Steve Smith looks back at October 1977

Steve Smith: It's hard to believe, but as October 1977 began, only Bristol City were the only one of our two local clubs that could boast a league win.

They had beaten West Ham 3-2 in the top flight, while Rovers had drawn four and lost four of their opening eight matches in Division Two.

October brought a change of luck for Rovers, who collected their first victory of the 1977-78 campaign on October 4, when a brace of goals from David Williams and one from Wayne Powell secured a 3-1 win over Mansfield Town, a club who had never won in the Football League at Eastville in 13 attempts.

On October 15, the goals flowed for the second home match running, as Blackburn Rovers were walloped 4-1 before a crowd of 6,431. The match marked the debut of the nomadic maverick Bobby Gould, the former Coventry, Arsenal, Wolves, West Brom, Bristol City and West Ham forward. And he scored a hat-trick that soon adhered him to the Eastville faithful.

It gave the side an upbeat mood for their first and, so far, only league visit to Tottenham Hotspur's White Hart Lane on October 22.

Making his debut for the home side was Colin Lee, a £60,000 purchase from Fourth Division Torquay who was once on the books at Ashton Gate as a youngster. The score at 4.45pm that Saturday was an incredible 9-0. It was Spurs' record league victory and the most goals from one match ever screened on Match of the Day.

City were faring little better in the division above. The visit of QPR on October 1 gave Alan Dicks' boys their third draw of the season, as goals from Trevor Tainton and a spot-kick from Peter Cormack earned a 2-2 draw.

The mouth-watering visit of Leeds United to Ashton Gate followed the following week. The Yorkshire outfit were a side in transition under manager Jimmy Armfield, but they could still boast a line-up including lethal finisher Ray Hankin.

It was through the former Burnley striker that the visitors opened the scoring on 20 minutes, only for Tom Ritchie to pop up with his third goal of the season 60 seconds later. Just past the hour mark City went in front through Kevin Mabbutt, with his third goal of the campaign.

The biggest cheer on this cold, wet afternoon came when a left-footed strike from just outside the area by Norman Hunter put City 3-1 up.

It was Hunter's first goal for the club and it came against his former employers and Armfield, the man who had sold him.

Hankin pulled one back with six minutes left to set up a nervous finish, but the Reds hung on for two precious points. They were to be the last ones until November's visit to Newcastle brought a 1-1 draw.

City's next three matches in October not only resulted in defeats – 1-0 at Everton, 2-0 at home to Arsenal and finally 1-0 away to Chelsea – but, more alarmingly, they failed to score in any of those games. Even their League Cup third-round game at Third Division Wrexham ended in a 1-0 defeat.