After having guided Southampton to their first major honour, the 1976 FA Cup, Lawrie McMenemy hoped that he would have the chance to replicate that feat in the 1979 League Cup final.
The Saints 1978/79 League Cup campaign kicked off in the second-round versus Birmingham City. McMenemy’s men faced little opposition against their Division One ( now Premier League) opponents who would later taste relegation from the top-flight of English football that season. The Blues were handed a 5-2 thumping, Phil Boyer and Ted MacDougall shared two goals each with David Peach Chipping in with one.
In the third-round Saints faced a stubborn and determined Derby at the old Dell who had already won the Division One title twice that decade. Boyer managed to split the difference between the two sides with the only strike of the match to hand his team a narrow 1-0 victory.
The fourth-round proved to be demanding for a lacklustre Southampton where after 90 minutes their match away to Reading finished in a 0-0 stalemate, meaning it was now back to Hampshire for a replay. Thanks to Chris Nicholl and Trevor Hebberd writing their names on the scoresheet, at the Dell, Saints convincingly beat Fourth Division Royals 2-0 who ended up lifting the 1979 league title earning promotion to the Third Division.
Saints hosted Manchester City in the quarter-finals who were one of the best footballing sides of the early 1970s. In 1970 The Citizens collected the European and domestic Cup double, claiming the European Cup Winners Cup and League Cup under legendary football player and manager Joe Mercer. In front of a packed out Dell of 21,500 fans, City were demobilised 2-1 due to efforts by Trevor Hebberd and Boyer yet again!
In the New Year Southampton came up against Leeds United in the semi-finals who had been one of the most feared sides in football during the 1960s and 1970s. After coming up from the Second Division in 1964 they would take the sport by storm under tough disciplinarian Dov Revie, across the next decade. Winning Division One twice and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, FA Cup and League Cup all once!
Saints commenced the first-leg of the semis up at Elland Road where come fulltime after a dogged and determined display The Reds drew 2-2 versus Leeds United, meaning nothing less than a win in the second- leg at home would be enough to reach the final.
In one of the tightest matches of the whole season and perhaps Saints history they put wrong to right in the second-leg. Terry Curran slotted in the goal which would send the South Coast side flying into their first ever League Cup final ever!
After having beaten Manchester United three seasons before in the FA Cup as underdogs at Wembley, Southampton aimed to do the same in 1979 in the League Cup final. The Reds faced Brian Clough’s famous Nottingham Forest side who were the current Division One and League Cup holders. Once the starting whistle was blown before nearly 97,000 spectators at the Empire Stadium Saints took a shock lead through Peach with his close range strike after 16 minutes. Six minutes after the interval Forest retaliated through Garry Birtle due to some clumsy Southampton defending in the box. Birtle would strike again inside the 79th minute to hand Forest a 2-1 lead after an impressive run from nearly the halfway line into the Saints area. Four minutes afterwards Tony Woodcock doubled the advantage from the right hand edge of the six-yard box (3-1). With only a couple of minutes to go of the encounter, Nick Holmes scored to hand Saints a lifeline (2-3) but by that point the Cup was lost. This set Forest up well for the remainder of the season, where they would go onto win their first of two successive European Cups.
The closest Southampton would come to winning the League Cup again, would be nearly 40 years later when defeated in 2017 3-2 by Manchester United at the International Stadium.
