Gordon Joe & Eddie Plumley signing Tommy Hutchison 1972
On this day (10th February) in 1973 the Sky Blues’ Management duo of Joe Mercer and Gordon Milne (now a CCFPA member) took their team up to the north-east to take on Newcastle United in League Division One. The Geordies had jolted the City early in their campaign with a solid 3-0 victory at Highfield Road in mid September with ‘SuperMac’ Malcolm Macdonald grabbing a hat-trick.
John Tudor in the Sky Blue
Though City’s defender (also now a CCFPA member) Wilf Smith was missing, having been banned for two games, hopes were high that at least one point could be extracted from the Geordies as they had just lost to Luton Town in the F.A.Cup and the Toon Army were ready to jump on their backs for any mistake. Former Sky Blue (and CCFPA member until his recent passing) John Tudor was once more partnering the sturdy Macdonald up front for the home team as he had in the first game.
Sky Blue Colin Stein
The game was a pretty poor one with mistakes galore in the blustery conditions and one committed by United’s Irving Nattrass contributed to the Sky Blues 24th minute opener by our Scottish international Colin Stein.
However, it only took a minute for the Magpies to equalise as City’s shot-stopper Bill Glazier managed only to palm a Magpies’ cross into the air and the north-easterner’s Stewart Barrowclough was quickest to take the opportunity. That was all the scoring over as the spoils and points were shared and both team’s supporters in the 22,940 crowd went home reasonably satisfied.
Sky Blue Bill Glazier
The M-Men’s Sky Blues turned out as follows that day :-
Bill Glazier, Mick Coop, Alan Dugdale, Mick McGuire, Roy Barry, Bobby Parker, Dennis Mortimer, Brian Alderson*, Colin Stein, Chris Cattlin and Tommy Hutchison
(*Apart from the late Brian Alderson, sadly since deceased, all the team subsequently went on to join CCFPA) as did Newcastle’s John Tudor.
Joe Harvey‘s Newcastle United XI lined up as follows:-
Iam McFaul, Dave Craig, Frank Clark, Irving Nattrass, Pat Howard, Bobby Moncur, Stewart Barraclough, Jimmy Smith, Malcolm MacDonald, John Tudor and Alex Reid. Referee:- H.Hackney
CCFC 1972-73
The Sky Blues eventually stayed up in the top division in 1972-73 finishing nineteenth, five points but only a couple of spots above trouble. Crystal Palace and West Bromwich Albion suffered the drop that season.
Newcastle United had a relatively good season finishing ninth and Liverpool took the title by three points from the Arsenal.
Thanks to CCFPA’s Mike Young for sourcing the images.
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