“If you don’t have the basics, you will struggle like mad. I learnt that lesson and used it all through my career, even when I was a senior pro.
“You are always going to make mistakes – it’s human nature – but to be able to be professional enough to admit that you have good basics and the ability to go back to them will then bring you back to the standard.”
Recalling the events of that amazing day 47 years on, Joe also chuckles when he recalls how some high jinks from City assistant manager Ian McFarlane helped ease the tension during the pre-match warm up.
“I used to go out and warm up with Dennis Tueart. We did some agility work and some crosses. I always put my gloves in the side-netting and as I bent down at Wembley to get my glove bag, the next thing I knew, a ball had flown past me and just missed my head,” Joe reveals.
“I looked round and I saw Ian McFarlane running round the pitch celebrating like mad with a Tam O Shanter hat on.
“After the game, I walked over to Ian and said: ‘What were you playing at?’ Now Ian was a proud Scot and he said: ‘Joe, I’ve always wanted to score at Wembley, so I put the ball in the net and ran around.’ I thought: ‘He could have knocked me out!’ but was a situation I will never forget.”
McFarlane’s madcap antics also continued in the tunnel as the teams were preparing to make their way out into a cauldron of colour and maelstrom of noise.
“What was funny and made us relax was when we were in the tunnel,” Peter Barnes reveals. “With Ian McFarlane, it was like that famous scene in the film Kes where the schoolteacher runs off with the ball. Ian was just like that!
“There he was, throwing the ball up against the Wembley tunnel and heading it against the wall like he was going out to play! We all couldn’t stop laughing at Ian.
“He’s then on the pitch, playing with the ball, and we only had two or three to warm up with, so we ended up ordering Ian off!”
McFarlane’s antics helped defuse the tension and a high-octane clash full of pace, panache and drama got under way with a vibrant City taking the game to Gordon Lee’s men from the off.
With wing wizards Barnes and Tueart flanking forward spearhead Royle, City set their attacking stall out from the off and we were rewarded thanks to a sensational 11th minute opener from Barnes who, at 18, became the youngest player to score in a Wembley Final.
An exquisitely-worked set-piece saw Asa Hartford’s disguised free-kick floated into the heart of the Newcastle box, before being headed back across by skipper Mike Doyle into the path of the onrushing Barnes who executed a stunning half-volley past Newcastle ‘keeper Mike Mahoney.
“It never gets the limelight of Dennis’s goal as his was that sensational over-head kick but we worked it out,” Peter reveals.
“I went out on the right, the free-kick came in, Doyley headed the ball down and I had to get in the box, and it sat up nicely and I’m coming onto it with my left foot, so I just thought: ‘Get it on target.’
“I then hit it cleanly and, thankfully, it ended up in the back of the net.
“It was great to be able run to the City fans behind the goal, who were all screaming, and to celebrate with them. I’m a City fan and a Manchester lad so it was just meant the world to me.
“The game was only 11 minutes old and I think scoring so early on helped to settle us down.”