Man City 4 Man United 0

Man­chester City 4 Man­chester Uni­ted 0, Maine Road, Eng­lish Foot­ball Lea­gue Fir­st Di­vi­sion, Nov­ember 15, 1969. A con­fid­ent and ramp­ant Man­chester City si­de gain­ed their fir­st vic­tory over rivals Man­chester Uni­ted at Maine Road for ten years as they be­at The Man­chester Reds by four goals to nil.

It was any­thing but a quiet af­ter­noon for Man­chester Uni­ted goal­keeper Al­ex Step­ney who con­ceded four goals ag­ainst The Sky Blues. Ian Ure, who had ar­rived from Ar­senal for a trans­fer fee of £80,000 at the be­gin­ning of the cam­paign, also had busy ga­me at Maine Road as the cent­ral de­fender tried to cope wi­th a flu­id Man­chester City at­tack. Watched by a bois­ter­ous crowd of more than 63,000 spec­tat­ors, Man­chester Uni­ted began the bet­ter of the two te­ams and De­nis Law was in­ches from con­vert­ing a pass from John As­ton early on. But as the fir­st pe­riod un­fol­ded, Man­chester City gradu­ally took con­trol of pro­ceed­ings and took the lead thanks to Fal­low­field born in­side for­ward Neil Young, who­se mis­cued cross caught Step­ney off guard sev­en min­utes ahead of the ha­lf-time break. Fol­low­ing the re­sump­tion of ac­tion, ex-Bury mid­fielder Co­lin Bell doubled the ad­vant­age for Joe Mercer´s si­de ten min­utes in­to the sec­ond frame be­fore ex­per­i­enced Man­chester Uni­ted de­fender Da­vid Sad­ler, who had be­en a doubt ahead of the mat­ch wi­th a leg in­jury sus­tained ag­ainst Der­by Coun­ty at Base­ball Gro­und three days earli­er, was un­for­tu­nate enough to put the ball in­to the back of his own net on­ly a min­ute la­ter in the con­test. The ir­re­press­ible Bell then stret­ched the lead even fur­ther for Man­chester City when the twenty-three-year-old mid­field play­maker com­pleted his brace wi­th two min­utes re­maining of the en­counter, ma­king the fi­nal score 4-0. Man­chester City Te­am: Joe Cor­rigan, Glyn Par­doe, Tom­my Booth, To­ny Book, Mi­ke Doyle, Alan Oakes, Ian Bow­yer, Co­lin Bell, Fran­cis Lee, Neil Young, Mi­ke Sum­mer­bee. Sub­stitutes: No­ne. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Al­ex Step­ney, An­thony Dun­ne, Shay Bren­nan, Fran­cis Burns, Ian Ure, Da­vid Sad­ler, Ge­orge Best, Bob­by Charl­ton, De­nis Law, Carlo Sar­tori, John As­ton. Sub­sti­tute: Bri­an Kidd.

Manchester United Quickfacts

Man­chester Uni­ted won their fir­st mat­ch of the 1969-70 sea­son when they be­at Sun­der­land 3-1 at Old Traf­ford on the 30th of Au­gust thro­ugh goals from Ge­orge Best, Don Givens, and Bri­an Kidd.

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