Lokeren v Manchester City friendly 1977/78
Date Published
LOKEREN 1 CITY 1
Friendly
9th August 1977
Attendance 2,500
Scorers City Royle(24) Lokeren Cornelissen(43)
City Corrigan, Clements, Donachie, Watson, Booth, Owen, Channon, Tueart, Royle, Barnes, Hartford - used subs Conway(45), Power(45)
FROM THE PRESS BOX
JOHN BEAN WRITING IN THE DAILY MIRROR 10TH AUGUST 1977 Tony Book tossed any thought of hitting English football with a brave new 4-2-4 attacking format out of Manchester City's coaching manual in the unreal atmosphere of a Dutch village sports festival last night. On a balmy evening in front of about 2,500 interested Dutch fans, some of the top pros from two countries offered a gentle exercise which answered only one thing for the City manager. "It's clear to me that we won't be able to operate a 4-2-4 system this season, City will go out to play a normal 4-3-3 game with the rest," he declared. "We came here expecting to play in a real soccer stadium and instead found ourselves on a village sports ground. But at least we have come through our three game continental warm-up without defeat and can get down to the real thing on Saturday week with confidence." ... Book selected four forwards, with Dennis Tueart and Peter Barnes flanking Joe Royle and Mick Channon, for this final pre-season exercise. But he was forced to abandon the idea at half-time when it had become patently clear that his men were merging into a traditional 4-3-3 format. City forged ahead through a well-taken Joe Royle goal... Dave Watson's free-kick was headed down by Tommy Booth and the big striker City have been on the point of selling, hammered in a fine angled shot with his left foot. Big Joe almost scored again with a shot which streaked by a post, but City lost their advantage a minute before the break when keeper Joe Corrigan misjudged a 30 yarder from Cornelissen to concede a sloppy equaliser...