Category Archives: Free

The 1920s: City’s First England International becomes manager of Milan

Continuing the series on Manchester City in the 1920s today’s free article is about the City England international (in fact City’s first England international!) who became the manager of Milan in 1926. Here goes…

The first Manchester City player to appear for England was Herbert Burgess, who was reportedly born in Openshaw on 25 February 1883. Burgess was a left back but, according to articles at the time, was only 5ft 4.75 inches tall (weighing 11st 7lbs).

He made his first England appearance against Wales, and City teammate Billy Meredith, in February 1904 and did well in a game that ended 2-2 at Wrexham.

Prior to City Burgess had joined Football League side Glossop in March 1900 and, after three good years there, he moved to City on 30 July 1903. The fee City paid was £250. This was a period when Manchester’s Blues seemed to be cherry-picking the best Glossop had to offer and one report even suggested the nearby club was becoming a nursery club for City.

Burgess made three international appearances in 1904 with the Welsh game followed by a 3-1 victory over Ireland at Solitude, Belfast in March and a 1-0 win over Scotland at Parkhead, Glasgow on 9 April 1904. Only two weeks later Burgess helped City to FA Cup success (they became the first Manchester team to win a major trophy) and the Blues were also League runners up. These were great days for Burgess.

He made one further appearance for England – a 2-1 defeat at Hampden Park on 7 April 1906, played in front of 102,741 – and was furious that one of the Scotland goals was allowed to stand.

This period was a tough one for Burgess as the illegal payments scandal at City completely rocked his world. He was one of 17 players suspended by the FA (I can talk about this for days – it was so unfair and northern newspapers believed it was some sort of conspiracy by the southern based FA!).

Burgess was forced to leave City and, along with other star men, including Billy Meredith, he joined the then underdogs Manchester United and helped them achieve their first major success. He then moved to Denmark and played for Kristiania before joining Hungarian club MTK Budapest.

When his playing days came to an end he became Budapest’s manager and then managed Padova (1922-1926). He left Padova to become Milan’s manager in 1926 and after two years there he returned to Padova.

From 1930 to 1932 Burgess managed another Italian club, Roma. This photo is of Burgess (with cap on) as manager of AS Roma.

Burgess immediately etched his own name into the history of Roma, winning the first ever Rome derby in only his second game in charge. Roma won 1-0 win at Lazio’s Stadio della Rondinella. Burgess also guided Roma to success in the second derby, winning 3-1, the following May, this time at their all-wooden ground Campo Testaccio.

Burgess never lost a Rome derby during his time there as they drew their subsequent two derbies under him. His Roma team also pushed eventual champions Juventus all the way in the 1930-31 campaign, finishing just four points behind Juventus as runners-up.

Sadly, it’s been reported that Italy’s development under the dictatorship of Mussolino meant that English coaches were under pressure to leave and Burgess returned to Manchester, taking a job as a labourer on a housing estate on the outskirts of Manchester. He also became trainer to Ashton National.

He died in 1954.

In total at City he made 94 first team appearances and scored two goals. Had the illegal payments scandal not occurred he may well have been an England regular for several years. As it is his career is pretty impressive for a lad born in Openshaw in the 1880s – FA Cup & League winner; England international; manager of prominent clubs in Hungary and Italy.

People tend to think that it’s only in the modern era that Manchester City have achieved anything or that footballers have gone abroad to coach major clubs like Milan, Budapest and Roma, but the truth is that men like Burgess achieved so much over a century ago. We must take steps to remember them. Oh, and while I’m here it’s worth pointing out that City did have international players for years before Burgess but they didn’t play for England.

The earliest played to make an international appearance while on City’s books made an appearance for Wales in 1890 when the club was still Ardwick. Maybe I’ll write about him one day too?

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Subscribe to get access

If you have enjoyed this piece and would like to support my writing while also accessing further great content, then why not subscribe? Those who subscribe on an annual basis get access to everything posted on this site since December 2020. Those subscribing on a monthly basis get access to everything posted since 1 October 2022. It’s £20 a year (subscribe above) or £3 per month (subscribe here). Why not try it for a month?

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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:

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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