STOKE CITY 2 CITY 0
League Division 1
27th September 1969
Attendance 29,739
Scorers Greenhoff(10), Ritchie(80)
Ref T Dawes
City Corrigan, Book, Pardoe, Doyle, Booth, Oakes, Summerbee, Owen, Lee, Young, Bowyer – used sub Towers
Stoke Banks, Marsh, Pejic, Skeels, Smith, Bloor, Conroy, Greenhoff, Ritchie, Dobing, Eastham
City went down unexpectedly 2-0 at Stoke, the first League defeat in seven games. Booth replaced Heslop and we were without Bell who was out injured, Owen deputising. Maybe the Blues had thought it would be relatively easy after their recent successes. lf so they were sadly mistaken!
The crowd of 29,742 were bemused by the home team only being just one goal in front at half time. Stoke completely bossed the first 45 minutes, Dobing and Eastham controlling the midfield, and they took the lead after 10 minutes, Dobing centring for Greenhoff to put a crisp header past Corrigan.
Conroy then nearly broke the City bar and Corrigan was forced into a smart save from Greenhoff, the same player wildly shooting across the goal five minutes before the interval.
There were signs of a less sluggish Blues team after the break but the Stoke defence was equal to the test, Pejic having a brilliant game. Then with 10 minutes left, the City defensive wall stood and admired Ritchie as he ran through them to collect a free-kick from Eastham and made the final score 2-0.
EXCERPT FROM A JOHN MADDOCKS ARTICLE IN THE CITY PROGRAMME 30TH SEPTEMBER 1989