Fenomenal Oscar: English Leagues the 60s: Manchester City Tottenham Division One 1967 1968

Monday, May 16, 2011

English Leagues the 60s: Manchester City Tottenham Division One 1967 1968

Match of The Day
Maine Road, Manchester
Saturday 9 December 1967

Genial Joe Mercer and his radical coach, Malcolm Allison, were two of television's first soccer pundits as the profile of the manager grew in the 60s. Their Manchester City team came out of the Second Division to win the Championship within two years.
One of the exuberant performances produced by their star-studded forward line came against Spurs on a frozen pitch. Francis Lee, Colin Bell, Mike Summerbee, Neil Young and Tony Coleman made light of the conditions to perform a football ballet on ice.

After Jimmy Greaves had put Spurs ahead, City tiptoed through the Tottenham defence time and again. Bell,Summerbee, Coleman and Young scored in that order, but such was their mastery of the conditions there could have been many more goals. Such a winter's scene could only have happened before City installed their superb under-soil heating, which was later laid 9 inches under the surface. But even on better pitches, it is arguable whether Maine Road fans have ever seen a better exhibition. It gave City a platform for only their second Championship, which they clinched at Newcastle on the last day of the season, while United abdicated the throne in front of the cameras by losing to Sunderland.
Manchester City: Mulhearn, Book, Pardoe, Doyle, Heslop, Oakes, Lee, Bell, Summerbee, Young, Coleman. Scorers: Bell, Summerbee, Coleman, Young
Spurs: Jennings, Kinnear, Knowles, Mullery, Hoy, Mackay, Saul, Greaves, Gilzean, Venables, Jones. Scorer: Greaves