Football writing, thoughts and more by Gary James
On 28 October in 1981 Manchester City faced their first competitive penalty shoot-out. The League Cup tie with Stoke ended 2-2 on aggregate but it took some considerable effort for either side to progress in the competition. With the penalty shoot-out reaching 8-8 goalkeeper Joe Corrigan saved. Norwegian Aage Hareide made it 9-8 for City and the Blues progressed. You can read what John Bond thought about penalties below.
More on the 1981-82 season here:
It’s Day 96 of my Maine Road 100 countdown (not long to go now!) to the centenary of Maine Road’s first game and a brief post on the first and last first team penalty takers at Maine Road. Anyone know who they were? I’m sure many people reading this were there when the last penalty was taken in a first team game at Maine Road. Got it?
That’s right the last first team competitive penalty taken at Maine Road was by Stuart Pearce on 21 April 2002 v Portsmouth. He missed (Elsewhere on this site I tell the story of that day – well worth reading if you’re wondering what was so special about it).
The first penalty at Maine Road was also missed. That was taken by Frank Roberts in the opening game v Sheffield United on 25 August 1923.
Of course Garry Bradbury will claim it’s actually him who took the last penalty at Maine Road as he took one for Merseyside CSA in the Supporters’ Club challenge against Prestwich & Whitefield, in a match that was claimed to be the final game at Maine Road on 12 June 2003.
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On this day (28 October) in 1981 Manchester City faced their first competitive penalty shoot-out. The League Cup tie with Stoke ended 2-2 on aggregate but it took some considerable effort for either side to progress in the competition. With the penalty shoot-out reaching 8-8 goalkeeper Joe Corrigan saved. Norwegian Aage Hareide made it 9-8 for City and the Blues progressed. You can read what John Bond thought about penalties below.
For decades now Francis Lee’s name has been linked with the 1971-72 season and, especially, with him scoring a record number of penalties that season. He netted 13 penalties in a 42 game League season and it’s a record that still stands to this day. This record has often led to the suggestion that Lee ‘won’ more penalties than perhaps he ought to and so for this article I’ve analysed every penalty awarded and taken by Manchester City that season.
This analysis and commentary on Lee’s penalty record is available to subscribers.
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