Here’s a small feature from Shoot magazine on the premiere of the film Escape To Victory. Two former Manchester City players had roles on the Allies team. They were Mike Summerbee and Kaziu Deyna.
Author Archives: garyjamesfootballarchive
Åge Hareide
I’ve just seen the news about Åge Hareide. Manchester City’s first Norwegian player has died at the age of 72. I remember seeing ‘Oggy’, as we called him/chanted his name, when he first arrived.
Åge only managed 24 games for the Blues during an odd period for the club. He played from 1981 to 1982 and later managed Norway, Denmark and Iceland during an incredible 54 year career as player and manager. My thoughts are with his family and friends.
From My Collection:MCFC Changing Colours?
Back in 1938 Manchester City introduced a letters page in their match programme. The idea was for supporters to write in with suggestions they would like to see the club implement. It took some time before fans started writing in and here was the first letter the club published. It talked of how the club colours of pale blue and white didn’t offer much of a contrast and how the author preferred to see white and black or the 1934 cup final colours of maroon and white.
Over the years there were lots of suggestions of changing City’s traditional colours. In the late 1960s Malcolm Allison wanted to make the club’s red and black away colours their home colours. Imagine anyone making such a suggestion today!
From My Collection: The Radio Times
Here’s a nice cover from the Radio Times featuring Manchester City’s 1969 FA Cup winners. They defeated Leicester 1-0 thanks to a goal from prolific City scorer Neil Young.
The 1950s: Film of a Snowy Maine Road
Here’s film of Manchester City v Preston from this day (16 December in 1950) in 1950: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywhEPT5R3LU&list=PLIBBFkx37GSdU3VcxT_41AAV-0gUpxl5j&index=12 It’s a snowy day and I won’t mention the score!
If you’d like to read more on this season, then here’s a 1,500 word article on the 1950-51 season. Enjoy!
This is a subscriber article and you can read it by subscribing below.
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From My Collection: MCFC Wear Sammy Scarves
An advert which appeared on the cover of the Manchester City match programme from today (15 December) in 1934. Back then ‘all’ the City players wore Sammy Scarves! Presumably not in games, though Sammy Scarves could have made a fortune in Sammy Snoods when Tevez was playing!
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Bunny Shaw: Record Scorer
Congratulations to Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw on becoming the first Manchester City Women player to score 100 goals since the relaunch of the club. It’s a wonderful feat and she deserves immense praise. Here’s City’s report of today’s (14 December 2025) 6-1 victory over Aston Villa which saw Shaw score 4 goals:
https://www.mancity.com/news/womens/man-city-aston-villa-wsl-match-report-december-2025-63901308
From My Collection: The Cover Inspiration
When I was writing the authorised biography of Peter Barnes there was one piece of product packaging and advertising from his career that seemed appropriate to replicate. The Peter Barnes Football Trainer was a popular toy, demonstrated by Peter himself on an episode of Blue Peter. This packaging (main colour image) and the magazine adverts for the training aid were the inspiration for the book cover.
I asked Trevor, the book designer, to mock up a cover using the styling, colours and approach of the old Football Trainer packaging and he came up with a few choices including this, the one we went with:
If you’re interested you can still buy the Peter Barnes biography direct from me here:
60 Years Ago Today: City and United Youth
Here’s the front of a match programme for the FA Youth Cup tie between Manchester City and Manchester United on this day (13 December) in 1965. How many names do you recognise? The match ended in a 5-0 United win.
You can find out more on Manchester City during the 1965-66 season by reading the following 4100 word article. As with most of the other features in this series it includes words from interviews I have performed with those who were there. This is a subscriber article (see below).
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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up for a year at the discounted price of £20 per year (works out £1.67 per month). Subscribers access the 1000+ articles posted so far and the others scheduled during the life of your subscription.
The Last City Derby Hat-trick Until Haaland & Foden
On this day (12 December) in 1970 a hat-trick from Francis Lee was City’s last hat-trick in a Manchester derby until Haaland and Foden in October 2022! The 1970 game also saw a goal from Mike Doyle to gave City a comfortable 4-1 victory over Manchester United before an Old Trafford crowd of 52,636. That victory meant City had won 5 and only dropped 4 points in 8 consecutive League derby meetings with the Reds. There was also a devastating injury to Glyn Pardoe (more on that in another post!). Here is the background, report and verdict of that game…
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Gary James' Football Archive 