SPORTING LISBON 1 CITY 2
Friendly
7th August 1980
attendance ???
scorers
City Booth, Reeves
Sporting ???
Ref Marques Dils
City Corrigan, Ranson, Stepanovic, Booth, Caton, Henry, Daley, Power, Sugrue, Deyna, Reeves – used subs Palmer, MacKenzie
FROM THE PRESS BOX
PETER GARDNER WRITING IN THE MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS 8TH AUGUST 1980
Manchester City face a nail biting wait to see if Portuguese referee Marques Dils reports the sending off of Paul Sugrue.
If he does the Blues’ baby face striker faces at least a one match ban when the new season gets under way in seven days time.
Sugrue found himself the innocent victim pf a 73rd minute flashpoint incident as the Blues roared to a superb 2-1 victory over Portuguese champions Sporting Lisbon here last night.
On his own admission Sugrue foolishly retaliated after a provocative tackle from Sporting’s Ademar, at a stage when City were running away with the game.
Said manager Tony Book today: “The referee has said he will be informing his own association only. But whether this is so remains to be seen.”
City are acutely aware of a similar situation last December, when they had two men sent off in a friendly match against Real Madrid in Spain.
Tommy Booth and Ray Ranson were given their marching orders and the official in charge said no further action would be taken. But the English FA administered a one match ban on each player while their opponents got away with just the sending off.
… Until the 72nd minute they were so much in charge that Sporting did not know what had hit them.
But then, Dils completely lost control and the flashpoint came in the 73rd minute when Sugrue retaliated after being bruisingly hacked by Ademar.
Referee Dils at first intimated he wanted both players replaced, but when City pushed on Dave Wiffill, he was ordered back on to the bench by Dils, who booked Tommy Caton for dissent.
A provocative challenge on Roger Palmer went unpunished as City battled to hol on to their lead in a tension losded final ten minutes. Said Sugrue: “I was foolish to retaliate, but I had taken a terrible lot of punishment and all I can do is apologise for what I did.”
Allison added: “It was silly of Paul, but in the circumstances he was under a lot of provocation.”