Foolishly, I volunteered to "guest edit" a recent edition of the online matchday programme for Prescot Cables. Naively, I expected there to be plenty of material to pull together a passable programme. There wasn't!
The club history notes supplied by the Spartans mentioned the Debenhams Cup - a competition which I had never heard of. This, of course, sparked my curiosity, and resulted in this nice little story.
This was included in the digital Matchday Programme for the Northern Premier League, Premier Division match between Prescot Cables and Blyth Spartans on Saturday 7th September 2024.
The Debenhams Cup was a short-lived football competition introduced in the 1976. It was competed for over a two-legged tie between the two sides from outside the top two divisions of the Football League to have progressed furthest in the FA Cup. Therefore, only clubs of the (then) third and fourth divisions, and the non-league survivors of the earlier qualifying rounds were eligible.
It was one of the first sponsored competitions in English football and was the first time a sponsor had been associated with the FA Cup. The winners received a handsome solid silver trophy, that stood 22 inches (56 centimetres) high and weighed in at nearly 100 ounces (2.8 kilos). They also got a cheque for £7,000, with the runners-up receiving £5,000. A further £8,000 was contributed to the FA, specifically for youth soccer.
In it’s first season (1976–77), third division sides Port Vale and Chester reached the fifth round of the FA Cup, before losing to Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers, respectively.
The Debenhams Cup games were played at the end of the season. In the first leg, at Vale Park, goals from Neil Griffiths and Ken Beamish gave Port Vale a 2–0 victory, to leave them as firm favourites to win the trophy. But on a memorable night at Sealand Road, Stuart Mason, David Burns, Neil Griffiths (own goal) and Ian Howat found the net for Chester to give them a 4–1 victory on the night, and a 4– 3 success on aggregate. It was Chester’s first national trophy.
The story of the 1977–78 season was Blyth Spartans’ run in the FA Cup, as they reached the fifth round and came within seconds of knocking out Wrexham (shown on Match of the Day), who then beat the non-leaguers in a replay. As the two clubs progressing the furthest, Blyth and Wrexham were paired together again in the final of the Debenhams Cup, over two legs in May 1978.
With third division champions, Wrexham, having players away on international duty, Wrexham wanted to postpone the two-legged final until the start of the following season. However, Blyth objected to this, and took full advantage to claim a hardfought 2–1 win in North Wales, thanks to goals from Terry Johnson (his 33rd goal of the season) and Dave Varty.
On 18th May 1978, a crowd of 5,333 packed into Croft Park for the second leg. Varty scored again, as Blyth hung on to draw 1–1, and win the tie, 3–2 on aggregate, to become the second name on the trophy. Blyth’s historic cup-winning team was: Dave Clarke, John Waterson, Ron Guthrie, Dave Varty, Ronnie Scott, Tommy Dixon, Alan Shoulder, Keith Houghton, Terry Johnson, Mick Dagless and Steve Carney. Sub. Ian Mutrie.
The match at Croft Park was to be the final game ever played in the short-lived existence of the Debenhams Cup. Blyth Spartans can, therefore, justifiably claim to be current holders of the cup.
With the competition not having been played again, Blyth just kept hold of the cup, as no request had come for it’s return. However, five years after winning the trophy, Spartans were contacted by Debenhams head office asking for the trophy back. They wanted to use it for a golf tournament!
The trophy was believed to have been lost at Debenhams head office, but thanks to the hard work of Spartans fan and historical researcher, Graham Usher, it was unearthed by Debenhams and returned to the Spartans in 2019.
Acknowledgements: Graham Usher, Blythespirit.wordpress.com: John Gibson article in ChronicleLive, March 2019
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