How Puskas helped City win the CupUpdated: December 20th, 2006
Here’s a fascinating article about the effect Puskas’s Hungary had on City’s tactics in the 1950s, which ultimately lead to our 1956 FA Cup win.
It describes how a group of City players were so affected by Hungary’s 6-3 rout of England in 1953 that they persuaded manager Les McDowall to radically alter the tactics:
Hungary defeated England by six goals to three at Wembley with a display of brilliant football. In the Chorlton-cum-Hardy suburbs of Manchester the City Mafia of Revie, Paul, Clarke and Johnny Williamson, the City reserve forward, watched on television, mesmerised by the Magyars’ ability.
In leafy Bramhall, Bert Trautmann sat on the edge of his armchair with disbelief; this stunning display of football was exactly his own idea of how the game should be approached.
On the following morning the Manchester City players reported for training in an excited huddle and discussed with a relentless passion the Hungarian display. The trainers and coaches arrived and dished out the usual stint of lapping the pitch and circuit training in the gymnasium.
The article is from a website called Mightyleeds and focuses on Don Revie’s influence on the team’s tactics. Inside forward Revie was signed for £25,000 in Oct 1951, sharing the club’s transfer record with Ian Broadis, who was signed for the same amount two weeks earlier.
City’s reserves were the first to adopt the Hungarian tactics, and won their league in 1954. But it wasn’t until a pre-season season tour of Germany in 1954 that McDowall decided on the tactical change. In a training session in the woodlands outside Munich, McDowall pulled Revie to one side to tell him they were adopting new tactics and training methods.
In a pre-season briefing, McDowall told his squad:
“We are going to play football this season. By football, I mean football. We are going to keep the ball down, no big kicking and no wild clearances from defence.” He gave Roy Paul a hard stare because his captain never stood on ceremony. Paul replied: “If you get Laurie to organise the bastards properly boss, I’ll f***ing deliver.”
The newspapers referred to the new tactics as the ‘Revie Plan’, though after a run of defeats early in the season Revie began to lose faith. But McDowall persisted, made a few adjustments and took City to a Cup final and 7th in the league.
The following year was one of the best ever in City’s history, with a 4th place finish and FA Cup final victory over Birmingham.
~ The Guardian’s David Lacey wrote this piece about the effect Puskas and Hungary had on football tactics, while The Observer has extracts from Puskas’s autobiography here.
Photos from the 1955 and 1956 Cup finals can be found in our archives section here.
Watch out, bro
Should Bernardo Corradi’s brother be worried right now?
According to this MEN story Jacob Corradi made his first ever visit to Eastlands on Saturday. “Corradi was thrilled to break his duck, and believes that his brother Jacob - watching from the stands - may just have replaced Beanie the toy horse as City’s lucky mascot,” the MEN reported.
Considering Pearce’s quip that Beanie had been gelded after the defeat at Wigan, Jacob’s must now be hoping our next defeat isn’t blamed on him.
And on the subject of unfortunate horses, it appears Beanie wasn’t the only one to suffer a tragic fate with City.
According to Mark Hodkinson’s book Blue Moon, the Maine Road pitch had a horse’s skeleton under it.
When the pitch was being prepared in the early 1920s a horse and cart fell into a deep pit close to the centre circle. The horse broke its leg and was shot where it lay before being covered in earth.
~ Blue Moon: Down Among the Dead Men with Manchester City is an excellent account of the 1998-99 season by The Times journalist Mark Hodkinson, which includes interviews with staff, directors and former players. It’s available from Amazon for £6.39 (+p&p) or from £1.80 (+p&p) for a used copy. Links to other City books and book reviews can be found in our Shopping section here.