Here’s an interesting photo of Manchester City chairman Bob Smith in 1947 pondering putting up ticket prices. Smith had been chairman for about 12 years at this point – a period that had seen City win the League but also suffer relegation. There was also World War Two of course.
Attendances had increased post WW2 and so it does seem odd that the question of putting up admission prices was raised at all. City, in particular, were a hugely profitable club at this time and Maine Road staged high profile rugby games as well as United renting the stadium (on terms they had suggested).
This photo was taken at the League AGM and shows Smith with John Sarjantson (Southampton). Smith remained chairman for another 8 years after this. I’ve posted the photo because it does seem like an interesting snapshot of City’s boardroom leader at the meeting.
I’m delighted to say I’m one of the co-authors on a new book on the stadia of Manchester City. I’ve contributed the Introduction, the story of Maine Road’s first game and the 100 Maine Memories of Maine Road. I tried to make sure the 100 Maine Memories cover both the great and the unusual so, inevitably, Colin Bell is featured but so is the wonky North Stand scoreboard! If you attended Maine Road it will all make sense and if you didn’t it’ll give you a great feel for what life was like at the old place.
During the 1920s Manchester City had a goalkeeper Jim Mitchell who played in glasses – not specially produced glasses, ordinary glasses of the period!
Here are some images of him in action. I’m not quite certain what’s happened but it looks like he changed his shirt during the game because these are definitely from the same match:
Born in Prestwich, Jim Mitchell was a former Manchester University and Northern Nomads ‘keeper. He also had spells at Blackpool and at Preston where he gained an extremely good reputation. He gained several significant honours and was the Great Britain goalkeeper at the 1920 Olympics. He also kept goal for Preston in the 1922 FA Cup final (the last played at Stamford Bridge before Wembley Stadium opened) against Huddersfield and hit the headlines by leaping around while a penalty was being taken against him – this caused the rules to be changed.
He joined City shortly after the final and replaced Goodchild as City’s number one the following September, making his debut on 9th September 1922 at home to Birmingham. Despite wearing glasses – on the pitch as well as off it – Mitchell was an agile ‘keeper and made 22 appearances in his first season.
Always an amateur, Mitchell made history by being City ‘keeper for the first game at Maine Road (25th August 1923) and was generally recognised as a quality ‘keeper by neutrals. He was certainly known nationwide and was capped at both an amateur level and for the full England side.
He later had a spell at Leicester, though he never appeared in their first team, and joined the footwear firm Stead & Simpson. He went on to become their Managing Director. He passed away in 1975.
Appearances: League: 99 FA Cup: 10
Search my site and you’ll find film of Mitchell at Maine Road’s opening game in 1923. There’s also much more on this 1924 FA Cup semi final featuring Mitchell. It was Billy Meredith’s last game and subscribers can read more and watch film of it here:
This brief comment says everything you need to know about the 23 September 1989 Manchester derby. This was how the New York Post reported on Manchester City’s bargain basement Blues defeated United’s expensive Reds.
Subscribers can read about the 1989-90 season here:
I like this colour team photo of Manchester City which was taken as part of the build-up to the 1955 FA Cup final between the Blues and Newcastle United. City lost that final – and at the time of writing it remains the last major domestic trophy won by the Geordies.
At least two of the men here later had involvement in women’s football with the Manchester Corinthians. Bert Trautmann acted as an ambassador for the pioneering women’s team later in the 1950s while Dave Ewing coached the team when it used City’s Platt Lane facilities in the late 1970s/early 1980s. You can find out more about the Corinthians here:
A save by Manchester City’s Walter Smith in the Arsenal v City game of 21 September 1907. Irvine Thornley scored for the Blues but home team Arsenal won 2-1. You can read more on Walter Smith here:
Subscribe to get access: Monthly
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. Monthly subscription is £3 (cancel anytime). For that you get access to everything posted since 1 October 2022 and everything posted during your subscription. There’s also a special annual rate that gives more benefits and works out cheaper (see below).
Annual subscription is available at the discounted/special price of £20 (works out about £1.67 per month). For that you get access to everything posted since the site was created in December 202, including 3 books and over 1000 articles/interviews/audio etc. You’ll also get everything posted throughout your subscription.
Here’s a match report from Owen Hargreaves’ Manchester City debut on this day (21 September) in 2011. The game ended 2-0 to Manchester’s Blues and was a League Cup tie. Mario Balotelli scored the other City goal. Notice the comments about the cost of City’s squad – yes, it really has been going on this long!
Today (21 September) is the anniversary of Ferran Torres’ first League game from Manchester City AND the anniversary of his last game for City. Considering he played more than one game this is quite a coincidence. His first League appearance was on 21 September 2020 against Wolves and his last was exactly one year later on 21 September 2021 against Wycombe in the League Cup.
The Wolves game ended in a 3-1 City victory. Highlights here:
I thoroughly enjoyed last night’s (19 September 2023) game in the Champions League between the reigning European champions Manchester City (and treble winners – will we ever get tired of remembering that?) and Red Star Belgrade. The Blues won 3-1 and, to be frank, could have scored a lot more had it not been for the heroics of Omri Glazer in the opposition goal (and a few weird finishes but it was a miserably wet night too!).
Summerbee brings in the Champions League trophy
Despite being a goal behind at half time it felt as if the Blues had enough to win the match from the outset and the the second half commenced in style when Julian Alvarez met an Erling Haaland throughball, rounded the keeper and prodded home the equaliser. This was about 73 seconds into the second half. Many Blues missed the goal as they were still returning from the toilets and the bars!
Alvarez opening goal celebration, 19 September 2023 Champions League MCFC v Red Star Belgrade
Alvarez netted a second when his free-kick from the left flew past ‘keeper Glazer after about 1 hour. Then after 73 minutes Rodri did what Rodri does best when he sent a curling strike into the net. It was another classic, just like the final in Istanbul. You can read what Istanbul (and relive that night) meant here:
If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.
During my Maine Road 100 series of free articles commemorating the centenary of Manchester City’s former stadium I had hoped to post this image showing players playing head tennis on the directors’ car park with the Platt Lane Stand in the background. I couldn’t find my scan until this week sadly, so here it is now.
As a kid I used to sit in the Platt Lane and sometimes, if we didn’t walk through the corner tunnel, we’d climb those steps up to the back of the stand. You can see elsewhere (follow links below) stories about the old stand explaining how it was expanded, its age and so on, but the relevant bit for me today is the stair case(s). Back in the 70s they used to scare me. Climbing up or down I felt they were rickety and you could see through the gaps. I much preferred going down the tunnel.
Do you have memories of the old Platt Lane? Feel free to post them as comments here. Thanks.
Gary James' Football Archive 