MIDDLESBROUGH 1 CITY 1
League Division 2
21st August 1965
Attendance 17,982
scorers
City Murray(61)
Middlesbrough Nurse(77)
City Dowd, Bacuzzi, Gomersall, Doyle, Cheetham, Oakes, Summerbee, Crossan, Murray, Brand, Connor – sub Pardoe(unused)
Middlesbrough Connachan, Gates, Jones, Horner, Nurse, Davidson, Holliday, Gibson, Horsfield, Ratcliffe, Braithwaite
The reign of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison began with a difficult game at Middlesbrough, and the Blues fielded their two recent signings, Ralph Brand and Mike Summerbee.
The first half was goalless, both sides carefully testing the bath water before plunging in, and the fans hoped that things would improve after the break.
Middlesbrough took the initiative and launched a series of raids which only went to show what a good ‘keeper City had in Harry Dowd. Home striker Arthur Horsfield was clear through on one occasion, but Dowd raced out and bravely smothered the ball, and Harry later cleared splendidly off his line with a crowd of players in his way. Mike Doyle started the move which gave the Blues the lead.
He fed Mike Summerbee, who put across a slide-rule centre and there was striker Jimmy Murray to head past Eddie Connachan.
Murray missed an easy chance after that and predictably the Teessiders came back in a bid to equalise. They did just that direct from a free kick through Mel Nurse, who had earlier wasted a good opening.
A draw was a fair result and
ADAPTED FROM ARTICLE IN THE CITY PROGRAMME 19TH AUGUST 1995