ARSENAL 2 CITY 0
League Division 1
24th February 1981
attendance 24,790
Scorers Talbot(55), Sunderland(86)
ref John Martin
City Corrigan. Reid, Ranson, McDonald, Caton, Power, Gow, Hutchison, Mackenzie, Bennett, Reeves – sub Tueart(45)
Arsenal Jennings, Devine, Sansom, Talbot, O’Leary, Young, Hollins, Sunderland, Stapleton, Gatting, Rix – sub McDermott(unused)
FROM THE PRESS BOX
THE PARTY’S OVER
HARRY MILLER WRITING IN THE DAILY MIRROR 25TH FEBRUARY 1981
Angry Manchester City manager John Bond warned his team last night that they are playing for their future at Maine Road.
It was the lack of fight rather than the defeat which upset Bond.
Bond banned his players from having a drink on the long haul home and stormed “The party is over.”
He said “If these players look at the team photo not many of them will be on it in a year’s time if they carry on like this, the name of the game is competing with the right attitude from August to May. If they think they have done enough they are thinking that at their peril. I didn’t get the effort. No way did I get the effort. Too many went through the motions.”
Bond later rammed home his point by saying he would again be contacting Norwich in an attempt to sign his son Kevin.
The new move came after young Bond’s move to Seattle hit a snag.
The goals came from two rare mistakes by Joe Corrigan.
Brian Talbot beat him from 30 yards early in the second half and Alan Sunderland scored three minutes from the end.
Arsenal, at a time when the question marks have been mounting against their ability still to conquer at the highest level, won’t complain.
They had abandoned their recent pattern of playing Brian McDermott wide and reverted to a formation that left Frank Stapleton and Sunderland up front in a bid to get back to winning ways.
Gradually, Arsenal put some order into their game and the irony was that City was saved, three times, before the interval by Corrigan.