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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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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On Christmas Day 1925 Bury FC defeated Manchester City 6-5 in an extraordinary top flight game. This was the highest scoring Christmas Day game Manchester’s Blues ever played in. As this was over the Christmas period detailed match reports are rare but this cutting gives a brief idea of the scorers. On Boxing Day the two teams met again with Bury beating the Blues 2-0 at Maine Road before 50,168 (the Gigg Lane attendance had been 23,621)
Had your Christmas dinner yet? If not then spare a thought for those days when professional football in England would take place on Christmas Day. In the modern era the thought of playing League football on Christmas Day is totally unacceptable, but in years gone by games were played on consecutive days over Christmas, including Christmas Day, and these were often the best attended matches of the winter.
The last Christmas Day game featuring Manchester City took place in 1957 when the Blues were defeated 2-1 at Burnley. The City team for that landmark game was: Trautmann, Leivers, Little, Barnes, Ewing, Warhurst, Barlow, Kirkman, Johnstone, Hayes, and Fagan. Fionan Fagan was the last City player to score on Christmas Day
The following day City defeated Burnley 4-1 at Maine Road in front of a crowd of 47,285. The only change to the line up was Ron Phoenix, who replaced Bobby Johnstone.
The First Noel
The first League game ever played by City on Christmas Day was at Christmas 1896 against Newton Heath (present day Manchester United). The game was played at Bank Street, Clayton (roughly across the road from the Etihad, the site of the BMX centre behind the present Velodrome) and was attended by 18,000 – a figure described by the Athletic News as being huge for Newton Heath: “The crowd was an enormous one and I never saw so many lads at a football match. They were really the cause of the encroaching in the first half, for they were continually creeping under the rails, and as a natural consequence their elders were bound to follow if they were to get a glimpse of the game.”
Fans streamed on to the pitch on several occasions and the game was almost abandoned at half time: “Mr. J. Parlby, one of the League Management Committee, told the crowd point blank that if they did not keep beyond the touchline, the game could not proceed, and the Newton Heath Club would have to suffer the consequences.”
Parlby, was actually a City director, and his words may have been influenced by the fact Newton Heath were the better side that day! The game ended 2-1 to the Heathens.
The two sides met on two further occasions on Christmas Day, the last (1902) ended 1-1 at Clayton before 40,000 with Billy Meredith scoring for the Blues.
Highest Christmas Crowd
City tended to be away from home on Christmas Day, but the best Maine Road crowd on the 25th was 56,750 in 1930 when City faced Arsenal. The following day a mere 17,624 attended the return game at Highbury.
The previous year a crowd reported as 70,000 watched Aston Villa beat City 2-1 on Boxing Day at Maine Road. This is the highest Christmas crowd at a City League game.
Christmas Thriller
Perhaps the most entertaining – if disappointing – game ever played by the Blues on Christmas Day was the 6-5 defeat by Bury at Gigg Lane in 1925.
Debuts
The following players made their Manchester City League debuts on Christmas Day:
On this day (25 September) in 1985 Manchester City defeated Bury 2-1 at Old Trafford in the League Cup. The game was played at Manchester United’s ground as Bury hoped for a big attendance. In the end the crowd of 11,377 wasn’t that much more than Gigg Lane could hold. Many City fans had stayed away simply because the game was at Old Trafford! Here’s a plan of OT as it was back then from the back of my ticket for the game:
You can read more on this season for Manchester City below. This is a 2,500 word feature on the 1985-86 season. Enjoy!
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My series on Manchester City in the 1930s continues today with a subscriber article on the 1931-32 season. If you subscribe (see below) I hope you enjoy it. If you don’t subscribe 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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The new series on Manchester City in the 1940s starts today with this 1,400 word article on the 1939-40 season. The season started as any other but then world events intervened!
This is a subscriber article and you can read it by subscribing below.
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Continuing the series of features on the 1960s, here’s a story involving Colin Bell and Harry Dowd it’s always worth telling… On this day (8th February) in 1964 Manchester City and Bury drew 1-1. It hardly sounds a remarkable game but it was for two reasons – this was Colin Bell’s Bury debut (and he scored!) AND City’s goalkeeper Harry Dowd scored the Blues equaliser.
This was City’s first point of 1964. The Blues were losing 1-0 to a debut goal from Bury youngster and future Blue Colin Bell at Maine Road when Dowd suffered a broken finger in the 54th minute. He was unable to continue in nets but stayed on the field and reverted to centre-forward – a role he’d often played as a youngster.
Scottish forward Matt Gray replaced Dowd in nets and the game continued with the regular ‘keeper keen to impress in attack: “I was restless enough to give it all I’d got. I felt just like a colt on its feet for the first time, pushing and shoving my way through and going for the every ball – many of which I hadn’t a hope of getting. But the moment of glory wasn’t far away, and it seemed the fans were loving every minute of the action.”
“I got the chance to slip the ball to Derek Kevan, his shot hit the bar, and as it bounced down I went lunging in to turn home the equaliser. The newspapers said some very kind things the next day.”
With Dowd’s efforts up front and a fine performance in goal from Gray the Blues secured the point. Gray had managed to keep a clean sheet, although Dowd’s amazing exploits prevented him from receiving the kind of credit that other emergency City ‘keepers Doyle, McDonald, Gleghorn, Quinn and Walker would over the decades that followed.
This game was probably Dowd’s highlight of the season as later on, he found himself dropped with Bert Trautmann returning to the side for three games before even he gave way to Alan Ogley for the final five matches of the season.. At one point Dowd asked for a transfer, but he remained at Maine Road, playing a significant part in the successes that followed under manager Joe Mercer.
If you’re a subscriber you can read the following article on Manchester City during the 1963-64 season. If you’d like to read this 1700 word article, plus all other articles on the site, then please subscribe (see below). As with most of the other features in this series it includes words from interviews I have performed with those who were there.
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On this day (29 January) in 1966 Mike Summerbee scored twice as Manchester City defeated Middlesbrough 3-1. The other goal came from Neil Young (the photo is of course Neil Young in 1971 at Maine Road). 1965-66 was an important season in MCFC history and you can read more on it in the following 4100 word article. This (plus all other articles on the site) is available to subscribers (see below). As with most of the other features in this series it includes words from interviews I have performed with those who were there.
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On this day (24 January) in 1966 52,661 watched at Maine Road as Manchester City defeated Blackpool 3-1 in the FA Cup with goals from Mike Doyle, Mike Summerbee and Johnny Crossan (the photo is of course of Mike Summerbee with Colin Bell and Francis Lee in October 1967). 1965-66 was an important season in MCFC history and you can read more on it in the following 4100 word article. This (plus all other articles on the site) is available to subscribers (see below). As with most of the other features in this series it includes words from interviews I have performed with those who were there.
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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up for a year at the discounted price of £20 per year (works out £1.67 per month). Subscribers access the 1000+ articles posted so far and the others scheduled during the life of your subscription.
Gary James' Football Archive 