Man United 2 Portsmouth 1

Sammy McIlroy

Man­chester Uni­ted 2 Ports­mouth 1, Old Traf­ford, Eng­lish Foot­ball Lea­gue Sec­ond Di­vi­sion, Au­gust 28, 1974. Man­chester Uni­ted de­feated Ports­mouth by a 2-1 score on ho­me soil thanks to a goal apiece from mid­field­ers Ger­ry Da­ly and Sam­my Mc­Ilroy, wi­th the for­mer scor­ing from the pen­alty spot. 

New­ly re­leg­ated Man­chester Uni­ted came in­to the ga­me fresh from a re­sound­ing 4-0 tri­umph ag­ainst Mill­wall at Old Traf­ford, where­as Ports­mouth had beaten Not­ting­ham For­est 2-0 at Frat­ton Park in their pre­vi­ous fix­ture. Uni­ted took the ini­ti­at­ive from the be­gin­ning and went ahead in the mat­ch when Re­pub­lic of Ire­land mid­fielder Ger­ry Da­ly be­at Ports­mouth goal­keeper Da­vid Best from the spot in the 16th min­ute of the con­test. The Reds dom­in­ated for the re­mainder of the fir­st pe­riod, but the ho­me out­fit failed to score more goals be­fore the ha­lf-time break. Man­chester Uni­ted kept on go­ing for­ward in the sec­ond pe­riod and North­ern Ire­land in­ter­na­tion­al Sam­my Mc­Ilroy doubled the lead in the 80th min­ute of the clash be­fore ex-South­ampton dan­ger­man Ron Dav­ies net­ted a con­sol­a­tion pen­alty for Pom­pey sev­en min­utes la­ter. Af­ter beat­ing Ports­mouth 2-1 at Old Traf­ford, Man­chester Uni­ted were now top­ping the Sec­ond Di­vi­sion ta­ble wi­th six points taken from three ga­mes played. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Al­ex Step­ney, Al­ex For­syth, Stew­art Hou­s­ton, Mar­tin Bu­chan, Jim Hol­ton, Bri­an Green­hoff, Wil­lie Mor­gan, Ger­ry Da­ly, Stu­art Pear­son, Mick Mar­tin, Sam­my Mc­Ilroy. Sub­stitutes: No­ne. Ports­mouth Te­am: Da­vid Best, Phil Ro­berts, Billy Wil­son, Nor­man Piper, Paul Went, Alan Steph­en­son, Pe­ter Mar­inello, Eoin Hand, Ron Dav­ies, Rich­ard Reyn­olds, Mick Mel­lows. Sub­sti­tute: Pe­ter Ellis.

 

Manchester United Quickfacts

Man­chester Uni­ted trashed Ports­mouth 3-0 in a Fir­st Di­vi­sion en­counter at Maine Road on the 17th of May 1947 cour­tesy of a goal each by Jack Row­ley, Char­lie Mit­ten, and Johnny Morris.

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