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The All-Manchester FA Cup Final

Well, the Premier League is now over for another year and we know who the Champions are and who has qualified for Europe etc. so it’s time to look forward to the first ever all Manchester FA Cup final. There have been FA Cup finals between two teams from present day Greater Manchester before (the first one being City v Bolton in 1904) but this is the first to involve both Manchester clubs.

Prior to this year’s final, the closest Manchester City and Manchester United have got to playing each other in a Wembley FA Cup final were the FA Cup semi finals in 1926 and 2011. I wasn’t around in 1926 but I definitely was in 2011! So a couple of years ago I made this special audio recording talking about the years building up to the semi and the day itself from a Manchester City perspective. Many of you have listened to this already but if you haven’t then it tells the story of the 2011 FA Cup semi final and the years between 1976 and that moment in 2011 for City.

I include audio from interviews I did with a variety of people including Khaldoon, Peter Swales, Garry Cook, Brain Marwood and many others.

If you have heard it before then maybe you should listen again to remind yourself of how we all felt and why that game was so significant.

I include a few words from Roberto Mancini recorded in 2011 and at one point he talks about the view that was then being expressed that City were ‘trying’ to buy success (now they say City ‘have’ bought success!). His words are a reminder that City have been having that particular criticism thrown at them for over a decade! Oh well, I wonder how long those criticisms were laid at other clubs who had seen major investment which propelled them forward?

Anyway, get yourself a brew and be prepared to be transported back in time. Here’s the recording:

If you enjoy the recording then please let me know, comment or subscribe to the site. If you don’t fancy doing that then there’s also the option to make a welcome donation to keep this site going (see below). I’ve produced videos/talks like this highlighting key points in Manchester City’s footballing history which subscribers can watch too.

If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.

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Match Stats for the 2011 FA Cup Semi-final

City 1-0 United (HT 0-0)

Yaya Toure 52

City: 25 Hart 04 Kompany (yellow card), 05 Zabaleta (yellow card), 13 Kolarov, 19 Lescott, 11 Johnson (Wright-Phillips 79), 18 Barry, 21 Silva (Vieira 86), 34 De Jong (yellow card), 42 Y Toure, 45 Balotelli (yellow card). Substitutes 12 Taylor, 38 Boyata, 07 Milner, 08 Wright-Phillips, 24 Vieira, 10 Dzeko, 27 Jo

United: 01 Van der Sar, 03 Evra, 05 Ferdinand, 15 Vidic, 22 O’Shea (Fabio Da Silva 84), 13 Park Ji-Sung, 16 Carrick, 17 Nani, 18 Scholes (red card), 25 Valencia (Hernandez 65), 09 Berbatov (Anderson 74). Substitutes 29 Kuszczak, 12 Smalling, 20 Fabio Da Silva, 08 Anderson, 28 Gibson, 07 Owen, 14 Hernandez

Referee: Dean

Attendance: 86,549

Maine Road 100 – Day 11

Day 11 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. Today follows on from yesterday’s post and shows the demolition of the original Platt Lane Stand.

I know the quality isn’t great but hopefully you can just make out the end of the concrete terracing and see how the 1935 roof was built over a wooden extension to the stand.

Have a look back at yesterday’s post to find out more.

To help those unfamiliar with Maine Road locate the specific location of this post, the Platt Lane Stand is the one where the number 4 & 5 are on this plan. The demolition photo was taken from near the number 6 looking towards the stand.

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Maine Road 100 – Day 10

Day 10 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. Today the original Platt Lane Stand can be seen in this image, taken in 1991. The stand was initially a terraced stand and the original terracing built in 1923. 8 years later the corner (on the left of this image) was roofed, extended a little on wood and the terracing re-profiled for seats. Then, in 1935 the rest of the Platt Lane was roofed and extended on wood but this remained a standing terrace.

The Platt Lane’s development was the first two phases in a planned development which was supposed to see the Main Stand/Scoreboard End corner roofed around 1939, then the neighbouring terracing (later North Stand) roofed to match the Platt Lane by about 1945 and then within about five years the entire Popular Side/Kippax was to be extended and roofed.

Apart from Platt Lane, none of those developments occurred due to the war.

Platt Lane was seated in the 1960s (you can read more on that and all the plans for the stadium in Farewell To Maine Road) and this images shows the steps that were built at the back of the Platt Lane when it was extended. I remember as a young boy climbing up those to get to the benches we sat on occasionally and I was always scared I’d fall through the gaps.

To help those unfamiliar with Maine Road locate the specific location of this post, the Platt Lane Stand is the one where the number 4 & 5 are on this plan.

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.

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Maine Road 100 – Day 9

Day 9 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. Today this grainy image highlights something that was, until the end of the Kippax in 1994, a regular part of the Maine Road match experience. If you look carefully you can see the tea urn being pushed around the ground. It’s currently in front of the Platt Lane Stand and I remember being in that stand as a young boy in the 1970s and desperately wanting something from the vendor. Chipmunk crisps, Waggon Wheels & TipTop orange drinks were three of the items I remember them selling.

Usually, we brought a flask to games (often broken in the excitement of a goal) and occasionally Dad would have enough money to let us go and get some crisps or something. For those who never experienced Maine Road or the tea urns, basically a couple of young matchday staff, usually lads, but sometimes girls, would push a tea urn around in front of the white wall that surrounded the pitch. Presumably they had filled the tea urn at some point early into the game and I guess older fans knew how long it took the tea urn to get from one end to the other. If you were at the wrong end of the Platt Lane Stand your brew may not have been as hot as you’d want.

I never had a hot drink from it, so I don’t know if the urn had hot water in so that they could add a tea bag, Nescafe or bit of Bovril to it or whether it was already made up. If it was maybe there were different drinks in multiple urns that I didn’t spot? Anyone here ever work one or know more about that? If you did please leave your comments, or if you’ve any other memories of Maine Road that you’d like to share.

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

To help those unfamiliar with Maine Road locate the specific location of this post, the Platt Lane tea urn photographed is heading towards the number 3 on this plan.

If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.

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Maine Road 100 – Day 8

Day 8 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. Today here’s an image of the Maine Road forecourt in the 1980s. So much to say on this. Notice the Granada TV vehicle and the newspaper adverts hung up for the Sunday Mirror and News of the World. There’s also the advert above the main entrance ‘cage’ – that was covering up the original central mosaic which I wish they’d been able to keep visible but an air conditioning unit was smashed through this at some point. So much for preserving the club’s history back then, hey?

The forecourt looked much the same as this from its opening through to later in the 80s, although there had already been a pebble dash render placed on the lower part of the main stand frontage. Later the decade more render would be place on sections of the front and then in the 1990s the whole stand was clad in metal.

There’s one of the floodlights (second set) showing and this is obviously pre-match as fans are mostly heading to the stands. Also, post match for many games in the 80s the forecourt would have housed a demo!

Those cars are heading towards the directors car park, past the stand, on the left.

This image was from a 1981 Manchester derby.

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

To help those unfamiliar with Maine Road locate the specific location, the Main Stand is number 1 on this plan and its frontage faced Maine Road, the street running above the stand.

If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.

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Maine Road 100 – Day 7

Day 7 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. Today it’s the story of the Platt Lane tunnel. Maine Road had four large corner tunnels, plus two in the Kippax and three (including the Players’ tunnel) in the Main Stand. The corner tunnels when built were all the same but the one in the Platt Lane/Main Stand corner was altered within 8 years of being built. Many people don’t realise this or know why, so here’s the story…

The tunnels were designed by architect Charles Swain to make access to and departure from the terracing easy after the problems Wembley experienced in its opening game. These huge tunnels became a feature of Maine Road for most of its existence but ground developments led to them all, apart from the Main Stand’s tunnels disappearing by the mid 1990s.

The first one to change was the Platt Lane/Main Stand corner tunnel.

In 1931 the club decided to enlarge Maine Road and they started with that corner. There was a demand for additional seating and so the club rebuilt the corner terracing. They built on top of what was already there by increasing the terracing rake to make it more appropriate for seating. They didn’t demolish the original corner, they built on top of it. This created a problem because the walls of the tunnel were now too low in parts, creating a potential safety issue. So the club raised and remodelled the tunnel walls a little. These are not great images but I hope they give you enough of a feel for how the tunnel was adapted.

The older image is during construction, with the other image showing the stand in 1981. That corner stand was extended a little on wooden steps, as was the rest of the stand when it was extended in 1935. The difference was that the rake of the terracing elsewhere in the stand was not changed.

Remodelled Platt Lane/Main Stand corner tunnel as seen in 1981

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

1923 Platt Lane/Main Stand corner tunnel

If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.

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Maine Road 100 – Day 6 Answer

Day 6 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game asked you to name the year this aerial photo was taken. I gave a few clues which may help date this:

None of the temporary stands have yet been constructed in the corners
The MCFC lettering appears at the bottom section of the North Stand
The Souvenir Shop still appears to be operational and doesn’t look like it’s been turned into offices yet
Both the Platt Lane Stand and the Kippax have been replaced BUT what about the end panelling of the Kippax? Is that complete?

The answer is 1995.

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.

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Thanks – Match Programme

I would like to thank all those who have been in touch this season about my articles in the Manchester City match programme. I truly am grateful for those words. I have been fortunate enough to have been writing for the programme for a few years and always enjoy trying to tell a different story, or use a different angle. There’s so much to say and do and my programme articles in this year’s programme focused on a history piece (which I always try to make relevant to today – but that’s easy when you have history making managers like Pep and record breaking players like Haaland) and a crowd/attendance feature.

I hope they’ve been of interest and, with the crowd feature in particular, I have heard from several fans who have enjoyed the myth-busting that has come from that. Hopefully, I’ll get the chance to carry on writing for the programme over the coming years but if not, thanks to all those who read the piece. I’m driven by publishing the facts not the fiction and writing in an entertaining manner. I hope that comes across.

This season has also seen me write articles for the FA Cup semi-final and two for the upcoming FA Cup final. So there’s still at least 2 pieces coming this season in significant programmes.

Thanks again to all those who read my work and thanks to Reach for selecting me for the MCFC match programmes.

Maine Road 100 – Day 6

Day 6 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. Today it’s an aerial shot of Maine Road. Can you guess the year?

I’m a bit of a ground obsessive (as you may have guessed) and I spend much of my time seeking out images of football grounds (not just City’s) and trying to date them. It drives me crazy when I see something misdated…. Anyway, before I waffle on can you work out which year this was taken?

I’ll give the answer tomorrow but I always look for clues, so I’ll give you a few which may help date this:

None of the temporary stands have yet been constructed in the corners
The MCFC lettering appears at the bottom section of the North Stand
The Souvenir Shop still appears to be operational and doesn’t look like it’s been turned into offices yet
Both the Platt Lane Stand and the Kippax have been replaced BUT what about the end panelling of the Kippax? Is that complete?

I’ll give you the answer tomorrow.

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Carry On The Glory

‘They’ll carry on the glory of the City, keeping City in first place…’ It was appropriate yesterday that a banner appeared at the front of the South Stand with the words ‘Blue & white they go together, we will carry on forever more’. I’m sure some will think this is an arrogant, modern day boast but most Manchester City fans will recognise that the words come from the 1972 club song ‘The Boys in Blue’. It’s an iconic piece of Mancunian history and another Manchester icon, Alex Williams MBE, presented the Premier League trophy. These things are important. As was the pitch invasion (more of that later). It’s also worth noting, though it was generally missed yesterday, that the victory over Chelsea and trophy presentation came on the anniversary of the club first being accepted into the League as Manchester City back in 1894. No history? See:

Football clubs are often criticised and I get that. People have talked about money spent or the activities of managers and players over the generations but the truth is that a football club is a community of people. It unites a large cross section of society in a way that many other leisure activities do not. From the richest to the most disadvantaged a football club can touch all of society, or at least it can try if it wants to. Manchester City has tried and wanted to for generations now. And that is why selecting Alex Williams to make the presentation, supported by Tom O’Dell (see https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/city-2223-citc-trophy-lift-alex-williams-63820275 ), was important.

Alex received racist abuse from rivals throughout his playing career and has spent decades working for Manchester. He is a wonderful man, a truly nice guy and someone who absolutely dedicated his life working for Mancunians and those who for whatever reason needed support in some way. He quietly goes about his business and, though he has a MBE, he deserves national recognition at the highest level. Tom O’Dell is a young man who turned his life around via that connection with City in the Community – an organisation established in 1986 by a club whose community work stretches back many decades before this. In fact the club has been doing community work – though it didn’t see it as ‘work’ just being a responsible Mancunian business – since the start.

Manchester City, and other clubs of course, have a long history and legacy. They are here through the generations as an important element of the life of their city and, most importantly, the people. I am aware of three people (I’m sure there are more) who have witnessed every one of the 9 League titles City have won – Geoffrey Rothband, Eddie Bickerdike and the father of Margaret Core. I’ve interviewed Geoffrey before but I’d love to interview the others about their experiences. That continuity in football is important but it often gets overlooked by those who like to criticise. Incidentally, if you know someone who has seen all nine title successes and can talk about them then please get in touch. It would be great to record their memories of 1937 for example.

Yesterday was a wonderful day and a great celebration. I’d heard stories of potential punishments if there was a pitch invasion (some are still waffling on about that) and so, even though I’ve always supported peaceful, celebratory pitch invasions, I posted a tweet suggesting we heed the club’s warning. In the end I’m glad people didn’t and the pitch invasion is a wonderful exhibition of how much winning this trophy still matters. Some claim City fans have no passion or don’t care. That we’ve been spoilt. We all know that’s absolute rubbish and that pitch invasion, along with the other celebrations proved there is still a beating heart within City’s fan base.

Here’s the start of that pitch invasion:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/img_0870.mov

Malcolm Allison once said to me ‘celebrate every success as if it’s your first, because it could be your last’ and I think that’s a valid point. Most fans recognise that no football club dominates for ever (not in England anyway) and that success can be taken away at any point, so let’s make sure we always celebrate these moments as if they are our first.

There were so many positive moments yesterday and throughout the season that it’s impossible to pick out the best yet – and hopefully there’ll be a few more great moments in the weeks to come. Yesterday, I just loved seeing the players celebrate. It’s also telling just how many young fans were around the place or being interviewed by TV… It looks like City’s fanbase is going to continue to grow for some time. Maybe the stadium will need expanding again after the North Stand work is completed?

Oh, and finally, I loved capturing this moment. An excited Rico Lewis running away with the Premier League trophy:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/img_0884.mov

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