On 13 October in 2002 Fifties goalscoring star Billy McAdams died. During his Manchester City career he made 134 first team appearances and scored 65 goals. He had joined City on 6 December 1953 and on 2 January 1954 McAdams, signed from Distillery, made his debut. It was a memorable one as he scored an equaliser in the 49th minute against Sunderland at Maine Road. The game was played in poor, foggy conditions but City won.
A week after the Sunderland game, McAdams scored a hat-trick in City’s 5-2 Cup win at Bradford. He followed that with an equaliser in the 56th League derby match at Old Trafford. His arrival and goalscoring streak was viewed as refreshing that season..
On this day (12 October) in 1965 1980s Manchester City ‘keeper Perry Suckling was born in Hackney. Here’s a brief profile of him:
Perry Suckling
Bought for £50,000 plus the popular David Phillips, England youth international Perry Suckling was anticipated to be City’s first choice for several years when he arrived from Coventry City in May 1986. It didn’t work out that way however and by the end of December 1987 he was on loan at Chelsea. A permanent move to Crystal Palace followed in January 1988 – City received £100,000 – and after 39 League appearances that was it.
Spells for West Ham, Brentford, Watford and Doncaster followed.
Appearances: League: 39 FAC: 1 League Cup: 3
You can read a 4,000 word article on the 1987-88 season here:
Enjoying this website? Fancy supporting my research into Manchester football history? Why not subscribe? Every subscription directly helps support my research and provides the subscriber 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 or at £3 per month (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.
If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.
On this day (10 October) in 1985 Chelsea forward Gordon Davies joined Manchester City (the team he supported; his hero was Colin Bell). Davies made 3 Welsh international appearances while at City. There was a chant connected with him which was, err, well, typical 1980s. It was based on the ‘Woo Gary Davies, woo Gary Davies, woo Gary Davies on the ra-di-o’ jingle used by Radio One DJ Gary Davies (of course). The chant (I’m sure you can guess) went ‘Woo Gordon Davies, woo Gordon Davies, woo Gordon Davies in the ar-e-a’ (meaning penalty area of course!). Those were the days, hey?
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Enjoying this website? Fancy supporting my research into Manchester football history? Why not subscribe? Every subscription directly helps support my research and provides each annual subscriber 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.
If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.
Bill Williams made his one and only appearance for Manchester City when he came on as substitute for Mark Seagraves in the 8 October 1988 meeting with Ipswich. He’d arrived at Maine Road five days earlier from Stockport, and returned to the club on 30 November the same year after realising playing for City interfered with his non-footballing trade. It was an odd time at City!
If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.
I’m absolutely delighted that the culmination of the project to gain recognition for the Manchester Corinthians has been shortlisted for a prestigious award. The This Is Manchester Awards have shortlisted our blue plaque appeal and unveiling for their Leading Live Event Award.
Only two days ago I posted about the anniversary of that remarkable day when we paid tribute to these wonderful women and the others involved with establishing and developing the Corinthians.
Thanks to the judges of the award for shortlisting us and all involved. It really is appreciated. More on the awards here:
For those wondering what all the fuss is about here’s the article I posted explaining it all:
It’s hard to believe but today marks a year since an amazing day when Manchester came together, along with a wonderful community of former footballers, to recognise the pioneering women’s team the Manchester Corinthians. It was an incredible day made possible with the support of so many individuals, groups and community leaders. So often we highlight issues, problems or moments where communities separate or fail but the long running campaign to bring recognition to the Corinthians has seen so many come together for something extremely positive.
Personally, I was touched by the support received for this campaign I’d established several years ago. The plaque unveiling was the biggest visible sign that it was succeeding with huge TV audiences tuning in. One news broadcast alone featuring the Corinthians’ plaque unveiling had 2.7 million live viewers. Add to that downloads and all the news features experienced on TV and radio that day and the number rockets significantly. There were also newspaper articles and more.
The aim, back in 2019 when I first raised the idea of erecting permanent tributes publicly in an article I wrote, had been to bring recognition and wider public awareness to the exploits of these remarkable footballers. The media coverage certainly did that and also other Corinthians came forward who had seen the coverage.
I’d particularly like to pay tribute to Jam Williams-Thomas from ITV Granada who promised me he’d ensure Granada Reports would have a camera crew there many, many months before the exact date had been finalised. That support was vital. In the end David Chisnall came from Granada Reports and did a wonderful feature on the plaque and recognising the Corinthians. Thanks to you, Jam and all at Granada Reports. It really helped (there are links to some of the TV coverage at the bottom of this article).
2019 was the year when the campaign received a lot of support. Back then I contacted many key Manchester and national institutions with the concept. Manchester City FC immediately supported the idea and that year several Corinthians, plus myself, were invited to City to attend a WSL game, where they met England international Karen Bardsley and England women manager Phil Neville. The Blues also included features in their match programme and on their website on the history of the Corinthians.
Margaret Whitworth, Karen Bardsley, Margaret Shepherd & Gary James. Several Corinthians were guests of Manchester City for a WSL game.
They’ve continued to support and promote the Corinthians’ story ever since. I don’t know how many millions read their website today but again, like the national news coverage, this level of readership is significant. I’m not daft enough to think everyone reading the stories or watching the news will want to know more about the Corinthians, but if just 1% do then that in itself is an incredible number of people who previously may not have known or understood how the Corinthians toured the globe promoting Manchester, football and female endeavour.
Simon Mullock at the Sunday Mirror helped with an excellent feature too back in the early days. That support from a national tabloid was so important in widening the news and soon, in general conversation, people were mentioning the Corinthians and their achievements. I loved that! We were getting somewhere and Simon, together with later features by renowned journalists focusing on women’s football in other newspapers, was a big part of that.
Another major supporter since the start has been the Manchester FA’s Colin Bridgford. Again in 2019 we met up to talk about what we could do to promote the Corinthians’ story and I wrote several articles for the Manchester FA’s website. That support was important and helped raise the profile of what we were trying to achieve. We also arranged a meeting with Manchester FA staff and several of the Corinthians, including Margaret Whitworth, Margaret Shepherd and Jan Lyons – three of the Corinthian stalwarts who have worked tirelessly to rightly highlight the story of their team. Plans were put in place to do other activities with the Manchester FA but sadly Covid hit and plans had to be abandoned. Colin and his team did, of course, support the plaque unveiling last October.
The FA have helped too. In fact they have not only helped promote the story but also provided significant funding to ensure permanent tributes could be made. My connection with Rachel Pavlou at The FA came via Caterina Loriggio. Cat led a major project in partnership with the Women’s Euros the other year and I acted as the Heritage Lead for Trafford Council. Via the UEFA & FA project a series of activities were established in each host city/borough and the Corinthians inevitably became part of that. I performed interviews with several Corinthians (borrowing some of their trophies and kit too for an exhibition) in Trafford and others were interviewed at Wigan & Leigh. These were filmed and are still available here:
When I discussed the idea of erecting permanent tributes with Rachel she immediately offered funds and other support to ensure the Corinthians were recognised. The FA and Cat also approved the wording for the plaque. For me this had to recognise all the Corinthians, not one person or individual moments (I knew we could pay appropriate tribute to all of that via the book I’ve been working on for several years, which will be published this summer).
The FA were not the only ones to get involved of course as the campaign brought together a wide range of people… as with every project like this there are many, unsung heroes who work tirelessly without seeking or receiving financial reward. In that category are the Friends of Fog Lane Park. They deserve immense praise, especially Pamela & Alice and the others who attended various meetings along the way and performed many tasks that made the unveiling day such a success.
Some of the Friends of Fog Lane Park at the last meeting before the Corinthians plaque unveiling
I’d been introduced to the Friends by Manchester City Council, in particular Paul Hulme. Jan Lyons and I had met Paul at an early meeting we’d arranged. We’d hoped there would be support from the Council and sure enough Paul was interested, particularly when Jan told some of the Corinthians’ story. Her words and experiences brought it all to life and demonstrated perfectly why we needed to get this story out there. Paul immediately set up a meeting with the Friends of Fog Lane Park and other council officials and employees.
At that meeting in the Fog Lane Park Café me, Margaret Whitworth, Margaret Shepherd and Jan Lyons, explained about the Corinthians with the former players telling their stories while the Friends were enthralled. I put it all into context in terms of the wider football and Manchester stories, then explained about the attempts to raise public awareness and how we wanted to get a Blue Plaque erected. We agreed that the Blue Plaque appeal would be established in the name of the Friends of Fog Lane Park – they had a dedicated committee of passionate individuals and the opportunity to publicly recognise the Corinthians in the park that had been their home for over two decades was wonderful.
One of the Friends of Fog Lane Park meetings where we discussed the erecting of permanent tributes, 20 May 2022
Those who donated to the appeal to erect permanent tributes to the Corinthians were: Pam Barnes, Dan Mooney, Adam Turgoose, ‘Ben’, ‘Jean J’, Jonathan Kaye, Megan Riley, Helena Byrne, Dawn Burrows, Clare Wilkins, Linda Foley, Debbie Enever, John Carrier, Jacqui McAssey, Michael Cottam, Karen Phanco, David Hoyle, Daniel Rubin, Heidi James, Gary James and the Dick, Kerr Ladies Foundation. There were a couple of anonymous donations too. It was gratifying that many of those listed were not from Manchester but were connected with women’s football in other parts of the world. That was wonderful to see. It was also fantastic that via Gail Newsham the Dick, Kerr Ladies Foundation supported the campaign with a significant donation too, proving what a great community of women’s football enthusiasts and researchers we have.
The Friends of Fog Lane Park managed to get matching funds from Manchester City Council too and the Friends had some wonderful ideas to really improve the park and tributes further. As well as the hoped for plaque and a lectern providing a Corinthians’ timeline, the Friends organised for some of the funds raised via the appeal and The FA to be spent on two impressive murals painted by artist Gavin Renshaw and for a handout to be produced for park visitors on the Corinthians. Now everybody who visits the park gets to see wonderful artwork (on a former graffiti covered building), the plaque, a lectern, an information board inside the café and the leaflet. All of this is helping get the story out there again and, for those young girls and boys kicking a ball around the park, is inspiring.
In the weeks building up to the unveiling day the Friends spent considerable time and effort tidying up the park, arranging some of the logistics, erecting the plaque itself, overseeing the mural work, organising sandwiches, baking cakes and more. It was a real community effort and all deserve thanking again.
Various media companies helped promote the plaque appeal with myself, Friends of Fog Lane Park, Margaret Whitworth, Margaret Shepherd, Jan Lyons and other Corinthians being interviewed on a fairly regular basis. Contacts I had with various stations helped enormously (you know who you are – thanks for your support) and brought airtime we couldn’t have managed with cold calls.
When it came to the plaque itself another who helped was Mark Metcalf. Mark had instigated footballing plaques at various locations and I’d been fortunate to be involved with a couple. Mark provided contacts with plaque manufacturers and helped ensure we got a decent price too.
There was also a wonderful night in Hebden Bridge in December 2021 where several Corinthians were interviewed publicly and I gave a talk on the history of women’s football. At the end of that event I announced publicly for the first time the campaign to erect a blue plaque and that brought significant interest from the people of West Yorkshire. Local businessman Geoff Matthews had funded the talk and event and that support was wonderful too.
The plaque unveiling was supported on the day by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who spoke about the Corinthians as the suffragettes of football, and former England international Kerry Davis. She had actually played against many of the Corinthians in attendance that day too. Hundreds of people attended with strong support from fans of women’s football, including several key members of the Manchester City Women Supporters Club. Former City player Stacey Copeland was a key supporter that day (as she has been at other events, including the one at Hebden Bridge) and she has made efforts herself to promote the story and help the Corinthians frequently.
It really was quite remarkable the amount of interest demonstrated that day and how the story of the Corinthians has continued to receive attention.
I know this has been a lengthy piece but I think it’s both necessary and valuable to remember what a remarkable day the plaque unveiling was and to remember all those who contributed along the way. All of those involved, especially the Friends of Fog Lane Park, put considerable effort into that day and they quite rightly stood back to ensure the Corinthians’ achievements were recognised first and foremost. That day – and in the months leading up to it – a great community came together to ensure the Corinthians were thanked for all they had done for football and Manchester and the media support ensured that story was spread loud and clear.
I am really pleased and proud with the way it developed and how such a huge community has helped along the way.
This year events of the plaque unveiling and the campaign leading up to it will be included within the Authorised History I am writing. The book will detail every season of the Corinthians, plus their legacy, and will pay tribute to these remarkable players, their managers, coaches and supporting family and friends. Community again, working together. Dozens of players covering every single season from 1940s through to the club’s demise have been interviewed, while archives have been researched extensively to correct myths and add facts to the memories of those who were there.
Over the last five years or so contemporary articles and film of the Corinthians has been found and I’ve written for a variety of footballing and non-footballing national, regional & local publications and websites. Some have inspired others and some have helped re-unite former players.
I think, out of everything that has been achieved over the last five years or so it’s the re-uniting of players that is most satisfying, along with the support of a wide community of organisations, volunteers, footballers and more. Thanks.
Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History is available to order pre-publication:
Dr Gary James’ new book “Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History” is available to order pre-publication for £19.95. Everyone ordering before publication will get their name published in the book.
ITV’s national news coverage of the plaque unveiling can be seen here:
So it’s been released today that the Premier League’s Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules have been found to be unlawful. There’ll be a lot of claims and counter claims on what this all means but this article in the Times explains the APT verdict in a way that cannot be considered either MCFC-biased or PL-biased. It also shows the financial advantage Arsenal (& others) had by the shareholder loans rules in place. Very Interesting and perhaps shows why those rules had to be challenged:
– The Club has succeeded with its claim: the Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules have been found to be unlawful and the Premier League’s decisions on two specific MCFC sponsorship transactions have been set aside
– The Tribunal found that both the original APT rules and the current, (amended) APT Rules violate UK competition law and violate the requirements of procedural fairness.
– The Premier League was found to have abused its dominant position.
– The Tribunal has determined both that the rules are structurally unfair and that the Premier League was specifically unfair in how it applied those rules to the Club in practice.
– The rules were found to be discriminatory in how they operate, because they deliberately excluded shareholder loans.
– As well as these general findings on legality, the Tribunal has set aside specific decisions of the Premier League to restate the fair market value of two transactions entered into by the Club.
– The tribunal held that the Premier League had reached the decisions in a procedurally unfair manner.
– The Tribunal also ruled that there was an unreasonable delay in the Premier League’s fair market value assessment of two of the Club’s sponsorship transactions, and so the Premier League breached its own rules.
The summary of the 164 judgement can be read here:
It’s that day each year (7 October) when we remember that on this day in 1996 the former Manchester United player Steve Coppell arrived as Manchester City manager at Maine Road. A month later he resigned after only 33 days in the job. This contemporary article explains that he was suffering with stress:
It’s hard to believe but today marks a year since an amazing day when Manchester came together, along with a wonderful community of former footballers, to recognise the pioneering women’s team the Manchester Corinthians. It was an incredible day made possible with the support of so many individuals, groups and community leaders. So often we highlight issues, problems or moments where communities separate or fail but the long running campaign to bring recognition to the Corinthians has seen so many come together for something extremely positive.
Personally, I was touched by the support received for this campaign I’d established several years ago. The plaque unveiling was the biggest visible sign that it was succeeding with huge TV audiences tuning in. One news broadcast alone featuring the Corinthians’ plaque unveiling had 2.7 million live viewers. Add to that downloads and all the news features experienced on TV and radio that day and the number rockets significantly. There were also newspaper articles and more.
The aim, back in 2019 when I first raised the idea of erecting permanent tributes publicly in an article I wrote, had been to bring recognition and wider public awareness to the exploits of these remarkable footballers. The media coverage certainly did that and also other Corinthians came forward who had seen the coverage.
I’d particularly like to pay tribute to Jam Williams-Thomas from ITV Granada who promised me he’d ensure Granada Reports would have a camera crew there many, many months before the exact date had been finalised. That support was vital. In the end David Chisnall came from Granada Reports and did a wonderful feature on the plaque and recognising the Corinthians. Thanks to you, Jam and all at Granada Reports. It really helped (there are links to some of the TV coverage at the bottom of this article).
2019 was the year when the campaign received a lot of support. Back then I contacted many key Manchester and national institutions with the concept. Manchester City FC immediately supported the idea and that year several Corinthians, plus myself, were invited to City to attend a WSL game, where they met England international Karen Bardsley and England women manager Phil Neville. The Blues also included features in their match programme and on their website on the history of the Corinthians.
Margaret Whitworth, Karen Bardsley, Margaret Shepherd & Gary James. Several Corinthians were guests of Manchester City for a WSL game.
They’ve continued to support and promote the Corinthians’ story ever since. I don’t know how many millions read their website today but again, like the national news coverage, this level of readership is significant. I’m not daft enough to think everyone reading the stories or watching the news will want to know more about the Corinthians, but if just 1% do then that in itself is an incredible number of people who previously may not have known or understood how the Corinthians toured the globe promoting Manchester, football and female endeavour.
Simon Mullock at the Sunday Mirror helped with an excellent feature too back in the early days. That support from a national tabloid was so important in widening the news and soon, in general conversation, people were mentioning the Corinthians and their achievements. I loved that! We were getting somewhere and Simon, together with later features by renowned journalists focusing on women’s football in other newspapers, was a big part of that.
Another major supporter since the start has been the Manchester FA’s Colin Bridgford. Again in 2019 we met up to talk about what we could do to promote the Corinthians’ story and I wrote several articles for the Manchester FA’s website. That support was important and helped raise the profile of what we were trying to achieve. We also arranged a meeting with Manchester FA staff and several of the Corinthians, including Margaret Whitworth, Margaret Shepherd and Jan Lyons – three of the Corinthian stalwarts who have worked tirelessly to rightly highlight the story of their team. Plans were put in place to do other activities with the Manchester FA but sadly Covid hit and plans had to be abandoned. Colin and his team did, of course, support the plaque unveiling last October.
The FA have helped too. In fact they have not only helped promote the story but also provided significant funding to ensure permanent tributes could be made. My connection with Rachel Pavlou at The FA came via Caterina Loriggio. Cat led a major project in partnership with the Women’s Euros the other year and I acted as the Heritage Lead for Trafford Council. Via the UEFA & FA project a series of activities were established in each host city/borough and the Corinthians inevitably became part of that. I performed interviews with several Corinthians (borrowing some of their trophies and kit too for an exhibition) in Trafford and others were interviewed at Wigan & Leigh. These were filmed and are still available here:
When I discussed the idea of erecting permanent tributes with Rachel she immediately offered funds and other support to ensure the Corinthians were recognised. The FA and Cat also approved the wording for the plaque. For me this had to recognise all the Corinthians, not one person or individual moments (I knew we could pay appropriate tribute to all of that via the book I’ve been working on for several years, which will be published this summer).
The FA were not the only ones to get involved of course as the campaign brought together a wide range of people… as with every project like this there are many, unsung heroes who work tirelessly without seeking or receiving financial reward. In that category are the Friends of Fog Lane Park. They deserve immense praise, especially Pamela & Alice and the others who attended various meetings along the way and performed many tasks that made the unveiling day such a success.
Some of the Friends of Fog Lane Park at the last meeting before the Corinthians plaque unveiling
I’d been introduced to the Friends by Manchester City Council, in particular Paul Hulme. Jan Lyons and I had met Paul at an early meeting we’d arranged. We’d hoped there would be support from the Council and sure enough Paul was interested, particularly when Jan told some of the Corinthians’ story. Her words and experiences brought it all to life and demonstrated perfectly why we needed to get this story out there. Paul immediately set up a meeting with the Friends of Fog Lane Park and other council officials and employees.
At that meeting in the Fog Lane Park Café me, Margaret Whitworth, Margaret Shepherd and Jan Lyons, explained about the Corinthians with the former players telling their stories while the Friends were enthralled. I put it all into context in terms of the wider football and Manchester stories, then explained about the attempts to raise public awareness and how we wanted to get a Blue Plaque erected. We agreed that the Blue Plaque appeal would be established in the name of the Friends of Fog Lane Park – they had a dedicated committee of passionate individuals and the opportunity to publicly recognise the Corinthians in the park that had been their home for over two decades was wonderful.
One of the Friends of Fog Lane Park meetings where we discussed the erecting of permanent tributes, 20 May 2022
Those who donated to the appeal to erect permanent tributes to the Corinthians were: Pam Barnes, Dan Mooney, Adam Turgoose, ‘Ben’, ‘Jean J’, Jonathan Kaye, Megan Riley, Helena Byrne, Dawn Burrows, Clare Wilkins, Linda Foley, Debbie Enever, John Carrier, Jacqui McAssey, Michael Cottam, Karen Phanco, David Hoyle, Daniel Rubin, Heidi James, Gary James and the Dick, Kerr Ladies Foundation. There were a couple of anonymous donations too. It was gratifying that many of those listed were not from Manchester but were connected with women’s football in other parts of the world. That was wonderful to see. It was also fantastic that via Gail Newsham the Dick, Kerr Ladies Foundation supported the campaign with a significant donation too, proving what a great community of women’s football enthusiasts and researchers we have.
The Friends of Fog Lane Park managed to get matching funds from Manchester City Council too and the Friends had some wonderful ideas to really improve the park and tributes further. As well as the hoped for plaque and a lectern providing a Corinthians’ timeline, the Friends organised for some of the funds raised via the appeal and The FA to be spent on two impressive murals painted by artist Gavin Renshaw and for a handout to be produced for park visitors on the Corinthians. Now everybody who visits the park gets to see wonderful artwork (on a former graffiti covered building), the plaque, a lectern, an information board inside the café and the leaflet. All of this is helping get the story out there again and, for those young girls and boys kicking a ball around the park, is inspiring.
In the weeks building up to the unveiling day the Friends spent considerable time and effort tidying up the park, arranging some of the logistics, erecting the plaque itself, overseeing the mural work, organising sandwiches, baking cakes and more. It was a real community effort and all deserve thanking again.
Various media companies helped promote the plaque appeal with myself, Friends of Fog Lane Park, Margaret Whitworth, Margaret Shepherd, Jan Lyons and other Corinthians being interviewed on a fairly regular basis. Contacts I had with various stations helped enormously (you know who you are – thanks for your support) and brought airtime we couldn’t have managed with cold calls.
When it came to the plaque itself another who helped was Mark Metcalf. Mark had instigated footballing plaques at various locations and I’d been fortunate to be involved with a couple. Mark provided contacts with plaque manufacturers and helped ensure we got a decent price too.
There was also a wonderful night in Hebden Bridge in December 2021 where several Corinthians were interviewed publicly and I gave a talk on the history of women’s football. At the end of that event I announced publicly for the first time the campaign to erect a blue plaque and that brought significant interest from the people of West Yorkshire. Local businessman Geoff Matthews had funded the talk and event and that support was wonderful too.
The plaque unveiling was supported on the day by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who spoke about the Corinthians as the suffragettes of football, and former England international Kerry Davis. She had actually played against many of the Corinthians in attendance that day too. Hundreds of people attended with strong support from fans of women’s football, including several key members of the Manchester City Women Supporters Club. Former City player Stacey Copeland was a key supporter that day (as she has been at other events, including the one at Hebden Bridge) and she has made efforts herself to promote the story and help the Corinthians frequently.
It really was quite remarkable the amount of interest demonstrated that day and how the story of the Corinthians has continued to receive attention.
I know this has been a lengthy piece but I think it’s both necessary and valuable to remember what a remarkable day the plaque unveiling was and to remember all those who contributed along the way. All of those involved, especially the Friends of Fog Lane Park, put considerable effort into that day and they quite rightly stood back to ensure the Corinthians’ achievements were recognised first and foremost. That day – and in the months leading up to it – a great community came together to ensure the Corinthians were thanked for all they had done for football and Manchester and the media support ensured that story was spread loud and clear.
I am really pleased and proud with the way it developed and how such a huge community has helped along the way.
This year events of the plaque unveiling and the campaign leading up to it will be included within the Authorised History I am writing. The book will detail every season of the Corinthians, plus their legacy, and will pay tribute to these remarkable players, their managers, coaches and supporting family and friends. Community again, working together. Dozens of players covering every single season from 1940s through to the club’s demise have been interviewed, while archives have been researched extensively to correct myths and add facts to the memories of those who were there.
Over the last five years or so contemporary articles and film of the Corinthians has been found and I’ve written for a variety of footballing and non-footballing national, regional & local publications and websites. Some have inspired others and some have helped re-unite former players.
I think, out of everything that has been achieved over the last five years or so it’s the re-uniting of players that is most satisfying, along with the support of a wide community of organisations, volunteers, footballers and more. Thanks.
Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History is available to order pre-publication:
Dr Gary James’ new book “Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History” is available to order pre-publication for £19.95. Everyone ordering before publication will get their name published in the book.
ITV’s national news coverage of the plaque unveiling can be seen here:
On this day (6 October) in 1962 Manchester City beat Leyton Orient 2-0. Alex Harley and George Hannah scored while Harry Dowd kept his first clean sheet for the club. This was only his third game but in his previous two matches he’d conceded ten goals. Not a great start but he became popular and was City’s ‘keeper for the 1969 FA Cup win.
Gary James' Football Archive 