West Bromwich Albion v Crystal Palace, Full Members Cup - Group Match, The Hawthorns, Wednesday 23rd October 1985

As Albion prepare for the visit of Crystal Palace to The Hawthorns, this month’s featured matchday programme comes from an ‘Eagles’ visit some 28 years ago in the short-lived Full Members Cup competition.

The competition was created after English clubs were banned from European football following the Heysel Stadium disaster and numerous other hooliganism incidents. Only First and Second Division clubs could enter but not all chose to do so. Even the incentive of a Wembley final couldn’t entice most clubs with only five First Division sides entering the first season of the competition - Albion, Chelsea, Coventry City, Manchester City and Oxford United.

The 1985/86 competition started off with eight groups, of which the winners of each progressed to a knock out stage, Albion were paired with Brighton & Hove Albion and Crystal Palace.

The Baggies’ first match took place at Brighton where two goals from Garth Crooks helped the visitors to a 2-1 victory over a Brighton side containing Martin Keown, Dean Saunders, Dennis Mortimer and a future Albion signing - Kieran O’Regan.

Three weeks on and Albion faced Palace with the knowledge that a win would ensure Nobby Stiles’ men would qualify for the knock-out stage. There would be no slip up against the Londoners, goals from Steve Hunt and Jimmy Nicholl giving the Baggies another 2-1 win, Jim Cannon hitting Palace’s consolation.

As insignificant as the game was to most, it was very significant to one player, a certain Steve Bull, who made his first team debut as a substitute. Now, whatever happened to him?

The full line-ups for the game, watched by just 3,764 fans, were:

Albion: David Powell, Jimmy Nicholl, Carlton Palmer, Steve Hunt, Martyn Bennett, Michael Forsyth, Carl Valentine, Tony Grealish, Gerry Armstrong (Gary Robson), Clive Whitehead, Garth Crooks (Steve Bull).

Crystal Palace: George Wood, Ken O’Doherty, Paul Brush (David Lindsay), Kevin Taylor, Micky Droy, Jim Cannon, Alan Irvine, Tony Finnigan, Trevor Aylott, Phil Barber (Ian Wright), Andy Higginbottom.

In the next round Albion would be handed a home tie against Chelsea, whose Chairman Ken Bates was one of the prime movers in organising the competition. After the game had finished 2-2 after extra time (Valentine and Crooks the hosts' scorers), Albion’s involvement in the cup would come to an end following a 5-4 defeat on penalties.

Chelsea would go on to lift the trophy at Wembley, winning a thrilling game against Manchester City 5-4 with future Albion loanee David Speedie hitting a hat-trick for the London side.

Albion’s campaign would not have a happy ending, the club recording all sorts of unwanted records on their way to finishing bottom of the First Division in what was arguably the Baggies’ worst ever season.

The Full Members Cup would last until 1992, becoming the Simod Cup in 1987 and then the Zenith Data Systems Cup in 1989. A lack of real interest in the competition and the arrival of the Premier League knocking the final nail in the cup’s coffin.

The matchday programme is nothing remarkable, a very basic four page issue infact, but even still is something of a rarity, not being seen too often on dealer’s lists or ebay.

View the complete programme for the game here