PRESTON NORTH END 0 CITY 3
League Division 2
23rd October 1965
Attendance 25,117
Scorers Brand(20), Young(77 & 89)
Ref Mr Fussey
City Dowd, Kennedy, Sear, Cheetham, Heslop, Oakes, Summerbee, Crossan, Pardoe, Brand, Young – sub Bacuzzi(45)
Preston Kelly, Ross, Donnelly, Lawton, Cranston, Kendall, Wilson, Godfrey, Dawson, Spavin, Watt – sub Hannigan(unused)
RALPH BRAND PUTS CITY 1-0 UP
It was a marvellous display by the Blues, made even more so by virtue of the fact that “Proud Preston” hadn’t lost at home for almost a year. And who had been the visitors on that occasion? Yes, Manchester City!
City had enough chances to have created a new record at Deepdale. One scribe was of the opinion that 12-0 could well have been a true scoreline, never mind 3-0, but the Blues were mixing ruthlessness with compassion that day.
Mike Summerbee, though, must have been in despair as he saw his continuous stream of crosses frittered away, Glyn Pardoe sending shots into orbit and Ralph Brand and Neil Young guilty of glaring misses.
Preston felt that the burly ex-United player, Alex Dawson, was the man who would win the match for them. They were wrong. The equally burly George Heslop kept Dawson firmly in his pocket.
Brand scored the first goal in the 20th minute when Young and Pardoe combined smoothly to lay the ball neatly into the Scot’s path, and goalkeeper Alan Kelly was helpless.
For 20 minutes in the second half, the Blues laid siege to the home goal and it was amazing that it took so long to get the ball into the net again. But it was inevitable, and the singing City fans admired two solo runs that brought Young a double strike in the 77th and 89th minutes.
City were truly on their way back up to the First Division…
ADAPTED FROM AN ARTICLE IN THE CITY PROGRAMME 21ST OCTOBER 1995