George Hartley did depart in 1973. The excellent Gilbert Upton book includes him for 1973-1974 but he wasn't in the Football League Handbook for that season and he didn't officiate in any games.

George Hartley (Wakefield) was a League ref from 1968 to 1973. This profile from earlier in 1971 has a rather dapper-looking "off-duty" picture of him.

This picture looks like it's from Leicester's short-lived switch to playing in all-white.

This may have been Brian Martin's last game on the line with him joining George Flint on the full list the next season. The other linesman Dave Harwood had one season (1972-1973) as a supplementary referee and in November 1970 had taken over from the injured ref in a televised Leeds-Man City game.

An unusual feature here is the German officials have their home towns / cities noted rather than just being billed as from West Germany. It's always interesting (to me anyway!) to see home towns rather than just the country for international officials.

And of course Great Bookham for Ray Lewis! That old system certainly helped in teaching English and Welsh geography!

I think that's true not just for those with an interest in referees but general football followers of those times - the referee wasn't just "Mr X" but "Mr X from Y", the place names and referees were very much linked. Plenty of places were only really familiar because of a link to a referee.

Ray Toseland refereed the first FA Vase Final in 1975 & was on the line for the FA Trophy Final the year before. Although usually associated with Kettering he moved to nearby Market Harborough over the border in Leicestershire for his later seasons, the same move later made by Brian Hill.

That's a good point about George Tyson. Jim Bent, Harold Davey and Alex Hamil were rank-and-file refs; George Tyson by contrast did a lot of top Division games and probably these days would be a Premier League official. He might have had greater honours if he'd reached the list earlier.

You're right that the senior linesman was often an up-and-coming referee rather than one approaching retirement. Harold Davey in 1974 and Alex Hamil in 1982 were also near the end of their careers when appointed senior linesman. I think it was right that these officials also got the opportunity.

Senior linesman Jim Bent was from Hemel Hempstead. I like the reference to the "flame" flag! Occasionally flags were listed as orange, cerise, amber, pink, even magenta. Up until that time the flags were often close to cerise and orange, not a very clear colour contrast compared to red and yellow.

Possibly uniquely it was the last game for all 3 officials - linesmen Jim Bent (bearded, also a FL ref) and John Lydon. Perhaps to mark this they went on a lap of honour after the game!

Chelsea manager Eddie McCreadie is on the left of the picture and the linesman is John Hazell, an insurance agent from Colchester and in his last match. Both he and referee Reg Robinson did many games in London with geographical restrictions ruling out officials from the London area.

Tony Morrissey is one of the easier referees to identify from that era due to his distinctive appearance - very tall (6'03) with grey, slicked-back hair.

The referee is Ralph Lee of Cheadle, Cheshire. For comparison I've attached a picture of him from 1975. Clive Thomas did referee WBA v Arsenal but a few months earlier in April 1971.

Interesting change of favourite other team by Graham Moseley who had previously stated it was - Manchester United!

The referee is Dennis Pugh, a primary school headteacher from Chester. He resigned from the list a few months later due to work commitments.

Tommy Dawes was a very long-serving referee (1958-1974), based in Norwich for most of his career and Bury St Edmunds just before he retired but originally from Accrington. There is a very memorable image of him from 1971 berating Steve Kember of Crystal Palace.

Maybe they were expecting some gags and anecdotes but a very astute article including on how West Germany built on their 1966 experience so successfully,

Les Hayes was from Doncaster and on the full list from 1972 to 1977. I think he served a full term but just made the list at a later age which wasn't uncommon then.

You're right on both referees, good identification skills, especially with Les Hayes who was only on the list for 5 seasons. Shorter careers on the FL list were far more common back then.

Line-ups for Bobby Charlton's last game for Man United - a 2-1 defeat at Chelsea in April 1973. Referee John Yates (Redditch) was a League ref from 1966 to 1977. A much longer career awaited linesman Lester Shapter who became a supplementary ref the next season and was on the full list 1974 to 1992.

It's not very clear but I think it's the badge for the Association of Football League Referees and Linesmen.

The linesman on the left of the picture is John Callaghan of Liverpool, a FL linesman in his last season (a common English international appointment). I must stress I didn't recognise him but I think this picture had appeared some years ago with him one of the officials named.

Kevin McNally was not just a very young referee on reaching the FL but he also became a linesman very early in 1966. This short article from 1962 when he was refereeing in county football is one of those few cases where someone very young is predicted to reach the professional game and does so.

Pat Partridge wasn't involved in controversy at that Finals (indeed he rarely was) but he did have to deal with the bizarre incident of the Peru keeper - known for his ventures upfield - fouling a Poland player in his own half!

Kevin McNally was a newsagent outside football which was rather appropriate as few referees in the mid / late 1970s generated more headlines than he did!

The linesman on the left of the picture does look similar to Keith Hackett but is Ron Dix of Fareham. He's obscured here but the linesman on the right is Trelford Mills (Barnsley) who became a League ref that year and served for many years.

Roger Kirkpatrick was also very well-known to general football followers in the 70s and he is one of the tiny number to remain so. It's probably fair to say much of that fame was down to his distinctive appearance and personality but he was well-regarded in terms of refereeing ability as well.

A few Southern refs did make it to the North East for League games before the regional restrictions but they would be from the South East or East Anglia, South Wales or the South West would be a huge distance & travelling time, only really viable when full-time refs in the PL were introduced.