Category Archives: Bolton Wanderers

The 1890s: 1897-98 Attendances

The series of features on the 1890s continues today with a simple look at the average attendances of league clubs. I’m publishing the statistics here for season 1897-98 when Manchester City was a Second Division club. These figures are estimated based on newspaper reports of the period but are widely accepted as a good indication of support enjoyed at each club.

From 9 May 1898 the first Manchester football programme was a mock up based on Everton Liverpool programme

In the following table every team is in Division One unless (2) appears after their name. This indicates they were a Second Division club that season. Where two teams have the same average then these have been listed in alphabetic order.

1897-9 Average Attendances

AverageTeam
17550Everton
15325Aston Villa
12125Liverpool
11800Sheff Utd
11600Newcastle (2)
10925Sunderland
9475Sheff Wed
9050Derby
8600Notts County
8300Bolton
8050Blackburn Rovers
8000Manchester City (2)
7875Woolwich Arsenal (2)
7425Nottm Forest
6950WBA
6925Wolves
6825Stoke
6200Preston
6125Newton Heath (2)
5900Leicester Fosse (2)
5400Small Heath (2)
5200Bury
3825Burnley (2)
3525Grimsby (2)
3325Luton (2)
2950Lincoln (2)
2825Walsall (2)
2600Darwen (2)
2300Burton Swifts (2)
2250Gainsborough Trinity (2) (2)
2050Loughborough (2)
1825Blackpool (2)

This series of features covers the final years of Ardwick, the birth of Manchester City and the Club’s first national success. Why not subscribe and read every feature? Here’s a link to the story of the 1897-98 season:

The 1890s: 1897-1898  Buxton and Stockport

Here’s an 1800 article below on Manchester City in the final months of 1899:

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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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The 1890s: 1896-97 Attendances

The series of features on the 1890s continues today with a simple look at the average attendances of league clubs. I’m publishing the statistics here for season 1896-97 when Manchester City was a Second Division club. These figures are estimated based on newspaper reports of the period but are widely accepted as a good indication of support enjoyed at each club.

In the following table every team is in Division One unless (2) appears after their name. This indicates they were a Second Division club that season. Where two teams have the same average then these have been listed in alphabetic order.

1896-97 Average Attendances

AverageTeam
15525Everton
12925Aston Villa
11675Liverpool
8575Bolton
8300Derby
8200Sheff Utd
8075Newcastle (2)
8000Manchester City (2)
7300Sheff Wed
6775Blackburn
6725Preston
6425Wolves
6275Woolwich Arsenal (2)
6200Newton Heath (2)
6150Bury
6000Leicester Fosse (2)
5825Small Heath
5550WBA
5525Sunderland
5425Stoke
5300Leicester Fosse (2)
5175Burnley
5125Nottm Forest
4850Notts County (2)
4800Grimsby (2)
4500Small Heath (2)
3325Gainsborough Trinity (2)
2950Blackpool (2)
2875Walsall (2)
2650Burton Wanderers (2)
1500Darwen (2)
2325Burton Swifts (2)
2075Loughborough (2)
1675Lincoln (2)

This series of features covers the final years of Ardwick, the birth of Manchester City and the Club’s first national success. Why not subscribe and read every feature? Here’s a link to the story of the 1896-97 season:

The 1890s: 1896-1897 Gillespie Arrives  

Here’s an 1800 article below on Manchester City in the final months of 1899:

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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: 1895-96 Attendances

The series of features on the 1890s continues today with a simple look at the average attendances of league clubs. I’m publishing the statistics here for season 1895-96 when Manchester City was a Second Division club. These figures are estimated based on newspaper reports of the period but are widely accepted as a good indication of support enjoyed at each club.

In the following table every team is in Division One unless (2) appears after their name. This indicates they were a Second Division club that season. Where two teams have the same average then these have been listed in alphabetic order.

Notice how Second Division Manchester City had a better average attendance than all clubs apart from the First Division’s third placed club Everton and League champions Aston Villa.

1895-96 Average Attendances

AverageTeam
16000Everton
11875Aston Villa
10000Manchester City (2)
9725Bolton
8700Sheff Wednesday
8375Derby
7600Blackburn Rovers
7250Sheff Utd
7200Newcastle (2)
6975Woolwich Arsenal (2)
6825Preston
6600Stoke
6275Wolves
6100Sunderland
6000Bury
6000Leicester Fosse (2)
5825Small Heath
5600WBA
5575Liverpool (2)
5575Nottm Forest
5500Newton Heath (2)
5475Burnley
3500Grimsby (2)
3125Notts County (2)
2775Darwen (2)
2725Crewe (2)
2625Burton Swifts (2)
2475Burton Wanderers (2)
2400Lincoln (2)
2075Loughborough (2)
1775Rotherham Town (2)
1725Burslem Port Vale (2)

This series of features covers the final years of Ardwick, the birth of Manchester City and the Club’s first national success. Why not subscribe and read every feature? Here’s a link to the story of the 1895-96 season:

The 1890s: 1895-1896 Test Match Special

Here’s an 1800 article below on Manchester City in the final months of 1899:

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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: 1894-95 Attendances

The series of features on the 1890s continues today with a simple look at the average attendances of league clubs. I’m publishing the statistics here for season 1894-95 when Manchester City was established under that name. These figures are estimated based on newspaper reports of the period but are widely accepted as a good indication of support enjoyed at each club.

In the following table every team is in Division One unless (2) appears after their name. This indicates they were a Second Division club that season. Where two teams have the same average then these have been listed in alphabetic order.

1894-95 Average Attendances

AverageTeam
16225Everton
10925Liverpool
8900Aston Villa
8750Sheff Wednesday
8325Sunderland
8150Bolton
7900Blackburn Rovers
7675Sheff Utd
6400Woolwich Arsenal (2)
6200Burnley
6200Small Heath
6175WBA
6150Preston
6000Manchester City (2)
6000Newton Heath (2)
5525Nottm Forest
5500Leicester Fosse (2)
5300Wolves
4350Derby
4250Notts County (2)
3925Darwen (2)
3925Newcastle (2)
3900Bury (2)
3550Stoke
3325Grimsby (2)
2750Burton Swifts (2)
2525Lincoln (2)
2350Burton Wanderers (2)
2100Rotherham Town (2)
2075Walsall Town Swifts (2)
1825Burslem Port Vale (2)
1725Crewe (2)

This series of features covers the final years of Ardwick, the birth of Manchester City and the Club’s first national success. Why not subscribe and read every feature? Here’s a link to the story of the 1894-95 season:

The 1890s: 1894-1895 Parlby’s City

Here’s an 1800 article below on Manchester City in the final months of 1899:

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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: Where Was Your Club In 1899?

The series of features on the 1890s continues today with a simple look at the last League tables for the 1800s. These were published after the final games of December 1899 and cover the Football League First Division and the Second Division. See if you can spot your club.

Notice the Division One table includes Bury and Manchester City from present day Greater Manchester, with near neighbours Glossop also in there (at the time the smallest town ever to have had a top flight team). Glossop were funded by Samuel Hill-Wood who eventually turned his attentions to Arsenal (they’re in the Second Division in these tables).

The last Division One table for the 1800s. This was published after the final games of December 1899.

The Second Division included Bolton and Newton Heath (MUFC) from present day Greater Manchester. Arsenal appear below New Brighton Tower.

The last Division Two table for the 1800s. This was published after the final games of December 1899.

This series of features covers the final years of Ardwick, the birth of Manchester City and the Club’s first national success. Why not subscribe and read every feature like this 1800 article below on Manchester City in the final months of 1899?

Subscribe to get access

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: 1891-1892 A Second Manchester Cup

The series of features on Manchester City in the 1890s continues today with a 1100 word article on Ardwick’s exploits in the 1891-92 season. The last season before the club joined the Football League.

Ever wondered how MCFC came into being and what happened to Ardwick AFC? Well, now’s your chance to find out. This series covers the final years of Ardwick and the birth of Manchester City.

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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?

Mike Doyle

On 26 May 1964 Mancunian Mike Doyle signed professional forms for Manchester City. He embodied a spirit and determination as a player that brought great success and the loyal support of City fans.  He was a vital member of two successful periods at Maine Road, and had managed to bridge the gap between Mercer and Allison’s great team of the late 60s and Book’s mid-70s entertainers. In fact he was also there for the miserable period that predated Mercer’s arrival!

Doyle joined the City groundstaff in May 1962 and made his debut in the 2-2 draw at Cardiff on 12 March 1965 and appeared in 6 games during the latter end of a traumatic season.  That summer Mercer & Allison arrived and transformed the Blues with Doyle playing a leading role in every City triumph of the period.  In fact, until recent years he shared the distinction with Tommy Booth of appearing in more finals than any other City player.  He appeared in ECWC, FA Cup and 3 League Cup finals but also played his part in the League title success in 1968 and Second Division title in 1966. He even captained City to their 1976 League Cup triumph and scored in the 1970 victory. 

Ever the determined player City fans loved his fighting spirit and never say die attitude.  Significantly, in an era of major talent and success, Doyle was voted City’s player of the year twice (1971 & 1974).  After making five appearances for England and over 550 competitive first team appearances for the Blues he moved to Stoke in 1978, where he was voted their player of the year in 1979, and later had spells at Bolton and Rochdale.

Mike Doyle was a tremendous City player who played in a determined manner.  He won many admirers with his total dedication to the Blue cause. He died on 27 June 2011.

City 1 Leicester 0, the FA Cup Final

On this day (April 26) in 1969 Manchester City defeated Leicester City in the FA Cup final. It is worth pausing to consider how the Blues compared to football’s other successful sides in the competition at this time in football history.  City’s four FA Cup successes placed them 7th in the all-time list of FA Cup winners – can you guess the clubs they were behind? Liverpool? No! MUFC? No! Arsenal? No! Keep going…

They were behind Aston Villa (7), Blackburn Rovers (6), Newcastle United (6), Tottenham Hotspur (5), The Wanderers (5) and West Bromwich Albion (5).  Bolton, Sheffield United and Wolves had, like City, each won four FA Cups, while Manchester United and Arsenal had only won three, Liverpool one and Chelsea had not yet won the trophy.  In fact Chelsea had only won one major trophy (the League Championship) at this point in their history.  

Here for subscribers is a long read on that final and the events surrounding it:

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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.

Manchester Home To A League First & Myth Busting

On this day (17 April) in 1888 the first meeting of the Football League was held in Manchester. The following report names the clubs accepted and the others who wanted to join the League. It has often been written in Manchester United related books that Newton Heath applied to join the League in 1888 but didn’t receive enough votes to be accepted. That is completely untrue as no one actually had to apply nor was a vote taken. Clubs were asked and some tried to push to get included but Newton Heath were neither asked nor were they pushing for acceptance either. Nor were Ardwick or Manchester Asoociation who, to be frank would’ve been the most famous Manchester club at this time.

Bolton Wanderers were the only team from present day Greater Manchester to be asked/selected for the first League season.

Manchester Courier, 18 April 1888

The plaque is positioned on the corner of Mosley Street and Market Street/Piccadilly in Manchester.