Author Archives: garyjamesfootballarchive

Maine Road’s First

On this day (August 25) in 1923 Maine Road staged its first game. Two decades later it staged the first World Cup match in England and the decade after that the first European Cup game in England. It still holds the record provincial crowd and the record for a League game, and for eighty years it was the home of Manchester City. Here’s a look at the life of Maine Road.

Here for subscribers is a 2,000 word piece on City’s former home. It corrects a few myths (the ‘Wembley of the North – pah! It was better than that when it opened!).

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Bidding War Between MCFC And Villa!

On this day (25 August) in 1981 Manchester City and Aston Villa were in a bidding war to sign Trevor Francis.

I know in recent years City have been criticised by some in the media for both high spending and for not spending more than they deem a player is worth (what a crazy world it is when a potential purchasing team is criticised for not wanting to spend what a selling club want when there are no other clubs interested in buying that player at that price!) but in 1981 the desire to sign Francis meant they were prepared to spend big if necessary.

A bidding war is always in the best interests of the selling club and occasionally a friendly word with a journalist or another club can create a bidding war even if there really isn’t much interest from a club. Thinking back I can’t remember Villa seriously going after Francis but this Daily Mirror report suggests they were interested.

It wasn’t long of course before City got their man.

Notice the brief mention of Peter Barnes at the bottom of that cutting? If you want to know more then obviously I recommend The Peter Barnes Authorised Biography (use tabs/menu to find out more).

Black shirts, White Cross

Identity is important to any aspiring football team and in 1884 the fledgling Gorton Association Football Club chose to wear a distinctive kit consisting of black shirts with a white cross pattée emblazoned across the left breast. The smart new kit set the tone for what the players hoped would be a successful period in the club’s development and from the moment it was first worn in 1884 the club progressed and grew, becoming Ardwick in 1887, before re-launching as Manchester City in 1894. 

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Manchester 1840-1919 (Part Four)

Every Monday I’m posting a section from my book ‘The Emergence of Footballing Cultures: Manchester 1840-1919’. It tells the story of the origins of men’s football in Manchester and discusses the birth of both City and United plus the clubs that predated them such as Hulme Athenaeum, Manchester AFC, Birch etc. Today’s section is the third chapter of the book (a 11,500 word section). This focuses on the mid 1800s and the development of Manchester’s earliest known association football club Hulme Athenaeum and its long term impact.

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Record Attendance at Manchester City

Congratulations on your 2-1 victory today over Bournemouth in Enzo Maresca’s first League game but also on establishing a new record crowd for the Etihad Stadium. The crowd was 60,645 and this was not only the Etihad’s record, it was also City’s highest home attendance since 6 November 1971 when 63,326 attended a City league game v United. Capacity restrictions since then have ensured attendances could not be higher.

City v Bournemouth

It’s the start of the Premier League season this weekend and Manchester’s Blues are at home to Bournemouth. My programme articles today include a Memory Match between the clubs. If you get chance to see that I hope you enjoy it. If you want more on Bournemouth and City there are several articles on this site that mention them. The following links to a few mentioning Bourenemouth: https://gjfootballarchive.com/?s=Bournemouth

Top Flight Wimbledon

Wimbledon’s first fixture in English football’s top flight was against Manchester City forty years ago today (23rd August 1986) at Maine Road.  The game was goal-less at half time, but by the end City had won 3-1 with goals from Trevor Christie and two from Graham Baker.  The Wimbledon scorer was Andy Thorn.  The Dons’ lineup for this historic first match was:  Beasant, Kay, Winterburn, Galliers, Morris, Thorn (Gage), Wise, Cork, Fashanu, Sanchez, and Hodges.  For the record City comprised of:  Suckling, May, Wilson, Clements, McCarthy, Redmond, Davies, McNab, Christie, Baker, and Brightwell (Simpson).

Although goalkeeper Perry Suckling made his debut in this City-Wimbledon fixture, he very nearly didn’t make it to Maine Road.  On the day of his arrival he travelled to Old Trafford claiming he’d been given directions there instead of Maine Road!  A United official had to direct him back to Manchester.  Suckling later became more famous as the goalkeeper who conceded 9 goals while playing for Crystal Palace at Anfield.  No doubt a few Wimbledon fans remember that match!

You can read more on that season for MCFC here:

The 1980s: 1986-1987 We Never Win At Home And We Never Win Away

City Programme Articles 2026-27

I’m delighted to say that I’ll be writing a feature in this year’s Manchester City match programme again. It’s a continuation of last year’s popular tracker feature Five Fifteen Fifty. This year the series will track the following season’s game by game – 2021-22, 2011-12 and 1976-77. All three were title challenging seasons and all three were entertaining in their own ways with twists and turns. I was a season ticket holder at the Etihad for the two most recent seasons and a regular in the Platt Lane Stand (occasionally the North Stand) as a boy in 1976-77. It’s going to be wonderful talking about some of my boyhood heroes and some of our Etihad heroes too.

I hope everybody enjoys the feature. As well as tracking those seasons there’ll also be a memory match involving ‘today’s’ opposition and, where possible, one of those three tracker seasons.

If you are lucky enough to get to see the programme I hope you enjoy it.

David White Scores Twice v Liverpool: A Rare Victory

35 years ago today (21 August 1991) a Wednesday night meeting with Liverpool ended in a 2-1 victory for Manchester City. You can see highlights of the game – a rare victory over Liverpool back then – and relive the days of night matches on the Kippax/at Maine Rd. David White scored both City’s goals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI62DKjsCmo

Manchester City Women: The Audio Interview

Earlier this month I was interviewd for the Counter Pressed podcast by Flo Lloyd-Hughes and also Becky Taylor-Gill about the history of Manchester City’s women’s team. It was a really enjoyable hour chatting about the birth of the club, its successes and developments and a few key moments along the way. I’m sure those interested in football (men’s or women’s), Manchester or my research will enjoy listening. Here’s the recording:

I mention both the City Women book I researched and the Manchester Corinthians book too. A second edition of the Corinthians book will be out later this year and anyone ordering before publication can get their name printed inside the book as a subscriber, supporting this non-profit making venture (no publisher or author royalties are taken and every penny profit goes towards organising events for the Corinthians or preserving the collections of the Corinthians). You can find out more here:

Manchester Corinthians