BLACKBURN ROVERS 1 CITY 4
FA Cup 5th Round
24th February 1969
attendance 42,315
scorers
City Lee(13 & 73), Coleman(59 & 78)
Blackburn Fryatt(58)
Ref R Harper
City Dowd, Book, Pardoe, Doyle, Booth, Oakes, Summerbee, Bell, Lee, Young, Coleman – sub Owen(unused)
Blackburn Blacklaw, Newton, Calloway, Mulvaney, Coddington, Sharples, Metcalfe, Darling, Fryatt, Martin, Connelly – sub Douglas(70)
TONY COLEMAN AND FRANCIS LEE SCORE CITY’S 2ND AND 3RD GOALS
The game which should originally have been played on 7th February 1969, but it suffered a whole spate of postponements through the weather and also a flu epidemic which swept through the Rovers’ squad as effectively as we were to do when the game finally took place on Monday 24th February.
With the post-war track record weighted heavily in Blackburn’s favour, and also considering that City had only played one game since 18th January, and that was abandoned before half-time, the home fans in the 42,315 crowd had every reason for optimism.
But this was to be Citys Cup year, remember? We had already dismissed Luton and Newcastle, and Ewood held no fears for the Blues.
On the night there was clearly a whole division in class between the teams, and City were unstoppable. The teams cautiously probed each other for the first 13 minutes of the game. Jim Fryatt caused a few problems for us with his ability to get up to high balls, while Lee and Surnrnerbee looked threatening in patches.
Then came the first blow to Rovers hopes. Colin Bell, whose passing on the night was sheer magic, split the Rovers defence and Lee left them looking for an oflside flag that never came. Keith Newton tried to close the distance but when Franny had an opportunity like that there was generally only one outcome. He raced over 40 yards, showed the ball to ‘keeper Adam Blacklaw, and planted it firmly home.
Half-time came with City in the driving seat, but Manager Eddie Quigley clearly gave his players new heart for the resumption, Fryatt equalising with a header after only three minutes. But their celebrations were quelled 10 minutes later when City winger Tony Coleman latched on to a square pass from Bell and hit home a screamer, with his ‘wrong” right foot. City then kept up the pressure. Neil Young evaded a series of wild challenges to feed Lee, whose run ended with another unstoppable shot past Blacklaw. Then Coleman completed the scoring a little later to give us a 4-1 win and a home tie against Spurs the following Saturday.
FROM AN ARTICLE BY JOHN MADDOCKS PUBLISHED IN THE CITY PROGRAMME 5TH SEPTEMBER 1987
TONY COLEMAN MAKES IT 4-1
I was at this match as a 11 year old Blackburn fan, my (single) mother had a hard time coming up with the 2/6 for the ticket. I remember going to clear the snow from the terraces and the number of postponements thru the snow and flu amongst the players. Jim Fryatt was a giant for Blackburn and City were magnificent. Good times!
This was my first match, I was 9, my mum took me. I am still hooked, I will be at Millwall today
My first born, Gary, arrived around 00.70am on the morning of the match. I had been at Hope Hospital with wife Sue all night while she was in labour. Four of us had tickets for the match. I convinced Sue that she would have loads of visitors that night so she gave me a pass out for the game.
City were brilliant. I remember going in the pub next to the ground after the match and it was full of City fans and a great friendly atmosphere. I distinctly remember a little black City supporter giving his rendition of ‘Blackbird, bye, bye’. Substitute Blackburn for Blackbird. Does anyone remember being there?
Hi, my dad is in the first picture of this article. He’s playing for Blackburn. It would be great to get a copy of the picture of him playing against such a great Man City side.
If it’s possible to get a copy, I will pay for it.
Richard Mulvaney
My friends and I cleared the pitch probably six/seven times. We got a thank you from BRFC, but Mrs Cottam rang to say we had gone above and beyond. We received free tickets Nutall Street Stand
Blackburn until I die!
Great game, remember the build up to the match, 8 yrs old, city were a top team then, had a soft spot for them even though I was, still am, a Rovers fan. Massive crowd for Ewood park at the time, bet there were at least 50 thousand in the ground. Thumbs up on the web site.
Thanks for the memory Steve, and your kind comments on my site
Both Bertie Mee and Bill Nicholson were in the Nuttall Street stand. Depending on who won at Ewood, either Spurs or Arsenal were drawn to meet the winners in the next round. Turned out to be Spurs (and though a Rovers supporter, I went to Maine Road to watch City beat Spurs in the next round). The game at Ewood wasn’t really a contest. John Coddington didn’t exactly ‘have Franny Lee in his back pocket…’.