After finishing 4th, 9th and 5th in the First Division in preceding seasons, a final position of 12th at the end of the 1973-74 campaign was perhaps below par for a talented Wolves team. However, any shortfall in expectation in the league was more than compensated with the winning of the League Cup against Manchester City on 2nd March 1974.
The prime reason for Wolves' relatively poor league position that season was that Bill McGarry's team made such a bad start to their campaign. After winning their opening two matches, Wolves won just once in their next thirteen matches that left them occupying one of the relegation positions. Part of the problem was that striker John Richards endured a barren start to the season and went ten league matches without a goal. In the absence of goals from Richards, goalscoring was shared between just two players - Derek Dougan and Jim McCalliog.
However, Richards broke his drought with a goal in the League Cup 2nd Round tie at Halifax Town on 8th October 1973. Thereafter, the Wolves striker was at his absolute best in the League Cup scoring, in total, 7 goals in 7 appearances - including the winner in the final itself.
The 5th Round of the 1973-74 League Cup between Wolves and Liverpool attracted a lowly attendance of just 16,242 to Molineux. However, the sparse crowd was due to the fact that the energy crisis of that era had forced clubs to play their mid-week matches in the afternoon, and so Wolves hosted Liverpool on the afternoon of Wednesday 19th December.
The very brief clip of the only goal of the game, scored by John Richards in the 46th minute, was originally broadcast by ATV Star Soccer with Hugh Johns as commentator.
