Category Archives: Billy Meredith

The 1890s: 1899 First Division

The series of features on Manchester City in the 1890s continues today with a 1800 article on Manchester City in the final months of 1899.

This series covers the final years of Ardwick, the birth of Manchester City and the Club’s first national success.

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The 1890s: 1898-1899 Manchester’s First National Success

The series of features on Manchester City in the 1890s continues today with a 1900 word article on Manchester City in 1898-99 – the first season that any of the Manchester teams had achieved a national trophy success. Want to know more about this thrilling and landmark season? Then why not subscribe?

This series covers the final years of Ardwick, the birth of Manchester City and the Club’s first national success.

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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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More on the 1890s tomorrow. Why not subscribe and read this and all the other subscriber features?

The 1890s: 1897-1898  Buxton and Stockport

The series of features on Manchester City in the 1890s continues today with an article on Manchester City in 1897-98.

This series covers the final years of Ardwick, the birth of Manchester City and the Club’s first national success.

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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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More on the 1890s tomorrow. Why not subscribe and read this and all the other subscriber features?

The 1890s: 1896-1897 Gillespie Arrives  

The series of features on Manchester City in the 1890s continues today with an article on Manchester City in 1896-97.

This series covers the final years of Ardwick, the birth of Manchester City and the Club’s first national success.

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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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More on the 1890s tomorrow. Why not subscribe and read this and all the other subscriber features?

Preston and City Great: The Death Of Jimmy Ross

One of the earliest stars of League Football died this month (12th June) in 1902. Jimmy Ross, who was a major figure for almost three seasons with Manchester City and had competed in every season of League football since the League was established in 1888, died with an illness described as “an acute skin disease and a raging fever.”

Ross was one of the Preston ‘Invincibles’ in 1888-89 and also scored 7 (sometimes reported as 8) against Hyde in the famous FA Cup record breaking game (read more on that game here: https://gjfootballarchive.com/2021/02/22/hyde-v-preston-a-record-breaking-day/ ).

At the time of his death Ross was a Manchester City player. His last first team appearance was appropriately against Preston North End in the First Round of the F.A. Cup in January 1902.  

City helped his mother, whom he was looking after at the time of his death, financially.  They also arranged the funeral and he was buried at Southern Cemetery (according to newspaper reports of the time he was buried in a grave that contained another City player – Bride – who had died a couple of years earlier). Several City players/personalities carried the coffin, including Billy Meredith.

More can be read on Ross’ life here:

The Great Jimmy Ross

Manchester City’s All-Time Best FA Cup Winning Eleven

So far I’ve told you about Bert Trautmann, Tony Book, Glyn Pardoe, Vincent Kompany and İlkay Gündoğan in my all-time best Manchester City FA Cup final winning team and today it’s the time for another couple of names.

I was asked to select an all-time City eleven and had two rules – they had to actually play in a winning final (so, unused substitutes were not allowed) and they could not be a member of the current playing squad. I also tried to focus on the fact that this eleven would also be facing an all time Manchester United eleven. Therefore victories over United in key games were always in the back of my mind.

The next two players selected are:

David Silva (2010-2020)

This World Cup winner joined City in 2010 and immediately impressed. ‘El Mago’ (the magician) was a member of both the 2011 and 2019 FA Cup successes, but was also the star man time and time again as the Blues won eleven major trophies in his decade.

Billy Meredith (1894-1906 & 1921-1924)

A Welsh international and Manchester’s first superstar who was idolised by both Blues and Reds. Captain and goalscorer in City’s first FA Cup success in 1904. This talented right-winger narrowly pipped 60s & 70s legend Mike Summerbee to this spot. Imagine either man playing in a side managed by Pep!

Meredith is the earliest name in my list and you can read more about 1904 here:

Manchester City – FA Cup Winners Since 1904

More on the all-time Manchester City FA Cup winning eleven tomorrow. It was a tough selection and over the next few days I’ll post the rest of the starting eleven.

You can read about the significance of 2011 in this feature here:

2011 – What It Meant Historically

More on the all-time FA Cup winning eleven tomorrow.

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

Tonight (25 April 2024) Manchester City and Brighton meet in the Premier League. The first game between the two clubs came 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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The 1900s: Manchester’s First Major Trophy Success

On this day in 1904 (23 April) Manchester City won its first major trophy a mere decade after being established as MCFC. The captain and goalscorer was, of course, the great Billy Meredith.

A few years back, 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

City chairman John Chapman used City’s success as part of his political campaign.

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

100 Years Ago Today: Meredith’s Last Competitive Game

Here are some images from Billy Meredith’s last competitive game on this day (29 March) in 1924. these are great images of the general scene. The match was a FA Cup semi final between Manchester City and Newcastle at Birmingham City.

Subscribers can read more and watch film of Meredith’s last game here:

Billy Meredith’s Last Game: 1924 FA Cup Semi

Manchester’s Footballing Origins? There’s a Book For That

I’ve been asked a few questions this last week about the origins of men’s football in Manchester. For those that don’t know I researched & wrote a detailed history on the topic for Manchester University Press a few years back. I don’t have copies available myself but the publisher does have paperback copies, retailing at £21 on their website:

Book details page

Follow the link (above) and it will explain more on the book but it basically tells the stories of the pioneering men’s clubs in the 1860s/1870s; the development of Manchester’s main two men’s clubs (City & United; correcting many myths!); first trophy successes; the scandal at City and the match fixing at United; plus much more. It considers the types of people who went to watch the clubs during early 20th Century and, again, there may be some detail in there that surprises a few.

If you want to know more then feel free to ask. Thanks