Anglo-Scottish Cup

Anglo-Scottish Cup

Organising body	FA  SFA
Founded	1975
Abolished	1981; 43 years ago (1981)
Region	England  Scotland
Number of teams	24 (1980–81)
Related competitions	Anglo-Italian Cup
Last champions	Chesterfield (1980–81)

The Anglo-Scottish Cup was a tournament arranged for teams in the English and Scottish football leagues during the summer for several years during the 1970s. It was created in 1975 as a new incarnation of the Texaco Cup, with a similar format to its predecessor, but involving clubs from England and Scotland only.

The competition made every attempt to maintain the status of a top-level tournament. Newcastle United were expelled from the 1976–77 competition for playing a weakened team in the first leg of their quarter-final against Ayr United.^[1] Over the years, however, English entrants were increasingly drawn from the lower divisions, and in 1981 the Scottish clubs withdrew as the public showed little interest in the competition. As the final winners, Chesterfield still hold the trophy and it is displayed in their Board Room. The competition continued, with English clubs only, as the Football League Group Cup.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1987–88 season, an attempt was made to revive the competition as the Anglo-Scottish Challenge, pitting the holders of the FA Cup and Scottish Cup against each other, but after a poor attendance for the first leg between Coventry City and St Mirren the competition was shelved, with the second leg never played.^[2][3][4]

Nottingham Forest’s victory in the 1976-77 final over Orient was their first trophy under the management of Brian Clough, who later stated that he took the tournament seriously (when many other clubs did not) and considered it the springboard for Forest's future success, as they would go on to win a First Division title and two European Cups over the following three seasons. Clough had taken a similar stance on the competition's predecessor, the Texaco Cup, and won it with Derby County in 1972, the same year he guided them to their first league title.