NORTHERN NEW SOUTH WALES 1 CITY 4
Post season friendly
27th May 1970
Attendance 9,000
Scorers
City Owen(20 & ?), Young(? & ?)
Northern New South Wales Whitehead(64)
Ref George Muir
FROM THE PRESS BOX
REPORT FROM THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 28TH MAY 1970
Two superb goals by inside-forward Neil Young tonight steered European Cup winners’ cup holders Manchester City to their fifth win of their Australian tour.
Young’s goals came just in time for his side, who, with 15 minutes left, were struggling to hold the Northern Federation team out.
The first of the goals came when centre-forward Bobby Owen sharply cut the ball back after breaking away on the left with the Northern defenders grouped in front of goal.
Young raced on to the ball to pound it into the net through a forest of legs.
The fire died in the Northern team then and not long afterwards Young delivered the coup de grace, nonchalantly beating goalkeeper Jock Bullen.
The Northern team squandered a penalty early in the game when Willie Gallagher blasted the ball high over the crossbar, and that was typical of their luck throughout.
World Cup squad member, Ray Lloyd, worked his heart out as did full-backs Ray Johnson and Col Curran.
And there was a lot to like in the performances of inside-left Geoff Finch, a slightly-built cultured ball player, and wingers Alan Roberts and Brian Whitehead.
City’s display tonight was a pleasing improvement on that shown against N.S.W. a fortnight ago; the holiday is obviously over.
But, despite the impressive soccer tonight, the Northern team showed that the visitors can indeed be beaten.
INJURY BLOW FOR THE BLUES
DAVID JACK WRITING IN THE MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS 28TH MAY 1970
Manchester City could face an injury crisis for the final and most important game of their Australian tour, against New South Wales in Sydney on Saturday. Winger Mike Summerbee is already ruled out of the match and now centre forward Bobby Owen and half back Mike Doyle may also be unfit. Owen and Doyle were injured in City’s 4-1 win over Northern NSW in Newcastle yesterday.
… Manchester City secretary Walter Griffiths said after yesterday’s match “This was the perfect workout for the big game on Saturday.”
A big thank you to Doug Butcher for supplying some great information for this page