sentences:  Waddington did though sometimes prefer to play John Mahoney to Conroy, using Mahoney as an extra defensive midfielder to make Stoke more solid defensively.Conroy also damaged cartilage in his knee after being challenged heavily by Manchester City's left-half Alan Oakes in a 3–1 defeat at Maine Road on 29 March, and was ruled out of action for five months.After recovering he went on to make 33 appearances in the 1969–70 campaign, and got some measure of revenge over Manchester City at Maine Road on 17 January by scoring the only goal of the game after dribbling past three defenders from the half-way line.