The Trophy Years - Part 2

Having Come Close To Winning The League In 1950-60, Bill Nicholson's Side Were Fancied To Do Well Again The Following Season. But Few Could Ever Have Imagined We Would Hit The Heights That We Achieved In 1960-61, As We Clinched Another League Championship Here At The Lane Before Adding The FA Cup To Complete A Historic 'Double'

 

After winning our first Division One title in 1951 and then finishing runners-up the following season under Arthur Rowe’s stewardship, a period of dominance in English football was hoped for by the club’s supporters.

Alas it never arrived. Instead we found ourselves struggling at the wrong end of the table for a few years over the next decade, finishing as low as 18th on two occasions. The second of those – season 1958-59 – had seen manager Jimmy Anderson step aside and be replaced by Bill Nicholson who famously won his first game in charge 10-4 against Everton.

But what is less widely known is that result failed to spark a revival in our fortunes that year and we ended the campaign just six points above the relegation zone. But Bill had started to impose his own playing style on the team while all the time, he was looking at areas of the squad which needed strengthening and his signing of Dave Mackay in March, 1959, was a significant addition.

It didn’t take long for our fortunes to change and, with Bill also bringing in the likes of goalkeeper Bill Brown, midfielder John White and Les Allen to bolster our attacking options, we went 12 league games unbeaten at the start of 1959-60.

In fact, when we played Fulham here at the Lane in March, 1960, we were top of Division One but picked up just eight points in our final nine matches and dropped to third, two points offeventual winners Burnley. The irony is that our 3-1 win at Molineux in our penultimate game of the season prevented Wolves from winning the league – and the fact that Stan Cullis’s great side went on to win the FA Cup that season meant we robbed them of achieving the first ‘Double’ of the modern era. The significance of that irony would soon be felt.