ON THIS DAY

One of the more unusual fixtures was staged at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge ground - a cricket match! Essex borrowed the ground - and importantly the floodlights - to host the first senior day-night match played in England with the West Indies providing the opposition in front of a crowd of 11,073. An artificial pitch was laid but a football pitch is not the ideal shape for cricket. Being long and thin it was an easy matter to hit sixes to the short boundaries - Graham Gooch hit a century in just 77 minutes and in one 18-minute spell Viv Richards scored 53 runs.

After moving from Scunthorpe United in May Kevin Keegan made his League debut for Liverpool on the opening day of the 1971/72 First Division season, scoring after 12 minutes of the 3-1 win against Nottingham Forest at Anfield.