CITY 2 ASTON VILLA 0
League Division 1
31st December 1977
Attendance 46,074
scorers Barnes(46), Kidd(67)
Ref Keith Styles
City Corrigan, Clements, Donachie, Booth, Watson, Owen, Barnes, Bell, Kidd, Hartford, Tueart – sub Doyle(unused)
Villa Rimmer, Gidman, Smith, Phillips, McNaught, Mortimer, Deehan, Little, Gray, Gregory, Carrodus – sub Cowans
GOALS FOR PETER BARNES AND BRIAN KIDD
The Match of the Day cameras were in town when City took on Aston Villa on New Years Eve, 1977. The Blues were enjoying a terrific holiday period following a 4-0 Boxing Day win over Newcastle United and a 2-0 victory at Middlesbrough the following day. Colin Bell had made an emotional return five days prior to the Villa match and made his first full start in a blue shirt at Maine Road in almost two years.
A bright first half saw City wingers Dennis Tueart and Peter Barnes tearing the visitors apart but without reward. Villa were in a determined mood but their defenders… just coudn’t cope with the Blues‘ skiitul wide men. Tony Book‘s side at last reaped the reward of their constant pressing when Barnes finished a terrific pass from Tueart to put City 1-0 up within a minute of the restart.
Villa could not respond but City still needed to find the killer second. The inevitable finally came in the 67th minute and it was good enough to win Match of the Day‘s coveted ‘Goal of the Month’ award for December. Brian Kidd started the move by collecting the ball around the halfway line. He fed it to Tueart who played it inside to Asa Hartford. Villa were left chasing shadows once again as Hartford fed the ball out wide to Barnes.
The young England winger whipped in a perfect cross and Kidd launched himself full length to plant a tremendous diving header past the Villa ‘keeper It was a fantastic goal and no more than City deserved for their endeavour. There were no further goals and the victory pushed City into fifth position, eight points adrift of leaders Nottingham Forest.
