Author Archives: garyjamesfootballarchive

60 Years Ago Today: Manchester City and Blackpool FAC Tie at Bloomfield Rd

On this day (22 January) in 1966 Manchester City travelled to Blackpool for a FA Cup tie. The game ended 1-1 between the Second Division promotion hopefuls and the First Division side. In this photo Glyn Pardoe has scored City’s goal. Subscribers can find out more about this game below, plus read several contemporary match reports:

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City v Middlesbrough: League Cup Semi

Jack Charlton’s Middlesbrough arrived at Maine Road on this day (21 January) in 1976 for the second leg of the League Cup Semi final 1-0 up after a tense first leg match.  The majority of the first leg had been played out in midfield with Alan Oakes, Asa Hartford and the emerging Paul Power putting up a good fight on City’s behalf.  Boro had found it difficult to break through City’s powerful defence until John Hickton (I had previously said David Armstrong had scored but he’d netted for them in the 1-0 League meeting 3 days earlier) gave them the lead in the 66th minute.  Despite the advantage Middlesbrough’s Evening Gazette predicted a difficult return game.

At Maine Road a youthful City side destroyed Boro.  As early as the 5th minute 19 year old Peter Barnes – now working for GMR – crossed the ball to 20 year old Ged Keegan, who headed home his first senior goal.  Six minutes later Keegan laid the ball off for Oakes to fire a left foot shot past ‘keeper Jim Platt.  A minute into the 2nd half Barnes made it 3-1 on aggregate.  Shortly before the end Joe Royle made it 4-1 and maintained his record of scoring in every round. 

Stats:  League Cup semi-final 2nd leg. 21st January 1976.

City 4 Middlesbrough 0

Scorers – City: Barnes, Keegan, Oakes, Royle

City:  Corrigan, Barrett, Donachie, Doyle, Clements, Oakes, Power, Keegan, Royle, Hartford, Barnes.

Boro: Platt, Craggs, Cooper, Souness, Boam, Maddren, Murdoch (McAndrew), Brine, Hickton, Mills, Armstrong.

Attendance: 44,426

While you’re here why not subscribe and read a 5,320 word article on the entire 1975-76 season – a season which saw Tony Book guide the club to major success. You can read this below.

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The 1910s: 1919-1920 The King’s Blues

The new series of features on Manchester City in the 1910s continues today with a 2,400 word article on the 1919-20 season. This was an important season in the history of City. If you’re a subscriber you can read all about this season below. If you’re not a subscriber then why not sign up for a month and see what you think?

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The 1910s: 1918-1919 Peace Returns

The new series of features on Manchester City in the 1910s continues today with a brief feature on the 1918-19 season when the Football League returned. If you’re a subscriber you can read all about this season below. If you’re not a subscriber then why not sign up for a month and see what you think?

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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up a year at a time for the discounted annual fee of £20. This gives access to everything on the site, including PDFs of 3 of my books and various other articles, interviews and audio material. Each subscriber has access to all content posted during their subscription period too. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think?

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The 1910s: 1917-1918 Third

The new series of features on Manchester City in the 1910s continues today with a brief feature on the 1917-18 season. If you’re a subscriber you can read all about this season below. If you’re not a subscriber then why not sign up for a month and see what you think?

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The 1910s: 1916-1917 Meredith’s Patch

The new series of features on Manchester City in the 1910s continues today with an article on the 1916-17 season. If you’re a subscriber you can read all about this season below. If you’re not a subscriber then why not sign up for a month and see what you think?

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Manchester’s Support

Here’s a map I published in my book Manchester A Football History. It shows the spread of support for both City and United across Manchester as recorded in an academic study back in 2002 (using data from 2001). Basically this was based on season ticket holders in each postcode area of Manchester and shows whether a postcode area was Red or Blue at that time. You can see that back then City had more season ticket holders in almost every district of the city centre and east Manchester while United tended to have more in western districts. However, this was based on the number of season ticket holders in 2001. Since then of course the numbers attending games at both clubs have increased significantly.

In my chapter I made a comment about how this analysis might change:

Screenshot

Manchester Trophy Success

As it’s the Manchester Derby this weekend some always seem to want to compare the records of the clubs. Back in 1991 I wrote (together with Steve Cawley) the Pride of Manchester (the history of the Manchester Derby with forewords by Matt Busby & Joe Mercer). We included in that lots of statistical stuff including a First & Last table showing all major trophies and listing Manchester’s first and most recent successes. So I thought I’d update that table today. Here goes…

Manchester Firsts and Lasts

CompetitionFirst SuccessTeamMost Recent SuccessTeam
FA Cup1904City2024United
League1908United2024City
European Cup/CL1968United2023City
League Cup1970City2021City
European CWC1970City1991United
UEFA Super Cup1991United2023City
FIFA Club World Cup2008United2023City
Europa League2017United2017United
Domestic Treble (League, FAC & LC)2019City *Only club ever to achieve this2019City
Treble (League, FAC & EC/CL)1999United2023City

Individually here are the firsts and lasts for each club:

City’s Success

CompetitionFirst SuccessMost Recent Success
FA Cup19042023
League19372024
Major European Trophy19702023
League Cup19702021

United’s Success

CompetitionFirst SuccessMost Recent Success
FA Cup 19092024
League19082013
Major European Trophy19682017
League Cup19922023

The 1910s: 1915-1916 Wartime Champions

The new series of features on Manchester City in the 1910s continues today with an article on the 1915-16 season. People often claim men’s football stopped in the war but it did not. Regional leagues were established and there was regular competition across the Manchester region. City found trophy success too! If you’re a subscriber you can read all about this season below. If you’re not a subscriber then why not sign up for a month and see what you think?

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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up a year at a time for the discounted annual fee of £20. This gives access to everything on the site, including PDFs of 3 of my books and various other articles, interviews and audio material. Each subscriber has access to all content posted during their subscription period too. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think?

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Scored in Consecutive Games for Manchester City

I’ve received separate queries from two major national media outlets today asking whether a record will be set if Semenyo scores in his third consecutive game. They wondered if any player had scored on his debut and in his next two games. Hopefully he’ll play (and score!) against United on Saturday (17 January 2026) but, incredibly, that won’t in itself be a City record as there’s definitely one City player who scored in his debut and the three games that followed (4 consecutive games). There are also others who have netted on their debut and the two games that followed (three consecutive matches). Here are the facts…

One of the media companies mentioned Adebayor and the fact he scored on his debut and in the two League games that followed, making three consecutive scoring League games. That’s true he did, but there was a League Cup tie in between the 2nd and 3rd Premier League games and he didn’t score (he did play). That makes two consecutive games.

There are many City players who have scored in 2 consecutive games such as David Cross in 1982; Stan Bowles in 1967 etc. but there are a couple of players who scored in 3 successive games (regardless of competition) and there’s even a player who scored in 4 consecutive league games (no other game breaks his sequence).

The players/sequences are:

4 consecutive games – (all ‘old’ Div 2/2nd tier): Jimmy Ross – 4/3/1899 (2 goals v Barnsley) & 18/3/1899 (v Walsall) & 25/3/1899 (2 goals v Burton Swifts) & 31/3/1899 (v Gainsborough)

3 consecutive games – Billy McAdams – 2/1/54 (v Sunderland, top flight) & 9/1/54 (FAC, 3 goals v Bradford Park Avenue) & 16/1/54 (top flight v MUFC, so a potential parallel with Semenyo if he scores)

3 consecutive games (all top flight) – Jack Dyson – 8/10/55 (v Sheffield United) & 22/10/55 (penalty v Birmingham City) & 3/12/55 (v Burnley).

There was a big gap between Dyson’s 2nd and 3rd appearances. He’d got his first chance due to injury to striker Bobby Johnstone, then returned to the reserves. His next chance came when he was selected ahead of the great Don Revie (who was having issues behind the scenes with City’s management). Dyson then kept his place for most of the season.

I have to stress I don’t have a comprehensive list of players who scored on their debut and then went on to have a sequence of scoring but I do feel the above are worthy of mention. Jimmy Ross is an interesting figure – he was one of the Preston Invincibles in 1888-89 and scored 7 (occasionally reported as 8) v Hyde in Preston’s 26-0 victory over Hyde in the FA Cup. Ross was a teammate of the brilliant Billy Meredith at City and Meredith often claimed his success back then was down to Ross. Sadly Ross died in 1902 while still a City player.

You can read more on Jimmy Ross here:

Preston and City Great: The Death Of Jimmy Ross