ARSENAL 3 CITY 1
Littlewoods Cup 3rd Round
28th October 1986
attendance 21,604
Scorers
City Simpson(46)
Arsenal Rocastle(19), Hayes(22 pen), Davis(89)
Ref K Baker
City Suckling, Clements, Wilson, Gidman, McCarthy, Redmond, White, McNab, Varadi, I Brightwell, Simpson – used sub Baker – sub May(unused)
Arsenal Lukic, Anderson, Sansom, Williams, O’Leary, Adams, Rocastle, Davis, Quinn, Groves, Hayes
FROM THE PRESS BOX
DAVID LACEY WRITING IN THE GUARDIAN 29TH OCTOBER 1986
Few teams are going to find it easy to hold Arsenal in their present mood of massive assurance. and it was to Manchester City’s credit that they made a contest of last night’s tie at Highbury after appearing to lose the match in the first half.
City still lost, but having fallen two goals behind by the 22nd minute they recovered well to score an outstanding goal. They certainly reduced Arsenal’s support to a state of whistling anxiety, until Davis scored with a superb shot that proved to be the last kick at the match.
The pattern of the game turned on the whim of the rain god who decreed that the flrst half should be played in a downpour that continued into the second. Curtains of water swept across Highbury through-out the opening 45 minutes, but such was the extent of Arsenal’s command that only one side looked bedraggled.
Manchester City’s midfield players hardly won a tackle against Davis and Williams. The pair dictated the pace and strategy of play, and with strikers of more experience Arsenal would surely have put the tie further beyond City’s reach.
The goals they did score owed something to chance. In the 19th minute, after a series of blocked shots and ricochets in the City goalmouth. Rocastle‘s drive was diverted past Suckling by McCarthy.
Three minutes later the hapless McCarthy was penalised for handball after Quinn had glanced on a corner from Williams. Hayes scored with the penalty.
Manchester appeared beyond redemption. but they were back in the match in the first minute of the second half. Gidman won the ball deep in his own half near the touchIine and played it up to Varadi, whose first-time pass out to White exposed Arsenal on the right. Simpson met White’s good early centre by an unguarded far post. and suddenly Arsenal had to look to their hitherto under-worked defences.
With McNab restoring parity to the midfield and White‘s pace always a threat, City spent much of the rest of the game promising themselves a replay. Fortunately for Arsenal. Varadi and Redmond were no more incisive near goal than Groves and Hayes. Arsenal’s attack lost its height advantage after Quinn was replaced by Allison, but if they had exploited some unforced defensive errors they would have spared themselves a deal of worry. As it was, they did not breathe easily until Davis collected a pass from Williams and scored from 25 yards in the game’s dying seconds.
The City physiotherapist. Roy Bailey. had his name taken by referee Ken Baker in the second half for protesting too vigorously over a booking on Neil McNab for a tackle on Davis.