Author Archives: garyjamesfootballarchive

History of Women’s Football 1st July 2pm to 4pm

Join me and several women who played for leading clubs in Trafford & Manchester for a celebration of women’s football. The event kicks off with a first half during which I outline the history of women’s football locally with stories of games played in Trafford in the 1890s; the sport’s growth in the early twentieth century; the 1921 FA ban and its local impact; the pioneering teams and individuals of the interwar and post war years; then the game’s rise and development throughout to the modern day. With particular emphasis on games and teams from Trafford and Manchester this promises to be an entertaining talk.

The second half takes on a different tone as former players from local teams take to the stage to provide their experiences. Former players from the pioneering Manchester Corinthians, Manchester City and the original Manchester United women’s teams will be interviewed about their careers. Their experiences and enthusiasm for the sport provide a valuable insight into over sixty years of football history. Trafford and Manchester have a proud history of women’s football and this event will explain how the women ensured the game developed despite a near fifty year ban and other obstacles placed in their way.

I’ll be posting further details on the guests being interviewed soon.

I’m working for Trafford Archives on the Women’s Euros Heritage project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. #WEURO2022 #HeritageFund

Lee One Pen

For decades now Francis Lee’s name has been linked with the 1971-72 season and, especially, with him scoring a record number of penalties that season. He netted 13 penalties in a 42 game League season and it’s a record that still stands to this day. This record has often led to the suggestion that Lee ‘won’ more penalties than perhaps he ought to and so for this article I’ve analysed every penalty awarded and taken by Manchester City that season.

This analysis and commentary on Lee’s penalty record is available to subscribers.

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The Death Of Jimmy Ross

One of the earliest stars of League Football died on this day (12th June) in 1902. Jimmy Ross, who was a major figure for almost three seasons with Manchester City and had competed in every season of League football since the League was established in 1888, died with an illness described as “an acute skin disease and a raging fever.”

Ross was one of the Preston ‘Invincibles’ in 1888-89 and also scored 7 (sometimes reported as 8) against Hyde in the famous FA Cup record breaking game (read more on that game here: https://gjfootballarchive.com/2021/02/22/hyde-v-preston-a-record-breaking-day/ ).

At the time of his death Ross was a Manchester City player. His last first team appearance was appropriately against Preston North End in the First Round of the F.A. Cup in January 1902.  

City helped his mother, whom he was looking after at the time of his death, financially.  They also arranged the funeral and he was buried at Southern Cemetery (according to newspaper reports of the time he was buried in a grave that contained another City player – Bride – who had died a couple of years earlier). Several City players/personalities carried the coffin, including Billy Meredith.

More can be read on Ross’ life here:

The Great Jimmy Ross

Semi-Final Memories

A few years back I caught up with the goalscorers – Tommy Booth (1969) and Paul Power (1981) – of the last couple of FA Cup semi finals involving Manchester City prior to their 2011 FA Cup triumph v Stoke. Here, for subscribers, is a piece I wrote based on that interview with Booth and Power.

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A Complete PDF Of My 1st Book To Download

Subscribers to my site can download a PDF of my entire first book. It was published back in 1989. Here are more details:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/2021/06/22/a-complete-pdf-of-my-1st-book-to-download/

The book was published in April 1989 and I talk a little bit about it here:

The 200th Post – Joe Mercer

and here:

A Writing Flashback!

Manchester’s Football Origins

For well over a century football has been a crucial and popular aspect of Mancunian life. It’s been part of the city’s identity. So for today’s piece I’m taking a look at football’s early years. Here is a 1800 word overview of the major Manchester clubs that existed before today’s giants, followed by the origins of Newton Heath and St. Mark’s, who both played their earliest known games in November 1880.

This article is available to subscribers to my site.

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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £20 a year (or £3 per month if signing up a month at a time). Throughout your membership you have full access to everything on this site including interviews, recordings and PDFs of a couple of my books that have been long out of print. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think? I commit to 4 new lengthy articles per month, though in practice it’s been much more than that.

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Title Winning Goal From The Villa End

Watch this film taken from the away section at the Etihad last week of Manchester City’s third (and title winning) goal. The celebrations are great to see from this end:

Those celebrations hey? Genuine, powerful, raw… it matters!

Showing Your Colours

In January this year the Newcastle Chronicle published a story that intrigued me. It talked of the history of fans wearing football scarves and suggested that a Newcastle fan in 1932 was the first to be photographed wearing a football scarf. The article explained that previously it had been claimed that an Arsenal supporter at a 1934 FA Cup tie had been the first filmed/photographed wearing a traditional bar scarf.  This set me off looking into the history of football scarves and of fans showing their colours.

So, here for subscribers to my site is a 1400 word article on showing your colours, focusing on the stories associated with Manchester City…

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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It only costs £20 a year and throughout your membership you get full access to everything published on the site, including the entire Manchester A Football History book and my first book From Maine Men To Banana Citizens to download. You can also sign up a month at a time for £3 per month. My commitment is to publish at least 4 new lengthy articles per month but in practice I’ve posted a lot more than that. Why not sign up for a month and give it a try?

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Congratulations Manchester City!

Every time City win a trophy in dramatic fashion I always think ’ah, well we’ll never experience anything like that again. Next time it’ll feel different’ but then they go and do something like today. As time goes by we’ll start to think of this as an incredible way to win the title. For now its more of a ’phew!’

Congratulations City. Great achievement and it’s been an incredible season. To win the Premier League you have to be the best, most consistent team that season. Cup competitions are important and it’s great winning them but ultimately winning the League – especially one that we are often told is the greatest in the League – is the mark of a truly great team. Brilliant work City.

Let’s not forget it’s 4 titles in 5 seasons too!

Years ago the great City coach Malcolm Allison told me that ‘it’s important to celebrate each success as if it’s your first because it could be your last.’ Let’s keep celebrating Blues. Never take anything for granted.

Manchester Corinthians Plaque

I promised an update on the plan we’ve been putting together to have a plaque erected to the Manchester Corinthians – a pioneering women’s team that was established in the 1940s and promoted football, Manchester and female endeavour across the world over the following four decades. Today we had a progress meeting which was attended by representatives from Manchester City Council, the Friends of Fog Lane Park, myself and, most importantly, Janice Lyons, Margaret Shepherd and Margaret Whitworth from the Corinthians.

The meeting went exceptionally well and we discussed the plans for the erection of a plaque and further recognition to highlight the Corinthians history and significance. It was extremely positive and the support and enthusiasm from Manchester City Council and the Friends of Fog Lane was great to see.

It is clear we will need to raise some funds to achieve all we want to achieve. Hopefully, we’ll be able to formally announce fundraising plans in June. Watch this space.

Everyone agreed that the Manchester Corinthians’ history needs celebrating at Fog Lane Park. Why Fog Lane? This was the site of their training ground and home for many, many years with their old pitch located close to the former home of Percy Ashley, the founder, which is still clearly visible today from the park.

In 2024 I will be publishing the Authorised History of the Corinthians and you can read about that here:

Order: Manchester Corinthians Book

If you’d like to find out more about the Corinthians then please use the category link below or search my site for more details. I’ve also written various other articles for the Manchester Evening News, When Saturday Comes, the Manchester FA and She Kicks. Some of these are linked to here:

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/manchester-corinthians-england-women-germany-17205385

https://www.manchesterfa.com/news/2020/mar/08/manchester-corinthians-ladies

Sixtieth anniversary of Manchester Corinthians’ Venezuela success in front of 56,000

There’s also this article I co-wrote on the FA’s ban of women’s football which also mentions Corinthians:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17460263.2021.2025415