CITY 2 AIRDRIEONIANS 2

Texaco Cup 1st Round 1st Leg

15th September 1971

attendance 15,033

scorers
City Doyle(29 pen), Mellor(40)
Airdrie Goodwin(34), Busby(67)

Ref H Williams

City Healey, Book, Donachie, Doyle, Booth, Jeffries, Summerbee, Towers, Davies, Brennan, Mellor – subs Lee(45), Corrigan(45)

FROM THE PRESS BOX

By ‘a Special Correspondent’ from The Guardian 16th September 1971
Manchester City never took into account Scottish determination in their Texaco Cup first round, first leg match against Airdrieonians at Maine Road last night. The visitors fought back equalising twice.
City too often tried three moves towards the visitors’ goal when a few direct shots might have been more productive. Mellor was one of the culprits. Not content with beating a man once he had to show his party tricks again and again. And this gave Goodwin, the Airdrieonians centre half, the chance to take the ball repeatedly from the Manchester outside left’s toes.

Manchester opened their scoring in the twenty ninth minute through a penalty . Davies was pushed in the back by Goodwin when he was jumping for a ball from Summerbee, and Doyle made no mistake with the penalty kick. McKenzie, the goalkeeper, dived the wrong way.
Goodwin atoned for his lapse five minutes later when he took a long shot from 30 yards and it went into the top left-hand corner of the goal, Healey dived but was a shade too late. Manchester went ahead in the 40th minute and once again Davies played a part in the goal. He jinxed one way and opened a gap in the defence, slipping the ball to Mellor, who on this occasion did not wait but put it safely in the back of the net. After half-time Manchester brought on Lee in place of Doyle and the pace of the game took a turn for the better.

Corrigan replaced Healey in City’s goal for the second half and Busby was booked for a foul on him. Although Lee had the City forward line moving smoothly, Airdrieonians scored after 67 minutes. They had assistance from Mr H Williams, the referee, who impeded Towers, who was making a break towards the Scottish goal, and allowed play to proceed. The ball was cleared and Busby, the Airdrieonians’ centre forward, seized on the loose ball, ran for 20 yards and scored.