Austria. Ranked 8th. Austrian football better than the English one? Laughable… but UEFA’s ranking wa based on international performance and Austrian clubs, unlike the English, played in the European club tournaments and got points, thus climbing ahead of England. At home – brand new champion. Which was not all that new… and yet it was. Apart from that mystery, the season was remarkable by the collection of famous veterans – Hansi Muller and Mario Kempes were already there for some time, but add Bruno Pezzey and Oleg Blokhin, and coach Ernst Happel for good measure. A Jurassic Park in a sense, full of monsters from the 1970s.
The established mixed formula remained – after the first phase the top 8 teams in the First Division went to the final phase, carrying their records. The last 4 in First Division plus the top 4 in the first phase of Second Division made the promotion/relegation group – the top 4 in it were to start in the First Division next season. The bottom 8 in the first phase of the Second Division moved to the relegation phase, carrying their records. The last 3 were relegated. The champions of the 3 groups of Third Division were promoted. They were LUV Graz, ASV Austria Vosendorf, and WSG Wattens.
Second Division – relegation final. SV Dornbirn finished last with 19 points and was relegated. Wolfsberger AC – 7th with 20 points and out. FC Salzburg – 6th with 24 points and relegated.
SV Stockerau survived – 5th with 25 points.
Donawitzer SV Alpine – 4th with 28 points.Crouching from left: Prof. Schweinegger (Co-Trainer), Sabitzer, Guggi, Seitner, Hobelleitner, Peintinger, Schimpl, Trippolt (Zeugwart).
Middle row: Hartmann, Karlsberger, Blümel, Gruber, Kovacevic, Weilguny, Wagner, Jahnel (Masseur).
Top row: Rauch (Sekretär), Miklavic (Trainer), Vujkov, Krenn, Edelmeier, Oliweira, Stankovic, Ing. Hirschmann (Obmann).
VfB Modling – 3rd with 28 points.
SV Spittal/Drau – 2nd with 29 points.
SK VOEST Linz – 1st with 30 points.
The top 5 kept their places in the Second Division for the next season.
The final phase of the championship was in the already mentioned 2 groups – one playing for the title and the other – playing for promotion/relegation. Where teams came from will be given in brackets.
Promotion/relegation phase – the last 4 in the first phase of First Division and top 4 in the first phase of Second Division played twice against each other in 14 rounds.
SC Kufstein (from Second Division) finished last with 3 points and remained in Second Division.
SV Flavia Solva Wagna (from Second Division) ended 7th with 9 points and remained in Second Division.
SK Austria Klagenfurt (10th in the first phase of First Division) was 6th with 13 points and relegated to Second Division. Gary Shaw, European champions with Aston Villa, now 28-years old, arrived from Danish KB Kopenhagen in December 1988 and left promptly after the end of the season. There were 4 more Yugoslav imports in the team, but nothing helped.
LASK Linz (12th in the first phase of First Division) finished 5th with 14 points and was relegated to Second Division. Polish imports Gaida and Kensy and aging Bulgarian star Roussi Gotchev were unable to prevent the slump.
Kremser SC (from Second Division) clinched 4th place with 16 points and was promoted to First Division. The surprise Cup winners in the previous season managed to climb up.
SV Austria Salzburg (from Second Division) ended 3rd with 17 points and was promoted to top flight.
SK Vorwaerts Steyr (9th in the first phase of First Division) finished 2nd with 19 points and remained in First Division. Must have been unpleasant surprise for Oleg Blokhin, used to be on top, now to fight for survival and avoiding relegation… Then again, he was pushing 37 and it was even surprising that he was still playing. Arguably the greatest ever Soviet star was no longer coveted by big clubs – by now only a modest club like Vorwaerts was interested in him and he was glad to play for them. Such is luck… the Soviets permitted their players to go abroad too late for Blokhin, but at least he was able to kick a bit of ball professionally in the twilight of his career, just before retirement and avoided relegation to Second Division. He played a total of 18 games and scored 1 goal for his new team and departed to Cyprus. Along with him 6 other foreigners played, little known al, the oldest of which the Yugoslav defender Radan Lukic (32) and the Iranian midfielder Ali Facel (33).
SK Sturm Graz (11th in the first phase of First Division) won the tournament with 21 points and preserved First Division spot.
England the Cups
The Cups. In the League Cup Nottingham Forest and Luton Town reached the final. Class is class… Nottingham won 3-1. Nigel Clough scored 2 goals for his father Brian.
Luton Town had an unique chance to win a consecutive League Cup, but unable to produce a miracle. A year ago they prevailed over Arsenal, but now lost. Would have been great if they won, though…
Nottingham Forest won their first trophy since 1980 and looked like Brian Clough was going to repeat the success 10 years ago – Nottingham was back in the big game with new team.
The FA Cup was Liverpool derby. No need to motivate either team… the clash was dramatic and went into overtime. Only then Liverpool prevailed – 3-2.
A matter of winning or losing… difficult to judge. Everton lost. Only in the extra-time, but perhaps even more painfully because of that. Beating their neighbours was made even more important after English clubs were banned from UEFA for the behavior of Liverpool’s fans and thus Everton lost their chance to concur the world – at least, that was their feeling. Revenge was a must… and did not happen. And perhaps at this moment Everton started to fade without fulfilling their ambitions.
Liverpool collected one more trophy, but it was more than that – even more than prevailing over the bitter city rivals: Liverpool needed some success to overcome the Hillsborough tragedy, which happened in the FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest. In a way, winning the Cup was important – paying respects to the dead fans, telling they did not die in vain. It was going to be a big tribute – win the Cup and 6 days later win the title! A double was possible. So, they won the Cup. Then they lost the title. Up and down in 6 days and the irony in that: winning in London and losing in Liverpool – that’s football.
England I Division
First Division. Hillsborough tragedy marked this season, overshadowing thrilling battle for the title and tremendously dramatic ending. Football this season was perhaps not great and many teams seemed rather pedestrian if compared to some earlier vintages, but English football was still entertaining and the final drama was unprecedented. Noticeable also was the very small number of foreign players – looked like English teams were going back to their old ways and it was more likely a good British player to go abroad than a foreigner to join English team. Perhaps not playing in the European tournaments had a lot to do with that. Fans’ violence was pretty much on everybody’s mind, including the British government. As for the end of the season…
Newcastle United had a miserable season – last with 31 points and out.
West Ham United was only slightly better – 19th with 38 points and relegated.
Middlesbrough was the third unfortunate – they finished 18th with 39 points and were relegated.
Aston Villa barely survived – 17th with 40 points.
Luton Town – 16th with 41 points. Difficult season in the league, but overall – one of their best.
Sheffield Wednesday – 15th with 42 points.
Charlton Athletic – 14th with 42 points.
Southampton – 13th with 45 points. Slowly sinking down and quite predictably so: the idea to carry on a season on the backs of few aging stars could not last forever: inevitably, there were fewer and less classier players coming – this season they had Chris Nicholl and Russell Osman which was the same as having Kevin Keegan and Peter Shilton.
Wimbledon – 12th with 51 points.
Manchester United – 11th with 51 points. Another disappointing season… Mark Hughes was back from Spain, Jesper Olsen was sold during the season. Gordon Strachan too. Alex Ferguson still had to do a lot of buying…
Millwall – 10th with 53 points. What was terrible for Manchester United, was wonderful for Millwall – all depends on size… Tony Cascarino was the most recognizable name in the team, but he was helped by young talent Teddy Sheringham.
Queens Park Rangers – 9th with 53 points. Trevor Francis still playing and David Seaman debuted for England.
Everton – 8th with 54 points. Sky was the limit, they claimed only months back…
Coventry City – 7th with 55 points.
Tottenham Hotspur – 6th with 57 points.
Derby County – 5th with 58 points. A comeback?
Norwich City – 4th with 62 points. The pleasant surprise this season.
Nottingham Forest – 3rd with 64 points. Brian Clough was keeping the team up – but they were not a title contenders.
It did not look that way at the beginning of the season, but gradually Arsenal and Liverpool not only took hold of the top positions, but built a big gap between themselves and the rest of the league. The leaders also engaged into historic race for the title, kept to the last second of the championship and ending in unprecedented equality – both finished with exactly the same records, including the goal-difference of +37. Dramatic ending… the championship went to the team scoring more goals! The thrill was fantastic – in the last round Arsenal visited Liverpool, trailing them by 3 points and had slightly inferior goal-difference (+35). Beating Liverpool at Anfield? Mission impossible… But miracles happen sometimes – Arsenal not only won the match, but with the exact result – 2-0 – giving them the edge! Coming from the back in situation entirely against them.
One can imagine the grief of Liverpool… But, on the other hand, many were so tired from seeing them winning all the time, so a change of guard was welcome. Kenny Dalglish was doing great job, indeed, but the current squad compared to earlier vintages was somewhat bland. One can argue to the end of time which Liverpool was greater – the one with Keegan, or the one with Dalglish… the one with John Aldridge would not come to mind at all, although Ian Rush came back from Italy. Liverpool had unfortunate season – first, Jan Molby was in jail for awhile, serving a sentence for driving violation. Then the Hillsborough disaster blackened the hearts – and also postponed the finish of the season. The last bitter drop was losing the title at home… 22 wins, 10 ties, 6 losses, 65-28 goal-difference, 76 points. Liverpool lost the title only on scored goals – Arsenal managed 73 and placed mighty Liverpool second.
What is a disaster for one is a triumph for another… Arsenal clinched the title in the last minute. Michael Thomas was instant hero – he scored the goal on the hostile Liverpool ground which preserved the goal-difference of the rivals equal and gave the title to Arsenal on more scored goals. Such a dramatic ending: Arsenal and Liverpool were entirely equal not just on points. Both had 76 points from 22 wins, 10 ties, 6 losses, and +37 goal-difference. But the scoring record of Liverpool was 65-28 and Arsenal’s was 73-36. That did it, thanks to Thomas – the rules stipulated that in such case goals scored are the tie-break and Arsenal got the upper hand. It was almost two decades long wait, but Arsenal was champion again. Naturally, manager George Graham got legendary status and rightly so, for he managed to win the title with somewhat inferior squad – at least, if compared to Liverpool’s. Kenny Sansom was sold to Newcastle (and what an irony… the great veteran was relegated with his new team at the time when his old one became champion). A good team, but great? Certainly, Arsenal needed some classier reinforcements – goalkeeping was point in case: John Lukic, although well known, was hardly top-class keeper. But getting Seaman was still in the future – presently, it was only joy.
No matter Arsenal had to play without Tony Adams, suspended for offensive television interview, against Liverpool. No matter they had to pose in reserve yellow kit – they won the title!