Hampden and Wales beat Northern Ireland 1-0 at Swansea. It is England's final match before they travel to South America for World Cup warmup matches, and it produces the first goalless draw between the 'old enemies' since 1872. The home championship is shared between England, Scotland and Wales.

28 April: Arsenal beat Anderlecht 3-0 at Highbury to lift the European Fairs Cup.

29 April: Manchester City complete a European double for Britain by capturing the Cup- Winners , Cup with a 2-1 victory over Gornik Zabrze in Vienna. Chelsea win the FA Cup for the first time in their history with a 2-1 extra-time victory over Leeds in the replayed final at Old Trafford.

20 May: Two goals from Martin Peters and one each from Bobby Charlton and Alan Ball give England a comfortable 4-0 victory over Colombia in Bogota. The match is played at an altitude of 8,600 feet to acclimatise the players for the thin air of Mexico.

21 May: Terry Neill is appointed player-manager of Hull City and John Bond starts his managerial career with Bournemouth.

24 May: Francis Lee and Brian Kidd are the scorers as England beat Ecuador 2-0 in a World Cup warm-up match played at an altitude of more than 9,000 feet in Quito.

25 May: England skipper Bobby Moore is sensationally arrested on a jewel theft charge in Bogota while on a stop-over with the England squad heading for the World Cup finals in Mexico. It is later proved to be a trumped-up charge, and Moore wins an army of admirers with the dignified way he handles the mind-blowing situation. When he rejoins England after four days under arrest he settles in as if nothing has happened and proves himself one of the finest defenders in the tournament.

28 May: Jimmy Greaves arrives in Mexico in a battered Ford Escort at the end of the 16,400 mile London to Mexico World Cup rally in which he and his co-driver, Tony Fall, finish a creditable sixth. His first concern as he climbs out of his car in Mexico City is for his West Ham team-mate and close friend Bobby Moore. 'Mooro wouldn't take a liberty let alone a bracelet.' he says. Greavsie tracks Moore down to a hideaway in a British embassy official's home and together they sink half a dozen bottles of beer. 'It was just the relaxation I needed,' says Moore. '1 would not wish my ordeal on my worst enemy.'

31 May: The World Cup gets off to an undistinguished start with a goal less draw between host country Mexico and the USSR. The Union Jack is whistled and jeered at during the pre-match ceremony, which gives England an idea of the unfriendly greeting they can expect every time they play. Sir Alf Ramsey has upset many of the locals with what they interpret as anti-Mexican comments. Alf is just being his usual terse self. PR is always his weakest point.

2 June: England start their World Cup defence with a 1-0 victory over Romania in Guadalajara. Geoff Hurst scores in the 70th minute, the ball going through the legs of the goalkeeper.

7 June: Brazil beat England 1-0 in their group match in front of a ground record crowd of 70, 900 in Guadalajara. 11 June: A 49th-minute Allan Clarke penalty on his international debut gives England a 1-0 victory over Czechoslovakia and puts them through to the World Cup quarter-finals.

14 June: Alan Mullery and Martin Peters put England 2-0 clear against West Germany in their quarter-final in Leon. The Germans pull level with two soft-Iooking goals through Franz Beckenbauer and Uwe Seeler. Gerd Muller snatches the winner in extra time. It is Bobby Charlton's 106th and final match for England.

17 June: Italy beat West Germany 4-3 in a classic semi-tlnal that goes to extra time. Brazil clinch their place in the final with a comfortable 3-1 win over Uruguay.

20 June: West Germany take third place in the World Cup with a 1-0 victory over Uruguay. Wolfgang Overath scores the only goal in the 26th minute.

21 June: Brazil win the World Cup for the third time with a comfortable 4-1 victory against Italy. Boninsegna (38 minutes) equalises a goal by Pele ( 18), but the Brazilians underline their superiority with second-half goals from Gerson (65), Jairzinho (70) and Carlos Alberto (86).