Birmingham City F.C.

1978–79 season
Chairman	Keith Coombs
Manager	Jim Smith
Ground	St Andrew's
Football League First Division	21st
FA Cup	Third round (eliminated by Burnley)
League Cup	Second round (eliminated by Southampton)
Top goalscorer	League: Alan Buckley (8) All: Alan Buckley (8)
Highest home attendance	36,145 vs Aston Villa, 21 October 1978
Lowest home attendance	12,168 vs Norwich City, 27 March 1979
Average home league attendance	20,164
Home colours
← 1977–78 1979–80 →

The 1978–79 Football League season was Birmingham City Football Club's 76th in the Football League and their 45th in the First Division. They were in the bottom two positions in the 22-team division from 9 September onwards, eventually finishing 21st position, so were relegated to the Second Division for 1979–80. They lost in their opening matches in both the 1978–79 FA Cup and the League Cup, eliminated by Burnley and Southampton respectively.

Twenty-seven players made at least one appearance in nationally organised first-team competition, and there were thirteen different goalscorers. Defender Joe Gallagher played in every game but one over the season, and Alan Buckley was the club's top scorer with 8 goals, all scored in the league. Jim Smith, in his first full season as Birmingham's manager, brought Argentina's World Cup-winning full-back Alberto Tarantini to the club.^[1]

Trevor Francis, who joined Birmingham as a 15-year-old, became the first British footballer to be transferred for a fee of at least £1 million when Brian Clough signed him for league champions Nottingham Forest in February 1979. The basic fee was below £1m – Clough claimed in his autobiography to have set the fee at £999,999 because he did not want the idea of being the first £1m player going to Francis's head – but VAT and the transfer levy raised the total payable to £1.18m. Within three months he scored the winning goal in the 1979 European Cup Final.^[2][3]

Football League First Division[edit]

League table (part)[edit]

FA Cup[edit]

League Cup[edit]

Appearances and goals[edit]

Numbers in parentheses denote appearances as substitute.

Players with name struck through and marked left the club during the playing season.

Players with names in italics and marked * were on loan from another club for the whole of their season with Birmingham.

Players having played at least one first-team match

Pos.	Nat.	Name	League		FA Cup		League Cup		Total
			Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
GK	ENG	Neil Freeman	29	0	0	0	0	0	29	0
GK	ENG	Jimmy Montgomery	13	0	1	0	1	0	15	0
DF	ENG	Kevan Broadhurst	13 (3)	1	1	0	1	0	15 (3)	1
DF	SCO	Jimmy Calderwood	24 (1)	1	0	0	0	0	24 (1)	0
DF	ENG	Mark Dennis	31	0	1	0	0	0	32	0
DF	ENG	Joe Gallagher	41	3	1	0	1	1	43	4
DF	ENG	Pat Howard	5	0	0	0	0	0	5	0
DF	WAL	Malcolm Page	32	0	1	0	1	0	35	0
DF	ENG	Garry Pendrey	9 (1)	0	0	0	1	0	10 (1)	0
DF	ENG	Mick Rathbone	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
DF	ARG	Alberto Tarantini	23	1	1	0	0	0	24	1
DF	WAL	Pat Van Den Hauwe	7 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	7 (1)	0
MF	ENG	Alan Ainscow	27 (4)	2	0	0	1	0	28 (4)	2
MF	ENG	Stewart Barrowclough	26 (3)	2	0	0	1	0	27 (3)	2
MF	ENG	Trevor Dark	2 (3)	1	0	0	0	0	2 (3)	1
MF	ENG	Kevin Dillon	36 (1)	2	1	0	0	0	37 (1)	2
MF	WAL	Gary Emmanuel	12 (1)	0	0	0	1	0	13 (1)	0
MF	ENG	Steve Fox	13 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	13 (1)	0
MF	ENG	Steve Lynex	2	1	0	0	0	0	2	1
MF	SCO	Bruce Rioch*	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
MF	ENG	Tony Towers	31 (1)	2	1	0	0 (1)	0	32 (2)	2
FW	ENG	Keith Bertschin	9	2	0 (1)	0	1	0	10 (1)	2
FW	ENG	Malcolm Briggs	0 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	0 (1)	0
FW	ENG	Alan Buckley	24 (4)	8	1	0	0	0	25 (4)	8
FW	ENG	Trevor Francis	8 (1)	3	1	0	1	1	10 (1)	4
FW	IRL	Don Givens	38 (1)	7	1	0	1	0	40 (1)	7
FW	ENG	Paul Ivey	3 (2)	0	0	0	0	0	3 (2)	0

See also[edit]

• Birmingham City F.C. seasons

References[edit]

General

• 
  Matthews, Tony (1995). Birmingham City: A Complete Record. Derby: Breedon Books. ISBN 978-1-85983-010-9..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
  


• 
  Matthews, Tony (2010). Birmingham City: The Complete Record. Derby: DB Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85983-853-2.
  


• Source for match dates and results: "Birmingham City 1978–1979 : Results". Statto Organisation. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
  


• Source for lineups, appearances, goalscorers and attendances: Matthews (2010), Complete Record, pp. 392–93.

Specific