Author Archives: garyjamesfootballarchive

Getting Ready For Wembley

Looking forward to the first ever all Manchester FA Cup final at Wembley tomorrow. To get in the mood why not watch the highlights of the 2011 FA Cup semi here (follow the link):

Prior to this year’s final, the FA Cup semi finals in 1926 and 2011 were the closest we got to one. I wasn’t around in 1926 but I definitely was in 2011! So a couple of years ago I made this special audio recording talking about the years building up to the semi and the day itself from a Manchester City perspective. Many of you have listened to this already but if you haven’t then it tells the story of the 2011 FA Cup semi final and the years between 1976 and that moment in 2011 for City.

I include audio from interviews I did with a variety of people including Khaldoon, Peter Swales, Garry Cook, Brain Marwood and many others.

If you have heard it before then maybe you should listen again to remind yourself of how we all felt and why that game was so significant.

I include a few words from Roberto Mancini recorded in 2011 and at one point he talks about the view that was then being expressed that City were ‘trying’ to buy success (now they say City ‘have’ bought success!). His words are a reminder that City have been having that particular criticism thrown at them for over a decade! Oh well, I wonder how long those criticisms were laid at other clubs who had seen major investment which propelled them forward?

Anyway, get yourself a brew and be prepared to be transported back in time. Here’s the recording:

If you enjoy the recording then please let me know, comment or subscribe to the site. If you don’t fancy doing that then there’s also the option to make a welcome donation to keep this site going (see below). I’ve produced videos/talks like this highlighting key points in Manchester City’s footballing history which subscribers can watch too. 

If you’d like to support my research and this website but don’t want to subscribe then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It keeps the website going too. Thanks.

Choose an amount

£2.50
£5.00
£7.50

Or enter a custom amount

£

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate


Subscribe to get access – Annual

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £20 a year to subscribe (it works out £1.67 a month) or £3 if you’d like to sign up a month at a time. Annual subscribers get full access for as long as you subscribe (you can always try it for a month). It’s worth bearing in mind that the 2010 Manchester A Football History cost £24.95 and all subscribers will be able to access all of that for as long as they are a subscriber (plus all the other stuff of course).

Subscribe

Subscribe to get access – Monthly

It costs £3 a month to subscribe a month at a time. Why not give it a try! Monthly subscribers get access to everything posted since 1 October 2022 for as long as you subscribe.

Subscribe

Match Stats for the 2011 FA Cup Semi-final

City 1-0 United (HT 0-0)

Yaya Toure 52

City: 25 Hart 04 Kompany (yellow card), 05 Zabaleta (yellow card), 13 Kolarov, 19 Lescott, 11 Johnson (Wright-Phillips 79), 18 Barry, 21 Silva (Vieira 86), 34 De Jong (yellow card), 42 Y Toure, 45 Balotelli (yellow card). Substitutes 12 Taylor, 38 Boyata, 07 Milner, 08 Wright-Phillips, 24 Vieira, 10 Dzeko, 27 Jo

United: 01 Van der Sar, 03 Evra, 05 Ferdinand, 15 Vidic, 22 O’Shea (Fabio Da Silva 84), 13 Park Ji-Sung, 16 Carrick, 17 Nani, 18 Scholes (red card), 25 Valencia (Hernandez 65), 09 Berbatov (Anderson 74). Substitutes 29 Kuszczak, 12 Smalling, 20 Fabio Da Silva, 08 Anderson, 28 Gibson, 07 Owen, 14 Hernandez

Referee: Dean

Attendance: 86,549

Maine Road 100 – Day 16

The only abandoned Manchester derby at Maine Road… It’s day 16 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game and with the FA Cup final tomorrow I thought I’d post a Manchester derby related feature.

This photo is of a section of my book The Pride of Manchester (co-written with Steve Cawley) which shows the scene at the only Manchester derby to be abandoned (without the result standing!).

The game was a League match played on 27 August 1960 (date on original book caption is a typo!) at Maine Road. It was abandoned due to a water-logged pitch with the score at 2-2. City’s scorers were Denis Law and Joe Hayes; United’s were Dennis Viollet and Alex Dawson. Attendance 51,927.

The match was replayed and ended in a 3-1 United win on 4 March 1961 before 50,479.

For those unfamiliar with Maine Road this photo may help locate where the photo was taken from. It was taken on the pitch, somewhere near the Kippax corner/Scoreboard End (roughly on a line from number 2 below, and in front of number 10), looking towards the Platt Lane goal (a little below number 3).

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road
27 August 1960 (date on image is incorrect). The abandoned Manchester derby.

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One
How To Subscribe

If you’d like to support my research and this website but don’t want to subscribe then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It keeps the website going too. Thanks.

Choose an amount

£2.50
£5.00
£7.50

Or enter a custom amount

£

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate

Manchester’s First FA Cup

As part of their All-Manchester FA Cup features the Athletic have asked their writers about the most important FA Cup final. Well, as it’s a City-Utd final then it makes sense to highlight the first ever FA Cup final featuring one of the teams. In 1904 Manchester found its first major trophy success and that led to Manchester being established as a footballing city. It’s part of the reason Manchester City retained a special place in the hearts and minds of Mancunians, even when the success faded.

The captain and goalscorer was the great Billy Meredith. The other year, following the purchase of the oldest surviving FA Cup by Sheikh Mansour (to loan to the National Football Museum) I helped Manchester City with the story of the cup and its significance to Manchester. They’ve produced a video telling the story and it can be viewed here:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/manchesters-first-trophy-1904-fa-cup-documentary-63745781

For more on the significance of this FA Cup trophy check out the category 1903-04 in the drop down list below.

Maine Road 100 – Day 15

With a European final coming for City later this month it seems appropriate to include an image of a major European trophy at Maine Road for day 15 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. This team photo is from 1970 and shows the Manchester City team in front of the Platt Lane Stand with both the League Cup and the European Cup Winners’ Cup (at the time UEFA’s 2nd most significant competition).

I know we’re often told that City have no European history but they did actually win a major UEFA trophy before many teams that are today regarded as major European clubs, such as Liverpool, Juventus and even Barcelona. Barcelona had won the Fairs Cup but this was not a UEFA tournament and its entry rules were not always about where you finished in the League, for example the initial idea was to invite cities to play in the competition and the cities of Barcelona and London (a composite team) competed.

In 1970 City’s Mike Doyle joked that wining the League Cup (which brought a Fairs Cup place) was City’s way to ‘keep United out of Europe’ as the competition had a rule that a city could only be represented by one club if two were in qualifying positions…. it was often confusing!

For those unfamiliar with Maine Road this photo may help locate where the photo was taken from. It was taken on the pitch in front of the Maine Stand (number 1) at an angle looking towards the Platt lane Stand end (number 5).

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One
How To Subscribe

If you’d like to support my research and this website but don’t want to subscribe then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It keeps the website going too. Thanks.

Choose an amount

£2.50
£5.00
£7.50

Or enter a custom amount

£

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate

The First All-Manchester FA Final

This weekend the 2023 FA Cup final at Wembley will be the first all-Manchester FA Cup final but it is not the first all-Manchester FA Final. That came in 1985-86 when the two Manchester clubs reached the FA Youth Cup final.  In the build-up to Wembley this final will probably be overlooked but I wanted to make sure we do remember. Here’s a brief piece on the final.

In April 1986 Manchester City’s youth team defeated Manchester United 3-1 on aggregate in the final of the FA Youth Cup.  It was a tremendous achievement at the time, and one which proved that it was the Blues, rather than the Reds, who knew how to find and recruit young players – when Alex Ferguson arrived in Manchester later in 1986 he was dismayed that City tended to sweep up all the local talent and put things in place to change the situation. He even chatted to City’s chief scout Ken Barnes about the Blues’ strengths. More on Ken in a moment.

Of the 11 City boys who played in the 1986 final an amazing seven would also appear in the first team.  Two of those would captain the Blues; two would play for England; and one would continue to play for the Blues into the late 1990s.  For the record the City eleven plus subs were:

Steve Crompton, Steve Mills, Andy Hinchcliffe, Ian Brightwell, Steve Redmond (capt), Andy Thackeray, David White, Paul Moulden, Paul Lake, Ian Scott, David Boyd. Unused subs: Steve Macauley (1st leg) & John Bookbinder (2nd leg).

City’s Chief Scout at the time was 50s Cup winner Ken Barnes and years later I interviewed him about the success. He firmly believed that it was exceptional to find so many young star players at the same time:  ‘We were dead lucky.  I have to say that I don’t think it will ever happen again.  I don’t recall any team having so many of the players coming through from the Youth team.  It was only circumstances as such that they all got into the team at the same time.  There was no alternative – the club had no money.  No money to buy new players – so the young lads were thrown in at the deep end.  Maybe if we had had a good team at the time 3 or 4 of them wouldn’t have got into the team and, who knows what would have happened to them.  It enlightened me the year they won the Youth Cup.  They went throughout the whole season in the Lancashire League and lost only one game.

‘That was a remarkable youth side.  In the past we had boys like Tommy Caton, Ray Ranson, Nicky Reid, John Beresford and Darren Beckford but we never had a team like the 1986 one.  Most of the youngsters played for our nursery team Midas… Nearly all those who have made it into the first team played with them from the time they were 11 or 12.’

Here is the City first team match programme commenting on the success:

1986 YOUTH CUP STATISTICS

Old Trafford, 24 April 1986
Manchester United – Manchester City 1–1 (0–0)
1-0 49 min. Aidan Murphy
1-1 82 min. Paul Lake (penalty)
Attendance: 7,602

Manchester United: Gary Walsh, Tony Gill, Lee Martin, Ian Scott, Steve Gardner (capt), Jon Bottomley, Aidan Murphy (red card, 69 min), Mark Todd, Dennis Cronin, David Wilson (replaced by Tony Hopley), Paul Harvey. Manager Eric Harrison.

Manchester City: Steve Crompton, Steve Mills, Andy Hinchcliffe, Ian Brightwell, Steve Redmond (capt), Andy Thackeray (red card, 69), David White, Paul Moulden, Paul Lake, Ian Scott, David Boyd. Unused sub: Steve Macauley. Manager: Tony Book

Second leg

Maine Road, 29 April 1986
Manchester City – Manchester United 2–0 (1–0)
1-0 02 min. David Boyd
2-0 86 min. Paul Moulden
Attendance: 18,158

Manchester City: Steve Crompton, Steve Mills, Andy Hinchcliffe, Ian Brightwell, Steve Redmond (capt), Andy Thackeray, David White, Paul Moulden, Paul Lake, Ian Scott, David Boyd. Unused sub: John Bookbinder. Manager: Tony Book

Manchester United: Gary Walsh, Tony Gill, Lee Martin, Ian Scott, Steve Gardner (capt), Paul Harvey, Aidan Murphy, Mark Todd, Dennis Cronin, Jon Bottomley (replaced by Tony Hopley), Karl Goddard. Manager Eric Harrison.

If you’d like to support my research and this website but don’t want to subscribe then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It keeps the website going too. Thanks.

Choose an amount

£2.50
£5.00
£7.50

Or enter a custom amount

£

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate

Maine Road 100 – Day 14

Day 14 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game… I mentioned on a previous day how during 2002-03 I managed to wander around the stadium often exploring what the stadium had hidden away. Sometimes I’d wander with club photographer Ed Garvey but mostly I’d just go on a search myself. One day while exploring the Main Stand I spotted this staircase to nowhere.

It intrigued me quite a bit and then one game I happened to walk through here pre-match and fans were sat on the steps reading the programme and having a drink. The steps clearly once went somewhere (if you can’t tell via this photo there is a ceiling stretching across the concourse and over the steps. The steps go up to it but there’s no way through.

I started to ask people and show people this photo, which I’d taken during the week. Eventually former club employee Roger Reade, who has fulfilled a variety of roles over the years but is probably best known for his work with the Junior Blues, explained that when the club developed its hospitality functions in the 1980s the staircase was blocked off and an executive suite built above it. So that’s that. An original 1923 staircase that by the late 1980s was redundant. Incidentally, it’s not the only redundant staircase by this time and I’ll perhaps talk about one at the Kippax later this year.

For those unfamiliar with Maine Road this may help locate the staircase to nowhere. It was in the public concourse area of the Main Stand, roughly behind the Main Stand tunnel to the right of number 3 on the photo below.

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road
Stair case to nowhere Main Stand, photographed by Gary James in 2002

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One
How To Subscribe

If you’d like to support my research and this website but don’t want to subscribe then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It keeps the website going too. Thanks.

Choose an amount

£2.50
£5.00
£7.50

Or enter a custom amount

£

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate

Maine Road 100 – Day 13 Answer

The answer to yesterday’s name the year question is….

Clues:

  • Both the Platt Lane Corner and Platt Lane Stand have been built (check previous days for that).
  • Neither the Kippax has been roofed nor floodlights erected.
  • There are few cars on the road
  • It’s a close season photo (goal posts are missing) but that year there was to be something bright erected in strategic locations around the ground

The year was 1953. This image was taken that close season, before the original floodlights were erected in each corner (used for the first time in October 1953).

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One
How To Subscribe

If you’d like to support my research and this website but don’t want to subscribe then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It keeps the website going too. Thanks.

Choose an amount

£2.50
£5.00
£7.50

Or enter a custom amount

£

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate

Latest Manchester Confidential Article: The FA Cup

My latest article on football for Manchester Confidential is now live. It’s about the All-Manchester FA Cup final. It also asks a simple trivia question: can you name all the previous Greater Manchester FA Cup finals? For the answer to that and the article see:

https://confidentials.com/manchester/the-all-manchester-fa-cup-final?id=646f468595988

Maine Road 100 – Day 13

Day 13 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. Today is another name that year. Have a look at this amazing photo of Maine Road and tell me when you think this was taken. I’ll give a few clues (below) and will post the answer tomorrow.

Clues:

  • Both the Platt Lane Corner and Platt Lane Stand have been built (check previous days for that).
  • Neither the Kippax has been roofed nor floodlights erected.
  • There are few cars on the road
  • It’s a close season photo (goal posts are missing) but that year there was to be something bright erected in strategic locations around the ground

So what year do you think it was? It’s a great image and shows the scale of the place in a way that some images do not. Amazing to think that the base of the Main Stand remained until demolition in 2003 and the Platt Lane roofs were there until that stand was demolished in 1993.

This image of it is from 1968 and for those unfamiliar with Maine Road this may help. Number 7 below is the large open terracing on the older photo while number 10 is the open terracing behind the goal. The Main Stand roof (1) had been altered in between these two images being taken but the Platt Lane roof (4) & (5) was the same construction.

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One
How To Subscribe

If you’d like to support my research and this website but don’t want to subscribe then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It keeps the website going too. Thanks.

Choose an amount

£2.50
£5.00
£7.50

Or enter a custom amount

£

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate

Party Like It’s 1999

On this day (30 May) in 1999 Manchester City won the Second Division Play Off final at Wembley in a tense, dramatic day. Understandably, Paul Dickov’s goal in that Play Off final has often been described as the most important Manchester City goal of all time.  That goal does deserve significant recognition, however it is also important to remember the other contributing factors on that day all those years ago, including the opening City goal scored by Kevin Horlock.

The late 1990s had been a very difficult period for City and Horlock’s goal came at a moment when all hope that the Club could resurrect itself seemed to have vanished.   This goal was obviously important as it gave City hope and ultimately that transferred into achievement.

The following article, covering Horlock’s goal and the story of that day, is available for subscribers to the website. It costs £20 a year (it works out £1.67 per month) and you get full access to all articles posted, including PDFs of the out of print Manchester A Football History and my first ever book about Manchester City. There are also audio interviews & more. Do a few searches on past content to see what’s available.      

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today.

Subscribe