Football writing, thoughts and more by Gary James
Tomorrow sees City and Southampton meet in the FA Cup semi final at Wembley . The first ever meeting between these clubs was a FA Cup tie in 1910 (5 February) and this image is from that very first meeting. City won the tie 5-0 with goals from Jimmy Colin, George Dorsett, Tom Halford, Billy Lot Jones and George Stewart. Here’s a contemporary report of the game:
https://gjfootballarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/img_8537.jpeg
On 16 April 2011 Manchester City faced Manchester United in the FA Cup semi final. Five years ago I produced Restored 2011: The All-Manchester FA Cup Semi Final and I think it’s well worth listening to today to get a feel for how significant this game actually was. This special 1 hour audio recording looked at the game and the years between City’s 1976 League Cup success and the FA Cup glory of 2011. The 2011 semi-final was a crucial step in City’s journey since the 2008 takeover and I felt it was vital to do a special marking this.
So what’s in this special recording? Well, I’ve included exclusive material from interviews and recordings I’ve done over the years with Garry Cook, Brian Marwood, Roberto Mancini, Peter Barnes and Peter Swales. Why Swales? Well, have a listen and you’ll hear why. Basically though I’m trying to set the tone for why the 2011 FA Cup semi final victory and overcoming Manchester United was so significant.
On Mancini… I include a few words from him recorded in 2011 and at one point he talks about the view that was then being expressed that City were ‘trying’ to buy success (now they say City ‘have’ bought success!). His words are a reminder that City have been having that particular criticism thrown at them for over a decade! Oh well, I wonder how long those criticisms were laid at other clubs who had seen major investment which propelled them forward?
Anyway, get yourself a brew and be prepared to be transported back in time. Here’s the recording:
If you enjoy the recording then please let me know, comment or subscribe to the site. If it’s of interest then, over the coming months and years, I’ll produce others like this highlighting key points in Manchester City – and Manchester’s – footballing history. It costs £20 a year to subscribe (it works out £1.67 a month) or £3 if you’d like to sign up a month at a time to get full access for as long as you subscribe (you can always try it for a month). It’s worth bearing in mind that the 2010 Manchester A Football History cost £24.95 and all subscribers will be able to access all of that for as long as they are a subscriber (plus all the other stuff of course). You can subscribe below.
£3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up at the discounted price of £20 per year to access everything
Match Stats for the 2011 FA Cup Semi-final
City 1-0 United (HT 0-0)
Yaya Toure 52
City: 25 Hart 04 Kompany (yellow card), 05 Zabaleta (yellow card), 13 Kolarov, 19 Lescott, 11 Johnson (Wright-Phillips 79), 18 Barry, 21 Silva (Vieira 86), 34 De Jong (yellow card), 42 Y Toure, 45 Balotelli (yellow card). Substitutes 12 Taylor, 38 Boyata, 07 Milner, 08 Wright-Phillips, 24 Vieira, 10 Dzeko, 27 Jo
United: 01 Van der Sar, 03 Evra, 05 Ferdinand, 15 Vidic, 22 O’Shea (Fabio Da Silva 84), 13 Park Ji-Sung, 16 Carrick, 17 Nani, 18 Scholes (red card), 25 Valencia (Hernandez 65), 09 Berbatov (Anderson 74). Substitutes 29 Kuszczak, 12 Smalling, 20 Fabio Da Silva, 08 Anderson, 28 Gibson, 07 Owen, 14 Hernandez
Referee: Dean
Attendance: 86,549
On this day (April 13) in 2014 Manchester City’s women’s team played its first competitive game after the relaunch. It was a FA Cup tie against Reading played at the Regional Athletics Arena.
Here for subscribers is a section of Manchester City Women: An Oral History discussing that opening game:
Read this and have access to the rest of the site throughout your subscription. £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up for a year at the discounted rate of £20 per year (works out about £1.67 a week).
If you would like to buy Manchester City Women: An Oral History copies are available direct from me (I’ll sign them) via:
On this day (18 March) in 1933 Manchester City faced Derby County in the FA Cup semi-final at Leeds Road. Here for subscribers is the story of that day, including images, a match report and film of the game. Enjoy!
To read this please subscribe. It works out about £1.67 a month if you take out an annual subscription (£20 per year) or £3 a month if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time (see below). Annual subscribers get full access to everything posted so far and the hundreds scheduled to be posted in the coming year, including audio interviews, talks, articles and books.
To read this please subscribe. It costs £3 a month (cancel anytime) or £20 a year (see above). Monthly subscribers get full access to everything posted since 1 October 2022 and those scheduled to be posted during their subscription, including audio interviews, talks, articles and books.
On this day (13 March) in 2011 Manchester City faced Reading in the FA Cup quarter final. Here for subscribers is the story of that game:
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 rate of £20 per year. Subscribers access everything on the site including interviews, books and more.
Today (9 March) in 1966 Second Division Manchester City defeated First Division Leicester City 1-0 in a FAC 5th round replay. Gordon Banks was the Leicester ‘keeper and City gained many plaudits from this display. More was to follow as the football world began to notice how City were revitalised under manager Joe Mercer and his assistant Malcolm Allison. Were you there that day? If you were please feel free to add your comments.
Here for subscribers are some contemporary match reports from this game:
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up for a year at a time at a discounted price of £20 per year. This gives access to every article, book, interview etc. posted to the site so far. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think?
You can find out more on Manchester City during the 1965-66 season by reading the following 4100 word article. As with most of the other features in this series it includes words from interviews I have performed with those who were there. This is a subscriber article (see below).
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.
Choose an amount
Or enter a custom amount
Your contribution is appreciated.
DonateToday (8 March) marks the 102nd anniversary of a record Manchester City set – the record is the highest attendance on a club ground! The record set in 1924 saw 76,166 attend City v Cardiff. Keep reading all those who think ‘don’t you mean 84,569 in 1934?’ – City already held the record… City had moved to their new Maine Road stadium in August 1923. The capacity of the venue was estimated at around 90,000 but was actually approximately 83,000 when the stadium opened (it was enlarged in 1931 and 1935).
In its first season the capacity was tested and, on this day (8 March) in 1924 the largest attendance for any footballing fixture (including three FA Cup Finals) in Manchester gathered to watch the Blues. This was also, at the time, the record crowd for any game played on an English club ground. It was beaten ten years later when 84,569 watched City v Stoke – so It’s 102 years of this record for the Blues!
You can read about the remarkable day in 1924 below:
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £20 a year (access to everything) or £3 per month (see below).
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £20 a year (see above) or £3 per month (cancel anytime; access to everything posted since 1 October 2022).
You can read about the attendance that broke this record (again by City at Maine Road) here:
Other record crowd articles can be seen here:
On this day (7 March) in 1993 Manchester City faced Tottenham in the FA Cup Quarter-Final at Maine Road. It was a day that saw the media express shock at the behaviour of City’s fans when they invaded the pitch during the tie with Spurs. They condemned the supporters without understanding the background story. To put the record straight it’s vital the day’s events are covered correctly. Here for subscribers is the full story of that game, including quotes from Niall Quinn and Peter Swales (from my interviews with them in the years since that day…
If you would like to read this and all the in-depth articles on this site (including the entire Manchester A Football History book and the audio interview with John Bond) then please subscribe. It works out about £1.67 a month if you take out a discounted annual subscription (£20 per year) or £3 a month (cancel any time). Each subscriber gets full access to the 2000+ articles posted so far and all others during your subscription..
Today (5 March) in 1966 two goals from Neil Young helped Second Division Manchester City to a 2-2 draw against First Division Leicester City in the 5th round of the FA Cup. Gordon Banks was the Leicester ‘keeper and City gained many plaudits from this display. More was to follow as the football world began to notice how City were revitalised under manager Joe Mercer and his assistant Malcolm Allison. Were you there that day? If you were please feel free to add your comments.
Here for subscribers are some contemporary match reports and images from this game:
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up for a year at a time at a discounted price of £20 per year. This gives access to every article, book, interview etc. posted to the site so far. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think?
You can find out more on Manchester City during the 1965-66 season by reading the following 4100 word article. As with most of the other features in this series it includes words from interviews I have performed with those who were there. This is a subscriber article (see below).
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.
Choose an amount
Or enter a custom amount
Your contribution is appreciated.
DonateFor today’s feature I’ve decided to look back to a remarkable day in 1924 when Manchester City and Brighton met in their first competitive game. This ‘first’ also became significant as a ‘last’ moment for one of City’s greatest ever players. That day the legendary Billy Meredith scored his last competitive goal. Remarkably, he was 49 and his return to City’s first team brought significant media coverage.
The first ever meeting between City and Brighton was on this day (23 February) in 1924 and this photo is of Meredith during that game. It was a FA Cup tie at Brighton and newspapers were full of Meredith stories. His return was big news. The Manchester Evening News explained: ‘To all intents and purposes, Meredith ceased to be an active member of the first team two seasons ago. Two things have combined to bring him within range of the rather sensational choice now made – sentiment and his own indomitable will to fret his hold on the football stage a little longer… The chief argument in his favour is that from one of his classic centres any match might be won, just as it was when he scored the goal that served to bring the English Cup to Hyde Road twenty years ago next month.’
Meredith had not played in a League game all season – in fact he’d only played one game the previous season! – and he was aged 49. However, he remained the biggest name in football and had captained City to FA Cup success in 1904, scoring the winning goal in the final.
A record crowd of 24,734 packed into Brighton’s Goldstone Ground and Meredith’s inclusion inspired the rest of the team. City defeated Brighton 5-1 and there was even a sentimental moment when a minute into the second half Meredith scored. The Daily Mail described the goal: ‘[Meredith’s] old inimitable ball magic along the touch line remains… Those bow legs still mesmerise the ball, and that great right foot still placed the ball perfectly in the mouth of goal. In this way Meredith got his goal. Hayes grasped the ball, but it spun out of his hands into the net.’
This was to be Meredith’s last-ever first team goal.
This season City reached the FA Cup semi-final, establishing attendance records along the way. Meredith’s inclusion was a masterstroke. The chance of Meredith reaching the FA Cup final had been the nation’s footballing dream, but it could not be fulfilled. In the semi-final City were defeated by Newcastle and the Welshman’s career came to an end. You can read about that game here:
Billy Meredith stopped playing more than 100 years ago but his name remains one all Blues should know. He was our first truly great player and was the game’s biggest star. He joined City in 1894 and, despite a spell at Manchester United, remained a City fan all his life, attending every FA Cup final the Blues played in until his death in 1958.
In 2004 I chatted with his then 98-year-old daughter Winifred, and she said that his heart was always with City: ‘He felt at home at City. I know he had great success at United, but I don’t think they ever really appreciated him in the way City did. I think United were not paying him properly after the war and, because of his age, they probably didn’t value him. But City did, and it’s clear they still love him today. City was always his team and meant more to him than United ever could.’
Other images from the game:
Choose an amount
Or enter a custom amount
Your contribution is appreciated.
Your contribution is appreciated.
Your contribution is appreciated.
DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearly
Gary James' Football Archive 
