Author Archives: garyjamesfootballarchive

Brian Horton – New MCFC Manager

On this day (28 August) in 1993 Brian Horton officially became Manchester City’s new manager. Subscribers to this website can read all about the appointment and the 1993-94 season below. It was such an important (and at times complicated season) that this article on that season is over 9,000 words long. It’s like a book in itself! It’s available to subscribers, so why not subscribe and relive this extraordinary season? It contains material from interviews I’ve performed with key figures from that time. In particular this one contains quotes from Peter Swales and Francis Lee which they discussed with me personally.

Here’s the 9000+ word article on that season:

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Sponsorship Arrives

On this day (28 August) in 1982 Manchester City should have played their first League game with a sponsor’s name on their shirt. However the match was televised and in those days TV did not allow clubs to wear sponsors names in televised games. The match was a 2-1 win away at Norwich and City’s first sponsor was the car company Saab.

New signing David Cross scored the opener after 3 minutes and 5 seconds (below) and we all thought this was going to be a great season. I won’t spoil it by saying what happened the following May!

New signing David Cross scoring after 3 minutes and 5 seconds at Norwich, August 1982
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MCFC Create a Bolton Record Attendance

In the week that the Etihad Stadium record attendance was broken I thought it’d be worth highlighting this record crowd established in 1922. The crowd was 66,442 at Burnden Park for the FA Cup tie that City won 3-1 on 28 January 1922. Coincidentally eleven years later a Bolton-City game eclipsed this record. The new record was set at 69,912 and still stands today for a home Bolton game. Interestingly, it was claimed many years ago that the famous Lowry painting Going To The Match was inspired by Lowry’s memory of attending this match.

Lowry was a City fan and the general Going To The Match scene was worked on a few times over the years.

Once A Blue: Bert Trautmann

My first article for Once A Blue, the Manchester City Former Players Association, is now live. It’s about the legendary Bert Trautmann: https://onceablue.com/gary-jamess-city-soundbites-1-bert-trautmann/ Enjoy! Photo is of Steve Fleet, Bert’s understudy, with the Trautmann figure we had made for the old City museum.

The Smart Set – Club Colours in the 1930s

On 28 November 1931 the Liverpool Echo published this George Green cartoon of the kits worn by several leading clubs of the period. I thought I’d post it here to show how these things were often portrayed in the newspapers of the day. Thanks.

While you’re here I’d like to thank you for taking the time and trouble to visit my website. I have been researching and writing about Manchester football for a long time (no wonder I’m going grey!) with my first book published in 1989. I am not employed by anyone and I do not have sponsorship either and so I’ve set up this website to help share my 32 years plus writing and research. The intention is to develop the archive and to provide access to as much of my material as possible over the coming weeks, months & years. Subscribers can already access hundreds of articles/posts including the entire Manchester A Football History book and various audio interviews (including John Bond, Malcolm Allison & George Graham). 

It costs £20 a year (it works out £1.67 a month) or £3 if you’d like to sign up a month at a time to get full access for as long as you subscribe. Thanks for the support, Gary.

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Abandoned Derby

On this day (27 August) in 1960 the only Manchester Derby to be abandoned (and the game replayed) took place. It was abandoned at 2-2 with heavy rain at Maine Road.

Strictly speaking another derby (the one at Old Trafford in 1974) was also abandoned but the result for that game was allowed to stand.

27 August 1960 (date on image is incorrect). The abandoned Manchester derby.

The Noel Gallagher Interview

With lots of rumours about Oasis concerts next summer and with Pep leaving City, it feels an appropriate time to re-release this… Back on Thursday May 20 2021 I interviewed Noel Gallagher about his support of Manchester City, Pep, Europe and more. It was great for two Mancs of a similar age to get together to chat about City. I really enjoyed it and I hope you do too. It’s all free to listen to below…

Here’s part one:

Part two:


Part three:

Part four:
https://gjfootballarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/noel-gallagher-part-4-1.mp3

Part five:


Thanks to Noel and the staff at his studios & office for making this happen.

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Ball Out, Dalglish or Graham in?

On this day (26 August) in 1996 the reign of Alan Ball as Manchester City boss finally and thankfully came to an end. Three games into the new season he resigned, prompting City to show interest in Kenny Dalglish and George Graham to say he wanted the job. Instead a strange period of caretaker managers and short stay managers followed. You can read all about that here:

The 1990s: 1996-1997 Further Managerial Changes

Manchester City Chants

Yesterday I saw quite a few City fans talk about the 1930s song ‘Who Said City Couldn’t Play?’ which remained popular for a couple of decades (my Dad used to talk of singing it in the 40s and 50s). So it seems right to post again a talk I did on this a few years back. Chanting at football games is rarely documented correctly with many myths, rumours and stories developing over the years. This feature is designed to give a potted overview of the development of singing at City.

I explained about some of the chants in this talk I did a couple of years ago. If you’ve got time watch it:

Now, for subscribers is an 1800 word article on the history and development of chants at Manchester City:

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WBA v MCFC: The Earliest Film

On this day (25th August) in 1934 West Bromwich Albion played the FA Cup holders Manchester City. Nothing particularly unusual about that I guess, but that match was filmed and this is now the earliest known surviving film of WBA v MCFC at the Hawthorns.

Here’s film of the game:

https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/41087

It’s a curious little film and it does show one of the goals (Albion’s not City’s) and so you will see Frank Swift making an attempt to save it. Notice at the start the way the two teams enter the field (more like the way teams entered the pitch following the arrival of Covid than what became typical in the 2010s).

WBA’s shirts are interesting with their extra white section on the front.

This game is from 25 August 1934 and ended 1-1 with Sam Barkas scoring for MCFC.

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