SOUTHAMPTON 2 CITY 0

League Division 1

3rd April 1972

attendance 27,374

Scorer Davies(17 & 62)

Ref J Yates

City Healey Book, Donachie, Doyle, Booth, Oakes, Summerbee, Bell, Davies, Lee, Marsh – sub Towers(52)

Southampton Martin, McCarthy, Hollywood, Steele, McGrath, Gabriel, Stokes, Channon, Davies, O’Brien, O’Neil

A brace of goals by Ron Davies at the Dell was significant for both teams. With five games of the season left, It was an important two points for the Saints who were facing a relegation battle, but it blew a big hole in City’s aspiration to win the League, the championship was now out of their hands, Derby sat top on 51 points, Liverpool were second on 50 points, the same as the Blues, and Leeds fourth on 49 points but with a game in hand.
Malcolm Allison clearly wasn’t going to give up on City’s chances saying after the game “We’ll knock in three or four goals against West Ham United on Saturday and then do the same thing at Old Trafford against Manchester United next Wednesday… This race is not over yet. There’s still a long way to go and time for the others to slip up too.”
The Blues were disappointing, their best chance came when Francis Lee hit the crossbar when he really should have scored. Mike Summerbee was City’s best player, but in a tough ‘tackling’ game he lasted less than an hour when Denis Hollywood scythed City’s winger to the ground and he was replaced by Tony Towers. Summerbee said “I thought my leg was broken. You know me. It has to be bad when I have to go off,” Allison also commented “There were things that happened on the field that were a bit disgraceful.”
As far as the goals were concerned, the first was a powerful header from a Bob McCarthy free kick, and then the second was a shot just inside the area from a great pass by Brian O’Neil.