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City 2 Glossop North End 1

On this day (12 November) in 1898 Manchester City’s tenth League game of the season saw them travel to promotion rivals Glossop North End.  According to the Glossop Chronicle the attendance was 7,000 with over half the attendance coming from Manchester.  City won the match 2-1 with goals from Gillespie and Meredith.  The Chronicle reporter described the opener as ‘the softest I have ever seen.’ He went on:  ‘Williams [Glossop’s ‘keeper] got down to stop the ball as it rolled quietly goalwards, but he completely missed it, although it was going so slowly it hardly rolled as far as the net.’

The Glossop match came in the middle of a 13 match unbeaten run, placing City as comfortable League leaders. The main photo is of Glossop in 1898 and the following is of City that same season.

You can find out about the return game here:

Glossop Beat City!

A Loss To Brentford for the Eventual Treble Winners

It’s a game that is worth remembering to help those who react as if every loss or dropped point is a ‘tragedy’. Of course dropping points is disappointing but football seasons are long and games can end in defeat for teams who achieve incredible heights, so let’s remember this day (12 November) last year when Manchester City lost to Brentford. The game ended in a 2-1 defeat at the Etihad and this was the final match before the suspension of the season for the World Cup, which was played in November and December 2022.

You can watch highlights of the defeat below. I include this here simply to remind fans who do get carried away with every point dropped that the 2022-23 season ended with City as treble winners. The odd defeat happens. That’s football. Congratulations to Brentford on your victory that day.

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/city-1-2-brentford-extended-highlights-63803894

1990s Football Banter

The departure of Howard Kendall from Manchester City in November 1990 led to a number of fan related chants, banners and more as fans tried to make their feelings known. United fans got in on the act and started to sing a version of Blue Moon that laughed at Kendall’s departure (which in itself shows how much everyone believed Kendall would bring success City’s way). City fans retaliated with a version that reminded United that only a year or so earlier City’s bargain basement Blues had defeated Ferguson’s Reds 5-1 – at that time the United team assembled by Ferguson was the most expensive British team ever created (and he still had further spending to make).

Banter between the Blues and Reds continues, with Kendall’s departure at the centre of it all but, demonstrating the self-deprecating sense of humour the Blues were known for at this time, Kendall started to be blamed for almost everything that was going wrong in Manchester. Unemployment rises – that’ll be Kendall’s fault. Buses are late – Kendall did that… and so on. Even a storyline in Coronation Street triggered a banner. In the soap opera Mavis and Derek Wilton’s house had been broken into. Who was to blame? Howard Kendall of course if a banner in the North Stand at Maine Road was to be believed.

This Manchester Evening News cutting mentions the chants and the banner. The banner appeared at the City-Leeds game played on this day (11 November) in 1990. It ended in a 3-2 Leeds win (bizarrely Alan Harper took a City penalty) and you can see the highlights here:

Alan Oakes’ 500 Appearances

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:

Coppell: 33 Days

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:

Kendall’s Departure

On this day (7 November) newspapers were full of the previous day’s news that had stunned Manchester City and that was the resignation of manager Howard Kendall. Kendall had decided to return to his former club Everton.

The move absolutely stunned City fans (though we did get the blame in some newspapers who claimed we’d never actually taken to him – absolute rubbish and demonstrates the typical attitude of the period which was if anything went wrong blame the fans!). Fans had voiced concern over Kendall’s signing of many, many former Evertonians but overall they were satisfied (more than satisfied) with the manager’s approach at City.

The bottom line with Kendall leaving is that chairman Peter Swales and his supporting directors had given him a contract that allowed him to walk out on the job whenever he chose. It was a strange situation and the belief at the time was that the City board had believed the ONLY job Kendall would be tempted to leave City for was the England job and, with Peter Swales in charge of the international selection committee, the chance of that happening was extremely slim.

Ah well! Here are some newspaper articles from this day back in 1990.

A Well Earned Victory

Today (5 November) last year Manchester City defeated Fulham 2-1 but the victory had not been as straightforward as some had predited. Julian Alvarez opened the scoring after 17 minutes and the Blues looked comfortable but then Cancelo was sent off ten minutes later (a straight red) and City conceded the resulting penalty too.

The Blues seemed up against it and as the game entered added time it felt like it was going to be one of those days. Then De Bruyne was judged to have been fouled when he went down for a penalty deep into added time and Erling Haaland made it 2-1 from the spot kick. The following highlights are worth watching to see what you think of it all but, most significantly, listen to Alistair Mann’s commentary. His final words say in effect that this is the moment that swings the advantage to City in the title race and should be remembered in May as the day City won it. There’s often hyperbole in commentary but those words, recorded in November 2022, do seem to predict the future somewhat:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/manchester-city-2-1-fulham-extended-highights-63803266

Nicky Summerbee Brings Hope

It took a long time to come but on this day (4 November) in 1995 Manchester City won their first League game of the 1995-96 season. Look we could dwell on all those miserable days under manager Alan Ball for months but instead of that let’s just read this Paul Hince match report and remind ourselves that on this day we did think there was a bit of hope. I know it was soon dashed but let’s read this and think ‘yes, City have turned the corner’…

129 Years Ago: The First League Manchester Derby

Today (3 November) is the anniversary of the first ever Manchester derby played in the Football League. The match between Manchester City and Newton Heath was played at City’s Hyde Road ground today in 1894. You can read the story of the game (with all the stats, background etc.) here:

The First Manchester Derby In The League – 1894

Goalden Moulden

On this day (2 November) in 1988 Paul Moulden scored a hat trick for Manchester City in the League Cup third round tie with Sheffield United. The Blues won 4-2 with Trevor Morley netting City’s other goal.