CITY 3 BIRMINGHAM 1

League Division 1

22nd February 1975

attendance 33,240

scorers
City Royle(56), Tueart(73), Bell(84)
Birmingham Taylor(72)

Ref R Capey

City Macrae, Pardoe, Donachie, Doyle, Booth, Oakes, Summerbee, Bell, Marsh, Royle, Tueart – sub Clarke(unused)

Birmingham Latchford, Clarke, Bryant, Kendall, Gallagher, Pendrey, Page, Taylor, Burns, Hatton, Emmanuel – sub Morton

FROM THE PRESS BOX

JAMES HOLLAND WRITING IN THE GUARDIAN 24TH FEBRUARY 1975
Manchester City.. kept well in touch with affairs at the top of the League on Saturday. A triumph for persistence and perseverance against a side more intent on destruction than construction.
Throughout the first half Birmingham repeatedly broke up Manchester’s attacks. Birmingham’s chief wreckers were Gallagher, Clarke, Bryant and Pendry, but Birmingham cannot view with any equanimity their position in the League table. They are too near the relegation area. Escape lies in a far more imaginative approach to the problem, not a stupefying belief in the maxim of settling for a point.
After the interval Manchester cast off the shackles that had imprisoned them. Sorcerer Marsh provided the key and Birmingham were confronted by much more livelier and enterprising opposition. A shot from Marsh was painfully diverted over the crossbar by Burns’s face, a drive from Oakes struck a defender and the ball rebounded to Royle standing on the left and unmarked. Royle eagerly took the chance to open the scoring for Manchester. His first League goal since coming to Maine Road last December.
… Manchester had got the scent of victory in their nostrils. A low pass from Bell gave Tueart the chance to add their second goal and when Marsh forced his way past three opponents on the bye line Bell was on hand to pounce on Marsh’s final pass and send the ball into the net…