Derby ended the season with a 1–0 win over title rivals Liverpool at the Baseball Ground, John McGovern netting the crucial winner, leaving Derby on 58 from 42 games, Leeds on 57 from 41 and Liverpool on 56 from 41. Derby's destiny was not in their own hands and they left the country to escape the pressure; Clough holidayed with his family in the Isles of Scilly whilst Taylor went to Majorca with the players. Fixture congestion meant that Leeds and Liverpool both played their final matches of their season after the 1972 FA Cup Final, in which Leeds had beaten Arsenal, with Leeds needing a draw and Liverpool a win to overtake Derby. In the event of the fixtures, a tigerish Wolverhampton Wanderers overcame Leeds 2–1 at Molineux and Liverpool could only record a 0–0 draw at Highbury against Arsenal. The league was unusually close throughout the campaign and the final table saw Champions Derby just one point of the teams in 2nd (Leeds), 3rd (Liverpool) and 4th (Manchester City). Clough had built a balanced team at Derby, one in which every player knew his job. Although they rarely swept away the opposition, instead building on the foundations of a strong defence as record signing defender Colin Todd claimed the club's Player of the Year, there were some memorable performances; 4–0 humblings of rivals Nottingham Forest and Stoke City at the Baseball Ground and away to Sheffield United. Alan Hinton finished the season as the club's top scorer with 15 goals, whilst Kevin Hector netted his 100th for the club in a 6–0 FA Cup Fourth Round win over Notts County and Alan Durban became the club's most capped international, overtaking Sammy Crooks, with his 27th and final appearance for Wales. Steve Powell also became Derby's youngest ever player, a record he held for almost 30 years, when he made his debut in a Texaco Cup tie against Stoke City aged just 16 years and 30 days.