CITY 2 WEST BROMWICH ALBION 1
League Division 1
30th September 1972
attendance 27,332
scorers
City Booth(26), Lee(pen 81)
West Brom Brown(58)
Ref P Baldwin
City Healey, Book, Donachie, Towers, Booth, Oakes, Summerbee, Bell, Marsh, Mellor, Lee – sub Barrett(59)
West Brom Latchford, Nisbet, Wilson, Cantello, Wile, Robertson, Suggett, T Brown, Gould, A Brown, Hartford – sub Merrick
TOMMY BOOTH SCORES CITY’S FIRST GOAL
COLIN BELL IS BROUGHT DOWN IN THE BOX AND IT’S A PENALTY
FROM THE PRESS BOX
STILL NO JOY FOR CITY
ALAN DUNN WRITING IN THE GUARDIAN 2ND OCTOBER 1972
In a ragbag of a match at Maine Road on Saturday one of the more curious features was West Bromwich Albion’s failure to extract some reward for the selfless slaving and inspiration of Asa Hartford in the second half. Manchester City, without anyone to match his devotion, scraped victory 2-1 through a penalty nine minutes from time, a victory that still could not disguise their present low stock of confidence.
Perhaps I became obsessed with watching Hartford, there was little else to entertain, after all, but he represented all the positives virtues of the game, winning the ball convincingly and using it intelligently, invariably without resort to that modern ploy that aggravates the spectator, the pass back. Twice he was well stationed on the goal line to block City shots and his quick-witted winning of Healey’s clearance in the closing seconds set up a situation in which Gould ought to have scored from a pass by Alistair Brown. And there lies the rub for Albion, ought to have scored.
Gould, Tony Brown, and Alistair Brown were given an enviable service from midfield by Hartford, Suggett, and Cantello, but made nothing of it, even though City’s defence at the moment is uncommonly creaky. Tony Brown had only one chance in the first half, when he headed just wide and one in the second, when he ran on to a foolish back pass by Rodney Marsh then beat three men before scoring. Albion’s only other chance came when Suggett ran on to Hartford’s pass and from 30 yards brought a magnificent save at the angle from Healey.
Above all else Albion looked well drilled and their overlapping defence, in which two men always seemed to be covering the City man with the ball, gave City little opportunity in a drab first half relieved by City’s goal. Summerbee centred, Marsh put in an overhead kick that Hartford blocked on the line, and Booth took the rebound to score.
Bell tried to give his men some impetus in that half but faded almost totally in the second half. Marsh fiddled, Summerbee was not drawn into the game enough, and although Lee had a shot headed from the line by Hartford, and later scored from the penalty spot after Nisbet had fouled Bell, he generally made little impact.
City in recent years have had a free-ranging approach that has been stimulating in its originality; now they are a thing of bits and pieces with only Summerbee consistently thrustful. A bit of Albion’s drilled approach would not go amiss until with a return of confidence they can again be let off the leash.
