Wolves 2 Manchester Utd 0

John Fitzpatrick

Wolver­hampton Wan­derers 2 Man­chester Uni­ted 0, Mo­lineux Sta­dium, Eng­lish Foot­ball Lea­gue Fir­st Di­vi­sion, Septem­ber 16, 1972. Man­chester Uni­ted mid­fielder John Fitz­patrick made his fi­nal fir­st te­am ap­pear­ance for The Reds as they suf­fered their fifth de­feat of the 1972-73 cam­paign ag­ainst Wolver­hampton Wan­derers at Mo­lineux. The Black Coun­try out­fit won the Fir­st Di­vi­sion mat­ch 2-0 thanks to a goal each from front­men Derek Dou­gan and John Richards in the 24th and 67th min­utes respectively.

In their pre­vi­ous Fir­st Di­vi­sion en­counter, Man­chester Uni­ted had suf­fered a dis­ap­point­ing 1-0 de­feat ag­ainst un­fan­cied Cov­entry City at Old Traf­ford where Scot­land in­ter­na­tion­al Wil­lie Carr had sco­red the win­ning goal for The Sky Blues. Wolver­hampton, mean­while, had lost 4-2 ag­ainst Bill Shankly´s Liver­pool at An­field wi­th Em­lyn Hug­hes, Pe­ter Cor­mack, Tom­my Smith, and Kev­in Kee­gan scor­ing for the Mer­sey­siders, whi­le War­ring­ton born for­wards Ste­ve Kin­don and John Richards fou­nd the tar­get for the vis­it­ors. Wol­ves near­ly took an early lead ag­ainst Man­chester Uni­ted at Mo­lineux as for­mer Man­chester City wing­er Dave Wag­staffe sent a low ball to the feet of mid­field dy­namo Ken­ny Hi­b­bitt who­se power­ful shot from out­side the pen­alty box for­ced Old Traf­ford goal­keeper Al­ex Step­ney in­to a full-stret­ched save. The Mid­landers ul­ti­mately went in front in the 24th min­ute of the mat­ch when mid­field play­maker Jim Mc­Cal­liog played a bril­liant thro­ugh pass to North­ern Ire­land in­ter­na­tion­al stri­ker Derek Dou­gan who cooly pla­ced the ball pa­st Step­ney and in­to the bot­tom cor­ner of the net. Mc­Cal­liog al­most sco­red him­self early in the sec­ond ha­lf as he fired from in­side the eight­een-yard area, but Al­ex Step­ney ma­naged to parry his ef­fort away for a flag-kick. Bill McGarry´s Wolver­hampton con­tin­ued to mount at­tacks and the ag­gress­ive ho­me te­am had their sec­ond goal of the ga­me sev­en min­utes pa­st the hour ma­rk when a long ball from Dou­gan fou­nd Richards who chipped it pa­st Step­ney and in­to the back of the net to hand The Old Gold and Black a well-de­served 2-0 vic­tory over Man­chester Uni­ted. Wolver­hampton Wan­derers Te­am: Phil Par­kes, Bern­ard Shaw, Ger­ry Tay­lor, Frank Mun­ro, John Mc­Alle, Jim Mc­Cal­liog, Mi­ke Bai­ley, Ken­ny Hi­b­bitt, John Richards, Derek Dou­gan, Dave Wag­staffe. Sub­stitutes: No­ne. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Al­ex Step­ney, Mar­tin Bu­chan, Ste­ve Ja­mes, Da­vid Sad­ler, An­thony Dun­ne, John Fitz­patrick, Ge­orge Best, Bob­by Charl­ton, Sam­my Mc­Ilroy, An­thony Young, Ian Storey-Moore. Sub­sti­tute: Bri­an Kidd.

 

John Fitzpatrick Quickfacts

Af­ter ma­king his Fir­st Di­vi­sion de­but for Man­chester Uni­ted in a 1-0 de­feat ag­ainst Sun­der­land at Roker Park on the 24th of Feb­ruary 1965,  John Fitz­patrick pro­ceeded to play 147 fir­st te­am mat­ches for the club be­fore per­sist­ent in­jur­ies for­ced him in­to re­tire­ment in 1973 at the age age of twenty-six.

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