PORTO 0 CITY 0
Friendly
30th July 1980
attendance 35,000 approx
City Corrigan, Ranson, Power, Reid, Caton, Henry, Daley, Mackenzie, Sugrue, Deyna, Reeves – used subs Palmer, Booth
FROM THE PRESS BOX
PETER GARDNER WRITING IN THE MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS 1ST JULY 1980
Manchester City are as equipped now to face a fresh First Division campaign as they will ever be. Malcolm Allison’s young lions are on the brink of coming of age, a process that can be smoothly completed in the three matches that remain on this pre-season build-up tour.
… A goalless draw against an Oporto club who, on the same ground three years ago thrashed Old Trafford neighbours 4-0 in the Cup winners Cup, was a superb achievement for a side gradually taking shape after the traumas of last term.
City have come a long way in the 12 months since Allison turned the team inside out with his multi-million pound transfer dealings.
… Allison positively beamed at the end of a game in which his team had been subjected to physical and, at times, downright cynical intimidation by a largely experimental Oporto line-up under the same pressure that City themselves faced a year ago.
Sasid Allison: “I was proud of the way my players kept their cool in the face of some provocative tactics. It was a great education for them.”
… One of the highlights of the performance was the way the central defence pairing of Tommy Caton and Nicky Reid doggedly stuck to the task of curbing the menace of the home side’s Brazilian strike force.
Reid in particular is the sort of aggressive non-stop performer whose powerful bite in the tackle is going to stop a lot of First Division forwards in the forthcoming season.
It was a pity he had to suffer as the innocent victim of a flare-up when the cunning and crafty Sousa provoked him to the verge of retaliation with a series of savage challenges.
In retrospect it was a wise decision by Allison to cool the situation by substituting Reid to save him further punishment…