Category Archives: FA Cup

The City Keeper Who Wore Glasses

During the 1920s Manchester City had a goalkeeper Jim Mitchell who played in glasses – not specially produced glasses, ordinary glasses of the period!

Here are some images of him in action. I’m not quite certain what’s happened but it looks like he changed his shirt during the game because these are definitely from the same match:

Born in Prestwich, Jim Mitchell was a former Manchester University and Northern Nomads ‘keeper.  He also had spells at Blackpool and at Preston where he gained an extremely good reputation.  He gained several significant honours and was the Great Britain goalkeeper at the 1920 Olympics.  He also kept goal for Preston in the 1922 FA Cup final (the last played at Stamford Bridge before Wembley Stadium opened) against Huddersfield and hit the headlines by leaping around while a penalty was being taken against him – this caused the rules to be changed.

He joined City shortly after the final and replaced Goodchild as City’s number one the following September, making his debut on 9th September 1922 at home to Birmingham.  Despite wearing glasses – on the pitch as well as off it – Mitchell was an agile ‘keeper and made 22 appearances in his first season. 

Always an amateur, Mitchell made history by being City ‘keeper for the first game at Maine Road (25th August 1923) and was generally recognised as a quality ‘keeper by neutrals.  He was certainly known nationwide and was capped at both an amateur level and for the full England side.

He later had a spell at Leicester, though he never appeared in their first team, and joined the footwear firm Stead & Simpson.  He went on to become their Managing Director.  He passed away in 1975.

Appearances:  League: 99  FA Cup: 10

Search my site and you’ll find film of Mitchell at Maine Road’s opening game in 1923. There’s also much more on this 1924 FA Cup semi final featuring Mitchell. It was Billy Meredith’s last game and subscribers can read more and watch film of it here:

Billy Meredith’s Last Game: 1924 FA Cup Semi

1955 Manchester City Photo

I like this colour team photo of Manchester City which was taken as part of the build-up to the 1955 FA Cup final between the Blues and Newcastle United. City lost that final – and at the time of writing it remains the last major domestic trophy won by the Geordies.

At least two of the men here later had involvement in women’s football with the Manchester Corinthians. Bert Trautmann acted as an ambassador for the pioneering women’s team later in the 1950s while Dave Ewing coached the team when it used City’s Platt Lane facilities in the late 1970s/early 1980s. You can find out more about the Corinthians here:

Manchester Corinthians Plaque Unveiling

Maine Road 100 – Day 91

For Day 91 of the 100 day Maine Road countdown until the centenary of City’s old stadium is a flashback to one of the earliest seasons for the old place. In particular I’m talking about a remarkable City victory against Crystal Palace in the FA Cup, way back in 1926. Why is this significant? Well, it was possibly the first season or at the least the prime example of a season when the old phrase ‘Typical City!’ was first established. Fortunately Typical City rarely raises its head these days but back in 1925-26 it was very much to the fore. Read on for more…

City hadn’t had a manager since November 1925 (believing instead that vice chairman Albert Alexander could lead the other directors in selecting the team) and were struggling in the League when the Blues played a FA Cup fifth round tie against Crystal Palace on 20 February 1926. The tie turned out to be a fifteen goal thriller with City in rampant form.  

By half-time the score at Maine Road was 7-0 to the Blues, but Palace would not give up and quickly pulled back four goals.  City were knocked out of their period of complacency and soon found their goalscoring touch again.  

By the end it was 11-4 and, according to a number of spectators present on the day, Manchester fans rushed on at the final whistle and carried off the Palace ‘keeper Callendar shoulder high.  It’s the sort of thing City fans would do back then! Apparently he had played extremely well and, somehow, managed to keep the score down, although one cannot help wondering if he’d have been given such a reception had the scores been reversed.

Frank Roberts was the City star for this particular game, scoring a remarkable five, while Tommy Browell also earned a few plaudits with his hat-trick. Browell had been ill for most of the week and had been unable to train.

With no management and such a miserable time in the League, no one could believe how City had been able to deliver such strong cup performances. 

Remarkably, film of the game has survived and can be viewed here:

https://www.britishpathe.com/video/crystal-palace-overwhelmed

Mancini Leaves

Roberto Mancini has left his role as Italy’s men’s football manager. Hopefully, he’ll be back in club management soon and maybe in the Premier League too. His contribution to Manchester City’s history is huge and so I think it’s worth reposting this audio special I did a couple of years ago. It’s a special audio recording talking about the years building up to the 2011 FA Cup success brought to City by Mancini. It includes some audio I did with him back in 2011 too. Enjoy this reminder of a time when Mancini helped transform City’s fortunes.

Restored 2011: The All-Manchester FA Cup Semi Final is a special 1 hour audio recording looks at the game and the years between the 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. I’ve produced videos/talks like this highlighting key points in Manchester City’s footballing history which subscribers can watch. 

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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

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Maine Road 100 – Day 85

Post 85 of my Maine Road 100 countdown is a FA Cup reminder of a day that I know I loved as a kid. It was the day (24 January) in 1981 when John Bond’s Manchester City defeated his former club Norwich 6-0 in the FA Cup fourth round tie. I was sat in that uncovered bit between the Main Stand and the North Stand (it was cheaper but if it rained it was somewhat unpleasant, especially when the rain blew off the Main Stand roof on to us!).

This 1971 image shows the area I was sat in (number 2) that day:

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road

Subscribers can read a report and watch highlights of the game here:

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Maine Road 100 – Day 77

For post 77 in my Maine Rd 100 countdown a reminder of a record City have held for almost a century! This image is of a day in 1924 when City attracted the highest crowd on a club ground. The drawing is looking from the Main Stand towards the Popular Side, later Kippax. It’s no longer the record attendance because it was beaten by another record crowd at Maine Rd a decade later. Want to know more? The read on…

1925 Aerial photo of Maine Road and Platt Fields Park

A record Manchester City have held for 99 years was set on 8 March in 1924 – the record is the highest attendance on a club ground! The record set in 1924 saw 76,166 attend City v Cardiff. 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 that 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. You can read about the remarkable day in 1924 below:

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You can read about the attendance that brought this record (again by City at Maine Road) here:

A National Record – 84,569

Other record crowd articles can be seen here:

Welcome to Gary James’ Football Archive

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Maine Road 100 – Day 76

For post 76 of my Maine Rd 100 countdown a reminder of a day when over 74,000 watched managerless Manchester City at Maine Road. The image is of Frank Roberts, a City star that day. That day (30 January 1926) City faced Huddersfield Town in a FA Cup tie at Maine Road, watched by 74,799.

The following article, for subscribers to GJFootballArchive.com, provides the background story to the tie and film of the game.

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Maine Road 100 – Day 73

For post 73 of my Maine Rd 100 countdown I’ve posted this great newspaper cutting from a significant Manchester derby. The game was on 29th January in 1955 and goals from Joe Hayes and Don Revie gave Manchester City a 2-0 victory over Manchester United in the FAC in front of 74,723. I’ve posted it partly because of the game’s significance but mostly because I just love the way newspapers would try to explain everything via images and text like this.

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Treble Success

I don’t know where to start with this but I wanted to get a few thoughts down ahead of the celebration chat I’ve planned for Wednesday (see link below)… This has been an absolutely incredible few weeks for fans of Manchester City and it’s also be mentally and physically draining too. It will be in the coming weeks that we get to relax and look back on it all but I wanted to get some top of the head thoughts down now while they’re buzzing around. So here goes…

The history of football moves at a frantic pace and there are key moments (Tueart, Dickov, Aguerooooooooooooo for example) that are era defining or represent the beginning or the end of an era. This last week is another of those with Rodri’s goal at Istanbul finally bringing City the Champions League that we’ve all craved for so long (but pretended at times that we didn’t).

Manchester City are now Champions Of Europe and, finally, Villa fans can stop singing their song to us! There were many occasions over the decades since City’s last European trophy that the club had a squad of players that were capable of major European success but sadly circumstances worked against them. There were also times when the club suffered major failures but I’ll forget those for the moment.

Depending on when you were born you tend to fall into three rough categories of City fan (there’s more than this but I hope you get my point):

  • Those who remember City as a major power, winning trophies and being ahead of United, Liverpool & others; then falling apart under bad chairmanship; then resurrected; then takeover and what we have today.
  • Those who remember the failures of the 80s/90s; the lack of chance of competing then the takeover and the glory that’s followed.
  • Those who have only known City as a dominant, trophy winning force.

The media tend to portray City as a failing 3rd tier club that got lucky, but the truth is that that was only one season and it was only in the late 1990s that United overtook City in terms of number of seasons at the highest level (I’ll explain the numbers another day but prior to the late 1990s United had spent more seasons between 1894 and then in the second tier than City had !).

In the 1970s City won three times as many trophies as United and even in the 1990s/2000s the Blues only spent 6 seasons out of the top flight. This was two spells (5 years and 1 year) and that 5 year spell was the longest period the Blues had ever endured out of the top flight.

This season finding European success has lifted everything in a global sense. I’ve talked previously (way back in 2012) about City being the club for the new generation and that is absolutely how it is panning out. Add to the Champions League the FA Cup – where City’s traditional rivals United were vanquished – and the Premier League (where City’s old rival from the 1930s looked certain to win the League for much of the season) and this has been a truly brilliant season.

https://gjfootballarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2023-champions-league-final-sd-480p.mov

City and United are now the only clubs ever to have achieved THE treble – a truly great achievement that many thought impossible. Add to that that Guardiola’s Blues have previously become the ONLY team to win a domestic treble and you get to see that this isn’t simply the greatest ever Manchester City side but one of, if not THE, greatest ever side in English football.

We’ve had the Viking Call (the best team in the land and all the world) chant for almost 50 years now but, for the first time, the words are absolutely true (though we haven’t yet had a competitive fixture to determine the best world team of course – that will come!).

If you’d like to come and join me for an online celebration then please do:

Celebrate Manchester City’s 2023 Champions League Success

These are truly great times to be a Blue. Enjoy!

Fastest Manchester Derby Goal

I’ve been asked whether Gundogan’s goal in the FA Cup final was the fastest Manchester City goal of all time. Sadly, it’s impossible to prove as we do not have accurate times for the majority of goals scored throughout football history. Often in the past reports would say things like: ‘From the kick-off City rushed forward and scored.’ No time and even when this is said in reports highlights that have been found often show that this was not the case, so it’s impossible to say conclusively.

We know it’s the fastest FA Cup final goal of all time and, at 12 seconds, it’s also the fastest goal in a Manchester derby. Back in 1975 Dennis Tueart netted what was claimed to be the fastest derby goal at 35 seconds. I interviewed him about it a few years ago:

GJ: ‘You played in lots of significant derbies over the years, but there is one, above all others, that we should mention – the November 1975 League Cup tie at Maine Road.‘

DT: ‘I scored the first goal after about 35 seconds and that is the fastest goal in a Manchester derby.  It was a midweek game at Maine Road and I loved night matches, under the floodlights, packed stadium.  Incredible.  The lights meant that the stadium shone out amongst the dark streets – it was the whole focus.

Dennis Tueart scores after 35 seconds v United, 1975

‘We were 1-0 up and played great football.  3-0 up after 36 minutes when I got my second goal after Asa Hartford had got City’s second. Colin Bell was injured and stretchered off which was by far the worst moment of the evening and would impact us for the next few years. 

‘After the game we went to Cellar Vie in the city centre, and I walked in and I got a standing ovation from everyone in there.  Again it hit home how important the derby was to the city of Manchester.’

Now Gundogan holds the record but we should also mention Shaun Goater who in 2003 netted after only 9 seconds of coming on as substitute. You can read about that here:

Today in 2003: Goater’s 9 Second Old Trafford Goal

Gundogan’s goal is the fastest in a derby, while Goater’s goal was the fastest ever netted in a derby from a player’s arrival on the pitch, regardless of stage of the game.

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