MIDDLESBROUGH 1 CITY 0
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League Cup Semi-Final 1st Leg
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13th January 1976
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attendance 35,000
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scorer Hickton(66) .
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Ref Mr E Wallace
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City Corrigan, Barrett, Donachie, Doyle, Booth, Oakes, Barnes, Power, Royle, Hartford, Tueart – sub Keegan(unused)
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Middlesbrough Platt, Cragg, Bailey, Souness, Boam, Maddren, Murdoch, Mills, Hickton, Cooper, Armstrong – sub Foggon(69)
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WHAT THE PAPERS SAID
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DAILY MIRROR [Derek Wallis]: “With Joe Royle playing unselfishly and laying off the ball accurately, Tueart was in the mood to ram the boos that assaulted his ears back down the throats of the crowd. Yet he missed the best chance of the first half in the last minute when Peter Barnes’s low cross reached him invitingly, but he carelessly hoisted the ball over the bar.”
THE GUARDIAN [Paul Fitzpatrick]: “The first half was largely a tale of almost suffocating Middlesbrough pressure and wasted opportunity. Hickton began the self-punishment when he squandered a chance from a corner and then Craggs bungled the best opportunity of the game. Hickton again dallied fatally and then Corrigan saved brilliantly from Mills.”
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DAILY MAIL [Ron Crowther] “It took Middlesbrough 66 minutes of high-powered effort to break down City’s guard with a goal by John Hickton. And even though I thought City were in luck 20 minutes earlier when Terry Cooper claimed his shot had gone over the line, they won my admiration for their stubborn, panic-proof rearguard action.”
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DAILY EXPRESS [David Miller]: “City will need a calm nerve and all their attacking skills to overhaul the Middlesbrough machine and reach the League Cup Final in the second leg at Maine Road. They somehow emerged unscathed from a first-leg battering in the first half-hour thanks to two fine saves by octopus Joe Corrigan and determined defence by centre half Tommy Booth, deputising for Dave Watson who pulled out with a back injury.”