CITY 5 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 2
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League Division 1
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29th January 1972
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attendance 37,639
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scorers
City Booth(5), Lee(34, 61 & 88), Towers(40)
Wolves Richards(34 & 57)
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ref John Thacker
City Corrigan, Book, Donachie, Doyle, Booth, Oakes, Summerbee, Bell, Davies, Lee, Towers – sub Hill(57)
Wolves Parkes, Shaw, Parkin, Sunderland, Munro, McAlle, McCalliog, Hegan, Richards, Dougan, Wagstaffe – sub Eastoe
TOMMY BOOTH OPENS THE SCORING
FRANCIS LEE’S FIRST GOAL
FRANNY POUNCES FOR HIS SECOND, AND CELEBRATES
ADAPTED FROM ‘CLASSIC MATCH BY DAVID CLAYTON IN THE CITY MAGAZINE AUGUST 2008
…City immediately took the game to the visitors. With Stan Gibson’s pitch reduced to a cabbage patch with the odd blade of grass here and there. The ball was never going to move around the surface smoothly and both teams adopted a direct approach.
The Blues however stole a march after just five minutes when Tommy Booth rose to put his team 1-0 up and on 24 minutes Lee scored his 21st of the season to seemingly put the hosts in the box seat.
But as dangerous as City were, there was a frailty about the home defence that Wolves began tapping into. Joe Corrigan didn’t seem to be at the races and his defenders were hardly watertight, It was seven games since they had collectively kept a clean sheet and on 34 minutes , the prolific John Richards pulled a goal back.
That shock seemed to wake a workmanlike City side and within six minutes Towers had restored the Blues two goal advantage to make it 3-1.
Whatever Mercer and Allison said to the side at half-time it didn’t work immediately as Richards again brought Wolves back into the game with his second of the afternoon, just six minutes after the re-start.
On the hour, the impressive Mike Summerbee limped off and substitute Freddie Hill climbed off the bench for his first appearance of the season, and it was Hill that changed the sway of the game, adding a new dimension to City’s midfield that had strangely lacked spark, mainly due to Colin Bell having a rare off day.
The next goal was going to be critical, if it went the way of City, surely there would be no way back for the visitors… super sub Hill proved to be the catalyst for the Blues to push on and eventually win at a canter, his back headed flick from Bell’s close landed perfectly for Lee to crack home City’s fourth just past the hour mark allowing a nervy Maine Road to settle and enjoy the last third of the game and Lee provided the perfect coup de grace by completing his hat-trick with two minutes to go
Lee (24) not (34) 😉