CITY 2 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1
League Division 1
15th December 1990
Attendance 31,236
scorers
City Redmond(77), Ward(81 pen)
Spurs Gascoigne(25)
Ref J Key
City Coton, I Brightwell, Pointon, Reid, Hendry, Redmond, White, Heath, Quinn, Megson, Ward – subs Clarke(76), Harper(unused)
Spurs Thorsvedt, Thomas, Van den Hauwe, Sedgley, Howells, Mabbutt, Stewart, Gascoigne, Nayim, Lineker, Walsh – subs Allen(56), Samways(85)
PETER REID’S COLUMN IN THE CITY PROGRAMME 19TH DECEMBER 1990
Apart from anything else on Saturday, it was nice to win in the away strip!
Seriously though, the reason we played in the maroon was because the referee asked us to. He thought the fog might come down again, like it did in the morning, and that it would be hard to see us in the sky blue.
l told him there was no problem and we’ll be happy to wear the maroon again at home, if we can produce performances like that.
What a good game of football and all credit to Spurs for their part in it. The match was televised live by satellite all round the world, to places like South Africa, Los Angeles and Toronto. lt was a smashing advert for British football, and for Manchester City.
Our performance against Liverpool at Anfield was exceptional, even though we didn’t win there. But Saturday was nearly as good and, from the point of view of the supporters, it must have had everything you could want in a game.
There were loads of goalmouth incidents, a lot of good attacking, defending and tackling, and a tremendous result for us.
Both sides tried to play and what pleased me most was that we kept going and creating chances even when we were a goal down and it was beginning to look as if we would never score.
In fact, the manner in which we have played in the last few games has delighted me. The lads are really bubbling and even against a team of Spurs quality we have shown we are capable of producing good stuff, too.
It was disappointing to go a goal down after starting well but let’s not take anything away from Paul Gascoigne. Whatever you say about the lad, heis got great ability and is certainly someone I would happily pay to watch.
Spurs knock it around so well and are such a good side that we had to show tremendous character to compete with them. It was because we did that and played so well ourselves that we finished up with the win I felt we deserved.
When the game goes into the last quarter of an hour and you are still behind, you do start to think it might not be your day. But if you keep up the pressure, there’s always a chance.
lt was a worrying moment when Adrian Heath went down injured and Roy Bailey called for a stretcher. You’ve got to be careful when there has been a clash of heads. Fortunately, it was nothing serious and ‘lnchy’ was okay afterwards.
Wayne Clarke went on as sub and almost scored with his first kick. Excellent free kick, good knock-on and ‘Clarkey’ was in a great position for the volley. But Steve Redmond stuck it away from right on the line.
Reddo’ said he was happy to let ‘Clarkey’ have the goal but TV confirmed that it should go down to the skipper. I didn’t care who
scored it as long as it counted!
Spurs had a bit of a moan about the penalty decision that led to the winner but we’ve been on the end of a few controversial ones, Luton for instance, so it balances out. Anyway, the man in black is in charge, so it’s no use arguing.
Before the Spurs game l had to make a very difficult decision myself, as to who played in goal for us. Tony Coton just came out
on top over Andy Dibble.
The fact is, we’ve got two quality ‘keepers and at the end of the day, only one of them can.
