CITY 2 SOUTHAMPTON 1
League Division 1
16th December 1972
attendance 24,825
scorers
City Marsh(68 & 84)
Southampton Jeffries(15 og)
Ref Ken Wynn
City Corrigan, Book, Donachie, Doyle, Barrett, Jeffries, Summerbee, Bell, Marsh, Lee, Towers – unused sub Hill(65)
Southampton Martin, McCarthy, Burns, Fisher, Bennett, Steele, Paine, Channon, Gilchrist, O’Neil, tokes – sub Walker(unused)
A Touch of the real Rodney’s! Oh what a goal that was.
He teased and he teased and he teased, and then he thrashed it, Bang!
Gerald Sinstadt Commentary
Rodney Marsh’s brilliant late winner certainly seemed out of place in this hard fought, and at times, niggly and violent match. Referee Ken Wyn by half-time had totally lost control of the game.
Southampton’s ‘tactics’ were summed up by Alan Dunn in The Guardian “Southampton have long held a reputation for hard play and they seemed to have developed a new ploy that may go a long way to explain their enviable defensive record. Simply it is based on the type of rush tackle that is fair and expected in Rugby but verges on the intimidatory in Association.
In the Daily Express, Derek Potter wrote “If anyone should want a permanent catalogue of what is unpleasant, dangerous, devious and plain daft in Soccer today, a film of this match is the answer. Southampton showed City the big stick. It didn’t take City long to respond and further tarnish a once bright image for playing pure football.”
Terry Paine who claimed that he had been struck in the face during the match proclaimed afterwards “I have never known such an atmosphere. The game was a disgrace, it was almost frightening to be out there, It was one of the worst games I have played in 17 years as a pro. Both teams were to blame,”
The Saints must have thought their tactics would earn them at least a point when a quarter of an hour in Derek Jeffries, under pressure from Mick Channon, tried a back pass to Joe Corrigan from the edge of the eighteen yard box, but he caught the ball on the stretch and perfectly lobbed the City custodian for an own goal and a Southampton lead.
three minutes later and Southampton almost reciprocated. Summerbee looped in a deep cross, Francis Lee met it with a ‘donkey key’ across the face of the goal, the ball hit Burns, and unluckily for City, deflected onto the post and out to safety.
With a quarter of the match left Rodney Marsh grabbed an equaliser for the Blues, the ball dropped to him on the edge of the six yard box after a Francis Lee free-kick had been blocked, and Marsh calmly passed the ball into the far corner of the net.
And then just six minutes from the end we got ‘A Touch of the Real Rodney’s!’ The mercurial Marsh took a Donachie pass on his chest just inside the right angle of 18 yard box, and with Bennett ‘touch tight’ behind him he juggled the ball on his knee twice, turned the defender brilliantly and then steered the ball with perfecion into the net. What a way to win a football match.