CITY 1 BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION 1
League Division 1
28th March 1981
attendance 30,122
Scorers
City MacKenzie(75)
Brighton Gregory(57)
ref Mike Warner
City Corrigan. Ranson, McDonald, Reid, Power, Caton, Tueart, Henry, Mackenzie, Hutchison, Reeves – sub Bennett(68)
Brighton Digweed, Stevens, Williams, Horton, Foster, Gregory, Lawrenson, Smith, Robinson, Stille, McNab – sub Richie(82)
FROM THE PRESS BOX
PATRICK BARCLAY WRITING IN THE GUARDIAN 30TH MARCH 1981
The FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park in 12 days time is becoming to look a mismatch.
While Ipswich Town stayed on top of the First Division by beating Sunderland, Manchester City dropped their fifth point in three matches at home to Brighton on Saturday with a performance that John Bond their manager described as “agony,”
It is understandable that Bond’s players should have their minds on future achievement but the dupporters pay for current entertainment and the implication that the team are not wholly committed to providing it suggests a lack of professionalism. This should be borne in mind throughout football, but perhaps especially at City where the crowd;s enthusiasm and loyalty has in recent times helped the club to emerge almost unscathed from a period of profligacy and failure,
The attendance of 30,122 following two defeats in succession was the third highest in England.
Brighton, Bond said were “a poor team that normally we would have stuffed” and there was no evidence to the contrary. He had to agree, however, that Alan Mullery’s side deserved their point at the beginning of a priod of eight days in which City also play their two rivals in the fight against relegation, Leicester and Norwich.
Brighton, in fact, might have taken two points, for midway through the second half Gregory, who had put them ahead 10 minutes into the second half, was given a clear run on goal by a superbly judged header from the former City striker Robinson only to miss his kick as Corrigan advanced. A goal then would almost certainly have been conclusive, but City came back strongly and MacKenzie volleyed the equaliser from a neat pass by Reeves…