Author Archives: garyjamesfootballarchive

Free Online Discussion on MCFC Away Days This Wednesday – Register Now

On Wednesday 18 January at 6pm (UK time) come and join me for one hour of discussion about Manchester City FC away games (don’t worry I don’t intend to mention the most recent one!). Sign up to listen to and participate in this free event where we will share memories of watching Manchester City away. This hour will be interactive as I’m keen to hear your memories of your first away game and of other away matches. The aim is to celebrate and share knowledge of great away moments, matches and following.

The event will be live on Zoom on 18/1/23 at 6pm and a link will be sent to all those who have registered for the event beforehand (probably the day before the event). To sign up for this online Zoom talk please register via this link:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/manchester-city-memories-of-away-days-tickets-510637800407

Register now to join this online zoom discussion. The plan is to open up the chat so that we can share our memories of our first away games or of experiences watching City away. Maybe we can remind each other of some great (and not so great) moments supporting City on their travels?

Do you remember traveling on the Train specials that the City Supporters Travel Club used to organise? Or were you on one of the official coaches, maybe number one coach with Helen ‘the Bell’ Turner? 

Amongst the moments/subjects being discussed will be the history of travelling to away games; Trevor Francis’ debut; railway & coach specials; the experience of being an away fan; games at Notts County, Barnsley, Stoke, Bradford, Crystal Palace, Manchester United etc. & much more. 

The link will be sent out shortly before the event is live to all those registered. Only those registered will be admitted into the video chat site. You must register here if you want to get involved.

The talk will last about 1 hour and will be online on zoom, so you should be able to access it anywhere. This is a free event but there are a limited number of tickets. These must be ordered in advance.

There is a limited capacity so please book early if you want to participate.

2011 – What It Meant Historically

Manchester football historian Gary James assesses what City’s 2011 FA Cup success means from a historical perspective. This was written in April 2011 and is published here to provide consideration of how that point in history was viewed at the time. It has not been altered to reflect later views.

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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. If you’d like to support my research then why not subscribe? Every subscription directly helps support my research and provides annual subscribers with access to everything posted on this site, including the entire Manchester A Football History and From Maine Men To Banana Citizens books, plus interviews, articles and more. I am not employed by anyone and all my research is self funded or comes from subscriptions to this site.

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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. You can subscribe at either £20 per year (above) or at £3 per month here (cancel any time). For those subscribing £3 per month you will be able to access all content from October 2022 onwards for as long as you are a subscriber. Those subscribing £20 a year have access to everything posted since December 2020.

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Manchester City’s 1980-81 Season

On a day when there’s a controversial refereeing decision in a Manchester Derby here’s a reminder that today is the anniversary (14 January 1981) of a notorious refereeing error in a Manchester City Liverpool League Cup semi-final. You can read about that elsewhere on the site. the anniversary though has given me the impetus to post this 9,000+ word article on the 1980-81 season. This was a remarkable season and you can read it below:

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This 9,000+ article is for subscribers only. You can subscribe at £20 a year (here) or £3 per month (below). Annual subscribers access everything posted since December 2020 and monthly subscribers access everything since 1 October 2022.

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Subscribe to get access

This 9,000+ article is for subscribers only. You can subscribe at £20 a year (above) or £3 per month (here). Annual subscribers access everything posted since December 2020 and monthly subscribers access everything since 1 October 2022.

Subscribe

Manchester Derby Day

It’s Derby Day! Why not get in the mood for today’s game at Old Trafford by having a look at the hundreds of articles on here about the Derby, City and United? The following links will connect you to some great content.

This is a link to all articles tagged as Manchester Derby:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/category/manchester-derbies/

Here are those specifically tagged as City:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/category/manchester-city/

And these are specifically tagged as United:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/category/manchester-united/

Enjoy!

Barnes is Back!

On this day (13 January) in 1987 Peter Barnes re-signed for Manchester City from Manchester United and made his first appearance at home to Liverpool four days later.

You can still purchase copies of my acclaimed biography of Peter Barnes. Every copy bought direct from me will be signed by me. You can order here:

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Scandinavian TV on Derby Day

I spent much of the day at Hotel Football being interviewed about the history of the #ManchesterDerby. An edited version (I obviously went on a bit!) will be shown on TV in Scandinavia in the build up to the game tomorrow. It was great to explain how the history of Manchester football has developed, including support and more.

The interviewer was Jakob Krupa from Viaplay. If you’re in Scandinavia I hope you get chance to see it. 

The Story of Kaká to City!

On this day (13 January) in 2009 Garry Cook and others met with AC Milan supposedly about the possible purchase of goalkeeper Dida but in truth the Manchester City men wanted to talk about Kaká.  Here is the story of that day with exclusive quotes from interviews I have performed with some of those there.

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If you would like to read this 1200 word article and would like to support my research & writing then please subscribe. Annual subscribers (£20 per year, sign up here) get access to everything posted on the site including PDFs of 2 of my out of print books and archived content like my exclusive audio interviews with John Bond, Malcolm Allison etc. Not only that but you’ll be helping to support this site’s development.

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Subscribe to get access

If you would like to read this 1200 word article and would like to support my research & writing then please subscribe. Monthly subscribers (£3 per month, cancel anytime and sign up here) get access to everything posted on the site since 1 October 2022. Not only that but you’ll be helping to support this site’s development.

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Denis Law and Rodney Marsh Both Score

On this day (12 January) in 1974 Denis Law and Rodney Marsh provided the goals as Manchester City defeated Leicester City 2-0 in a thrilling game at Maine Road.  

City were in blistering form for this game and absolutely tore in to Leicester. Only the brilliance of England ‘keeper Peter Shilton kept the score down as the report shows.

I was six years old and sat in the ‘old’ Platt Lane Stand with my dad that day. Were you also at this match? If you were why not leave your memory as a comment or email it to me for possible future use on this website?

Film of the game here:

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Read more of this website when you subscribe today. It works out about £1.67 a month if you take out an annual subscription (£20 per year – you can access everything posted since December 2020 including PDFs of 2 out of print books and listen to audio interviews with John Bond and others) or £3 a month (access everything posted since 1 October 2022) if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time. Sign up for annual here and monthly below.

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Subscribe to get access

Read more of this website when you subscribe today. It works out about £1.67 a month if you take out an annual subscription (£20 per year) or £3 a month (access everything posted since 1 October 2022) if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time. Sign up for annual above and monthly here.

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Royle Goal

On this day (11 January) in 1977 Joe Royle ensured Manchester City progressed to face Newcastle United in the FA Cup by scoring the only goal of the Third Round replay at West Bromwich Albion.  The first game had ended in a 1-1 draw at Maine Road. You can read more about the 1976-77 season here:

Manchester City’s 1976-77 Season

Were you at this match? If you were why not leave your memory as a comment or email it to me for possible future use on this website?

John Gidman

On this day (10 January) in 1954 future Manchester United and Manchester City full-back John Gidman was born.  Gidman briefly became a cult hero at Maine Road by stating that City were the only side he would leave Old Trafford for at the time of his transfer in 1986. He went on to make 66 (plus 1 as substitute) appearances for the Blues.

Peter Barnes played a part in getting Gidman to Manchester City. The full story is in my biography of Peter which can be bought here:

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Do you have memories of John Gidman at City? If you do why not leave your memory as a comment or email it to me for possible future use on this website?