CITY 3 NORWICH CITY 1
Littlewoods Cup 3rd Round
25th October 1989
Attendance 20,126
Scorers
City White(30), Bishop(51), Allen(85)
Norwich Fleck(89)
Ref T Holbrook
City Dibble, Fleming, Gayle, Redmond, Hinchcliffe, White, Bishop, McNab, Lake, Morley, Allen – Subs Oldfield(unused), Brightwell(uused)
Norwich Gunn, Sherwood, Bowen, Butterworth, Linighan, Townsend, Gordon, Fleck, Rosario, Crook, Phillips – Subs Allen(75)
CITY’S THREE GOALS
FROM THE PRESS BOX
CYNTHIA BATEMAN WRITING IN THE GUARDIAN 26TH OCTOBER 1989
The Canaries had their beaks tweaked by a Manchester City side that encouraged by a first half goal, suddenly found the form that had deserted them at the weekend. Another two goals in the second half, one a pile driver and the other cheeky header put their name into the hat for the next round, while Norwich’s only consolation was a Fleck goal seconds before time.
City’s team had just begun to look stable for the first time in several seasons when Mel Machin threw a wobbly at the weekend and, with the television cameras looking on, fielded Strikers with the abandon of Arthur Scargill.
But sanity was restored with the return of McNab to midfield, the bad news for the Blues being that Norwich’s midfield was also back to strength, Andy Townsend, having shaken off a stomach bug.
Machin, who must have coached at least five of the Norwich players before he left Carrow Road, had also brought back Clive Allen. It was the striker’s header, chipped over Gunn that sewed up the game for the Blues but they had taken the lead on the half hour when White met Hinchcliffe’s high corner with such force that the downward header gave the Norwich goalkeeper no chance.
Both sides began with attractive, passing football that was as elegant, but just about as stirring as synchronised swimming. Unused to such calm, the Maine Road supporters, in an eerily quiet stadium in which the Norwich fans perch like roosting budgies in an almost empty stand, were almost suffering low blood pressure when Crook had a long range flier that took everyone by surprise except Dibble.
The adrenalin began to flow and after the interval City’s new found fire was rewarded when Bishop latched onto Linighan’s headed clearance and scored with a low hard shot from 20 yards, Hinchcliffe nearly made it three with an audacious drive from 40 yards that hit the crossbar, but it was Allen’s chipped header that confirmed City’s superiority.
Norwich never threatened until Fleck stole in at the close range in the last minute They have brought on Malcolm Allen to add more strike power, but leaked yet another goal. Now where had the Maine Road supporters seen that before?
