Welcome to Gary James’ Football Archive

Darren Beckford Tribute

Yesterday came the news of Darren Beckford’s death at the age of 59. I wanted to pay a full and proper tribute to him but have only really had the chance today. Darren (seen in 1985 in the main photo taken by John Peters with his parents Val and Dudley and his brother Jason) was…

Alan Oakes’ 500 Appearances

Today (9 November) in 1974 Manchester City presented longserving player Alan Oakes with a silver plate to commemorate his 500th League appearance. He’d actually made his 500th League appearance the previous week when City faced Everton at Goodison. At Maine Road on 9 November City chairman Peter Swales presented him with the award before the…

Darren Beckford

I’ve just heard the news of Darren Beckford’s passing at the age of 59. Darren played for a variety of clubs but began his career with Manchester City and spent four years at Oldham Athletic. he also had two spells at Bury. My thoughts are with his family, friends and of course his brother Jason.…

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About this Website

On this site you will find articles, posts and other material about football. Some of this material is free to access (select ‘Free Content’ from the menu above) while other material is available to those who subscribe to the site. 

The site was launched on 1 January 2021. Since then hundreds of articles, interviews (audio & written), history talks and both my PDFs of my first book (From Maine Men To Banana Citizens, published 1989 and out of print since 1990) and the 2010 edition of Manchester A Football History book (this originally cost £24.95 and has been out of print since 2012) have been posted.

To get a feel for the volume and type of article available visit the ‘Search The Archive’ page (or use either the search function at the bottom of this page or by selecting a category in the Posted Content Categories field below).

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