On this day (3 December) in 1951 John Burridge was born. 43 years and 147 days later he appeared for Manchester City’s first team and became the oldest player to appear in the Premier League. You can read more about the 1994-95 season here:
Author Archives: garyjamesfootballarchive
Arsenal Defeated
On this day (2 December) in 2009 goals from Carlos Tevez, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Vladimir Weiss gave Manchester City a 3-0 victory over Arsenal in the League Cup quarter-final tie. A crowd of 46,015 watched the game in Manchester. Here’s a contemporary report of the game:
Dowd Joins Oldham
On this day (1 December) in 1970 Manchester City’s 1969 FA Cup winning ‘keeper Harry Dowd joined Oldham Athletic. Dowd had achieved a great deal at City over the years, including scoring a goal. You can read about that goal here:
Bill Taylor
On this day (30 November) in 1981 former Manchester City, Oldham & England coach Bill Taylor died at the age of 42. Taylor was a tremendous coach who joined City from Fulham in 1976 and also coached England. At the time goalkeeper Joe Corrigan commented: “His coaching methods were an inspiration to so many players and he helped tremendously to improve many of them. He was always a bright and breezy character and he had a terrific sense of humour. I can never repay the debt I owe him for the help he gave me both with City and England.”
MANCHESTER CITY – HALL OF FAME: Peter Doherty
“Thanks very much for this. Peter truly loved the game of football. And of all the clubs he played for and that he had the privilege to manage, there was always a special place in his heart for Manchester City, and that’s what makes it so special for all the family tonight. If Peter was still alive today and able to collect this himself he would be very proud. I know I certainly am. This just leaves me to say on behalf of myself and my sister Sue, and my father who unfortunately couldn’t be with us today, and the rest of the Doherty family… Thank you.” Peter Doherty’s grandson Stephen collecting the Hall of Fame award in January 2004
Subscribe to get access
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.
Subscribe to get access
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.
Abandoned Game – MCFC V Brentford
On this day (November 28) in 1936 Manchester City’s game was abandoned due to fog. For today’s piece I’m taking a look back at the season of 1936-37and that game when City and Brentford were title rivals.
The early months of the season were difficult for City. Despite exciting victories over Leeds (4-0) and West Bromwich Albion (6-2), an opening day defeat at Middlesbrough and another at Old Trafford in the first derby since February 1931 caused a little concern. The United defeat was particularly upsetting as the Reds were a side clearly lacking and destined to return immediately to the Second Division. Further City failures occurred, including a 2-1 loss at Wolverhampton and a 4-2 Maine Road defeat to Sunderland.
Significant injuries to captain Sam Barkas, and attackers Alec Herd and Fred Tilson had hampered our progress during the opening months. All three absences affected the Blues considerably – Tilson missed twenty consecutive League games; Herd eight and Barkas missed seven of the opening nine matches.
These injuries meant it was difficult to find consistency and by November 28 City were twelfth. That day they were to face Brentford at Maine Road, who were already perceived as title challengers after defeating West Bromwich Albion 2-1 the previous week. That victory had meant that Brentford were third, only one point behind leaders Sunderland. If anyone had been asked to predict which of City and Brentford were more likely to end the season as champions at that time they would inevitably have answered Brentford. However, things were about to change for Manchester’s Blues.
Subscribers to my site can find out what happened next…
Subscribe to get access
Read more of this article when you subscribe today. It costs £20 a year (£1.66 a month) to access everything or £3 per month paying a month at a time (see below). 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.
Subscribe to get access
Read more of this article 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.
Kinky Double and Neal’s First
On this day (27 November) in 1996 two penalties from Gio Kinkladze helped Manchester City defeat West Bromwich Albion 3-2. Use Rosler netted the other City goal. This was the first victory of caretaker manager Phil Neal’s reign at City and you can read more on that season here:
Trautmann’s Debut
On this day (November 26) in 1949 Bert Trautmann played his first Maine Road League game. Trautmann’s debut had come a week earlier at Bolton. Here’s a 1400 word article on Trautmann’s arrival, the proposed boycotts and the general situation at Maine Road that led to the gamble on playing the former Prisoner of War.
This article is available to all monthly and annual subscribers to GJFootballArchive.com. It costs £20 to subscribe annually and annual subscribers get access to everything on this site. Monthly subscription costs £3 per month and can be cancelled any time. Monthly subscribers can access everything posted since 1st October 2022. If you’d like to see what’s available do a few searches before subscribing. Or subscribe for a month and check out what you want. Subscribers access all material posted during their subscription too.
Subscribe to get access – Annual
Read more of this content when you subscribe today.
Subscribe to get access – Monthly
Read more of this content when you subscribe today.
Managerial Change at MCFC
On this day (November 25) in 1989 Brian Gayle played his last League match for City. The game ended in a 1-1 draw (Clive Allen scored) and Chairman Peter Swales decided the time was right to dismiss manager Mel Machin. Machin, who had guided the side to promotion the previous May, was dismissed that weekend and not replaced until 8th December.
You can read more about this era of Manchester City’s history here:
Petrov and Ireland
On this day (24 November) in 2007 Martin Petrov (11 mins) and Stephen Ireland gave Manchester City a 2-1 victory over Reading. Ireland’s goal came in the last minute of the game. You can see highlights of the game here:
You can read other articles about this era and these players elsewhere on the site. Why not start with this:
Or this?
Gary James' Football Archive 