CITY 1 WEST HAM UNITED 5
League Division 1
21st March 1970
attendance 28,353
scorers
City Lee(13)
West Ham Greaves(10 & 36), Hurst(44 & 85), Boyce(81)
ref P Baldwin
City Corrigan, Book, Mann, Doyle, Booth, Oakes, Towers, Lee, Bowyer, Young, Pardoe – sub Bowles(unused)
West Ham Grotier, Bonds, Lampard, Boyce, Stephenson, Moore, Holland, Eustace, Hurst, Greaves, Howe – sub Llewelyn(78)
A MEMORABLE MATCH BY PETER GARDNER, PUBLISHED IN THE CITY PROGRAMME 2nd October 1976
For a match packed with flowing football, goals, drama, sentiment, and, above all, humour, Manchester City’s March 21 clash against West Ham in the 1969-70 season takes a lot of beating.
Joe Corrigan didn’t think it was funny at the time, but he provided one of soccer’s most amusing incidents which is still repeated on television. It was the 82nd minute as the City goalkeeper cleared the ball long and high upfield before turning to head back towards his line. Suddenly Maine Road erupted as Ronnie Boyce, in the centre half circle, hit the ball first time and with Joe desperately scrambling back to cover his goal it sailed high over his head and into the net.
Says Corrigan today: “l took a lot of stick over that incident for a long time afterwards. But now I can look back and laugh myself, even though it is at times still shown on television. However, there’s one point I would like to make, no one at that time gave Boyce any credit for seeing his chance and volleying such a tremendous goal.”
City that day slumped to their heaviest defeat in five years as a footballing genius continued a remarkable sequence by scoring on his debut for every team for which he had played. Jimmy Greaves, a forward feared by every defence in the world, had just joined the Hammers although he was make weight in the record-shattering deal that took Martin Peters from West Ham to Tottenham in what was British soccer’s first £200,000 transfer.
Greaves, who arrived at Upton Park via Chelsea, AC Milan and Spurs, took just ten minutes to maintain his scoring record which even included international appearances for England.
Yet City in a first half in which they had looked the better side had earlier been denied a penalty. Francis Lee, playing despite a heavy cold, was busy in the penalty area when he was brought down by Alan Stephenson. However, referee Peter Baldwin waved on play and the Hammers immediately hit back to take the lead.
But again it was a controversial refereeing decision that enabled the London side to take the lead. Pat Holland looked offside but neither linesman nor referee responded to home appeals as he crossed for Greaves to score, although Tommy Booth made a gallant attempt to hold him off.
Three minutes later City were back in the game. Lee picked up the ball on the edge of the penalty area and suddenly unleashed a cracking low drive which zipped across a surface sodden by torrential rain completely deceiving goalkeeper Peter Grotier.
Back came the Blues and Stephenson handled an lan Bowyer shot but again the referee said ‘no penalty.’ The pace was frantic as City ripped into West Ham, but the 36th minute saw the Londoners again move ahead. Billy Bonds and Geoff Hurst worked the ball through. A shot bounced off Booth to Hurst whose drive was blocked by Corrigan only to break loose at the feet of Greaves . . . and Jim was never a one to miss those sort of chances.
A minute before half time Hurst dived full length to head in a Boyce cross and City, 3-1 down, were deep in trouble. Down, but not quite out, they stormed back after the break with Lee hitting a post from a Neil Young cross. Then a shot from Glyn Pardoe bounced off Grotier’s chest. But, try as they did, City could not score and the inevitable happened in the 82nd minute, a fourth goal to the Hammers. It was the comic opera Boyce effort that left the Blues totally stunned and three minutes from the end Hurst completed the rout of City.
Young had played well for the home side but Mike Doyle and Alan Oakes had ultimately surrendered the vital midfield area to West Ham. A salient factor, too, was the way skipper Bobby Moore marked up tighter on his England buddy Lee with City falling away as an attacking force leaving the Hammers gaining adequate revenge for the Upton Park defeat they had suffered at the hands of the Blues earlier that season.
A GREAT ARTICLE FROM SHOOT 11TH AUGUST 1984
FROM FRANCIS LEE, TRIUMPH, TREACHERY AND TOILET ROLLS
That West Ham game still lives in the memory of all who watched it on Match of the Day at the time, or the clips of the quintessential ‘sucker punch’ goal we conceded on our way to slumping to our worst defeat in five years.
Believe it or not, we played pretty well in the first half but found ourselves 3-1 down at the break. The Hammers had found a spark, and that was the signing of goals Legend Jimmy Greaves from Spurs, who had a record of scoring on his debut at every one of his clubs, and for England. This was his Hammers debut and Jimmy obliged again.
I’d already had a penalty shout turned down when a West Ham break saw Pat Holland, who looked well offside, cross for Greavesie to score after ten minutes. But we levelled three minutes later when I tried my luck from well outside the box and it zipped across the sodden, pudding of a ground and past keeper Peter Grotier. Although we were looking more than okay, a terrible mix up at the back presented Jimmy with an absolute gift and he bagged his second on 36 minutes. Worse followed, as Midfielder Ronnie Boyce, more of him in a trace, flighted a good ball for Geoff Hurst to dive full-length and head their third on the stroke of half-time.
We tore back into them at the start of the second half and I hit the post before a Glyn Pardoe shot bounced off Grotier’s chest. We just couldn’t get a goal, and then in the last ten minutes, they finished us off. Their fourth was the stuff of dreams, or nightmares for Joe Corrigan. Eight minutes from time, Joe cleared upfield from the right side Of his penalty area and he turned to head back towards his six-yard line. But it was a poor kick, and with Joe’s back still to the ball, Ronnie Boyce, 40 yards or so out, volleyed the ball first time and, as the crowd erupted, it sailed past our bemused keeper and into the net. Joe knew nothing until it flashed past him, and he had to take the justified criticism on the chin.
Joe said later, ‘I took a lot of stick over the incident for a long time afterwards. But now I can look back and laugh myself, even though it is at times still shown on television. However, there’s one point I would like to make no one at the time gave Boyce any credit for seeing his chance and volleying such a tremendous goal.’
Geoff Hurst wrapped it up just before the end When a half-cleared Billy Bonds cross Fell nicely for him to thrash a 15-yard volley high into the net. I played with a heavy cold that day and I was certainly feeling under the weather at the end of that one.
A GREAT PHOTO FROM SHOOT!
