Football writing, thoughts and more by Gary James
It looks like City’s investment in women’s football will continue for some time yet. The Blues have announced plans to develop a new training facility for the women’s team. This is on top of everything that has been developed in the last decade or so. Incredible stuff and great to see. For details see:
If you’d like to find out more about the history of women’s football in Manchester then it would be worth subscribing to my new book on the Manchester Corinthians. Follow the link for details:
In recent years it has become fashionable to claim that football is all about money these days and that certain clubs have ‘bought success’. Well, that may or may not be true but what is an absolute fact is that this has been the situation throughout football history. Take a look at this article from October 1965 which talks about clubs ‘buying success’. It focuses on Everton & Tottenham – two clubs whose fans often criticise City & Chelsea for ‘buying success’.
What this shows is that there’s nothing new in football. If someone talks of football being ‘ruined’ by your clubs spending then remember that at some point in the past the game may have been ‘ruined’ by their clubs’ spending!
Enjoy the cuttings:
Oh, and if you think it’s a one-off about Everton, here’s an article from the Liverpool Daily Post (13 May 1963) congratulating the Toffees on their policy of spending. It basically says that clubs should be applauded for doing that! Interesting how it’s okay when it’s your local club but not when it’s one from a rival city.
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DonateOn this day (11 January) in 1977 Manchester City defeated West Bromwich Albion 1-0 in a FA Cup 3rd round replay. The original game had ended 1-1 with Kidd scoring for City at Maine Road. The goalscorer in the replay was Joe Royle. It’s well worth reading this report which highlights there was a bit of a conflict in the game too! Enjoy!
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DonateJohn Gidman was born 70 years ago today (10 January 1954). He was a hero to fans of many clubs including Manchester United and Manchester City. He immediately won over City fans when he joined from United by saying that City were the ONLY team he’d leave OT for (interpreted by Blues as ‘I’d walk out on Utd for City’ – but of course it was more involved than that). Happy 70th John. We loved you in the City shirt.
There are many articles on my site that reference John. Here’s a link to some of them:
On this day (6 January) in 2001 Manchester City defeated Birmingham City 3-2 in the FA Cup third round. This photo of a Alfie Haaland throw in from that game has caught my eye because it says so much about football at that time. This was of course taken at Maine Road and the stand on the left of the image is the North Stand.
As this was a FA Cup tie, a larger than normal away section was allocated to Birmingham and you can see from this image that they have roughly half the North Stand and the uncovered temporary stand in the corner (dubbed the Gene Kelly – fans would be ‘singing in the rain’).
Birmingham only brought 1,038 fans that day, hence the large empty Gene Kelly and North Stand sections.
The stand to the right is the ‘new’ Kippax Stand which was almost 6 years old that season.
75 years ago today (5 January 1949) the Manchester Corinthian Ladies Football Club was founded. 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.
Happy anniversary to all those who played for or were involved with the club from its formation through to its final days. What a wonderful club to have been a part of!
Over the last decade Dr Gary James has been researching, interviewing, writing about and promoting the Corinthians’ achievements and stories. In December his quest to have a permanent public tribute to the Corinthians reached its conclusion with the unveiling of a blue plaque and other tributes at Fog Lane Park (you can read more about this elsewhere on this site) and over the last five years or so Gary has been planning to produce an authorised history of the club.
The book will be published this summer but the opportunity for people to order and subscribe to the book is now possible. The research undertaken and the publication of the book will be funded entirely by Gary, with those subscribing to the book pre-publication helping to support this wonderful record of a remarkable football club.
Gary says: ‘As well as the interviews and 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.
‘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 get their names included within a special roll of honour published within this authorised history. In addition the book will be signed by author Gary James and posted out to all 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 Gary’s acclaimed Manchester City Women: An Oral History and is destined to be another landmark publication on a major, pioneering women’s football club. See below for details of how to subscribe.
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.
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.
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.
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
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 Gary James’ earlier book on women’s football then a limited number of copies, signed by Gary, 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)
£16.95
With Manchester City facing Huddersfield Town this weekend in the FA Cup here’s a reminder of some previous City-Huddersfield meetings caught on film. The earliest surviving film of a game between the two clubs is a FA Cup tie from 98 years ago:
https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/51830/
Here’s a City win from February 1972 with a goal from Tommy Booth:
A 2-0 City win from January 1985:
The day 3 players scored hat tricks in 1987:
https://bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/History/Matches/Match.aspx?id=3740
A FAC victory from 1988:
https://bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/History/Matches/Match.aspx?id=3770
A City defeat during the Blues’ seasons of struggle:
To all my family, friends and everyone who reads my work have a good New Year. I hope 2024 brings you everything you want from life. Best wishes to all.
A new series of articles starts tomorrow on Manchester City in the 1970s. There will be a seasonal journey through a truly important decade when Manchester City won three major trophies and challenged for the League. People often claim City has ‘no history’ which is nonsense of course, but this series of features will show how great the club’s history is. For the entire month of January there will be features to make every Blue proud.
Of course, this important decade in the history of Manchester City Football Club does see some lows too, but that’s football. It’s well worth remembering for any Blue who feels bombarded by negativity of the past that in the 1970s City won more major trophies than United; that in the 1970s City won their first major European trophy – years before many other ‘European giants’ won their first including Liverpool and Juventus (even Barcelona didn’t win a UEFA competition until AFTER City! Re-live the highs and lows of that decade.
If you’d like to read this series then please subscribe. Details below:
My series of articles covering the 1980s ends today. I’ve been posting them daily for several weeks now and they’ve ranged from simple ‘on this day’ style flashbacks to 10,000+ word indepth articles on particular seasons. Thanks for reading them and participating in this website. The 1980s was a truly important decade in the history of Manchester City Football Club and you can re-live the highs and lows of that decade for ever now. These articles will be available for as long as this website survives.
The site survives because of the support of subscribers and people who donate. You can find out about the benefits of doing that here:
Thanks again for your support and watch out for the next great series of articles as January becomes ‘1970s month’ on the website.
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