CITY 1 ARSENAL 0
League Division 1
12th February 1977
attendance 45,368
scorers Royle(54)
Ref John Hunting
City Corrigan, Clements, Donachie, Doyle, Watson, Power, Owen, Kidd, Royle, Hartford, Tueart – sub Barnes(unused)
Arsenal Rimmer, Rice, Nelson, Ross, O’Leary, Simpson, Hudson, Brady, MacDonald, Stapleton, Howard – sub Matthews(57)
JOE ROYLE IS THE MATCH WINNER
City extended their unbeaten run to 16 matches in this exciting, and at times brutal encounter with the Gunners at Maine Road.
Referee, John Hunting, was as much too blame as the players for some awful tackles, especially in the first half as he totally lost control of the match. Pat Rice commenting after that the ref was very weak.
Arsenal manager Terry Neill was putting all the blame on City stating; “I have five very sore players here, three of them have been to hospital. Pat Howard has stitches in a shin wound, David O’Leary has a damaged knee joint and Chippy Brady a damaged foot, all the result of tackles by Brian Kidd. Frank Stapleton has a sore back where Joe Corrigan’s knee made contact, and Malcolm MacDonald is stiff from a back bruise inflicted by Mike Doyle. What’s more, Brady got a whack across the back of his legs as he went down the tunnel at half-time and he’s limping around today.”
Tony Book was adamant, however, that none of City’s players did anything that he was unhappy with; “There will be no come-back from me to my players… I do resent the outburst made by Arsenal’s assistant manager Wilf Dixon immediately after the game when he branded Brian Kidd a clogger” On Neill’s comments the Blues boss answered; “Put your own house in order before pointing an accusing finger at other clubs. The real truth is that we went to Highbury earlier this season, and because we were without Brian Kidd we played rather defensively and took a point. They came up here, played an extra defender themselves and tried to do the same thing. But they weren’t quite good enough to get away with it. Now they are accusing Brian Kidd of starting all the trouble. It sounds like sour grapes to me…”
In the end it was a goal by Joe Royle that settled it, typically a header, from a great cross from Tueart.
