The Isthmian Years- 1977-78

The 1977-78 Isthmian League kicked off with champions Enfield, who had picked up the title by a point from Wycombe Wanderers the previous season, looking to win their third title in a row and sixth overall. Their first three titles had come in a row, from 1967-70, so in effect they were after a double hat trick. Dulwich Hamlet were hoping to bounce back from relegation, and we had seventeen new sides making up a new Division Two- it should have been eighteen, but Milton Keynes City withdrew after being accepted.

If Enfield were to win, then although they’d pick up three in a row they’d also be the first ever champions of the Premier Division, as our top flight was now named. Division Two was now Division One, and had been replaced by Division Two! Are you keeping up? The sides making up the new Division were Camberley Town, Cheshunt, Eastbourne United, Egham Town, Epping Town, Epsom and Ewell, Farnborough Town, Feltham, Hemel Hempstead, Letchworth Garden City, Lewes, Metropolitan Police, Molesey, Rainham Town, Tring Town, Willesden and Worthing. Milton Keynes replacements only joined after the season had ended, and they were Hungerford Town.

In the professional game, Liverpool kicked off the season as Champions and European Cup holders- without Kevin Keegan, who they’d sold to Hamburg for a colossal half a million pounds, but with Kenny Dalglish, who they’d signed from Celtic, making sixty thousand pounds profit on the two deals! Their images here are taken from the Score Annual of 1979, which promised “SUPER SOCCER ACTION FOR ALL BOYS!” Manchester United held the FA Cup, defeating Liverpool in the Final. Ron Greenwood had just taken up the post of England’s caretaker manager, replacing Don Revie.

Away from football, we’d just had rioting in Birmingham and Lewisham as protesters tried to stop marches by the National Front, and the Brotherhood of Man had just replaced Donna Summer at number one in the singles chart, their Angelo gazumping Donna’s I Feel Love, which had been at the top for four weeks. The other songs in the top ten were by Showaddywaddy, The Floaters, Smokie, The Rah Band, Boney M, Rita Coolidge, The Stranglers and Deniece Williams.

Isthmian League

The opening day fixtures on Saturday 20th August 1977 were as follows:

Premier Division:

Walthamstow Avenue 1 Barking 2
Enfield 2 Carshalton Athletic 1
Boreham Wood 2 Dagenham 4
Leatherhead 1 Hayes 0
Hitchin Town 1 Leytonstone 0
Sutton Utd 1 Slough Town 1
Kingstonian 3 Southall & Ealing Borough 0
Hendon 1 Staines Town 1
Bishop’s Stortford 1 Tilbury 3
Tooting & Mitcham U 2 Woking 0
Croydon 1 Wycombe Wanderers 2

Division One

Chesham Utd 2 Aveley 4
Hertford Town 0 Bromley 2
St Albans City 4 Corinthian-Casuals 0
Walton & Hersham 0 Finchley 1
Ilford 1 Harlow Town 1
Maidenhead Utd 3 Harrow Borough 4
Dulwich Hamlet 4 Harwich & Parkeston 1
Clapton 2 Hornchurch 2
Horsham 0 Oxford City 1
Hampton 2 Ware 1
Wokingham Town 3 Wembley 0

Division Two

Rainham Town 0 Cheshunt 1
Met Police 0 Egham Town 1
Tring Town 2 Epping Town 1
Feltham 1 Epsom & Ewell 2
Eastbourne Utd 1 Letchworth Garden City 1
Worthing 2 Lewes 1
Camberley Town 0 Molesey 0
Hemel Hempstead 3 Willesden 1

Enfield not only picked up their double hat trick of titles, they did it in some style, losing only twice and earning one hundred and ten points, a new record- which put them thirty one points ahead of second place Dagenham, so there’s no point us trying to introduce any tension at this point, there wasn’t any! Bishop’s Stortford’s poor start to the season was a marker, as they ended the campaign at the bottom, relegated along with Southall and Ealing Borough- who had formerly been Southall, and were soon Southall once more, adding the Ealing Borough name for only five seasons.

In Division One Dulwich Hamlet, who had just been edged into a relegation spot by Stortford during the previous campaign, bounced back to earn promotion at the first attempt, ten points ahead of also promoted Oxford City, who just eased out Bromley to take second place. At the wrong end of the table Hornchurch and Corinthian-Casuals became the first clubs to be relegated to Division Two; the Urchins narrowly, a two point margin between themselves and third bottom Clapton proving insurmountable, Casuals after a terrible season during which they picked up only three victories.

Division Two saw Epsom & Ewell pick up the very first Championship trophy, wining the title by ending the season five points clear of Metropolitan Police. Farnborough Town were two points further back, and how they must have rued the four points that the boys in blue took from them; whilst at the wrong end Willesden and Epping Town had to apply for re-election- which they did, successfully.

The League Cup- sponsored by Hitachi- was won by league runners up Dagenham, who defeated Leatherhead one-nil at Dulwich Hamlet.

Notable results:

Gone were the regular thrashings notable in our features from the 1950’s and 60’s, with the competition now much closer. Nobody in the Premier Division or Division One scored more than six goals in one match, although Tring Town and Farnborough Town in Division Two each managed an eight.

Premier Division:

Sutton United 1 Enfield 6
Carshalton Ath 6 Bishop’s Stortford 1
Croydon 3 Woking 6
Hendon 5 Carshalton Athletic 0
Southall & Ealing Borough 0 Barking 5
Boreham Wood 0 Wycombe Wanderers 5
Tilbury 5 Bishop’s Stortford 1
Dagenham 5 Kingstonian 1
Leatherhead 5 Southall & EB 1
Walthamstow Avenue 1 Hendon 5
Woking 4 Dagenham 5

Division One:

Wokingham Town 6 Aveley 0
St Albans City 6 Maidenhead Utd 0
Wembley 6 Finchley 1
Hornchurch 6 Harwich & P 1
Oxford City 6 Wembley 1
Wembley 0 Dulwich Hamlet 5
Harrow B 0 Oxford City 5
Finchley 0 Oxford City 5
Bromley 5 Clapton 0
Dulwich Hamlet 5 Corinthian-Casuals 0
Dulwich Hamlet 5 Hornchurch 0
Harlow Town 5 Ware 0
Oxford City 5 Ware 0
St Albans City 5 Ilford 0
Chesham Utd 5 Ware 1
Walton & H 5 Hornchurch 1
Oxford City 5 Harlow Town 1
Chesham Utd 1 Harwich & P 5
Harwich & P 1 Walton & H 5
Hornchurch 4 Chesham Utd 5

Division Two

Tring Town 8 Willesden 1
Farnborough Town 8 Feltham 2
Willesden 0 Egham Town 6
Willesden 0 Tring Town 6
Letchworth GC 6 Hemel Hempstead 4
Willesden 0 Molesey 5
Letchworth GC 5 Egham Town 0
Farnborough Town 5 Camberley Town 0
Epsom & Ewell 5 Eastbourne United 1
Camberley Town 5 Willesden 1
Camberley Town 1 Tring Town 5
Lewes 2 Farnborough Town 5
Egham Town 5 Epping Town 3
Worthing 4 Rainham Town 5

We don’t have attendance figures for most of the matches, sadly- but the highest we have is the one thousand, two hundred and fifty who saw Wycombe Wanderers entertain Boreham Wood on September 24th. The Chairboys won three-nil.

FA Cup

Enfield delivered our big cup success of the season. As well as romping to the League title they defeated Wimbledon three-nil in the First Round, Northampton Town two-nil away from home in the Second Round, before losing to Blyth Spartans in Round Three. Spartans then defeated Stoke City before bowing out to Wrexham in a Fifth Round Replay, thus narrowly failing to take Bishop Auckland’s place as the greatest Non League side of all time.

Tilbury also had a superb cup run. As The Dockers website explains:

‘It was in the F.A. Cup that Tilbury really made their mark on the season, achieving National recognition along the way. After starting in the Preliminary Round, they became the first and so far only Thurrock club to fight their way right through to the 3rd Round Proper. Kingstonian, Bracknell Town, Witney Town, Feltham, Tonbridge, Kettering Town and Nuneaton Borough were beaten, all except Feltham and Tonbridge had to be beaten on their own grounds. The Kettering tie provoked great controversy and went to three games before being decided. Kettering had, in fact, won the first game, at Tilbury, but were found to have fielded an Ineligible Player, in the shape of former Charlton Athletic and Leicester City winger Len Glover, for whom they had failed to gain the necessary International Clearance following his spell in the North American Soccer League.
The Football Association ordered the game replayed. A 2-2 draw at Tilbury was followed 48 hours later with a thrilling 3-2 win for Tilbury at Kettering, in which they had to come back from being 0-2 down inside the first 10 minutes. The reward for these victories came in the shape of an away 3rd Round tie at Stoke City F.C. A crowd in excess of 16,000 turned up at the Victoria Ground, including some 2,500 who had journeyed up from Thurrock by Car, Coach and Special Train. There was to be no Fairy Tale ending though, as Stoke City capitalised on a first minute goal, and went on to record a comfortable 4-0 success.’

Hendon were defeated by Watford in the First Round, two-nil, and Boreham Wood lost by the same score in a replay against Swindon Town. Dagenham departed the competition at this stage by losing one-nil to Walsall. Wycombe Wanderers were another First Round departure, going down two-nil to Minehead in Somerset, whilst Tooting & Mitcham United were two-one losers at home to Northampton Town and Leatherhead went down by the same score in a replay against Swansea City.

FA Trophy

The last eight of the FA Trophy found two of our sides in with a shout, Dagenham, who were also trying to challenge Enfield for the league title, and Leatherhead- who were having a decent season but not really a feature in the title race. The Daggers travelled to the North East, where they fell to defeat against Spennymoor United by the only goal of the game in front of one thousand, eight hundred and sixty three spectators, but the Tanners had much better fortunes, a goalless draw in front of two thousand, two hundred and one at Bedford Town followed by a five-two home win in the replay. One thousand, one hundred and forty eight turned up, and they saw Salkeld and Doyle each get a double and Cook the other goal in a comprehensive win.

The Semi-Final saw Leatherhead draw Dagenham’s conquerors. It was a two-legged tie, and the first saw the Tanners triumph by two goals to nil, Cooper and Malley with the goals as one thousand, six hundred and ninety seven. So it was off up the A1 to The Brewery Field for the second leg, where just under three thousand saw Spenny win by two goals to one- but that wasn’t enough, and the Tanners were off to Wembley. Baker scored their goal, and Altrincham, who had defeated Runcorn by a goal to nil on aggregate, awaited.

The Final took place on April 29th 1978- although you’ll note that the official programme doesn’t reveal the year! Twenty thousand turned up, and rather than write you a report we’ve included one written at the time, taken directly from the 1978-79 edition of the FA Non-League Football Annual. Sadly the Tanners fell to a three-one defeat.

This was Leatherhead’s first- and so far, only- trip to Wembley, although they twice made the Semi-Final of the FA Amateur Cup. It was Altrincham’s first trip, although they’d come very close the previous season, Scarborough defeating them in the Semi Finals after two replays. They got to the Final once more in 1982, where they lost to Enfield, and again in 1986, when they defeated Runcorn to win the Trophy for the second time- so far!

Check out our Isthmian Archive site, here- that's where we got the tables and much of the other information.