Tueart so overjoyed by winner
DENNIS TUEART would still be running around Wembley now after scoring one of the famous stadium’s greatest goals if Manchester City team-mate Asa Hartford had not stopped him.
Every time the League Cup Final comes around under its many sponsorships the ex-england winger’s spectacular overhead kick will get an airing.
It is now 45 years since his winner in the 2-1 victory against Newcastle – the club which left him heartbroken after calling time on his Toon dream at the age of 15.
Memories will come flooding back for Tueart, who went on to become a City director, when he watches Pep
Guardiola’s side this afternoon.
A self-confessed Guardiola disciple, having read three books on the Catalan, Tueart, 71, said: “Pep seems to give his players freedom in the last third of the pitch.
Dazzling
“One of the best pieces of advice came from our manager at the time, Tony Book, who said to me ‘start wide and go where you can cause some trouble’. That to me is what I needed and obviously Pep encourages his players to do similar.
“I’ve read his books on the game so I understand a little bit of his philosophy. The beauty of his management is that his teams are always evolving – nothing stays the same.”
With the likes of Tueart, Hartford, Peter Barnes and Colin Bell, sadly injured in the 1975-76 cup run, that City side epitomised Guardiola’s current beliefs.
And the dazzling 46th-minute overhead kick from a player deemed good enough to replace Pele in the New York Cosmos team typified the freedom Book instilled.
Tueart added: “I was fairly fluid as a player and having an instinct for goals I would often get myself into the penalty area. Willie Donachie was a terrific attacking full-back. He flung a big high ball to the far post where Tommy Booth got his head on it as I raced towards the penalty spot.
“I’d had this conversation with Denis Law when I first signed for Manchester City about goalscoring. He said, ‘Get in the box, you know where the goal is, and just get some sort of contact on the ball.’
“So I just took off and connected with an overhead kick. If Asa hadn’t have grabbed hold of me I might have been still running around the stadium in celebration now. I was so elated.”