CITY 3 BIRMINGHAM CITY 0
League Division 1
10th December 1977
Attendance 36,671
scorers Tueart(55), Owen(81), Channon(86)
Ref D Shaw
City Corrigan, Clements, Donachie, Booth, Watson, Power, Owen, Channon, Kidd, Hartford, Tueart – sub Keegan(unused)
Birmingham Montgomery, Calderwood, Pendrey, Towers, Howard, Want, Page, Francis, Bertschin, Hibbitt, Emmanuel – sub Dillon(75)
FROM THE PRESS BOX
CORRIGAN’S SHOWCASE
ALAN DUNN WRITING IN THE GUARDIAN 12TH DECEMBER 1977
A formless ragbag of a match at Maine Road on Saturday was saved by three worthy goals in the second half for Manchester City and enough goalmouth activity at each end to keep incipient boredom at arm’s length. That and a stunning performance in the home goal by Corrigan, who effectively opened and closed the show.
In the third minute he was superbly placed to save Bertschin’s hard drive from inside the box. Then, on the stroke of time, he dived high to his left to turn away a fiercely hit free kick that Francis had curved viciously round the defensive wall. In between, Corrigan three times came out of his area to boot clear and had one crowning moment with 14 minutes to go, when his side were holding on to a single goal lead.
Francis cut across a perfect lob towards the far post for Bertschin to come in and head hard for the opposite post. Corrigan ought to have been totally wrong-footed but, somehow at the last moment, he twisted back in mid-air to snatch the ball. Small wonder the crowd gave him an ovation at the end.
They had had precious little else to be enthusiastic about. Birmingham came intent on survival and, thanks to some bold tackling by Howard and Want, frustrated any attack that ran itself silly and had no one to take a more contemplative view of things.
The midfield was earnestly contested without ever producing genuine advantage to either side and it was left to individual enterprise to provide the goal chances. The three all came fairly late, with Tueart volleying the first and Channon feeding the ball on for Owen to score the second. Then Channon found the extra pace to beat off Pendrey and Montgomery for the third. But in the end, only Corrigan lived in the memory.
