Category Archives: Free

Five, Fifteen, Fifty – New MCFC Match Programme Series

Those who saw the Manchester City v Tottenham match programme at weekend May have noticed my new series of articles. This year I’m doing a season tracker feature and have chosen the seasons 1975-76, 2010-11 and 2020-21. Each issue will cover those seasons plus I’ll write a Memory Match feature on a game from that week in one of the three seasons. The three seasons are all important ones in the history of Manchester’s Blues (every season is important of course!) and I hope I can do them justice. The reason I’ve chosen those seasons….

Typically season tracker pick seasons that are a multiple of five and usually focus on 5, 10, 25 years but I felt it was important to look at a season further back, so chose fifty years ago (1975-76 – one of my own personal favourite seasons). I also wanted to recognise the 2010-11 season as that saw Roberto Mancini’s team win their first major trophy. The 2020-21 season was of course a major trophy winning season unde Pep Guardiola.

The Memory Match I chose for the first issue was from 2010 and a day when Liverpool were defeated.

I hope everyone who gets chance to see the programme enjoys the four page feature. Thanks, as always, to those who support my writing.

Manchester City v Wimbledon: The First Time

The first League meeting between Manchester City and Wimbledon occurred on this day (25 August) in 1984 was an altogether new experience for City.  Relegation in May 1983 had brought many changes to the club, including the arrival of manager Billy McNeill and his assistant Jimmy Frizzell.  Their first season in charge had seen the Blues finish fourth behind Chelsea, Newcastle, and Sheffield Wednesday, and much was expected from their second campaign. 

The opening fixture of the 1984-5 season saw City take to the field against Wimbledon for the first time.  It should have been an easy victory for McNeill’s men, particularly as the Blues viewed themselves as championship contenders whereas Dave Bassett’s Wimbledon had risen from Division Four in two consecutive seasons.  It seemed at the time as if everyone in football doubted that Wimbledon would be able to handle life in Division Two.

The match commenced with City hopeful, but within fifteen minutes of the start Wimbledon were 2-0 up thanks to goals from Stewart Evans and Glyn Hodges.  City just didn’t know what had hit them.

By half-time, however the Blues had pulled a goal back and by full-time had equalised.  Gordon Smith and Derek Parlane had provided the crucial City goals, but the game was certainly one which made City realise promotion was not going to be as straightforward as some had suggested.  Apart from a victory over Grimsby a few other worrying results followed, then McNeill’s men got their act together and moved up the division.  Gradually they rose up the Division – although it’s fair to say there were a few heartstopping moments along the way!.  The Blues ended the season in the third automatic promotion spot, while Wimbledon ended the season in an encouraging 12th place – their best ever at the time.

Stats:  Division Two 25th August 1984.

Wimbledon 2 City 2

Scorers – City: Smith, Parlane

Wimbledon: Evans, Hodges

City:  Williams, Phillips, Power, Bond, McCarthy, Wilson, McNab, Baker, Cunningham, Smith (Tolmie), Parlane

Wimbledon:  Beasant, Kay, Winterburn, Galliers (Gage), Smith, Morris, Evans, Ketteridge, Cork, O’Berg, Hodges

Attendance: 8,365

More on the 1984-5 season here:

The 1980s: 1984-1985 Promotion

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Starting Tomorrow

Starting tomorrow a new series of articles and features on Manchester City in the 1920s. Some of these will be free to read by everyone while others will only be available to those who subscribe to the site on a monthly or annual basis. The 1920s was an important decade for Manchester’s Blues with title challenges, FA Cup finals and stadium moves.

If you’d like to know more about subscribing then see:

How To Subscribe

Which Club is ‘Manchester’?

Always a controversial question but back in the early 1900s there was only ever one answer and that was Manchester City who were often referred to as simply ‘Manchester’ in official publications for both City and their Manchester rivals. Here’s an image of the title section of the official programme which directly references ‘Manchester’ (meaning City) and Newton Heath.

Obviously, as there was no Manchester United then I guess it was inevitable that City would be known as Manchester to some. It just surprises me that an official publication for both clubs would use ‘Manchester’ so regularly. Presumably both clubs were happy with this. So if anyone asks ‘which club is Manchester? then the one both were happy to call Manchester must be in with a big shout!

On another topic… notice the opportunity to have your flask filled up at City’s headquarters, the Hyde Road Hotel, before the match? Imagine if that option was brought back at the Etihad!

Rico Lewis’s Joy

I noticed on Twitter/X that this video of mine of Rico Lewis celebrating Manchester City’s 2023 Premier League success has been retweeted hundreds of times in only a few minutes. As I’m travelling today I didn’t know why but soon investigated and found the news that he may be leaving City.

I don’t know anything more but hope he stays. Regardless of what happens it is a nice reminder of the joy Rico demonstrated on the day of City’s Premier League success.

Video of History Of Women’s Football Talk

If you’re interested in women’s football or in football in Trafford or Manchester then get your self a brew, settle down and enjoy this video of my talk. It was part of my work on the #WEuro2022 Heritage Lottery funded project and my long standing project into the history of women’s football in Manchester. Here goes:

This talk on the history of women’s football was staged at the National Football Museum a few years back. The talk lasts about 47 mins. Enjoy!

The history of women’s football in Trafford is documented in the new book on women’s football I’ve co-edited. You can find out more about that here:

Book Launch at the Embassy of Ireland

My work on the Manchester Corinthians continues and you can find out about the Authorised History here:

Manchester Corinthians

Thank You

On Saturday 2 August we managed to stage another wonderful free event celebrating the pioneering Manchester Corinthians women’s team. This included a film show, talk and (most importantly) interviews with 6 Corinthians covering every era of the club’s existence. There were other Corinthians in the audience plus Wayne Murray (representing his mum and auntie – Elaine & Shirley Orange), Issy Pollard (Doncaster Belles & England) and Dennis Tueart (Manchester City, Sunderland and England).

Keeping to the best traditions of the Corinthians this free event also raised funds for the Hebden Bridge Women’s walking football team – several players were in attendance wearing their football shirts too.

Hebden Bridge was important to some of the recent promotion of the Corinthians’ stories. It was here in 2021 that I first publicly announced the idea of erecting a blue plaque. That was at an earlier free event and this year’s free event at the Hebden Bridge Picture House completed the journey to some extent. Thanks to the cinema for all their support too.

The film shown was by Imprint and one of the people behind it, John Tueart, was also present. Imprint have made their film free to download too so please watch the following and share the link widely ( let’s get everybody talking about the Corinthians). Here’s the link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AWsGr3G_izE

Thanks again to all who attended, especially those who donated money for the local walking football team and those who bought the book (£5 from every book sold also went to the local team). Please keep spreading the word. Here are a few photos from the event:

Screenshot
Screenshot

Home in Barnsley

On this day (31 July) in 2008 Manchester City played a home game at Barnsley. This game made history as it was the first occasion the Blues had played a home European tie outside of Manchester.  Previously City had played home European games at Maine Road and at the City Of Manchester Stadium, but work at Eastlands following a concert by Bon Jovi prevented the Club from staging the game at home.  The decision was taken to stage the match at Barnsley.  Subscribers can read about both legs of the European tie here:

MANCHESTER CITY IN EUROPE – 2008-09 v EB Streymur (at home in Barnsley!)

England’s First… Gladys Aikin’s Role

It’s wonderful that England have won, once again, the Women’s Euros. It’s so important for moments like this to be celebrated and recognised for the significant achievement they are. During recent weeks much has been said about the first England women’s international against Scotland back in 1972. That’s great – the history of women’s football in this country goes back a long way – however I am a little disappointed that the role of one significant figure in the development of international football has not really been mentioned. That’s he role of Gladys Aikin, the first chair of the England Women International Committee.

Gladys was the manager of the Manchester Corinthians and she was one of the founding people behind the establishment of the Women’s FA. She was also someone who challenged the FA a ban and in the early 70s she worked with others to establish an England international team. She became the first chair (though she always described herself as Chairman using the convention of the time) of the England Women International Committee and was ultimately responsible for that first England squad (see letter).

I’ll be mentioning Gladys during the Free Corinthians event I’m staging at Hebden Bridge on Saturday 2 August (4pm-6pm) so why not come along and hear more on her and the Corinthians? Follow the link for tickets and details:

https://hebdenbridgepicturehouse.savoysystems.co.uk/HebdenBridgePictureHouse.dll/TSelectItems.waSelectItemsPrompt.TcsWebMenuItem_4156.TcsWebTab_4157.TcsPerformance_3975550.TcsSection_1367

Bert Whalley Plaque Reveal

On 27 July in 2021 I attended the unveiling of a blue plaque commemorating the life and career of Bert Whalley at Stalybridge Celtic. Whalley is one of Manchester & Tameside’s unsung footballing heroes. Bert passed away in Munich, a victim of the air crash in 1958. The unveiling was performed by former United captain Bryan Robson and Bert’s granddaughter Lindsay Vare.

Several former United players were there, including Tony Whelan who had given a one hour talk to United’s under 23s about Bert. It’s great to see clubs educating their current/future stars about the names from their past.

Special recognition to Mark Metcalf for his efforts ensuring the plaque happened. Mark’s been responsible for organising several blue plaques over the last decade, including one for Joe Mercer in Ellesmere Port.

For those interested Bert Whalley’s plaque is situated at Stalybridge’s Bower Fold ground and can be viewed on the exterior of the main stand.

To read about Bert’s life see:

Guest Blog – Mark Metcalf Writing About Bert Whalley