Liverpool 2 Manchester U 2

Liver­pool 2 Man­chester Uni­ted 2, An­field Sta­dium, Eng­lish Foot­ball Lea­gue Fir­st Di­vi­sion, Septem­ber 25, 1971. Man­chester Uni­ted came from be­ing two goals down to res­cue an im­port­ant point ag­ainst bit­ter rivals Liver­pool at An­field. The Old Traf­ford men fou­nd them­selves 2-0 down by the 24th min­ute, but sec­ond-ha­lf goals from De­nis Law and Bob­by Charl­ton gave the vis­it­ing si­de a de­served 2-2 draw. 

The An­field te­am had suf­fered a clo­se-fou­ght 1-0 loss ag­ainst 1970-71 run­ners-up Leeds Uni­ted at El­land Road in their last Lea­gue Di­vi­sion One fix­ture, whi­le early pace­set­ters Man­chester Uni­ted had soundly de­feated mid-ta­blers West Ham Uni­ted by a 4-2 mar­gin at Old Traf­ford. At An­field, Liver­pool raced in­to a well de­served 1-0 lead af­ter just sev­en min­utes of ac­tion when Ian Cal­laghan fired a power­ful shot which de­flec­ted off team­mate Bob­by Gra­ham pa­st Man­chester Uni­ted net­mind­er Al­ex Step­ney and in­to the goal and, spurred on by The Kop, the Mer­sey­siders soon doubled their ad­vant­age thro­ugh Bri­an Hall who fou­nd the back of the net in the 24th min­ute of the der­by mat­ch. Man­chester Uni­ted, who were wear­ing white shirts, white shorts, and black stock­ings, star­ted the sec­ond pe­riod on the front foot and the vis­it­ors pulled a goal back eight min­utes fol­low­ing the re­start as North­ern Ire­land in­ter­na­tion­al Ge­orge Best laid the ball on a sil­ver plate for De­nis Law to vol­ley ho­me, and nine­teen min­utes la­ter for­mer Eng­land play­er Bob­by Charl­ton ham­mered the equal­iser pa­st Liver­pool cus­todi­an Ray Clem­ence to end the tie level at 2-2 af­ter be­ing set up by the Ulsterman.

Else­where, Fir­st Di­vi­sion ta­ble top­pers Shef­field Uni­ted over­came Dave Sexton´s Chel­sea 1-0 at Bramall Lane thanks to a fir­st-ha­lf goal by Stew­art Scul­lion, Hud­dersfield To­wn de­feated bit­ter rivals Leeds Uni­ted by 2-1 at Leeds Road, Der­by Coun­ty and West Brom­wich Al­bion shared the spoils in a goal­less draw at Base­ball Gro­und, Ips­wich To­wn and New­castle Uni­ted also drew goal­less at Port­man Road, reign­ing cham­pi­ons and double win­ners Ar­senal be­at Lei­cester City 3-0 at High­bury, Lea­gue Cup hold­ers Tot­ten­ham Hot­spur lost 1-0 to Cov­entry City at High­field Road, Ever­ton suc­cumbed to a 2-1 de­feat at the hands of Crys­tal Pal­ace at Sel­hurst Park, whi­le Man­chester City trashed South­ampton by 3-0 at Maine Road cour­tesy of one goal each from Co­lin Bell, Wyn Dav­ies, and Fran­cis Lee. Liver­pool Te­am: Ray Clem­ence, Ian Ross, Alec Lind­say, Larry Lloyd, Chris Lawl­er, Em­lyn Hug­hes, Bri­an Hall, Ste­ve Heigh­way, Kev­in Kee­gan, Bob­by Gra­ham, Ian Cal­laghan. Sub­stitutes: No­ne. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Al­ex Step­ney, Ste­ven Ja­mes, Fran­cis Burns, Tom­my O’Neil, Da­vid Sad­ler, Bob­by Charl­ton, Wil­lie Mor­gan, Alan Gowl­ing, Bri­an Kidd, De­nis Law, Ge­orge Best. Sub­stitutes: None.

Manchester United Quickfacts

Man­chester Uni­ted on­ly lost two Fir­st Di­vi­sion ga­mes in the fir­st ha­lf of the 1971-72 sea­son, wi­th their two de­feats com­ing ag­ainst Ever­ton at Good­ison Park and Leeds Uni­ted at Old Trafford.

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