|
On February 7th 1970, City were held 1-1 at home in a League game by
Nottingham Forest. An ankle injury to Tony Book meant he'd left the
field prior to Forest's undeserved 84th minute equaliser but his injury
gave Willie Donachie the opportunity to make his first appearance in a
senior City side. Ten years later Donachie was still in the Blues' first
team and had played in more than 430 games. Born in Glasgow's Gorbals
district in October 1951, Donachie was a cultured and creative
midfielder playing his teenage football for Glasgow Amateurs when
spotted by a City scout. In December 1968 he signed junior forms with
City and began to further his footballing education under the hugely
experienced and successful managerial partnership of Joe Mercer and
Malcolm Allison.
After that debut as a substitute against Forest,
Donachie repeated the act eight games and two months later (this time
replacing another youngster, centre-forward Chris Glennon) in a 1-0 home
defeat by Sunderland before finally making his first start at Crystal
Palace in a game the Blues again lost 1-0. The date was 6th April 1970
and it was Donachie's last contact with the first team until March the
following year. By that time he'd been converted to a left full-back
where his speed and tackling ability, combined with his natural passing
skills, began the career properly of a man that would go on to be one of
the best full-backs of the whole decade. His opportunity this time rose
primarily because of the horrendous broken leg injury sustained by
regular left-back Glyn Pardoe in a 4-1 win at Old Trafford in December
1970.
New record signing Arthur Mann took over initially from Pardoe but
lasted only seven League games before being ousted by his fellow Scot.
Donachie made a total of 14/1 appearances in 1970/71, a figure bettered
greatly next time out when he played 35 times in the League and twice
more in both the League and FA Cups. By the end of 1971/72 Donachie was
not only a firm favourite with the fans and a regular first-team player,
he was turning in such consistent performances that he was recognised
by the Scottish selectors. Having already been capped twice at under 23
level he won the first of his 35 full caps against Peru at Hampden Park
in April 1972; only Asa Hartford with one more has won more Scottish
caps whilst with City. (Ian Penney - author of The Legends of Manchester City)
|