The 1920s: Billy Meredith’s Last Goal

For today’s feature I’ve decided to look back to a remarkable day in 1924 when Manchester City and Brighton met in their first competitive game. This ‘first’ also became significant as a ‘last’ moment for one of City’s greatest ever players. That day the legendary Billy Meredith scored his last competitive goal. Remarkably, he was 49 and his return to City’s first team brought significant media coverage. 

The first ever meeting between City and Brighton was on this day (23 February) in 1924 and this photo is of Meredith during that game. It was a FA Cup tie at Brighton and newspapers were full of Meredith stories. His return was big news. The Manchester Evening News explained: ‘To all intents and purposes, Meredith ceased to be an active member of the first team two seasons ago. Two things have combined to bring him within range of the rather sensational choice now made – sentiment and his own indomitable will to fret his hold on the football stage a little longer… The chief argument in his favour is that from one of his classic centres any match might be won, just as it was when he scored the goal that served to bring the English Cup to Hyde Road twenty years ago next month.’

Meredith had not played in a League game all season – in fact he’d only played one game the previous season! – and he was aged 49. However, he remained the biggest name in football and had captained City to FA Cup success in 1904, scoring the winning goal in the final.

A record crowd of 24,734 packed into Brighton’s Goldstone Ground and Meredith’s inclusion inspired the rest of the team. City defeated Brighton 5-1 and there was even a sentimental moment when a minute into the second half Meredith scored. The Daily Mail described the goal: ‘[Meredith’s] old inimitable ball magic along the touch line remains… Those bow legs still mesmerise the ball, and that great right foot still placed the ball perfectly in the mouth of goal. In this way Meredith got his goal. Hayes grasped the ball, but it spun out of his hands into the net.’

This was to be Meredith’s last-ever first team goal.

This season City reached the FA Cup semi-final, establishing attendance records along the way. Meredith’s inclusion was a masterstroke. The chance of Meredith reaching the FA Cup final had been the nation’s footballing dream, but it could not be fulfilled. In the semi-final City were defeated by Newcastle and the Welshman’s career came to an end. You can read about that game here:

Billy Meredith’s Last Game: 1924 FA Cup Semi

Billy Meredith stopped playing more than 100 years ago but his name remains one all Blues should know. He was our first truly great player and was the game’s biggest star. He joined City in 1894 and, despite a spell at Manchester United, remained a City fan all his life, attending every FA Cup final the Blues played in until his death in 1958. 

In 2004 I chatted with his then 98-year-old daughter Winifred, and she said that his heart was always with City: ‘He felt at home at City. I know he had great success at United, but I don’t think they ever really appreciated him in the way City did. I think United were not paying him properly after the war and, because of his age, they probably didn’t value him. But City did, and it’s clear they still love him today. City was always his team and meant more to him than United ever could.’

Other images from the game:

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