Stoke's journey to the League Cup 40 years ago

All things and everything
Post Reply
slappy
Grumpy old git
Posts: 2884
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2007 3:52 pm

Stoke's journey to the League Cup 40 years ago

Post by slappy »

Sorry, can't find the link to the Stoke Sentinel story, so copy and paste

THIRD ROUND October 6, 1971 OXFORD UNITED ...................... 1 (Evanson) STOKE CITY ............................. 1 (Greenhoff)
STOKE were back on the road to a lower-league ground a month later when the Manor Ground throbbed with 16,000 fans crammed inside.
The visitors cashed in on a terrible goalkeeping error by Mick Kearns to open the scoring in the 13th minute.
Kearns rolled the ball in front of him, unaware that John Ritchie was lurking behind, and the big striker duly nipped in to feed Jimmy Greenhoff for the goal.
Stoke, with Stewart Jump playing sweeper that night, paid later in the night for not putting the tie to bed.
For Oxford came on strong in the final quarter of the game and were rewarded when tenacious midfielder John Evanson seized on a scramble on the edge of the box to fire past Gordon Banks. And no wonder he celebrated... he hailed from Newcastle under Lyme.


THIRD-ROUND REPLAY October 18, 1971 STOKE CITY ............................. 2 (Ritchie, Haslegrave) OXFORD UNITED ...................... 0
INCESSANT rain doused this replay in front of almost 12,000 fans at the Victoria Ground. The tie was half-an-hour old when John Ritchie opened his League Cup account by bundling home at the second attempt from a Terry Conroy cor ner.
But Stoke couldn't kill off their prey, just like the first game 12 days earlier, and were grateful to see the likes of Denis Smith thundering into tackles to make Oxford think twice whenever deep in enemy territory.
The hosts finally ended Oxford's plucky resistance when young winger Sean Haslegrave stepped off the bench for the final 20 minutes.
Having replaced the injured Jimmy Greenhoff, he lit his name in lights by controlling Micky Pejic's high cross and volleying past a helpless Mick Kear ns.
Sideshow Rob
Middle-Aged Spread
Posts: 1240
Joined: Mon May 15, 2006 11:28 pm
Location: Tetsworth

Re: Stoke's journey to the League Cup 40 years ago

Post by Sideshow Rob »

Curse that Kick Kearns.
Post Reply