Stoke 1 Manchester Utd 2

Sto­ke City 1 Man­chester Uni­ted 2, Vic­tor­ia Gro­und, Eng­lish Foot­ball Lea­gue Fir­st Di­vi­sion, Mar­ch 20, 1971. Ge­orge Best re­gistered a brace as Man­chester Uni­ted de­feated Sto­ke City 2-1 away.

Af­ter suf­fer­ing a 4-3 de­feat ag­ainst West Brom­w­cih Al­bion at The Haw­thorns in their pre­vi­ous away en­counter, Man­chester Uni­ted be­at Sto­ke City 2-1 be­fore a 40,000 crowd at Vic­tor­ia Gro­und wi­th the in­form Ge­orge Best scor­ing bo­th of their goals. Best put Man­chester Uni­ted ahead wi­th a mag­ni­fi­cent lob over Sto­ke City and Eng­land shot stop­per Gor­don Banks in the 23rd min­ute of the con­test and ad­ded a sec­ond goal four min­utes pa­st the ha­lf-hour ma­rk to hand the vis­it­ing te­am a 2-0 cush­ion at the in­ter­val. John Ritch­ie ma­naged to re­duce the ar­rears for The Pot­ters wi­th a clo­se ran­ge head­er in the sec­ond ha­lf, but Man­chester Uni­ted held on to earn them­selves bo­th points. The 2-1 win ag­ainst Sto­ke left The Reds in ninth place in the ta­ble wi­th 34 points from 33 mat­ches, twenty points adrift of lead­ers Leeds Uni­ted, four­teen short of sec­ond pla­ced Ar­senal, and nine be­hind Wol­ves in third spot. Sto­ke City Te­am: Gor­don Banks, Mi­ke Pejic, Eric Skeels, De­nis Smith, John Marsh, Alan Bloor, Mi­ke Bern­ard, Harry Bur­rows, John Ritch­ie, Jim­my Green­hoff, Terry Con­roy. Sub­stitutes: No­ne. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Al­ex Step­ney, To­ny Dun­ne, Paul Ed­wards, Da­vid Sad­ler, John As­ton, Pad­dy Cre­rand, Wil­lie Mor­gan, John Fitz­patrick, De­nis Law, Bob­by Charl­ton, Ge­orge Best. Sub­stitutes: None.

Manchester United Quickfacts

Wilf McGuinness´s Man­chester Uni­ted si­de were held to a 2-2 draw ag­ainst fel­low mid-ta­blers Sto­ke City in an en­ter­tain­ing Lea­gue Di­vi­sion One ga­me at Old Traf­ford on the 7th of Nov­ember 1970.

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