NEWCASTLE UNITED 2 CITY 1
League Division 1
14th April 1976
attendance 21,095
scorers
City Royle(17)
Newcastle Cassidy(26), Macdonald(88)
The Blues were forced to make changes as both Mike Doyle and Asa Hartford were missing through suspension, and on the casualty list were Willie Donachie, Dave Watson and Colin Bell.
The wind was with City during the first half and they instantly went on the attack. Gary Owen made ground down the left but his cross was too strong for Peter Barnes to latch on to from the other flank.
The Blues took the lead after 17 minutes, the result of poor defending by the Geordies. An attempted backpass by Bird rolled past the goalkeeper to Ray Hudson, who tried to turn the ball back to Mike Mahoney, but It bounced off the ‘keeper’s shins to Joe Royle, who did the necessary. Bird then received a badly-gashed leg and left the action.
Alan Kennedy was involved in the Magpies’ equaliser, making a determined run which ended with him finding Tommy Cassidy, who squeezed the ball into the net between Joe Corrigan and his near post.
Mickey Burns lobbed Corrigan after that, only to see his effort bounce off the top of the crossbar. But it wasn’t all Newcastle by any means. The City youngsters were well involved in the game, with Ged Keegan and Paul Power feeding the front runners constantly and also falling back to support the defence.
Newcastle gave notice that they wanted a winner by again hitting the woodwork, then with many of the crowd streaming out at 88 minutes, Malcolm Macdonald, who had been well policed up to then, broke away from his marker, forged through the defence, and placed the ball wide of Corrigan with a low drive.
ADAPTED FROM AN ARTICLE BY JOHN MADDOCKS IN THE CITY PROGRAMME 13TH APRIL 1996