Manchester City Football Club can today announced that Gareth Taylor has signed a new three-year contract.
The 51-year-old was appointed Head Coach of the women’s first team in May 2020, and has overseen 97 wins from 131 games in all competitions to date.
Having won both the FA Cup and Continental Cup during his tenure so far, City’s continued push for silverware this campaign has seen them reach the FA Cup quarter-finals and Continental Cup semi-final.
Taylor’s side currently boast the best defensive record in the Women’s Super League, and a 12-match winning run in all competitions – which has included statement victories on the road against title rivals Arsenal and Chelsea, dealing the latter a first defeat at Kingsmeadow in more than three years.
Speaking about his new contract, Taylor said: “I’m very happy to be able to commit to City for another three seasons. I think what we’re doing here and trying to achieve is a build and a long-term project of sustainability and success.
“Our ambition was always to be right at the top and we’ve done that. It’s taken a lot of hard work from a lot of people behind-the-scenes. The players have really bought in to what we’re trying to do and achieve.”
Highlighting the importance of both Women’s Managing Director Charlotte O’Neill and Director of Football Nils Nielsen in City’s strong season so far, Taylor added: “Nils has helped in a number of ways. His experience of having been a head coach previously in the women’s game is really helpful as well because you’re not talking to someone who has not been there.
“Charlotte I’ve worked with previously in the Academy. What she’ll do is be really clear in our objectives and really clear in what we are capable of doing.”
Director of Football Nils Nielsen added: “I am very pleased that Gareth has agreed to continue his great work in our programme for the coming years.
“We have a clear strategy on how we want to move forward, and securing Gareth to lead the team is a key factor in this.
“Now we can all focus on finishing this season in style and prepare for the next few seasons by following the plan.”
Manchester City Women Managing Director, Charlotte O’Neill, added: “We’re very pleased to have Gareth continue his journey with City for another three years.
“Gareth is someone who has embraced the City Football Group approach from day one and shares our ambition to push the envelope in the women’s game and build a squad full of talented and ambitious players.
“Nils and I are very much looking forward to continuing our work with him for the rest of this season and beyond alongside this amazing group of players. I’m confident the future is very bright at this Club.”
The photo is of Nils Nielsen and Gareth Taylor of Manchester City signing a contract extension at Manchester City Football Academy on February 29, 2024 in Manchester. Photo by Declan Lloyd/Manchester City FC.
A new series of articles starts tomorrow on Manchester City in the 1990s. There will be a seasonal journey through a truly important decade when Manchester City began the decade hoping to challenge for the Premier League. People often forget how things changed that decade. A giant of a club at the start of the decade and one that the whole football world recognised as being part of English football’s aristocracy. By the end of the decade it was the loyalty of fans that most recognised the club for.
Those that claim City has ‘no history’ may learn something about a decade that is often highlighted for its failings but which actually had some wonderful, incredible, positive moments too. This series of features will show how that decade actually went and will hopefully help to explain why the narrative of ‘third tier club that got lucky’ is so wrong! For the entire month of March there will be features to make every Blue proud, while also recognising the true nature of football – some times it’s great being a fan and sometimes it’s awful. That’s football!
Re-live the highs and lows of the 1990s decade from tomorrow onwards.
If you’d like to read everything in this series then please subscribe. Details below:
Last night (27 February 2024) Erling Haaland became the third Manchester City player to score five goals in a FA Cup game when he faced Luton. The two previous players to achieve this feat were Frank Roberts (see link below for video of the game he scored 5 in) and Bobby Marshall. Marshall’s five came in a FA Cup replay at Swindon on 29 January 1930 when City won 10-1. The attendance for this Tuesday afternoon match was 46,082 – a remarkable figure for an afternoon game in the days before floodlit competition.
Here are a couple of reports of that game (the second contains the goalscoring times/sequence):
For Haaland there were a few records/points to note:
He is regarded as the first player to score five or more in the FA Cup (1st round onwards) since Duane Darby scored 6 for Hull v Whitby in 1996-97.
He is the first to score five or more for a top-flight club in the FA Cup since George Best scored 6 for United v Northampton in 1970.
He is the first to score five against Luton for City since Denis Law in 1961 when Law scored 6 but all were wiped from the records as the game was abandoned.
This is the second time Haaland has scored five goals in a game in his senior career, previously doing so for City against RB Leipzig in the Champions League in March 2023.
Since his debut for City in July 2022, Haaland has scored 79 goals in 83 games in all comps, 30 more than any other Premier League player in the that time (Salah 49).
It’s Luton v Manchester City in the FA Cup tonight. The two sides have met on 7 previous occasions in the competition with City winning 4, drawing 1 and 2 ending in defeat. There was also the famous expunged game where Denis Law netted six. ‘Expunged’ – what a great word! For anyone wondering, it means wiped from the records. So none of those six count in either Law’s goals record or City’s, but it is a game that often gets remembered.
Both sides pay their respects following the death of a monarch (interesting to note that that weekend’s FA Cup games went ahead as scheduled. Over 65,000 watched City defeat Luton 2-1 at Maine Road).
Of course, Luton played their part in one of the most infamous end of season games in 1983. I won’t put a link here to that but do a search if you’re interested as there’s plenty on my website about that day!
The full record for Manchester City against Luton prior to tonight’s game is:
This Saturday just gone (24 February 2024) I was down in Cardiff watching the Tri-Nations Cup (a women’s international walking football tournament). The England over 55s team was captained by former Manchester Corinthian and Manchester City player Lesley Wright. Ultimately, England were successful in a tournament involving Wales and Ireland.
It was great to see England (EWFC over 55s pictured above; photo from @Eilis1979) find success, led by a former Corinthian, in a sport that promotes health, exercise and activities. Another Corinthian, Gail Redston, also played for England and it was wonderful to see the Corinthian influence still there in trophy winning teams.
There were players appearing in the tournament who had played for leading clubs across Great Britain and Ireland. This included Mac Barlow, who netted most of England’s goals. Mac’s previous eleven-a-side clubs included Preston.
The whole tournament was a positive example of walking football and supporters came from across the UK too. There was even a group of Crystal Palace season ticket holders who had sacrificed watching their Premier League match to support England.
Lesley Wright and Gail Redston both feature in my new book on Manchester Corinthians. Details here:
Continuing the series on the 1970s and to mark the anniversary of Colin Bell’s birth it’s well worth reminding ourselves of something he viewed as one of his greatest successes. It may surprise some fans… When I interviewed Colin quite a few years ago we talked about his many successes and triumphs as a player. He was as humble as ever. Then he told me something which surprised me a little and that was about Manchester City’s 1977-78 Central League title.
City’s reserve team played in the Central League back then and, due to his devastating injury, Colin played reserve games throughout that season as he pushed for full fitness. He started 22 of these games and scored five goals.
When I interviewed Colin he told me he was as pleased with this Central League success as he was with all his other medals. To him that season saw a return to competitive football and it was irrelevant whether it was a reserve league or the Football League. It mattered enormously.
Most posts on Colin won’t talk about the 1977-78 Central League title but, as he was so keen to ensure he mentioned it to me all those years ago, I feel it’s appropriate to give it a little focus.
His first Central League appearance of the 1977-78 season attracted almost 5,000 as many of us were determined to be there when he returned to action. For the record that game was v Huddersfield on 17th September 1977, attendance 4,921.
Colin was a wonderful player and man. Those of us who saw him play know what a great player he was; those of us who were privileged to meet him met a truly humble & wonderful human being. He was the King of our Kippax but was truly a legend of football at Bury, City and England. His name will always be remembered.
This image of my ledger for 1977-78 shows Colin in City’s Central League match records.
I’ve just heard the news of Stan Bowles’ death. He was born on 24 December 1948 and was a great maverick Mancunian footballer. Here’s a profile of him, focusing on his Manchester City days.
Bowles joined City as an amateur on 27 July 1965, becoming an apprentice on 1 October 1965 and then professional on 29 December 1966.
Then in 1967 things really began to happen and Bowles’ first game was as a substitute in a League Cup tie at home to Leicester City. He scored two goals in the second half and the following Saturday he made his League debut another memorable one. He scored two again!
Lots of stories have circulated over the years about his time at City. Like Mario Balotelli many years later some are truthful; others are exaggerations and some are completely make up.
The stories go that Bowles once missed a flight to Amsterdam where City were to play against Ajax, and that Bowles’ interest in the horses led to Joe Mercer saying: ‘If Stan could pass a betting shop like he can pass a ball, he’d be a world beater.’ Suspensions and other issues led to Stan refusing to sign a new contract and he asked to leave. That in itself led to him being suspended for 14 days on the advice of the Football League.
Inevitably Bowles moved on, first to Bury (July 1970) and then to Crewe (September 1970).
A spell at Carlisle followed and then in September 1972 a bid of £110,000 took him to Loftus Road where he won five England caps as a QPR player.
Seven years later Nottingham Forest’s Brian Clough bought him for £210,000 but sold him again less than a year later after further issues. Further spells were reported at Orient, Brentford, Hounslow and Epping.
In 2015 it was announced he was suffering with Alzheimer’s Disease, like his former boss Joe Mercer.
At City Bowles made a total of 20 first team appearances, scoring 4 goals, but he remains recognised as a hugely talented player.
There are articles on this site mentioning Bowles. Here’s a selection:
The series of features/articles covering Manchester City in the 1970s continues with this flashback to today (24 February) in 1979 when City won 3-0 at Coventry. The goalscorers were Mike Channon (2) and Brian Kidd and was City’s second successive away win by that score (the previous had been Spurs 3 weeks earlier). You can read a report of the game above but you may also be interested in this article about some ‘rampaging’ that occurred after the game. For once away fans were not blamed! Instead newspapers blamed the Coventry fans who, it was felt, couldn’t handle the defeat. All interesting stuff!
This series of articles and features on Manchester City in the 1970s has been running throughout January and into February with indepth articles some days and smaller ‘on this day’ style posts on others. Every day offered something to enjoy.
Subscribers can access everything. If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 5,700 word article is on the 1978-79 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!
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In December 2021 I staged a talk at Hebden Bridge on the FA ban of women’s football. The night was sponsored and supported by Geoff Matthews and his company Cansquared Ltd. It was a wonderful night and lots of attendees asked about the future and what they could do to help promote the stories of the women who played at a time when the FA tried to kill female participation in the sport. Well, after that night a lot has happened to recognise the Manchester Corinthians.
As part of my longstanding project into female participation and involvement in football in Manchester I have been researching and writing Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History. The book will be of a similar scope to my Manchester City Women: An Oral History on City’s women’s team.
Margaret Shepherd and Margaret Whitworth with me prior to the Hebden Bridge event
A lot has been written on the Corinthians (see the section on women’s football on this site for a few examples) but not nearly enough, plus there are some inaccuracies out there that need to be corrected (even now there are some that keep on being repeated). Basically, this team possessed a talented group of players who toured Europe and South America promoting football, female endeavour and Manchester.
I talked quite a bit about Corinthians at Hebden Bridge and we were fortunate to have three Corinthians as guests that night. Margaret Whitworth, Margaret Shepherd and Lesley Wright between them covered every season of the club’s life from the 1950s through to its demise. Since that night I’ve also tracked down a player from the club’s very first season of 1948-49 who, together with detailed archival research, has helped me piece together for the first time several people who were instrumental in the birth of the club. Again, this is not something that has appeared in any of the articles or films connected with the club in recent years. This will be explained properly for the first time in my book.
I’m still trying to track down other Corinthians to include in the book. To date I’ve identified over 230 players. See:
After the Hebden Bridge night it was clear that we needed to recognise the Corinthian players further. On that night I mentioned my idea of having a plaque erected for the Corinthians in a significant/related location in Manchester. Several members of the audience thought this was a wonderful idea and asked if they could support the wider promotion of the Corinthians – one more or less suggested we should march on Downing Street to persuade them to do something about it!
In 2019 I’d written articles for a variety of publications suggesting the same and urging the FA and others to recognise the Corinthians. In the Manchester City men’s match programme as well I highlighted my desire to get a plaque erected about their achievements.
The talk at Hebden Bridge
Via Manchester Council I was put in contact with the Friends of Fog Lane Park and we ultimately set up a successful appeal in their name. The FA made a significant donation which funded the plaque and our fundraising efforts raised enough to allow the Friends to commission 2 murals and other tributes to the Corinthians as well.
Those present at Hebden Bridge in December 2021 helped raise the profile and that event was significant in highlighting the incredible achievements of its female footballers. Now, the authorised history of the Corinthians will tell the story of the club from its birth right through to the blue plaque appeal. It will use the voices of the women who represented Manchester and England in a positive manner and who won trophies in South America & Europe and who toured North Africa. They won a significant European competition before either Manchester men’s team yet their achievements were not recognised by the city until the blue plaque appeal started.
I am immensely proud of how this has all happened. The event at Hebden Bridge was free to attend and was made possible by the support of a locally based business, Cansquared (Geoff Matthews – who co-hosted the evening). We felt it was vital we made this free to attend to spread the word.
If anyone runs a key Manchester venue and would like a Corinthians celebration event then please get in touch. The more we can do to promote their story the better.
Thanks for reading this. If you would like to find out more about the Corinthians then follow the tabs on this site or use the search function. If you’d like to know more about the FA Ban then you can download for free an article I’ve recently co-written here:
Copies of my book on Manchester City Women are still available. This tells the history of City Women via the voices of the women (and some men) involved. The book has been heralded as a model for oral histories by the Oral History Society.
Here’s a link you can follow to order a signed copy of the City Women book:
Watch this space for more on the Corinthians and women’s football over the coming months. Thanks – now use the tabs and search to learn more on women’s football in Manchester. Ta!
Research into the pioneering women who played for Manchester Corinthians and its sister clubs is ongoing for the authorised history which will be published this summer. So far over 230 players have been identified for the club and their names will be included within the book. BUT I don’t want to leave anybody out so if you know of someone who played for the team or its sister clubs that I may have missed then please get in touch.
Ask your mam or your nan if she played – you never know what you’ll hear! I have had players talk to me during my years of research into the Corinthians who had kept it quiet from their own families, so granny may well have been one of the club’s pioneering figures but just hasn’t talked about it!
I really don’t want to leave anybody out.
As well as asking your mam or your nan, how about helping the book get published by subscribing to it? You will get a copy of the book (posted before it appears in the shops) and your name will be included in a special roll of honour published within the book if ordered by 31st March 2024 here:
Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History
The story of a pioneering women’s club as told to Gary James by those who were there
£19.95
Opportunities to buy multiple copies, sponsor the book or donate to ensure it’s published to the size and standard the women who played deserve exist. Please email Gary@GJFootballArchive.com for more information on those opportunities.
This book is a must for anyone interested in Manchester or women’s football and will consist of over 300 pages. It will be fully illustrated throughout and subscribers can order it now for £19.95 (including UK postage and packaging). All orders received before 31st March 2024 will have the purchaser’s name included within the special roll of honour at the back of the book. You can order the book for someone else – all details will be checked and confirmed before publication.
The book will be published this summer.
If you live outside the UK then please contact for details of additional postage costs.
You do not need to have a PayPal account to order – use the ‘Pay with PayPal’ button above and it will give you the option to pay by credit/debit card without creating a PayPal account.
The book will include the story of the club as told by the women involved, alongside a significant amount of archive material. Myths will be corrected and the facts of this pioneering club will be told in an easy to read format.
Guided by founder Percy Ashley, the club went on to represent Manchester, football and female endeavour for decades, winning major international tournaments in Europe and South America. The Corinthians are, without doubt, one of the most important football clubs ever to come from Manchester and they were a prominent and pioneering club in so many ways.
As well as the interviews and dozens of archive trips there’s been a concerted effort to compile as comprehensive list as possible on women who played for the club. I’ve managed to compile a list of around 300 women who played for the club. Objects and trophies have also been rediscovered. This is the type of detailed research I enjoy. It’s time consuming, difficult and often frustrating but occasionally you find a little gem that adds significantly to our knowledge. There have been quite a few of those.
The Hebden Bridge talk when the campaign for a Blue Plaque and other tributes was publicly announced, December 2021
I’m still keen to hear from any former player who can add their voices to the history of the club, though the research and writing stage will be ending soon, so please get in touch as soon as possible. Please email Gary@GJFootballArchive.com with your name, rough dates you played and contact details.
Those subscribing to the book will receive a copy signed by author Gary James and posted out to subscribers before it appears in any shop or is distributed to any retailer. This is the ONLY way to guarantee your copy.
Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History will include interviews with players from every era of the club from a founding player back in 1949 through to those playing for the club in its final days over 40 years later (yes, that’s right – over 40 years later!). The book will finally tell the story of the club from start to finish via the voices of the women who played. Via these voices the entire history of the club will be explained with the key figures identified and remembered. There’s a remarkable trail of women linking the first game with the last.
The book will be published to a similar style and quality to the acclaimed Manchester City Women: An Oral History and is destined to be another landmark publication on a major, pioneering women’s football club. Dozens of former players have been interviewed for this book and their remarkable stories and memories will be supported with an amazing array of photographs, newspaper articles, match programmes, trophies and other items of memorabilia from every era of the club’s existence.
Alongside chapters chronicling the history of the club there will also be features on founder Percy Ashley, who dedicated his life to promoting women’s football, and on Gladys Aikin (a key figure not only with the Corinthians but also with the early years of the Women’s Football Association) and George Aikin, who continued to take the Corinthians on tours into the 1980s. There will be special features on the major tours of the 1950s and 1960s when Percy Ashley led the Corinthians to major international success.
The cover of the book will be worked on by the designer over the coming months but following feedback from former players the maroon has been replaced with a darker blue, more reminiscent of the colour most frequently worn by the Corinthians (based on the reports, programmes and other material found so far and the majority of comments from players). This may still change of course (‘The Authorised History’ will probably change colour too). The back will contain later images and wording.
If you’d like to purchase my earlier book on women’s football then a limited number of copies, signed by me, are still available. You can order here:
Manchester City Women: An Oral History book
The first history of Manchester City’s women’s team, taking the story of the club from formation in 1988 until 2019-20 season.
£16.95 including UK postage (outside UK contact for additional postage costs)
Gary James' Football Archive 