CITY 2 WEST BROMWICH ALBION 1
.
League Division 1
.
1st March 1972
.
Attendance 25,677
.
scorers
City Bell(5 & 71)
WBA Brown(73 pen)
.
Ref Roger Kirkpatrick
City Corrigan, Book, Donachie, Doyle, Booth, Oakes, Summerbee, Bell, Davies, Lee, Towers – used sub Hill(31)
West Brom Osborne, Nisbet, Wilson, Cantello, Wile, Robertson, Gould, Astle, Brown, Suggett, Hartford
King Colin scores both of City’s goals
Although still not 100% fit, Colin Bell’s return to the side was the catalyst in this close fought game at a rainy Maine Road.
It was Bell who put City into the lead in the fifth minute when he nodded home an inch perfect cross from Mike Summerbee. It did not unfortunately spark the game into life and both teams were under par for most of the first half which saw Tommy Booth carried off with a broken nose on the half hour, with Freddie Hill replacing him.
Ten minutes prior to that there was a small stoppage as the Police put out a request on the loudspeaker for all the fans in the Main Stand to check under their seats for any suspect packages, an anonymous caller had warned there was a bomb in the stand set to explode on the half hour, nothing was found and the City fans sang “We shall not be moved”
Albion had two decent chances before the break through Astle and Gould and should really have converted at least one of them.
In the second half it was Hill who provided the cross for Bell to score his second header to put The Blues 2-0 up with less than 20 minutes left, however The Baggies made the last quarter of the game interesting as Tony Brown netted from the penalty spot in the 71st minute after Mike Doyle was adjudged to have handled in the area.
City held on and could have scored again with Albion clearing off their line twice.
