CITY 4 BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION 0
League Division 1
13th February 1982
attendance 30,038
Scorers Francis(11), Reeves(17), McDonald(60), Stevens(73 og)
ref Frank Roberts
City Corrigan. Ranson, McDonald, Reid, Bond, Caton, Ryan, Francis, Hartford, Power, Reeves – sub Kinsey(31)
Brighton Moseley, Stevens, Nelson, Grealish, Foster, Gatting, Case, Ritchie, Ryan, Smith, McNab – sub Shanks(unused)
FROM THE ARTICLE “THAT WAS THE WEEK” PUBLISHED IN THE CITY PROGRAMME 20TH FEBRUARY 1999
… His [Trevor Francis] display against Brighton was top-drawer and brought two relevant quotes from a scribe of the day: ”As regards to the World Cup, if Ron Greenwood doesn’t give Trevor a chance to add a further suntan to those already bronzed features, then he must have another Diego Maradona up his sleeve.
”Francis’s talent belongs on the world stage. And to the qualities of speed, power, skill, perception and poise, he has added just a touch of aggression.”
For the Brighton match, only Bobby McDonald remained of John Bond’s “saviour” signings of 1980, the latest City debuts being
John Ryan and Clive Wilson a few months earlier.
… City were lying fourth after a mixed bag of recent results, and Brighton were eighth after winning five of their last seven League games. Manager Bond adopted a new pre-match tactic with a Matt Busby-type instruction to his side: “Go out and do your own thing!” And the Blues certainly did that with great panache. It was maestro Francis who began the scoring in the 12th minute. When Gary Stevens gave away a free kick, “Tricky Trev” sent a marvellous dipping shot over an eight-man wall and past goalkeeper Graham Moseley.
The star of the show also created the second goal with a defence-splitting 40-yard pass which Kevin Reeves ran on to, and at this stage Brighton were in danger of disintegration.
Their attack provided a minimal threat, but they managed to restrain City until the hour mark when Ryan’s corner was headed home by free-scoring full back McDonald.