From the archives: 60 years ago – The big worry

Bayer 04 Leverkusen had a difficult time in the Regional League West since the start of the season. The team under coach Fritz Pliska battled against relegation. They were never in the bottom two but the third-last place could lead to relegation. That depended on one of the two Regional League West teams being promoted to the Bundesliga then the third-bottom team would remain in the Regional League West.

When Pliska resigned as coach on 23 March after a 3-0 home defeat against second-placed Alemannia Aachen, he was replaced by Theo Kirchberg, a former Bayer 04 Oberliga player and now coach of the reserve team. Kirchberg went on to be in charge of the Werkself for the following seven years and he is still the longest serving Bayer 04 coach today.

But he is also unable to turn things round at the start. That meant victory was needed on the final matchday when Westfalia Herne visited the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. It is 23 May 1965 when an excessively nervous Werkself side failed to complete almost any moves in front of 5,000 spectators. Helmut Brücken appeared to be jinxed as he first gave away a penalty that led to the opener for Herne on 39 minutes and he missed three very good chances to level in the second half. Bayer 04 did impress after the restart. The Werkself battled and they pushed the side from Westphalia back into their own half but the Bayer 04 players were unable to convert any of the big goalscoring opportunities. And as happened so often, a counter-attack on 85 minutes saw Westfalia Herne seal the win with a long-range effort. And that led to what everybody wanted to prevent: the big worry.

It was then about crossing fingers for the two Regional League West teams for the promotion matches. Every win for a West team was celebrated in Leverkusen and when Borussia Mönchengladbach travelled to the North team Holstein Kiel on 19 June, Borussia were able to seal promotion with a victory. But they lost 4-2 and although Alemannia Aachen beat the Berlin champions Tennis Borussia 5-4 on the same weekend, Bayern Munich were clearly top of the table and unlikely to miss out on promotion on the final matchday.

So Bayer 04 had to wait another week. What was even more annoying was that players could sign new contracts from 15 June. The defeat for Borussia Mönchengladbach meant the Bayer 04 management led by football boss Franz Blume had to wait another week where they were unable to persuade players to stay under the Bayer Cross. And they were also unable to convince potential new signings to come to Leverkusen.

But when Borussia achieved promotion to the Bundesliga on 26 June 1965 following a draw, the result was not just celebrated in Mönchengladbach. All Bayer 04 supporters in Leverkusen were also happy. And plans for the new season could finally start.