Notts County v Manchester City 1991/92

City Coton, Hill, Pointon, Sheron, Heath, Reid, Redmond, White, I Brightwell, Hughes, Megson – subs Hoekman(64), Allen(64)

Notts County Cherry, Palmer, Paris, Short, Yates, Harding, Thomas, Draper, Rideout, Bartlett, Johnson – subs Turner(76), Regis(83)

It was a great recovery by Peter Reid’s side at Meadow Lane, which saw them climb back into the top six.
The first half fled by like a sip of Bovril, adequate but nothing to write home about. However just four minutes after the break County took the lead, Dean Thomas smashing a 20 yard shot past Tony Coton.
It took City just three minutes to equalise, from a corner, Mike Sheron, on his full League debut, swept the ball home from 8 yards.
Just two minutes later, Thomas went from hero to zero, a looping cross into the County box saw him unchallenged, but rather than heading the ball clear he raised his arm and seemed to swing it at the ball. the referee immediately pointed to the spot, however Mark Brennan’s penalty was hit at a good height for a keeper to save, and, Steve Cherry did just that, to keep the score level, and to temporarily save Thomas’ blushes.
Out of favour striker Clive Allen came off the bench in the 64th minute, and stamped his name on the game six minutes later; Mike Sheron made a great run down the right, cutting the ball back from the bye-line as he was challenged by Cherry, Allen was there to hit the target from 10 yards, however, Thomas who was stood on the line, again reached out his arm to ‘save’ Allen’s shot, to give away another penalty, and referee Tony Ward had no option but to send Thomas off.
Allen confidently stepped up to slot the penalty home.
Neil Warnock, the County manager, had no sympathy for Thomas, saying: “He knows the rules, even if they only came in at the start of the season. If you keep a shot out with your hands, it’s an automatic red card.” In Thomas’s defence City assistant manager Sam Ellis said “There might have been a case for keeping the lad on as Danny Hoekman put the rebound in anyway.
Then just two minutes later, Allen scored again with a fantastic half volley from 15 yards, after a great cross from David White, making the final score 3-1 to the Citizens.
Once one of the League’s most prolific scorers, 30 year old Allen, despite his match-winning brace, was not happy after the match explaining: “The way I’m being treated at Maine Road is absolutely disgraceful. Since I turned down a transfer to Luton 10 weeks ago, the manager simply refuses to speak to me. All I want to do is play for Manchester City, but that seems to be some kind of crime. I’ve been stuck in the third team, and told to train with the juniors. I can’t understand what is going on, because I have never been a bad boy or caused any problems. I was surprised to be selected today despite City’s lengthy injury list. But given the opportunity, it was up to me to grab it, and I certainly did that.”
Ellis chipped in: “I was delighted for Clive. The only way you can answer the manager, or whoever picks the team, is back on the pitch. But I’m not aware of the fact that the manager hadn’t been speaking to Clive. I just think that at certain times players get a little emotional and things are exaggerated.
Warnock, obviously an admirer of Allen, quipped: “With Allen we’d have won 7-2!”