CITY 1 WEST HAM UNITED 5
League Division 1
21st March 1970
attendance 28,353
scorers
City Lee(13)
West Ham Greaves(10 & 36), Hurst(44 & 85), Boyce(81)
ref P Baldwin
City Corrigan, Book, Mann, Doyle, Booth, Oakes, Towers, Lee, Bowyer, Young, Pardoe – sub Bowles(unused)
West Ham Grotier, Bonds, Lampard, Boyce, Stephenson, Moore, Holland, Eustace, Hurst, Greaves, Howe – sub Llewelyn(78)
A MEMORABLE MATCH BY PETER GARDNER, PUBLISHED IN THE CITY PROGRAMME 2nd October 1976
For a match packed with flowing football, goals, drama, sentiment, and, above all, humour, Manchester City’s March 21 clash against West Ham in the 1969-70 season takes a lot of beating.
Joe Corrigan didn’t think it was funny at the time, but he provided one of soccer’s most amusing incidents which is still repeated on television. It was the 82nd minute as the City goalkeeper cleared the ball long and high upfield before turning to head back towards his line. Suddenly Maine Road erupted as Ronnie Boyce, in the centre half circle, hit the ball first time and with Joe desperately scrambling back to cover his goal it sailed high over his head and into the net.
Says Corrigan today: “l took a lot of stick over that incident for a long time afterwards. But now I can look back and laugh myself, even though it is at times still shown on television. However, there’s one point I would like to make, no one at that time gave Boyce any credit for seeing his chance and volleying such a tremendous goal.”
City that day slumped to their heaviest defeat in five years as a footballing genius continued a remarkable sequence by scoring on his debut for every team for which he had played. Jimmy Greaves, a forward feared by every defence in the world, had just joined the Hammers although he was make weight in the record-shattering deal that took Martin Peters from West Ham to Tottenham in what was British soccer’s first £200,000 transfer.
Greaves, who arrived at Upton Park via Chelsea, AC Milan and Spurs, took just ten minutes to maintain his scoring record which even included international appearances for England.
Yet City in a first half in which they had looked the better side had earlier been denied a penalty. Francis Lee, playing despite a heavy cold, was busy in the penalty area when he was brought down by Alan Stephenson. However, referee Peter Baldwin waved on play and the Hammers immediately hit back to take the lead.
But again it was a controversial refereeing decision that enabled the London side to take the lead. Pat Holland looked offside but neither linesman nor referee responded to home appeals as he crossed for Greaves to score, although Tommy Booth made a gallant attempt to hold him off.
Three minutes later City were back in the game. Lee picked up the ball on the edge of the penalty area and suddenly unleashed a cracking low drive which zipped across a surface sodden by torrential rain completely deceiving goalkeeper Peter Grotier.
Back came the Blues and Stephenson handled an lan Bowyer shot but again the referee said ‘no penalty.’ The pace was frantic as City ripped into West Ham, but the 36th minute saw the Londoners again move ahead. Billy Bonds and Geoff Hurst worked the ball through. A shot bounced off Booth to Hurst whose drive was blocked by Corrigan only to break loose at the feet of Greaves . . . and Jim was never a one to miss those sort of chances.
A minute before half time Hurst dived full length to head in a Boyce cross and City, 3-1 down, were deep in trouble. Down, but not quite out, they stormed back after the break with Lee hitting a post from a Neil Young cross. Then a shot from Glyn Pardoe bounced off Grotier’s chest. But, try as they did, City could not score and the inevitable happened in the 82nd minute, a fourth goal to the Hammers. It was the comic opera Boyce effort that left the Blues totally stunned and three minutes from the end Hurst completed the rout of City.
Young had played well for the home side but Mike Doyle and Alan Oakes had ultimately surrendered the vital midfield area to West Ham. A salient factor, too, was the way skipper Bobby Moore marked up tighter on his England buddy Lee with City falling away as an attacking force leaving the Hammers gaining adequate revenge for the Upton Park defeat they had suffered at the hands of the Blues earlier that season.
A GREAT ARTICLE FROM SHOOT 11TH AUGUST 1984
A GREAT PHOTO FROM SHOOT!
