ARSENAL 1 CITY 0
League Cup 5th round replay
24th January 1978
Attendance 57,748
Scorer Brady(76 pen)
Referee Alf Grey
City Corrigan, Clements, Donachie, Booth, Watson, Owen; Barnes,Bell, Kidd, Hartford, Tueart – used sub Channon
Arsenal Jennings, Rice, Nelson, Price, O’ Leary, Young, Brady, Matthews, Macdonald, Stapleton, Rix – used sub Hudson
FROM THE PRESS BOX
HARRY MILLER WRITING IN THE DAILY MIRROR 25TH JANUARY 1978
Arsenal reached the League Cup semi-finals last night on a sea of Manchester City bitterness.
City were adamant that the decisive 75th minute penalty, scored by Liam Brady, should never have been given.
Referee Alf Grey, from Great Yarmouth, ruled that City skipper Dave Watson had brought down Malcolm MacDonald. But Watson insisted later: “It was never a penalty, I didn’t trip him, he went down in front of me after he had lost the ball. Obviously we made contact, you always do. But the ball was out of play when the referee blew his whistle.”
City manager Tony Book was equally indignant. He said: “It was a diabolical decision. There was no way that Dave could have brought MacDonald down.” But MacDonald said later:”Watson was marking me tight and as I spun off him he took my standing leg. I don’t think I would have got to the ball, but it was definitely a penalty.”
Arsenal manager Terry Neill showed a certain sympathy towards City when he said: “They played very well and you could understand their disappointment. But I thought it was a penalty, Malcolm was very obviously brought down.”