WATFORD 1 CITY 1
League Division 1
1st January 1987
Attendance 15,514
Scorers
City Varadi(89)
Watford Barnes(18)
Ref A Seville
City Suckling, Gidman, Wilson, Clements, McCarthy, Redmond, Grealish, McNab, Varadi, Moulden, Simpson – sub May(unused)
FROM AN ARTICLE BY JOHN MADDOCKS, PUBLISHED IN THE CITY MAGAZINE JANUARY 1996
The Blues might have been forgiven if they had approached this game in an utterly defensive frame of mind and used a sweeper. The reason for the caution would have been to rebuild confidence as the previous Sunday had seen them trounced 5-0 by Charlton Athletic. But manager Jimmy Frizzell showed a bolder approach and City set about trying to prise all three points from the game. Again, as at Birmingham City some years earlier, Tony Coton was in goal to face the Blues on a pitch that had needed three morning inspections before being passed fit for play.
The surface was treacherous and it was a tribute to both sides that so much football was produced under the circumstances. Watford took the lead through John Barnes, whose future at the time was the subject of much speculation. He controlled a ball passed on to him by Falco and, turning quickly, placed it accurately out of Perry Suckling’s reach.
It was lmre Varadi who came to City’s rescue and salvaged a point, only after he had missed several chances, as had Paul Simpson. The Blues embarked on a last-minute assault on Coton‘s goal and Neil McNab let fly with a cracking shot. Coton could only parry and Varadi swooped…