Saturday 30th March 1974, Maine Road, First Division, Season 1973-1974
CITY 1 Wolves 1 | Att:25,236 | Lee – Kindon
TEAMS | CITY – MacRae, Pardoe, Donachie, Doyle, Booth, Horswill, Summerbee, Bell, Lee, Oakes, Carrodus (sub Whelan)
Wolves | Parkes, Palmer, Parkin, McAlle, Jefferson, Powell, Bailey, Hibbitt, Sunderland (Dougan), Kindon, Wagstaffe
Hope springs eternal. With a gate 4,000 up on the midweek win over Newcastle, the faithful once again came in expectation, as City completed the second of four consecutive home games that could shoot them up the table towards respectability in a season of meandering missed opportunities.
By the end “Wolves h” could be added to the list. With Tueart missing his first game since signing from Sunderland with a bruised instep, Frank Carrodus deputised upfront and produced one of his best displays. The rest of the side stayed the same as the previous midweek’s line-up against the Geordies. Derek Dougan dropped to sub for the first time this season for the visitors. In the programme notes Ron Saunders decried his team’s continuing bad luck in front of goal, citing Tueart’s effort against the bar in the defeat at Highbury and a string of over-performing goalkeepers in recent weeks. If his comments felt like the usual excuses, the rhetoric was intriguing for someone only a few months into his tenure.
For Wolves, buoyed by their Wembley defeat of the Blues the month before, the season had already born fruit and, although they rested a place below City in the table, the general feeling of achievement was in bleak contrast to the undercurrent of disappointment that was drifting from the Kippax. The letters page contained complaints about fans on the terraces instigating chants of “if you’re not coming back, clap your hands” and the general malaise that was setting in felt like it might need more than a long hot summer to remedy. Everywhere the smell of End of Empire permeated, with the likes of Lee, Summerbee and Law seemingly nearing the end of their times at the club.
With the sun shining down on Moss Side, the two sides provided the lethargic crowd with ample entertainment, however, with both goalkeepers called into repeated action. Frantic activity featured at both ends, with Wolves having a goal disallowed and Kenny Hibbitt getting booked in a bizarre scene that saw the Wolves man write his own name in the referee’s book. Two “b’s” two “t’s”.
Lee, scoring his third goal in two games, put City ahead after 37 minutes after an exhilarating run past several Wolves defenders. His shot was parried by Parkes but it carried into the net for Lee’s 17th goal of the season. Kindon replied for the visitors after 57. The best chance thereafter fell to Colin Bell whose close-in shot was deflected up and over the bar by the outstretched foot of Derek Jefferson, deputising for Frank Munro.
Elsewhere it was Cup semi-final day, with 60,000 cramming into Old Trafford for the goalless draw between Leicester and Liverpool and a further 55,000 at Hillsborough to see Newcastle dispose of Burnley 2-0. In the first division, the gates were locked twenty minutes before kick-off at Upton Park as leaders Leeds arrived in the capital and lost. At the bottom, important wins for Birmingham and Manchester United meant that City and Wolves could not yet rest easy. A mere five points separated fifth-bottom Southampton from 6th placed Everton. The frustration of City dropping points in a four-game run of consecutive home fixtures was evident: even at this late stage, four wins would have taken the Blues to the edge of UEFA Cup qualification, despite everything. Instead, in a run of five home games since the League Cup Final defeat, only one – the defeat of a heavily distracted Newcastle United – would deliver two points.
The feeling persisted that Saunders was a square peg in a round hole at City. Certainly the timing of his appointment, whilst the squad was still heavy with ageing senior pros, meant his well-known no-nonsense attitude fell on deaf ears for players who had heard it all before. News leaking out suggested the primitive tactics compared poorly with what had gone before, Mike Doyle _ a vociferous critic – suggesting he and his fellow defenders had been told “Listen, I don’t want my back four to play football. If you get the ball, just lump it forward and we’ll go from there…”
For Wolves, safety was not yet secure, but a trophy nestled in the cabinet at Molineux for the first time in 14 years. In Goal Magazine, lively young full back Geoff Palmer was being singled out for attention.
no repartee 