Category Archives: Billy Meredith

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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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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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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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

The 1910s: 1912-1913 Mangnall Walks Out On United 

The new series of features on Manchester City in the 1910s continues today with a 2800 word article on the 1912-13 season – A season which saw United’s most successful manager (at the time) walk out on the Reds to become City’s manager (he believed that City, with the larger pulling power, was a more ambitious club). If you’re a subscriber you can read all about that and the rest of the 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: 1910-1911 Ground Work

The new series of features on Manchester City in the 1910s continues today with a 1500 word article on the 1910-11 season. If you’re a subscriber you can read this below.

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Manchester City V Brighton – The Story And Film Of The First Ever Meeting

Tonight (7 January 2026) Manchester City and Brighton meet in the Premier League. The first game between the two clubs came over 100 years ago in 1924. This game was a newsworthy FA Cup tie due to the return of a legend to the City team. In fact it was so newsworthy that a movie company sent their camera (you’ll see from the footage it never moved!) to Brighton’s Goldstone Ground to capture the return of a true Blue hero.

Here’s film of that game, though sadly we don’t see Meredith or the goal. City are the dark shirted team (actually the club’s ‘Lucky Scarlet’!):

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-football-the-cup-action-from-the-third-round-of-the-fa-cup-653-1

Subscribers can also read an article about that day here:

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Manchester City’s 100 League Goalscorers Comparison

Now that Erling Haaland has joined an exclusive group of Manchester City players who have scored 100 League goals for the club I thought I’d post a table of all those players. I’ve also listed them in a goals per game format (I’d love to do goals per minutes but we simply don’t have that information for all players). Here goes…

The goals per game ratios for all Manchester City players who have scored 100 league goals or more…

GoalsFirst NameSurnameGoals Per GameTotal League Appearances
100ErlingHaaland0.9009111
184SergioAguero0.6691275
126BillyGillespie0.5780218
120HoraceBarnes0.5530217
122TommyBrowell0.5495222
116FrankRoberts0.5370216
158TommyJohnson0.4817328
112FrancisLee0.4498249
110FredTilson0.4472246
142JoeHayes0.4290331
107AlecHerd0.4163257
146BillyMeredith0.3989366
158EricBrook0.3511450
117ColinBell0.2970394

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Frank Swift Went to Prison

On this day (4 October) in 1949 it was reported that Frank Swift went to Strangeways prison… to talk to inmates about football. He assumed he would be just talking to the male prisoners but there was so much interest from the female inmates that he spent some time with them first. He talked about his career; City and United and whether Billy Meredith or Stanley Matthews was the greatest all-time forward apparently.

The First Manchester Derby of the 1920s

As we’re building up to the Derby here’s the latest in the series of features on MCFC in the 1920s… The first Manchester Derby of the 1920s took place at Old Trafford on 20 November 1920. You can read background, statistics and a report on that game below:

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For more on this season why not read the following 2,350 word subscriber article. If you subscribe (see below) I hope you enjoy it. If you are not currently a subscriber then why not try it for a month (£3 per month or sign up for a year at a discounted £20 per year)?

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As well as subscriber pieces this series on the 1920s includes some free articles. Watch out for a daily post.