Manchester City v Hartlepool United 1975/76 FA Cup 3rd Round

from DENNIS TUEART – MY FOOTBALL JOURNEY By Dennis Tueart – … I got myself sent off for headbutting Hartlepool’s George Potter, whom I’d known from my days at Teeside Polytechnic, in a third round FA Cup clash. I’d got on with George really well, off the pitch, anyway. What happened in the FA Cup game in 1976 was ridiculous. Especially because we were 3-0 up, and I’d already scored two. I could have filled my boots if I’d stayed on, and the team went on to win 6-0 without me anyway. I’d dribbled in from the left, but the ball got away from me and I slid in to try and regain possession. George was still standing as I was on the ground, and then he kicked me across the back of the legs while I was lying there. A red mist descended on me, and I got up and headbutted him. Down he went like a sack of spuds with a depressed fracture of the cheekbone. I remember that joe Royle, who couldn’t have seen the full incident, tried to protect me by going to the referee and saying that George had faked his injury. I had to calm Joe down and tell him it wasn’t worth appealing. I knew what I’d done. The referee, Mr White, sent me off and then sent off George as well as he was carried off the field on a stretcher.

The press up north went nuts, so I locked myself in the house and took the phone off the hook. the Hartlepool chairman wanted me suspended. I fully accepted responsibility, but felt it was important that people remembered that George had also been sent off, and that I was the retaliator, not the instigator. I wrote a statement that was printed in the Manchester Evening News apologising and expressing regret for the incident. I also wrote a letter to The Junior Blues of Manchester City expressing my apologies and telling them that what I did was not acceptable and they shouldn’t copy that behaviour.