WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 2 CITY 4
League Division 2
30th August 1965
attendance 22,799
Scorers
City Murray(6), Crossan(9), Harris(31 og), Doyle(89)
Wolves Wagstaffe(5), Woodruff(85)
Ref Mr D W Brady
City Dowd, Bacuzzi, Sear, Doyle, Oakes, Kennedy, Summerbee, Crossan, Murray, Pardoe – Sub Cheetham(24)
Wolves MacLaren, Thomson, Harris, Flowers, Woodfield, Miller, Wharton, Woodruff, McIlmoyle, Knowles, Wagstaffe
A Wolves defender uncermoniously barged Mike Summerbee off the pitch and into the stand where he collided head first with a metal post. He was led off the field looking like a stunt man in a Sam Peckinpah film with blood spurting in a fountain from a deep cut in the top of his head.
Ten rows back a woman was three months pregnant was so traumatised by the sight that she suffered a miscarriage. Informed about it later, Mike took the trouble to send her flowers.
…The doctor inserted seventeen stitches into Mike’s head pulling them through with a pair of metal pliers.
Roy Cheetham trotted out to take Mike’s place in a slightly rearranged City side and thereby made history by becoming the first substitute ever to be used by Manchester City. Of more relevance to everyone else was the fact that City left Molyneaux with a 4-2 victory.
ADAPTED FROM FATHERS, SONS AND FOOTBALL BY COLIN SHINDLER
from BLUE BLOOD THE MIKE DOYLE STORY
The year we were going for the championship of the second division we were playing Wolves at Molyneux. They were in a challenging position too, so a win was effectively worth four points….
Wolves were beating us 2-1 and then we equalised. [Mike seems to have maybe had rose tinted specs on here as City were 3-2 up at this time] There were about ten minutes to go and it looked as if we would both have to be satisfied with a share of the points, when I saw an opening and went in a run that took me through Wolverhampton’s defence. We were pushing up and I raced thirty yards from the back, as Johnny Crossan played a great ball over their defence. I ran on to the through ball just onside and took it towards goal. As the goalkeeper advanced I hit the ball over his head and into the net. That goal gave us a 3-2 victory and naturally we were all delighted, especially me. Joe was smiling too, but he collared me on the coach going back to Manchester “You took that goal well, you young devil, but you should never have been in that position in the first place, leaving us open at the back”. It was a complement, but a backhanded one all the same.
Just to clear up a couple of points with regard to the Mike Summerbee injury at Molineux in August 1965. I am a Wolves supporter and I attended the game. The article states that “A Wolves defender uncermoniously barged Mike Summerbee off the pitch and into the stand where he collided head first with a metal post” but there’s a bit more to it than that.
The Wolves defender was centre half David Woodfield and he and Summerbee were running side by side chasing a ball at full speed down the City left wing. Woodfield nudged Summerbee with disastrous consequences because Summerbee’s speed took him head first into the first three rows of adjoining wooden seats, which were below pitch level. It was an innocuous looking challenge but the sight of Summerbee emerging with cuts to his head prompted the referee to send Woodfield off, thus becoming the first Wolves player to suffer that fate since the war.
In summary, Summerbee wasn’t “unceremoniously barged” off the pitch – it was a complete accident and by the way, I don’t think there was a metal post involved – it was the seats that did the damage.
Dave Woodfield was the Wolves defender who put Summerbee into the stand. As I remember it he was not even booked as it was judged should to shoulder.
No – according to the report in the Guardian, Woodfield was sent off for the incident.