CITY 0 STOKE CITY 0
League Division 1
28th August 1976
attendance 39,878
Ref J Rice
City Corrigan, Docherty, Donachie, Doyle, Watson, Power, Barnes, Conway, Royle, Hartford, Tueart – sub Owen(unused)
Stoke Shilton, Dodd, Pejic, Mahoney, Smith, Bloor, Salmons, Greenhoff, Conroy, Hudson, Bowers – sub Crooks
FROM THE PRESS BOX
DEREK WALLIS WRITING IN THE DAILY MIRROR 30TH AUGUST 1976
Terry Conroy was honest enough to admit tat he should have broken the deadlock in a match that was short of nothing except goals to decorate it.
The comforting thought for manager Tony Waddington though, is that Conroy could be the answer to a goal shortage that prevents Stoke from making the breakthrough their enterprising football deserves.
Yet Conroy, who has had so many injuries in his career, including the removal of all four cartilages, might at the age of 29 have reached the stage where some would no longer be prepared to risk limb, if not exactly life, in pursuit of goals.
Fragile as he appears on the pitch his spindly legs still carry him into the thick of defences at blistering speed and only goalkeeper Joe Corrigan’s rush from his line stopped Conroy scoring when Alan Hudson’s pass left him clear.
“I should have scored,” Conroy admitted. “But more than anything now, I hope I can have a long run free from injury.”
So does Tony Waddington, who saw his team play creative disciplined football without reward against a well-equipped Manchester City side who are unlikely to be confronted with many problems at home this season.
Yet Tony Book’s team seem to need the stimulus of a goal more than most.
When all their efforts failed, they tended to become introspective, as if brooding about their own problems instead of creating more for Stoke.
Dennis Tueart could have been excused for brooding about one chance that escaped when he headed Peter Barnes’s cross with all the power and accuracy demanded. Yet he found it still needed something extra to beat Peter Shilton who, like Corrigan, played his part in preventing the goals the game craved.
For once Manchester City did not mastermind the midfield, where John Mahoney and Hudson again illustrated that Stoke have the skill and talent, if not the balance and blend in attack, to press home the advantage.
Clearly the Maine Road men missed Brian Kidd in Attack. There were only scattered runs by Tueart, and though Joe Royle won the ball in the air often enough, even with the aggressive Dennis Smith never far from his shoulder, Stoke were quick to seal off any gaps.
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