MANCHESTER UNITED 1 CITY 3
League Division 1
12th April 1972
attendance 56,000
scorers
City Lee(62 & 66), Marsh(85)
United Buchan(60)
Ref Jack Taylor
City Healey, Book, Donachie, Doyle, Booth, Oakes, Summerbee, Bell, Davies, Lee, Towers – used sub Marsh(64)
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United Connaughton, O’Neil, Dunne, James, Sadler, Buchan, Best, Gowling, Charlton, Kidd, Moore – sub Law
.
FRANCIS LEE GETS CITY’S FIRST
HE ADDS HIS SECOND AND CITY’S SECOND
RODNEY MARSH SEALS VICTORY WITH CITY’S THIRD
FROM THE PRESS BOX
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PETER GARDNER WRITING IN THE MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS 13TH APRIL 1972
Manchester City skilfully carved out a League Championship omen as they devastated Manchester United in a thunderous second half.
It was on the same ground, and by the same margin that they beat the reds on their way to the title four years ago. Now victory once more opens the way to the top for City.
After a first half that was at times nothing more than a brawling bore, with both sides intent on kicking lumps out of each other, there was a thrilling climax and it was City who superbly lifted the match off the rack of despair to wipe out the lead Martin Buchan, United’s best player by a mile, had given the home side.
Home side? It was often difficult to tell with the frightened Reds scuttling back in a negative 4-4-2 formation, and still failing to prevent City winning the middle of the park battle.
One man more than any other did the trick for City, Colin Bell, so often criticised this season, emerged head and shoulders above his colleagues to take command and finish man of the match. Who can forget the fantastic reflex recovery he made to sweep the ball from Buchan and clip it back into the path of Rodney Marsh for the decisive third goal?
“Magic, Pure magic” purred Malcolm Allison.
Not far behind Bell was that little Scottish terrier Willie Donachie, now the complete left back and master of all situations.
The grip of Tommy Booth and Alan Oakes, too, never relaxed, although United’s failure to come out and attack was a major contributory cause of their downfall.
Francis Lee cracked the post war scoring record with his neat back header from Donachie’s cross within sixty seconds of Buchan’s 60th minute goal, and five minutes later he half volleyed the second after Bell had headed on a Mike Summerbee free kick.
In between these two goals Allison had tactically substituted Marsh for Doyle and City’s £200,000 forward paid a little more off that investment with his third goal in five and a half games. And that is now a better return than Moore for United.
Manchester City skilfully carved out a League Championship omen as they devastated Manchester United in a thunderous second half.
It was on the same ground, and by the same margin that they beat the reds on their way to the title four years ago. Now victory once more opens the way to the top for City.
After a first half that was at times nothing more than a brawling bore, with both sides intent on kicking lumps out of each other, there was a thrilling climax and it was City who superbly lifted the match off the rack of despair to wipe out the lead Martin Buchan, United’s best player by a mile, had given the home side.
Home side? It was often difficult to tell with the frightened Reds scuttling back in a negative 4-4-2 formation, and still failing to prevent City winning the middle of the park battle.
One man more than any other did the trick for City, Colin Bell, so often criticised this season, emerged head and shoulders above his colleagues to take command and finish man of the match. Who can forget the fantastic reflex recovery he made to sweep the ball from Buchan and clip it back into the path of Rodney Marsh for the decisive third goal?
“Magic, Pure magic” purred Malcolm Allison.
Not far behind Bell was that little Scottish terrier Willie Donachie, now the complete left back and master of all situations.
The grip of Tommy Booth and Alan Oakes, too, never relaxed, although United’s failure to come out and attack was a major contributory cause of their downfall.
Francis Lee cracked the post war scoring record with his neat back header from Donachie’s cross within sixty seconds of Buchan’s 60th minute goal, and five minutes later he half volleyed the second after Bell had headed on a Mike Summerbee free kick.
In between these two goals Allison had tactically substituted Marsh for Doyle and City’s £200,000 forward paid a little more off that investment with his third goal in five and a half games. And that is now a better return than Moore for United.
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