LOKEREN 1 CITY 1
Friendly
9th August 1977
Attendance 2,500
Scorers
City Royle(24)
Lokeren Cornelissen(43)
City Corrigan, Clements, Donachie, Watson, Booth, Owen, Channon, Tueart, Royle, Barnes, Hartford – used subs Conway(45), Power(45)
FROM THE PRESS BOX
JOHN BEAN WRITING IN THE DAILY MIRROR 10TH AUGUST 1977
Tony Book tossed any thought of hitting English football with a brave new 4-2-4 attacking format out of Manchester City’s coaching manual in the unreal atmosphere of a Dutch village sports festival last night.
On a balmy evening in front of about 2,500 interested Dutch fans, some of the top pros from two countries offered a gentle exercise which answered only one thing for the City manager.
“It’s clear to me that we won’t be able to operate a 4-2-4 system this season, City will go out to play a normal 4-3-3 game with the rest,” he declared. “We came here expecting to play in a real soccer stadium and instead found ourselves on a village sports ground. But at least we have come through our three game continental warm-up without defeat and can get down to the real thing on Saturday week with confidence.”
… Book selected four forwards, with Dennis Tueart and Peter Barnes flanking Joe Royle and Mick Channon, for this final pre-season exercise. But he was forced to abandon the idea at half-time when it had become patently clear that his men were merging into a traditional 4-3-3 format.
City forged ahead through a well-taken Joe Royle goal… Dave Watson’s free-kick was headed down by Tommy Booth and the big striker City have been on the point of selling, hammered in a fine angled shot with his left foot.
Big Joe almost scored again with a shot which streaked by a post, but City lost their advantage a minute before the break when keeper Joe Corrigan misjudged a 30 yarder from Cornelissen to concede a sloppy equaliser…