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In 1973-74, Britain was in meltdown. The Arab-Israeli War had
sent energy prices soaring. Petrol was scarce. Offices were limited
to a temperature of 17C and power cuts were frequent. A three-day
working week came in as inflation took hold and miners and other
workers went on strike.
The northern mill town of Rochdale suffered more than most. Its
cotton industry was on shut-down in the face of cheap imports, and
the football team was a mirror image of the town – tired, defeated,
clinging to life.
The Rochdale team of 1973-74 is considered the worst to play in
the Football League. They finished bottom of the third division,
winning just twice in 46 league matches. They closed the season
with a 22-game winless run and played one home match in front of
the lowest-ever post-war crowd. That season 32 players turned out
for the team, many of them drafted in from amateur or Sunday league
clubs.
The Longest Winter is as much an intimate and forensic documentary
in the Storyville mode as it is a sports book. It evokes
the smells, textures and moods of the early 1970s.
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