The Debenhams Cup
Popular culture in the 1970s saw the breakup of The Beatles, the death of global icon and 'King of Rock and Roll' Elvis Presley and the emergence of disco and punk music. Something less widely remembered however, was The Debenhams Cup - a short lived, but endearing English FA Cup spin-off contest which lasted just two years.
The idea came to reality when leading marketers from the now defunct department store persuaded then FA secretary Ted Croker that a sponsored competition linked to the FA Cup (the FA Cup itself wouldn't have a naming sponsor until 1994 for relevance) would be beneficial for the overall game. Their argument was that it rewarded the lower league clubs, the bedrock of the English Football Association's showpiece knockout tournament.
That leads nicely onto the concept of the Debenhams Cup. The trophy would be contested between the two teams from outside of English football's top two tiers to go furthest in the FA Cup. A knockout and replay system was to be used in the event of more than two lower league teams reaching the same latter stage. The final would be played as a season-ending, two-legged affair with the winners picking up the silver trophy and £7,000 prize money. The runners up would receive £5,000, with a further £8,000 to be spread throughout youth football across the country.
The inaugural Debenhams Cup took place at the end of the 1976/77 campaign and would see a meeting of Third Division clubs Port Vale and Chester, as both sides had reached the fifth round of the FA Cup. In reaching that stage, Vale had seen off Southport, Barnsley, Hull, and Burnley before losing 3-0 against Aston Villa at Villa Park. Meanwhile Chester's cup journey had seen them edge past Hartlepool United, Grimsby Town, Southend United, and Luton Town before narrowly succumbing against Wolverhampton Wanderers with a 1-0 defeat at Molineux.
Port Vale would host the first leg at Vale Park, where goals from top scorer Ken Beamish and Neil Griffiths would see The Valiants take a commanding position in the tie and head to the Welsh border for the return leg with a 2-0 lead.
That lead proved insufficient however, as Chester hit back to claim a memorable 4-1 victory at their former Sealand Road home, completing a 4-3 aggregate success with goals from Ian Howat, David Burns and Stuart Mason (along with an own goal from Vale's Neil Griffiths) to become the first club to be crowned Debenhams Cup champions.
The following season - 1977/78 - would see the first and only non-league club contest the Debenhams Cup as Tynesiders Blyth Spartans reached the FA Cup fifth round where they were agonisingly eliminated by soon to be Third Division champions Wrexham.
Spartans had beaten Chesterfield, fellow non-league side Enfield, and Stoke City before initially holding the Welsh side at the Racecourse Ground, subsequently losing the replay in front of over 40,000 spectators at Newcastle's St James' Park.
Ironically, it would be Wrexham who Blyth would face in the second and last Debenhams Cup final at the season's end. The club from north Wales, who had reached the sixth round of the FA Cup through beating Burton Albion, Preston North End, Bristol City, Newcastle United and Blyth (before losing to London giants Arsenal) would go into the tie as firm favourites as they looked to complete a league and cup double to cap a memorable season.
However, Wrexham would be hampered by having players away on international duty for the two games and Spartans used that to their advantage as they avenged their earlier FA Cup defeat with a 2-1 away win in the first leg, played in front of less than 2,500 supporters at the Racecourse Ground. Just under 5,500 spectators packed into Blyth's Croft Park stadium for the return leg, and the vast majority were rewarded as Blyth held on for 1-1 draw on the night and in-turn a 3-2 aggregate success which saw them become the second and final side to get their hands on the Debenhams Cup.
The competition was scrapped after just two seasons, going the same way as other tournaments of the era such as the Texaco Cup, Watney Cup and Full Members' Cup in swiftly coming and going from the English footballing landscape.
That's not quite the end of the story though, as the Debenhams Cup trophy itself mysteriously disappeared after the former high Street chain requested it be returned by Blyth in 1985 to be put to other internal company uses. Spartans duly returned the trophy, but that was the last anyone saw of it until some keen 'Green Army' fans did some sleuthing a few years ago and discovered the trophy had been gathering dust in a storeroom at Debenhams HQ for decades. With Spartans still being the reigning champions, a nostalgic request was put into the company by Blyth to allow them to have the trophy back. Before the enterprise folded in 2021, Debenhams chiefs signed off on this and the trophy was delivered back to its rightful Northumberland home, over 40 years on from the club's initial and fondly remembered success.
Chris Kelly - May 2023