CITY 2 CARDIFF CITY 2
League Division 2
12th March 1966
Attendance 29,642
Scorers
City Young(10), Connor(28)
Cardiff Toshack(5), Johnston(33)
Ref W Gow
City Dowd, Kennedy, Home, Pardoe, Heslop, Oakes, Summerbee, Crossan, Doyle, Connor, Young – Sub Gomersall
Cardiff Davies, Carver, Ferguson, Williams, Murray, Hole, Farrell, Andrews, Toshack, Johnston, King.
…A 2-2 draw at home to Cardiff City was something of a surprise. The Manchester team were still riding high on top of the Second Division ahead of fellow-promotion hopefuls Huddersfield Town and Coventry City, while the Welsh visitors were languishing just five places off the foot of the table.
By now we were unbeaten in the last 15 League and cup games, very much on a roll, and we were heading confidently towards Round Six of the FA Cup with a tie against Everton in the offing later in the month.
It seemed as though the last round, with its attendant replay at Leicester, had drained all the energy, and also the ideas, from the side. They buzzed around the goal in a prolonged first half without offering a consistent threat, while the Cardiff players were quite content to sit back and defend in depth and hope for the odd breakaway.
And that’s how their first goal came about. Peter King made strong progress down the left wing, centred, and found a promising 16-year-old kid called John Toshack in plenty of space, and he placed the ball wide of Harry Dowd.
However, before ten minutes had elapsed, the Manchester Blues were level. Johnny Crossan did the damage by working a swift one-two with Neil Young, and the latter placed the ball well out of ‘keeper Lyn Davies’ reach.
David Connor scored a rare goal after 27 minutes to give us the lead for the first time in the match. The ball bobbled in after Connor seemingly mishit it and full back David Carver was desperately unlucky not to get it off the line.
“The Cardiff equaliser, again in the first half, came from Gareth Williams whose fine run and pass found the scorer, George Johnston. The rest of the game was a catalogue of missed chances by both sides.
ADAPTED FROM AN ARTICLE BY JOHN MADDOCKS IN THE CITY PROGRAMME 2ND MARCH 1996