Happy Denis Law day

The Colonel said:
A friend of mine always comes back with, 'yeh but he never kicked a ball again'. Not only did he play for city but he scored for us in a competitive match again before retiring. Thanks @Gary James.
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Lots of myths about that day. Whenever anyone says 'yes, but he didn't actually relegate Utd' then it's worth reminding people of the emotion of our Agueroooo Day. Prematch City looked likely to win the League. All we needed to do was match Utd's result. Simple! However, during the course of that afternoon Utd thought they had won the League (indeed they were winning the PL when their game ended). In the end City won it as expected pre-match and the Utd result was irrelevant. But think about the range of emotions.

With the 1974 derby Utd still had a chance to survive. Sure they relied on other results going their way but they still had a chance. The game was only abandoned by the referee when he was absolutely sure of the results elsewhere (and therefore knew that the game being abandoned would not give Utd an advantage). So... If United didn't think the result mattered why did the fans invade the pitch (twice!) to try and get it abandoned? Why did the referee only abandon the game when it was clear the result wouldn't affect the overall relegation? The referee would have played on if there was a chance of Utd staying up, so the game did matter.

The bottom line is that mathematically it didn't ultimately relegate Utd but emotionally it absolutely did. Denis Law felt that one the day, as did everyone there. More on this here:

gjfootballarchive.com

Denis Law and United’s Relegation

Over the years there has been a lot of discussion on Denis Law and his backheeled goal for Manchester City v Manchester United at Old Trafford in April 1974. If you’re a Blue you tend to say it relegated United; if you’re a Red you tend to say ‘absolutely not! It made no difference.’ So,…
gjfootballarchive.com gjfootballarchive.com
 
It was my last ever match at Old Trafford. Obviously City didn’t play there in the League the following season and by the time United were back in the First Division, I was in the process of moving away from Manchester.

That match finished a seven game unbeaten League run there for City (six wins and one draw). It was a long time before City’s next win there.

I recall a hot afternoon. I was just behind the goal so had a perfect view of Law as he backheeled the ball into the net. I can still visualise it in slow motion as Law received the ball and instinctively netted it only to appear to burst into tears with emotion afterwards before being subbed.

All hell broke loose after that. Somehow the United nutters had made there way around to the Scoreboard End to attack the City support while a full scale pitch invasion happened. No sooner had they cleared that one when another started and the referee abandoned the match. I managed to get back to Warwick Road Station to get a train back to Cheadle Hulme. However more attacks took place a a had my scarf snatched at the station.

I was gutted to lose that scarf. It was a college style scarf with vertical stripes. It was predominantly pale blue and white with black and red ornamentation. My mate Chris had managed to find the scarves and had ordered a number of them for a group of us. I think it was from a Women’s College in London and I had worn it for City matches since the late 1960s. That included the Newcastle match in 1968, the Leicester FA Cup win in 1969 and the West Brom and Gornik matches in 1970.

Chris had died in his early twenties of a mysterious illness shortly before leaving a wife.
 
As stated above, Law played and scored in the Texaco Cup (as the Anglo-Scottish Cup became known after one of football's early sponsorship naming deals) at Sheffield United on Tuesday, 6 August 1974. The next Saturday, he played in the 2-1 win at home to Oldham in the same competition and was replaced by sub Barney Daniels. City won 2-1 with goals from Francis Lee and Dennis Tueart, with the game being the last City appearance of both Lee and Law.

Law quit when, after the Oldham game but before the season opener at home to West Ham, Tony Book decided to sell Franny and sign Asa Hartford, switching to a 4-3-3 system rather than continuing to play four up front. One of the four remaining senior forwards - Law, Mike Summerbee, Rodney Marsh and Tueart - was going to have to make way and Book made clear that Law would be the odd man out. The Scot didn't fancy playing in the reserves and thought any transfer he got at that stage of his career would probably involve stepping down a division or two, so he decided to retire.
 
The day I became a City fan at 5 years old. My uncle (from Hyde) was a blue and married my Mum’s sister and was transferred to Lincolnshire in the RAF during the mid 50’s, eventually settling and having kids in Lincoln.

He went in the Paddock with his Dad and told us this exciting story the next day at a celebratory barbecue. He swore to his dying day that everyone leaving Old Trafford thought the back heel had relegated them and it was only years later the technicality of the result being meaningless anyway, that Rags sought solace with.

Thank you Uncle John (RIP)
 
Mrs Vienna was there, under the protective care of Helen "The Bell" Turner.

Lesley was only 5' 1", but Helen was a formidable lady, with whom nobody argued.

I watched the reports coming in from the swamp by Gerald Sinstadt (I think) in my grandparents' kitchen in Cornwall, and I was gleefully taking it all in.
 
Isn’t it true that the rags would have gone down anyway, I think it was Birmingham that got a point or points that rendered the result irrelevant, just saying. I was only 22 at the time, strange year, there had been three day weeks due to power cuts caused by miners strikes & games played at weird times because clubs couldn’t use floodlights, we got to Wembley in the old LC & lost to Wolves 2-1. Memories eh.
 
When I see stories like this and read about people’s versions of that day, I always wish I could of experienced what it was like living in Manchester in the 70’s/80’s etc and going watching City.
 
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