Manchester City v Wolverhampton Wanderers League Cup 2nd Rd 1971/72

CITY 4 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 3

League Cup 2nd Round

8th September 1971

attendance 29,156

scorers
City Davies(41), Bell(78 & 84), Lee(81 pen)
Wolves McAlle(22), Hegan(24), Parkin(54 pen)

Ref Vincent James

City Corrigan, Book, Donachie, Doyle, Booth, Towers, Summerbee, Marsh, Davies, Lee, Mellor – sub Jeffries(45)

Wolves Parkes, Shaw, Parkin, Bailey, Munro, McAlle, Hegan, Hibbitt, Richards, Dougan, Wagstaff – sub Taylor(unused)

 WYN DAVIES HEADS IN CITY’S FIRST GOAL

…A game not without some controversy and one where the Blues’ fans were grateful to hear the final whistle. The teams had already met in the League at Molineux, Wolves being the winners of that encounter by 2-1, and on the day of the Cup game they were lying in 5th spot in Division One, one place above ourselves, so a rare old tussle was envisaged. Which is precisely what happened.
The game started quietly, both teams cautiously probing each other’s defence, anxious to give nothing away, and the crowd of 29,146 was becoming impatient. The visitors then decided to obey the crowd’s demands for action and scored two goals in three minutes, aided by our sloppy defence. After 22 minutes john McAlle found himself with time and space to pick his spot from six yards out, and the Blues had barely completed their inquest on that one when Danny Hegan carefully placed a looping shot into a narrow gap between a post and Joe Corrigan.
So already City faced an uphill struggle. Hopes were raised when a Blues rally was rewarded four minutes from half-time with a goal from Wyn Davies. The tall Welsh international met a centre firmly with his head giving Phil Parkes no chance, a classic Davies goal. To make a possible Blue revival even more difficult, Tommy Booth was unable to resume in the second half, so Derek Jeffries came on as sub. City battled gamely but seemed to be chasing a lost cause when Tony Book was adjudged to have fouled ex-Blue David Wagstaffe, and Derek Parkin had no difficulty with the penalty (54 mins,). But whether Wolves became too complacent or whether it was that City at last began to “click” as a team, all of a sudden the game began to assume a different appearance. The kingpin of a possible late revival was Davies who began to dominate the visitors’ defence, his confidence growing and infecting the Bell-Lee-Summerbee combination.
With just 12 minutes to go “Wyn the Leap” found Colin Bell just inside the Wolves penalty area. The England maestro hit a perfect overhead shot and he swivelled on the ground to see the ball go in just inside Parkes’ right hand post.
With nine minutes left Mike Bailey and his colleagues were dumbfounded when referee Vincent James awarded City a penalty for what they, and many other people, believed was a perfectly fair challenge on Lee. Francis himself scored the penalty, naturally.
Level pegging. And with 6 minutes remaining Bell got his second and City’s winning goal, when he fired home a shot from a Davies pass. The home fans were suitably jubilant and the visitors left the pitch reflecting on what might have been.
FROM AN ARTICLE BY JOHN MADDOCKS, PUBLISHED IN THE CITY PROGRAMME 22ND SEPTEMBER 1987

COLIN BELL STARTS CITY’S LATE COMEBACK

KING COLIN’S 2ND AND CITY’S WINNER