CITY 2 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 1
League Division 1
28th December 1981
Attendance 40,298
Scorers
City Hartford(53), Francis(85)
Wolves Daniel(71)
Ref Alan Saunders
City Corrigan; Ranson, Wilson, Reid, Bond, Caton, Kinsey, Reeves, Francis, Hartford, Hutchison – sub Hareide(unused)
Wolves Bradshaw; Palmer, Parkin, Daniel, Gallagher, Berry, Birch, Eves, Gray, Richards, Brazier – sub Matthews
FROM AN ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE CITY MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2002
… With most of the holiday programme once again postponed… Maine Road’s under-soil heating presented Bond’s men with the chance to top the table. A bumper crowd of more than 40,000 packed into the ground for the visit of Wolves who were struggling near the foot of the table. Injury to Bobby McDonald presented Clive Wilson with his first team debut whilst another youngster, Steve Kinsey, was making his home bow.
The tension was almost tangible as the match kicked-off. Everyone knew victory would see City top the table and the crowd’s nerves seemed to filter through to the players. Wolves began brightly and slowly took command of the match.
The scrappy first period ended 0-0. John Bond led his troops into the dressing room for a dressing down and City re-emerged looking more focused and determined not to the let the opportunity of leading the tightly-packed First Division into the New Year. With only eight minutes of the second half gone, Asa Hartford drilled his second goal in three days to put the Blues 1-0 up.
Wolves, however, were in no mood to ease City’s path to the top and thanks to an eagle-eyed linesman, they were presented with a chance of staging a late recovery when Joe Corrigan was adjudged to have stepped outside his area whilst making a clearance up field. The Wolverhampton players, tapping into to the Blues’ anxiety and feeling of injustice made the most of the incident as the home side appeared to lose their concentration.
Ray Daniel drove the free-kick low and hard and Corrigan watched in horror as the ball skidded off his hands and into the net for a deserved equaliser. Wolves then lived up to their name and moved in for the kill. City were hanging on with defenders Tommy Caton and Kevin Bond particularly outstanding, but when Wolverhampton striker Mel Eaves claimed his angled shot had crossed the line a few minutes later, Maine Road held its collective breath.
Young defender Clive Wilson, hugely impressive on his debut, had seemingly managed to scramble the ball to safety and the referee agreed with the linesman that the ball had not crossed the line, much to the chagrin of the visitors who protested vehemently against the decision.
Though City were still out of sorts, they were still in the game and with tive minutes to go, Trevor Francis, largely anonymous throughout the match, showed why City had splashed out more than a million pounds on his undoubted match-winning qualities. Corrigan launched a mighty clearance into the Wolves half and defender George Berry could only direct his header into Francis’ path.
Francis took a half-a-dozen steps forward and lashed a thunderous drive into the back of the net from the edge of the box. Maine Road erupted and this time the Blues held out in the final nervous moments to win 2-1. The celebrations at the final whistle were testament enough to how the City fans felt about topping the table for the first time in four years.
John Bond said later: “l must have aged four years, although l’d feel worse it I were the Wolves manager and had lost after playing so well. Trevor Francis will never score another goal like that even if he lives to be 150, but then, that’s why he’s a million pound player.” …