| WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 7 CITY 3 League Division 1 8th November 1952 Attendance 33,832 Scorers Ref R Wood |
ARMISTICE DAY flags were on sale outside Molineux on Saturday …but inside the ground Wolves certainly did not heed any suggestions of a cease-fire – as Manchester City found to their cost!
There were a couple of sensations even before the match began. Nigel Sims was preferred to Bert Williams in Wolves goal and City’s Welsh international winghalf, Roy Paul, was experimented with at centre-half. Yet even these shocks paled into insignificance when the game started.
Inside four minutes Wolves led 2-1, Roy Swinbourne crashing home first a flighted free-kick from Billy Wright and then hit home a fast-centre from Leslie Smith, only for Johnny Williamson, almost straight from the restart, to race right through the middle of Wolves defence to reduce the arrears.
Inside twenty minutes Roy had completed his hat-trick with a remarkable angled shot after a Dents Wilshaw dive had been deflected. Then it was Shorthouse’s turn to be surprised, for thinking the whistle had gone he picked up the ball just outside Wolves penalty area and conceded a free kick, which Don Revie drove just wide.
Though Sims and Bert Trautmann both brought off ‘impossible’ saves, there was no stopping the scoring spree and in the last ten minutes before half-time the score leapt from 3-1 to 5-2. A quick one-two between Wilsihaw and Jimmy Mullen ended with Denis finding the net.
Inspired by this he made another break down the left wing and centred accurately. Trautmann, somehow managed to deflect the ball away from Swinbourne, but there was Smith following up to hammer it home. Once more Williamson, took advantage of Wolves’ emphasis on attack to reduce the arrears immediately afterwards.
Come the second half and suddenly City were back in the game. Davies soon cut the deficit to two goals and with Revie mounting a number of dangerous raids, Sims was under heavy pressure for a time.
The dashing Williamson was several times close to completing his hat-trick and only Wolves’ young goalkeeper’s certainty in the air saved the situation from a stream of flighted centres to a packed gaalmaufih from Jimmy Meadows.
Then, with home fans anxiously counting the minutes, Wolves made any such computation of purely academic interest as a typical wing-to-wing pass from Smith saw Mullen hammer the ball home and then with the former in possession again and the defence backing away waiting for a pass, he suddenly cracked the ball past Trautmann to make the final score 7-3.
Ten goals … some inspired goaIkeepPng … near misses galore.
ADAPTED FROM AN ARTICLE BY GEOFFREY ALLMAN IN WOLVES PROGRAMME 24TH AUGUST 1971