Here’s an interesting article about Tommy Booth and Manchester City from 14 October 1978. It talks about him being ‘Mr Dependable and back in the City first team despite the big spending of the Blues. Actually it’s really interesting how the City spend. spend, spend view exists in this article from all those years ago. Anyway, enjoy this flashback to a time when Tommy Booth remained a key member of City’s first team.
Author Archives: garyjamesfootballarchive
Malcolm Allison
Today (14 October) marks the anniversary of the death of legendary Manchester City coach Malcolm Allison. He passed away in 2010. I’ve interviewed Malcolm often over the years and you can listen to one of those interviews here:
Here’s also an article I published in September this year on Allison. It included comments from a variety of interviews I have performed over the decades. Allison’s views on then young footballer Shaun Wright-Phillips are captured and comments from various people who know Allison well are included.
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ITV National News: Corinthians
Last Friday was a special day when all of our plans to recognise the pioneering Manchester Corinthians came together nicely. In terms of media coverage one of the highlights was the ITV national news who did an excellent feature. You can still watch it here if you missed it:
ITV had already featured the plaque unveiling on their Granada Reports show earlier that day:
https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2023-10-06/honour-for-one-of-the-oldest-womens-football-teams
There was also coverage on BBC North West Tonight (sadly that’s no longer visible online) and various radio stations. There was also a Channel Five News feature too.
I’m still keen to track down other Corinthians (I’m writing the history of the club and am keen to make this the story as told by the women who played for the club). Please get in touch if you’re a former player or have a collection connected with the club: Gary@GJFootballArchive.com
You can find out more on the book which will be published in 2024 here:
There are lots of images from the unveiling on this site, along with stories about the Corinthians. You can find out more on the appeal and on their history here:
Kaziu Deyna Goal v Forest
On this day (13 October) in 1979 Kaziu Deyna scored the only goal of the City-Nottingham Forest League game at Maine Road. A crowd of 41,683 witnessed the City win with future Spanish TV presenter Michael Robinson wearing the number 9 shirt for the Blues that day.
Back in 2003 I wrote this profile of former Manchester City player and Polish World Cup star Kazimierz Deyna. Deyna was such an important and unusual signing at the time he joined City in November 1978 that I feel this article is still appropriate and of interest to subscribers to my blog today.
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Rare Hyde Road Images
Rare action images from Hyde Road taken on this day (October 12) in 1912 as Manchester City were defeated 1-0 at home to Newcastle before a capacity 40,000 crowd.
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Two Minutes Silence
Today (11 October) is the anniversary of a game played in 1930 which highlights something about remembrance for me. These days the periods prior to football games when a recently deceased person or a tragedy is remembered tends to be either a minute’s silence or a minute’s applause. The approach varies depending on the deceased, the mood of the time and other factors. Back in 1930 it was normal to be silent for two minutes and this cutting from 1930 shows the footballers of both Manchester City and Portsmouth paying their respects to the victims of an airship disaster.
The crash occurred in France (the airship’s first journey overseas) on 5 October 1930 and 48 of the 54 people on board died. The football match this image was taken at was played on 11 October 1930. It ended in a 3-1 City defeat (Bobby Marshall scored for City).
On the R101 – when I was researching and writing Farewell To Maine Road 20 years ago an elderly man told me how he remembered an airship flying over the ground when he was a young boy. I do know another airship, the R100, travelled over Manchester at times (including in 1930). Maybe some in the crowd at the Portsmouth game remembered seeing the airship R100 fly over the ground earlier that year?
City End Spurs Run
A 1-1 draw saw Tottenham Hotspur’s run of consecutive victories from the start of the season come to an end at 11 wins (a run of 13 consecutive League wins in total). City of course now hold this record. A crowd of 58,916 saw the game on this day (10 October) in 1960 when City, wearing maroon and white stripes, ended Spurs’ run.
Tottenham’s Bobby Smith heading the opening goal past Bert Trautmann. The City ‘keeper had been superb and went on to demonstrate his skills throughout the game.
City’s Clive Colbridge equalised five minutes into the second half but most newspapers focused on the significance of Tottenham’s winning run with some believing it would never be bettered. They obviously couldn’t predict the brilliance of Pep Guardiola’s team.
Tottenham did go on to win the double (in the days when that seemed an impossibility, never mind a domestic treble or treble involving a European Cup! There was some praise for City in the report.
Here’s a contemporary match report of the Spurs game in 1960:
Blue Moon Podcast: Franny Lee Tribute
I did an interview with David Mooney about Francis Lee. That can be listened to here:
Photos from the Corinthians Plaque Unveiling
I’ll post more as the week goes by on Friday’s Corinthians plaque unveiling but in the meantime here are a few photos. The majority of these were taken by Jayne Comer, from the Manchester City Women Supporters Club. Thanks for all your help Jayne in capturing the day. Others were by myself, Heidi, the mayor’s office and other attendees.
If you’re wondering what all of this was about have a read of this:
Also, 2024 will see the Authorised History of the Corinthians published. You can find out more about that here:
Lee Peacock
On this day (9 October) in 1976 Lee Peacock was born. Peacock was a Mansfield Town player who joined Manchester City in 1999, making his debut as a substitute in the League game with QPR on 6 November 1999. Co-incidentally his last game was also against QPR on 8 March 2000. Not bad considering he only made ten actual appearances for the Blues
Prior to joining City Peacock did play his part in one game that often gets talked about when discussing City in the late 1990s and this is the infamous Auto Windscreen Shield tie of December 1998. It was a competition City did not want to be in and it was a fact known across City’s supporter base. They also knew that a weakened team would be played and, to be frank, we were mostly full of apathy for the competition. The League was the only competition that mattered that season.
For the record Peacock scored twice for Mansfield – a 53 minute penalty and another three minutes later. If you want to relive that game (why would you?) here’s a match report from a Mansfield based newspaper:
Gary James' Football Archive 