DERBY COUNTY 3 CITY 1
League Division 1
4th December 1971
attendance 35,354
Scorers
City Lee(66 pen)
Derby Hinton(21 pen), Webster(36), Durban(38)
Ref W Johnson
City Corrigan, Book, Donachie, Doyle, Booth, Oakes, Summerbee, Bell, Davies, Lee, Mellor – sub Towers(unused)
Derby Boulton, Webster, Todd, McFarland, Robson, Durban, McGovern, Gemmill, O’Hare, Hector, Hinton – sub Hennessey
FROM THE PRESS BOX
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TIME TO BRING BACK YOUNG
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“You don’t expect to get a 3 goal start from teams of Manchester City’s calibre every week”. This is how Derby County manager Brian Clough summed up the Blues’ disappointing performance.
The defence gave away two of the goals that sent City stumbling to a 3-1 defeat, their first in in eight games, and the other was a penalty. But this
cannot hide City’s ineffectiveness in midfield where Archie Gemmill and John McGovern outshone their opponents.
At the back too, an inquest must demand why right back Ron Webster was given the space and opportunity to head the second goal.
The inexperience of left winger Ian Mellor was again revealed and the time could be ripe for him to give way to Neil Young, a player on whose behalf I have campaigned before. Young’s experience and maturity is now sorely needed, if he will return in the right frame of mind.
For once Mike Doyle also slumped below the high peak of efficiency he has been showing in City’s stride towards the top this season, while Colin Bell had a quieter, more restrained match, an Athens’ hangover perhaps?
If one player had the beating of Derby it was Mike Summerbee whose command of John Robson was as complete as County’s over the rest of the City side. Yet Summerbee was too often starved of the ball at a time when the Blues were fighting back after Francis Lee had scored a 66th minute penalty.
Even Tony Book found the time and space to join the attack and twice shot over from good positions.
Lee Bell and Summerbee plus Derby’s McGovern and Hector were all booked in a match where firmer refereeing from the outset could have eliminated the more unsavoury incidents
The defence gave away two of the goals that sent City stumbling to a 3-1 defeat, their first in in eight games, and the other was a penalty. But this
cannot hide City’s ineffectiveness in midfield where Archie Gemmill and John McGovern outshone their opponents.
At the back too, an inquest must demand why right back Ron Webster was given the space and opportunity to head the second goal.
The inexperience of left winger Ian Mellor was again revealed and the time could be ripe for him to give way to Neil Young, a player on whose behalf I have campaigned before. Young’s experience and maturity is now sorely needed, if he will return in the right frame of mind.
For once Mike Doyle also slumped below the high peak of efficiency he has been showing in City’s stride towards the top this season, while Colin Bell had a quieter, more restrained match, an Athens’ hangover perhaps?
If one player had the beating of Derby it was Mike Summerbee whose command of John Robson was as complete as County’s over the rest of the City side. Yet Summerbee was too often starved of the ball at a time when the Blues were fighting back after Francis Lee had scored a 66th minute penalty.
Even Tony Book found the time and space to join the attack and twice shot over from good positions.
Lee Bell and Summerbee plus Derby’s McGovern and Hector were all booked in a match where firmer refereeing from the outset could have eliminated the more unsavoury incidents
Peter Gardner writing in the Manchester Evening News 6th December 1971
