Manchester City v West Bromwich Albion 1970/71

wba home 1970-71 programme

CITY 4 WEST BROMWICH ALBION 1

League Division 1

5th September 1970

Attendance 30,549

scorers Lee(33), Bell(43 & 65), Summerbee(85)
West Brom Hope(20)

Ref Keith Styles

City Corrigan, Book, Pardoe, Doyle, Booth, Oakes, Young, Bell, Lee, Towers, Summerbee – Sub Connor(unused)
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West Brom Cumbes, Hughes, Wilson, Cantello, Talbot, Kaye, McVittie, Brown, Astle, Suggett, Hope – Sub Robertson(68)
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A GOAL FOR FRANNY LEE

wba home 1970-71 lee goal
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BUZZER MAKES IT FOUR

west brom home 1970-71 summerbee citys 4th goal

From ‘On This Day’ in the City programme 8th September 1998 City had been unchanged now for three consecutive games and were riding high in the League table. The Baggies, on the other hand, had won only one of their opening six games, and must have been full of trepidation if they thought back to that 6-1 Charity Shield mauling in 1968!
Oddly, City were at their very best just before and just after Albion had cheekily taken the lead after 20 minutes. George McVitie and Tony Brown were the combined brains behind the move that saw Bobby Hope, who had been in dispute with his club, dart through and place the ball out of Joe Corrigan’s reach.
Man of the Match was undoubtedly Colin Bell. It was agreed that every aspect of his game that afternoon was of the very highest quality, not least being his thought processes which saw him deliver excellent balls to his colleagues.
Francis Lee found himself in possession a good deal, and his tactic of galloping at a bunch of visiting defenders seemed to unnerve them enormously.
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west brom home 1970 to 71 action 5
It was Franny who brought about City’s equaliser, and a breathtaking effort it was, too. He wriggled through almost to the goal-line and somehow his shot evaded the combined defensive attempts of both goalkeeper Jim Coombes and John Talbut as it entered the net off the far post.
Tommy Booth kept a firm grip on England international Jeff Astle and West Brom’s attacking ploys boiled down to individual runs from Brown (injured early on), McVitie and Colin Suggett.
Glyn Pardoe headed the ball clear from the home defence and it ran to Bell, and he in turn covered a fair amount of ground before hitting a shot past Cumbes from fully 20 yards.
The game started to tail away after the interval. Mike Summerbee and Neil Young were kept quiet by the Albion defence, which by now was taking no prisoners, but on the other hand, Bell and Lee created room for themselves admirably, aided and abetted by Mike Doyle and Alan Oakes.
The fast-developing Tony Towers was having a fine game, and it was difficult to notice how much less experience he had when compared with Tony Book, Booth and Pardoe.
There were two goals still to arrive.
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west brom home 1970-71 action
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Summerbee suddenly found the skills to get away from his markers and he provided the pass which was turned in by Bell.
It was “Buzzer” himself who put the icing on the cake when a ground shot by Young was only partially cleared and the ball ran kindly to Mike, who tapped it into the net.
At the final whistle Doyle couldn’t restrain himself and he leapt all over Cumbes in celebration.
It was an encouraging performance, but you were left with the feeling that such was City’s dominance more goals should have been added.
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west brom home 1970-71 action2
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