CITY 2 SUNDERLAND 2
League Division 1
16th October 1982
Attendance 25,053
Scorers
City Reeves(48), Cross(70)
Sunderland McCoist(30), Buckley(50)
ref Bert Newsome
City Corrigan, Ranson, Davies, Reid, Power, Caton, Tueart, Hartford, Cross, Kinsey, Reeves – Sub Simpson(60)
Sunderland Turner, Nicholl, Munro, Atkins, Chisholm, Elliott, Buckley, Rowell, McCoist, Pickering, Venison – Sub Cummins(81)
Normally when you see a 2-2 score draw, you can expect a classic game, unfortunately not on this occasion, in fact Sunderland manager commented: “I didn’t know how four goals were scored in such a poor match. We had City there for the taking, but let them off the hook.”
Apart from another good performance from Dennis Tueart, the rest of the side were, at best, average, clearly missing Kevin Bond in defence and Graham Baker in midfield.
The Mackems took the lead on the half hour, Aly McCoist’s swerving shot, eluding the dive of Joe Corrigan, returning after a seven game injury break, and nestling in the back of the net.
Just after the break The Blues were level as Kevin Reeves swept in a low cross from Steve Kinsey to score his first goal of the season.
There was a strong gusty wind at Maine Road and in the 50th minute Tommy Caton will blame his miss-kick on it as he seemed to lose the path of the ball in the swirling wind. His error let in Mick Buckley who ran in on goal to score low past Corrigan.
With 20 minutes to go David Cross poked in an Asa Hartford cross-shot to take a share of the points.
On the 75th minute Sunderland should have, maybe, won the match, Gary Rowell was running in on goal when he was dragged to the ground by Nicky Reid, the City defender incredibly was only booked. Even John Bond said: “It was a professional foul and he should have gone”.
