Category Archives: League Cup

Bond’s First; Tueart Scores 4

New Manchester City manager John Bond’s first cup game was the fourth round tie against Second Division promotion hopefuls Notts County at Maine Road, played on this day (29 October) in 1980  The game had the potential to end in defeat, especially as Bond would be unable to play any of his new signings (remember the struggles pre-Bond’s arrival earlier in the month and the impact he and his new arrivals Now, Hutchison and McDonald had?), nor would the expensive Steve Daley be able to play due to injury. 

The match actually ended 5-1 to the Blues with Dave Bennett opening the scoring after 16 minutes.  Dennis Tueart was in inspiring form that night scoring the other four City goals, but the result was prof that Bond’s whole approach had lifted the Club.  Basically, Bond had taken Allison’s team and given them belief and confidence.  Some of the younger players, like Bennett and Caton, may have been given their chance under Allison, but it was under Bond that they started to achieve their potential.

Subscribe to get access

If you’d like to support my research then why not subscribe? Every subscription directly helps support my research and provides annual subscribers with access to everything posted on this site, including the entire Manchester A Football History and From Maine Men To Banana Citizens books, plus interviews, articles and more. I am not employed by anyone and all my research is self funded or comes from subscriptions to this site.

Subscribe

Subscribe to get access

You can subscribe at either £20 per year (above) or at £3 per month here (cancel any time). For those subscribing £3 per month you will be able to access all content from October 2022 onwards for as long as you are a subscriber. Those subscribing £20 a year have access to everything posted since December 2020.

Subscribe

Wolves Slain

Today (26 October) in 2011 Manchester City won 5-2 at Wolves in the League Cup before 12,436. Edin Dzeko scored twice of course that day. You can see highlights of the game here:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/match-highlights/2011/october/wolves-v-city-carling-cup-extended-highlights-oct-2011

Horton’s Blues At QPR

On this day (25 October) in 1994 Manchester City faced QPR in the League Cup in what was an incredible game that kept fans on the edge of their seats. The Blues had already disposed of Barnet 5-2 on aggregate in the second round and clearly expected to put in a good performance at Loftus Road. Sadly, within a minute they conceded a goal just as they had in the earlier League Cup match at Barnet and Brian Horton’s side suffered for a while. By the 37th minute they managed to get their act together a little and Summerbee equalised with a 20 yard volley. A minute later Rangers took the lead again. 

Fortunately, in the 46th minute Keith Curle netted a penalty to bring City level once again, followed eight minutes later by a magnificent Beagrie volley which made it 3-2 and brought a series of somersaults from the popular ex-Evertonian. Five minutes later, the same player headed through to Lomas who made it 4-2. 

In the 87th minute Rangers pulled a goal back to keep City on their toes, but the referee’s whistle signalled the start of a party for the fans while their QPR equivalents began to demonstrate against their chairman.  Apparently, some unhappy QPR fans were keen to listen to the advice of a few experienced Mancunian demonstrators! 

You can watch highlights of the game here:

Subscribe to get access

If you’d like to support my research then why not subscribe? Every subscription directly helps support my research and provides the subscriber with access to everything posted on this site, including the entire Manchester A Football History and From Maine Men To Banana Citizens books, plus interviews, articles and more. I am not employed by anyone and all my research is self funded or comes from subscriptions to this site.

Subscribe

Forest Defeated

On this day (8 October) in 1975 I celebrated my birthday by watching Manchester City defeat Nottingham Forest 2-1 with goals from Colin Bell and Joe Royle in the 3rd round of the successful League Cup campaign. Pre-match Forest manager Brian Clough told the press:  ‘I was praying Manchester City would beat Norwich [in the previous round] because I wanted to play the best. City are one of the most entertaining and talented sides in the First Division at home.  We have no serious thoughts of shocking City but we hope to give a good account of ourselves against a side that is potentially one of the best in the land.’ He added:

‘When I last came to Maine Road it was with Leeds United and we lost 2-1.  If we keep the score down to 2-1 tonight then I think we’ll show the strides that Nottingham Forest have taken.’

Clough, one of football’s most knowledgeable men, predicted the score accurately with goals from Bell and Royle helping City achieve the 2-1 result.  That win put City into the fourth round and set Manchester up for a League Cup derby match for the second successive year.

Subscribe to get access

If you’ve enjoyed this then why not subscribe? Every subscription directly helps support my research and provides the subscriber with access to everything posted on this site, including the entire Manchester A Football History and From Maine Men To Banana Citizens books, plus interviews, articles and more. I am not employed by anyone and all my research is self funded or comes from subscriptions to this site.

Subscribe

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. You can subscribe at either £20 per year (above) or at £3 per month here (cancel any time). For those subscribing £3 per month you will be able to access all content from October 2022 onwards for as long as you are a subscriber. Those subscribing £20 a year have access to everything posted since December 2020.

Subscribe

Away Run Ends: Wolves v City

On this day (6 October) in 1987 Manchester City defeated Wolves 2-0 away from home in the second leg of the second round League Cup tie. It was a weird period for City as the Blues had gone 37 games without an away win and the mood amongst fans was such that you simply had to be there when the win came. I travelled down with my future brother-in-law and father-in-law though at this time I still hadn’t met my future wife. I used to go to games with her brother and it was December 1987 before I actually met her. As for the football… the Blues had lost the first leg 2-1 but the scorelines for both games do not do this tie justice. Here’s a match report and key points from the day…

Wolves thought they had the tie sewn up after their 2-1 win at Maine Road but Andy Hinchcliffe netted after 11 minutes to make it 2-2. Wolves threw everything they had at City with a Midlands based reporter claiming that Wolves had: ‘City’s defence fumbling like geriatric slip fielders;. They hit the woodwork frequently and as fans stood on the away end we were convinced this would not be our day but, of course, City being City it was when you least expected something that it happened. Typical City used to work in positive ways as well as negative ones!

In the end John Gidman scored from a free kick in the 86th minute to guarantee a City victory on aggregate and end our winless away run. However, it was soon pointed out that we’d still not won away from home in the League for a ridiculously long time and so that became the next mission and, as fans, we kept travelling to those games waiting and hoping things would change.

Have a read of this report. There are some great lines in here comparing City to bunny rabbits and other stuff. I particularly like Mel Machin’s comment about the woodwork.

Sterling Double

On this day (30 September) in 2020 Manchester City defeated Burnley 3-0 in the League Cup at Turf Moor. City’s scorers were Raheem Sterling (2) and Ferran Torres. Here are some highlights of the game:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/burnley-0-3-city-match-highlights-63737092

A Foden First

On this day (25 September) in 2018 Phil Foden was compared to Andres Iniesta after a thrilling performance in the League Cup at Oxford United. Here’s the story of that game:

This is available to subscribers to my website. It costs £20 per year (works out about £1.67 a month) and for that every subscriber gets access to a PDF of both Manchester A Football History and From Maine Men to Banana Citizens (both out of print) plus the hundreds of articles, interviews and videos already posted and a guaranteed 4 new exclusive articles per month (usually a lot more than that!). I am not employed to do any research and so subscribers help fund detailed research into football’s history. Thanks for supporting my work if you do already subscribe or buy my books.

Above photo by Steve Daniels for Oxford United.

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today.

Subscribe

The 2021 League Cup Final

On this day (25 April) in 2021 Manchester City defeated Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 thanks to a Laporte goal in the League Cup final at Wembley. The game was played in front of a Covid restricted crowd of 7,773.

Here are highlights of that game:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/city-1-0-spurs-carabao-cup-extended-highlights-63754978

On This Day in 1976 – Manchester City v Middlesbrough, a thrilling semi-final

On this day (21st January) in 1976 goals from Peter Barnes, Ged Keegan, Alan Oakes and Joe Royle in the semi-final second leg against Jack Charlton’s Middlesbrough guaranteed Manchester City an appearance in the League Cup final.  The Blues had lost the first leg 1-0 to a Boro side that included Graeme Souness.  The aggregate score was 4-1.

Here’s the story of that game and the situation around MCFC at the time with quotes from interviews I have performed with Alan Oakes and Rodney Marsh.

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today.

Subscribe

Manchester City, Liverpool and the 1981 League Cup Semi-Final!

On this day in 1981: The League Cup semi final! The 1981 League Cup semi-final has gone down in history as one of the absolute grudge moments between Manchester’s Blues and Liverpool’s Reds. People often think the two clubs have only been rivals in recent years but throughout the late 60s, 70s and early 80s games between the two clubs were viewed as major events.

This tie in 1981 is one that still angers many associated with Manchester City, including former players and officials. If you would like to read the story of the tie and the reasons why, then please subscribe to this blog.

If you would like to read the in-depth articles on this site, plus content such as the entire Manchester A Football History book, then please subscribe below. It works out about £1.67 a month if you take out an annual subscription (£20 per year) or £3 a month if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time. Each subscriber gets full access to the 500+ articles posted so far and the hundreds scheduled to be posted in the coming weeks.

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content and everything else on GJFootballArchive.com when you subscribe today.

Subscribe