Football writing, thoughts and more by Gary James
Today (9 November) in 1974 Manchester City presented longserving player Alan Oakes with a silver plate to commemorate his 500th League appearance. He’d actually made his 500th League appearance the previous week when City faced Everton at Goodison.
At Maine Road on 9 November City chairman Peter Swales presented him with the award before the game with Stoke (Oakes made his 501st League appearance that day). City won that match 1-0 with a goal from Rodney Marsh. You can see Marsh’s goal here:
Losing to Forest yesterday is disappointing but today’s ’on this day’ is a reminder of a period when Manchester City fans were absolutely bamboozled by events at the club. Get ready, brave yourself for a nightmare reminder… On this day (8 November) in 1996 Manchester City manager Steve Coppell resigned after only 33 days in the job. This contemporary article explains that he was suffering with stress:
So much different from the start of his reign:
On this day twenty years ago (1 November 2004) Willo Flood netted the only League goal of his Manchester City career. It came from a strike on the edge of the area in a 1-1 draw with Norwich. He had previously scored in a League Cup tie, but this was the only League goal in 14 League games for the Irishman. You can see the goal below:
Flood’s goal was the City opener but Norwich equalised 12 seconds into the second half.
New Manchester City manager John Bond’s first cup game was the fourth round tie against Second Division promotion hopefuls Notts County at Maine Road, played on 29 October in 1980 The game had the potential to end in defeat, especially as Bond would be unable to play any of his new signings (remember the struggles pre-Bond’s arrival earlier in the month and the impact he and his new arrivals Now, Hutchison and McDonald had?), nor would the expensive Steve Daley be able to play due to injury.
The match actually ended 5-1 to the Blues with Dave Bennett opening the scoring after 16 minutes. Dennis Tueart was in inspiring form that night scoring the other four City goals, but the result was prof that Bond’s whole approach had lifted the Club. Basically, Bond had taken Allison’s team and given them belief and confidence. Some of the younger players, like Bennett and Caton, may have been given their chance under Allison, but it was under Bond that they started to achieve their potential.
More on the 1980-81 season here:
If you’d like to support my research then why not subscribe? Every subscription directly helps support my research and provides annual subscribers with access to everything posted on this site, including the entire Manchester A Football History and From Maine Men To Banana Citizens books, plus interviews, articles and more. I am not employed by anyone and all my research is self funded or comes from subscriptions to this site.
You can subscribe at either £20 per year (above) or at £3 per month here (cancel any time). For those subscribing £3 per month you will be able to access all content from October 2022 onwards for as long as you are a subscriber. Those subscribing £20 a year have access to everything posted since December 2020.
Seventy years ago today (24 October 1956) the first Manchester Derby in the Charity Shield (now Community Shield) took place. Charity is much in evidence, as the Reds are allowed to replace ‘keeper Wood with their reserve David Gaskell when injury strikes. Attendance: 30,495; City 0 United 1.
The Champions beat the Cup holders under floodlights with a goal from local lad Dennis Violet. United are the better side while City seem a little pedestrian.
Pre-match the Times claimed: ‘if only one [goal] is needed, Chelsea usually find it.’ Well, not this day as Manchester City became the only team to beat Chelsea during their title winning season (their 2nd title; their first was 50 years earlier).
Nicolas Anelka netted an early penalty to give Manchester’s Blues the 1-0 win on this day (16 October) in 2004.
Choose an amount
Or enter a custom amount
Your contribution is appreciated.
Rare action images from Hyde Road taken on this day (October 12) in 1912 as Manchester City were defeated 1-0 at home to Newcastle before a capacity 40,000 crowd.
Choose an amount
Or enter a custom amount
Your contribution is appreciated.
Today (11 October) is the anniversary of a game played in 1930 which highlights something about remembrance for me. These days the periods prior to football games when a recently deceased person or a tragedy is remembered tends to be either a minute’s silence or a minute’s applause. The approach varies depending on the deceased, the mood of the time and other factors. Back in 1930 it was normal to be silent for two minutes and this cutting from 1930 shows the footballers of both Manchester City and Portsmouth paying their respects to the victims of an airship disaster.
The crash occurred in France (the airship’s first journey overseas) on 5 October 1930 and 48 of the 54 people on board died. The football match this image was taken at was played on 11 October 1930. It ended in a 3-1 City defeat (Bobby Marshall scored for City).
On the R101 – when I was researching and writing Farewell To Maine Road 20 years ago an elderly man told me how he remembered an airship flying over the ground when he was a young boy. I do know another airship, the R100, travelled over Manchester at times (including in 1930). Maybe some in the crowd at the Portsmouth game remembered seeing the airship R100 fly over the ground earlier that year?
A 1-1 draw saw Tottenham Hotspur’s run of consecutive victories from the start of the season come to an end at 11 wins (a run of 13 consecutive League wins in total). City of course now hold this record. A crowd of 58,916 saw the game on this day (10 October) in 1960 when City, wearing maroon and white stripes, ended Spurs’ run.
Tottenham’s Bobby Smith heading the opening goal past Bert Trautmann. The City ‘keeper had been superb and went on to demonstrate his skills throughout the game.
City’s Clive Colbridge equalised five minutes into the second half but most newspapers focused on the significance of Tottenham’s winning run with some believing it would never be bettered. They obviously couldn’t predict the brilliance of Pep Guardiola’s team.
Tottenham did go on to win the double (in the days when that seemed an impossibility, never mind a domestic treble or treble involving a European Cup! There was some praise for City in the report.
Here’s a contemporary match report of the Spurs game in 1960:
The 8th of October marks the anniversary of one of those ‘one game wonders’ who played for Manchester City. On this day in 1988 defender Bill Williams made his one and only appearance for City’s first team when he came on as substitute for Mark Seagraves in the Blues’ 1-0 defeat at Ipswich Town. He did make seven reserve appearances but that game at Ipswich was the only first team appearance.
It was a strange situation because City had signed him from Stockport where he had developed a good reputation in defence and as captain. Asa Hartford was the Stockport boss at the time and was sorry to see Williams leave but told the press that he couldn’t do much because of the glamour associated with City.
Williams returned to Stockport on 1 December and fans of both clubs seemed confused. At Edgeley Park County fans were delighted he’d returned but at Maine Road rumours circulated. City had sold him back to County for a discount price and had managed to get special dispensation off the League – back then a player could not be sold back to his original club within the same season.
There were rumours that Williams had a business (painting and decorating if my memory is correct – anyone remember?) and that by joining City he needed to spend more time training etc. than at County and that, ultimately, that meant he couldn’t earn as much at Maine Road as he had while working for himself and playing at Stockport. I’m not certain if that is true but that’s the rumour that circulated.
Whatever the situation, City lost money on the deal and Williams became a one hit wonder for the Blues.
Choose an amount
Or enter a custom amount
Your contribution is appreciated.
