One for the statisticians/Gary James.

[Vienna_70]

True Colin, was at both games, confident after narrow first leg defeat but we were poor at home. Poor old Ronnie Healey had a mare with the goal, shame really

I recall we had loads of injuries for the second leg. The King was out plus a few others.

And the ever-supportive Football League insisted we play a rearranged league match two days before the 2nd leg, against Liverpool at Maine Rd. Liverpool also had a Fairs Cup SF to play that week and they fielded an entire reserve team. City unfortunately did play a few first teamers and IIRC Joe Corrigan picked up an injury and missed the 2nd leg,

Big Mal was banned from all football at the time, but he phoned Sir Joe and pleaded with him not to play the best available team.

Unfortunately, Genial Joe ignore Allison and a few players - including The King - were injured and unable to play in the second leg.

 

[Blue Streak]

I recall we had loads of injuries for the second leg. The King was out plus a few others.

And the ever-supportive Football League insisted we play a rearranged league match two days before the 2nd leg, against Liverpool at Maine Rd. Liverpool also had a Fairs Cup SF to play that week and they fielded an entire reserve team. City unfortunately did play a few first teamers and IIRC Joe Corrigan picked up an injury and missed the 2nd leg,

Big Mal was banned from all football at the time, but he phoned Sir Joe and pleaded with him not to play the best available team.

Unfortunately, Genial Joe ignore Allison and a few players - including The King - were injured and unable to play in the second leg.

That was the end of Mercer and Allison after that without a doubt. Sad that Joe ignored Malcolm but I think he knew he was fighting a battle he couldn't win as the powers that be at Maine Road wanted Mal to have the top job.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

The team for the second leg of that semi-final:
Healey, Book, Connor, Towers, Heslop, Jeffries, Summerbee, Lee, Bowyer, Young, Johnson

Our strongest XI at that time:
Corrigan, Book, Pardoe, Doyle, Booth, Oakes, Summerbee, Bell, Lee, Young, Towers

No Corrigan, Pardoe, Doyle, Booth, Oakes or Bell.

 

[petrusha]

The team for the second leg of that semi-final:
Healey, Book, Connor, Towers, Heslop, Jeffries, Summerbee, Lee, Bowyer, Young, Johnson

Our strongest XI at that time:
Corrigan, Book, Pardoe, Doyle, Booth, Oakes, Summerbee, Bell, Lee, Young, Towers

No Corrigan, Pardoe, Doyle, Booth, Oakes or Bell.

Team for the first leg was:

Corrigan, Book, Connor, Towers, Booth, Donachie, Johnson, Hill, Lee, Young, Mann

So no Pardoe, Doyle, Oakes, Summerbee or Bell for that one. Missing five top players for the first leg and six for the second, even more so given that clubs didn't carry big squads of established players in those days.

Also, we played the first leg on 14 April 1971, having had to play league fixtures on 9 April, 10 April and 12 April. (Presumably that was the Easter programme, with games on Good Friday, the Saturday and Easter Monday. Chelsea had games on the Saturday and Monday, but had the advantage of not playing on the Friday according to statto.com: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one-old/1970-1971/results/1971-04-09" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.statto.com/football/stats/en ... 1971-04-09</a>