Saturday 19th January 1974, St Andrews, Division One, Season 1973-1974
Birmingham City 1 Manchester City 1 (Law)
Attendance: 31,401
HONOURS EVEN
City moved up to 12th place in the table after a hard-fought draw at a noisy and well- attended St Andrews. Birmingham, enjoying their second season in the top flight after promotion, gave as good as they got and a share of the points seemed the fairest outcome by the end. The home side thus gained a small amount of revenge for the opening fixture of the season, lost 1-3 at a sun-drenched Maine Road on Denis Law’s second City debut.
City lined up thus: 
MacRae; Barrett, Donachie, Doyle, Booth; Towers, Summerbee, Bell; Lee, Law, Marsh – sub Glyn Pardoe
The side was unchanged from the previous game, a mud-spattered slog against Coventry in the replayed League Cup quarter-final, with Glyn Pardoe reappearing as substitute after being injured at Everton on Boxing Day.
Birmingham might have been City’s League Cup semi-final opponents, but had been surprisingly knocked out in the 5th round by third division Plymouth Argyle, who would instead provide City’s opposition in the final round before the Wembley final.
The Christmas period had been kind to the home side, languishing dangerously close to the drop zone in 19th place out of 22. Draws with front-runners Leeds and Derby County and a 1-0 defeat of Midlands rivals Coventry had put them in good spirit for the daunting trip to Anfield. On Merseyside Freddie Goodwin’s men had acquitted themselves well, taking the lead twice only to be beaten 3-2 at the death. Certainly a poor season seemed to be on the upturn as City arrived on a cold but dry January afternoon.
City’s form since the arrival of new manager Ron Saunders was showing little sign of improvement, with a stellar squad continuing to underperform. Only dual progress in the cups, where the semi finals of the League Cup had been reached at Coventry’s expense and an enticing 4th round FA Cup tie away at Nottingham Forest awaited, was giving any reason for optimism. Saunders’ marshalling of the troops was already spawning rumours of discontent amongst the players, who were said to be unsettled by the new coach’s man-management skills.
GOODWIN’S CRYSTAL BALL
In his programme notes Goodwin made mention of the fact that his club had begun to experiment with Sunday kick-offs during the power shortages of the winter. With some prescience, he wrote, “I personally believe that this (Sunday football) will grow and eventually Sunday will be the recognised day for football, as it is on the continent…“. The good form of youngster Kenny Burns and strikers Bob Hatton and Bob Latchford were also touched upon, as Hatton’s goal had grabbed a point at the Baseball ground and Latchford’s strike had seen Birmingham lead champions-to-be Leeds for nearly an hour.
The programme, only 12 pages and priced at 10p, featured the slogan “Members of the First Division” on the cover to remind home supporters of their regained place amongst the elite of English football. Bob Hatton’s Christmas bonus for picking up the Man of the Match award against Leeds was the princely sum of £25, which was only half what the lucky Mr G. A. Whitehouse had won in the previous week’s Golden Goal competition.
With both sides improving in recent weeks, the match remained close throughout. City’s goal came by simple means, with Lee taking a quick throw to Rodney Marsh and receiving the ball back on the touchline straight away. Moving onto his right foot, Lee’s whipped cross was met by a leaping Denis Law, who headed in comfortably. There then followed Law’s trademark celebration, right arm raised with cuff clenched in his closed fist.
Bob Hatton went into the game £25 richer after receiving his man of the match award for the home game v. Leeds United.
The home side fought back, mindful that their 20th place in the table would not be good enough to save them from a swift return to the 2nd tier come the culmination of the season. By the end, Bob Latchford had grabbed an equaliser, but it would not be until the penultimate match of the season, a thumping 4-0 home win over Queens Park Rangers, that Birmingham would finally move out of the relegation places. An emotional 2-1 home win over Norwich in their last game of the season in front of 44,000 people would confirm their presence in the First Division for 1974-75 season.
For City the draw heralded the end of a three match winning run in three different tournaments (League Cup, FA Cup and League) and underlined the floundering nature of their league form. With Ron Saunders settling into his new job, all was still not well behind the scenes at Maine Road. It would be a troubled theme that would raise its head again several times before the season was done and would play its part in a scandalous moment in the club’s modern history.
Kenny Burns
Match details at Bluemoon
no repartee 