CITY 3 EVERTON 1
FA Cup 6th Round Replay
11th March 1981
Attendance 52,532
Scorers
City McDonald(65 & 67), Power(85)
Everton Eastoe(89)
Ref Peter Willis
City Corrigan, Ranson, Caton, McDonald, Reid, Tueart, Power, Gow, MacKenzie, Hutchison, Reeves – sub Henry(unused)
Everton McDonagh, Gidman, Bailey, Wright, Lyons, Ross, McMahon, Eastoe, Varadi, Hartford, McBride – sub Stanley(unused)
BOBBY MCDONALD SCORES HIS SECOND GOAL OF THE GAME
FROM THE PRESS BOX
DEREK WALLIS WRITING IN THE DAILY MIRROR 12TH MARCH 1981
Bobby McDonald, the old fashioned full back signed from Coventry for £250.000 last October, brought himself bang up to date at Maine Road last night.
He scored two dramatic goals in two minutes to send Manchester City sweeping into the FA Cup semi-finals, where they will face Ipswich
And providing the crosses that set up those goals in the sixth round replay was Tommy Hutchison, whose £47,000 transfer from the same club, could prove to be the bargain of the season.
City skipper Paul Power added the final touch with a third goal in the 85th minute after racing 30 yards on to a Dennis Tueart pass.
There was no hint of the drama to come as the teams battled in the first half for supremacy on a treacherous surface after torrential rain.
Mistakes were frequent, passes were misjudged, tackles mistimed but the pace and power of the game seldom slackened with the teams knowing that one error, one slip could be decisive.
Mercifully the match, for all its ferocity, seldom reached the depths of the first encounter though two Everton players, Peter Eastoe and John Bailey were booked.
Goalkeepers Joe Corrigan and Jim McDonagh prevented breakthroughs in the first half, both making defiant saves at crucial moments.
It was when the mud began to drag at the muscles that Hutchison and McDonald struck, leaving Everton to reflect that the fates had finally frowned on them after therir epic feats in dismissing three First Division teams, Arsenal, Liverpool and Southampton.
Earlier Corrigan had been in outstanding form to thwart the quicksilver Everton front line in which young Imre Varadi and Joe McBride were a constant threat.
One save from Varadi, in particular, was an example of a keeper at the height of his profession, Corrigan spreading himself in classic style.
Afterwards City manager John Bond admitted that luck had played a major part in the victory.
He said: “I couldn’t see us getting anything from the game, I thought we had lost it. Then we got a lucky goal and that turned the game. Two deflections carried it past their goalkeeper and the game changed after that. I don’t know if I believe in fairy stories, but it seems like one now, I can’t think that anything better than this will happen to me. Perhaps I should leave City now and go to another club.”
Everton boss Gordon Lee said: “I thought we were the better side in the first half without getting the goal that we needed, but City were better in the second half and they got the break. The first goal was unlucky from our point of view because the ball was deflected twice, but it was the sort of goal that happens in Cup ties.”
But the last word came from double scorer Bobby McDonald. He said: “I should have made it a hat-trick.”
The match was watched by 52,532, Maine Road’s biggest crowd for eight years. More than 105,000 saw the two ties.