On this day (13 November) in 1880 the first reported game played by St. Mark’s Church side took place in Gorton and ended in a 2-1 defeat by the Baptist Church from Macclesfield. Both sides fielded 12 players. Please note this is the first reported game and at no time is it described as the first game. There may have been earlier matches. There are lots of myths about the birth of St Mark’s (many of which will be spread today no doubt!), the club that went through various changes that led to the creation of Manchester City in 1894. I would urge everyone to read the facts, rather than the fiction, and take a look at this:
Category Archives: Manchester City
Manchester 1840-1919 (Part Ten)
I’ve missed a few weeks, but today we’re restarting the series of subscriber posts from my book ‘The Emergence of Footballing Cultures: Manchester 1840-1919’. It tells the story of men’s football in Manchester and today’s section is the ninth chapter of the book (a 9,000 word section). This may be quite topical in that it focuses on City’s illegal payments scandal (United’s match fixing scandal comes next week!) and on the building of Old Trafford. It also covers the shock departure of Ernest Mangnall from the Reds to the Blues. Fans of both Manchester’s League teams should find something in it for them while those not familiar with the scandal at City will be able to read the facts, not the fiction.
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Guest Blog: No Money, No Team: The Rise and Fall of Stalybridge Rovers
In the week when the musician Stevie Wonder turned up in Stalybridge for a meal it seems appropriate that the latest guest blog on this site is about football in that town. It’s by Neil Wolstenholme and Peter Hoctor. They are both Stalybridge natives and Stalybridge Celtic supporters. Neil is a former Celtic player and his father was a director of the club. Peter’s father was the club’s groundsman for many years. Today they’re talking about their new book on Stalybridge’s early football history. This piece talks of Stalybridge’s ‘other’ team Stalybridge Rovers. If you’re interested in football in Tameside or on the early history of the sport then get yourself a copy. It’s a fascinating book. Enjoy!
In April 1908 Stalybridge Rovers were due to play at Clitheroe. They never turned up. Instead, a telegram arrived with four words: ‘No money, no team.’
We were both born and bred in Stalybridge and we’re both Stalybridge Celtic fans. We had vaguely heard of Stalybridge Rovers, but we knew little about them until we started researching a book on Celtic. Most of their story had been forgotten or simply erased. Piece by piece, the old newspapers revealed a club which had won the Lancashire League, reached the first round proper of the FA Cup and twice tried to get into the Football League. That research became No Money, No Team: An early history of professional football in Stalybridge, 1880 to 1923.
So, who came before Rovers? Stalybridge St George’s, founded in 1883, with their headquarters at the Bull’s Head Inn and a pitch at Crookbottom. By 1887 they were the town’s leading club and members of the new Lancashire FA. Then, in January 1888, smallpox broke out in Stalybridge. Opponents refused to visit, fixtures were postponed for weeks, and the Saints faded away. Shades of 2020. By December 1888 the local paper was calling the new Stalybridge Rovers ‘late St George’s’.
Readers of this site will know Rovers’ world well. They played Ardwick, Newton Heath and Hurst, and in the 1890s they had a fierce rivalry with Ashton North End which could pull in 8,000 people. In October 1893 Newton Heath came to Crookbottom and the Clarion sent its writer, ‘the Bounder’, to kick off. He was not a fan: ‘There is no wetter place in England than Stalybridge.’ Having grown up there, we can’t really argue. In 1900 Rovers went to Hyde Road in the Manchester Senior Cup and lost 4-0, with legendary Billy Meredith scoring twice.
Some remarkable men wore the amber and black. Arthur Wharton, widely regarded as the world’s first black professional footballer, kept goal and captained the side. Herbert Chapman, later the very successful manager of Huddersfield Town and Arsenal, played for Rovers long before he changed how the game was played.
The good times rolled in 1899-1900 and 1900-01. Rovers knocked out Stockport County and Burslem Port Vale to reach the FA Cup first round proper, and 400 supporters caught a special train through the night to watch them lose 2-1 at Bristol City. The next season they won the Lancashire League on goal average. They applied to join the Football League in both years, gathering just one vote, then seven.
Within seven years of winning the league, Rovers were gone. How a champion club could fall so far, so fast, in a town which loved its football, is the story at the heart of the book.
Into the gap left by Rovers stepped a new club, Stalybridge Celtic, with a very different kind of backer. Herbert Rhodes was a local mill owner and magistrate, and with his support Celtic would go where Rovers never could, all the way into the Football League. Whether his money was enough, and whether Celtic learned from Rovers’ mistakes, is another matter.
This is a football story, but it is also a story about money. Without it, a club cannot compete and the reach for glory can end in disaster. Rovers were far from the last to learn that lesson. There have been numerous casualties. In 1962 Accrington Stanley resigned from the Football League in the middle of the season. In the 1980s Wolves slid from the First Division to the Fourth, while Bristol City survived only because eight players tore up their contracts. Aldershot and Maidstone United both went under in 1992. Leeds United borrowed to ‘live the dream’ and ended up in administration, Portsmouth won the FA Cup and then became the first Premier League club to go bust, and Glasgow Rangers were liquidated and restarted in Scotland’s fourth tier. More recently Bury were thrown out of the Football League and Macclesfield Town were wound up. The names and places may be different, but the pattern is one Rovers would have recognised.
What happened to Wharton after Stalybridge? Why did the League turn Rovers away? And how far was Herbert Rhodes prepared to go for Celtic? It’s all in No Money, No Team.
The book is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/106666370X.
Every penny of profit goes to the Stalybridge Celtic junior teams, so if you buy a copy you’re helping the next generation of Celtic players.
Neil Wolstenholme and Peter Hoctor are both Stalybridge natives and Celtic supporters. Neil is a former Celtic player and his father was a director of the club. Peter’s father was the club’s groundsman for many years.
Women’s Football in Manchester
With the latest edition of Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History now at the designer, it feels like the perfect moment to reflect on an 11-year project into the history of women’s football in Greater Manchester.
When I began this project in 2015, there was no comprehensive, documented history of Manchester City’s early women’s team, nor of the pioneering Manchester Corinthians—two important teams that won leagues and competitions long before the establishment of the WSL. For years, many of the women who played for these teams felt excluded. Every time historians or the media repeated inaccurate assumptions, it felt as though those who played their part in building the foundations of the game were being deliberately erased from memory.
Over the past decade, this project has worked to change that by capturing the vital stories of players from the Corinthians, Nomads, All Stars, Dynamos, City, United, and beyond. The scale of this research includes:
• Over 50 personal interviews with Manchester Corinthians players alone.
• Approximately 90 interviews and chats with female players, spanning from the 1940s to recent icons like Jill Scott.
• Uncovering multiple founding Corinthians from the original 1948 squad.
• Unearthing a vibrant 1950s community of women’s football clubs spanning the north, south, west and east of the conurbation (complemented by Steve Bolton’s valuable research into Manchester Ladies).
I am incredibly proud that this research has brought these narratives into the public consciousness. The history of women’s football in Manchester is vastly better known today than it was eleven years ago.
However, there is still work to be done. Despite a decade of progress, historical misconceptions and origin myths continue to be repeated. As a passionate advocate for the Corinthians and their sister clubs, my goal is always to protect their legacy by focusing strictly on facts.
The biggest misconception is the claim that no other women’s teams existed in Manchester when the Corinthians were established. The facts tell a different story: the Corinthians were not the first post-WWII women’s team in the city, nor were they the only local side to tour abroad in the 1950s. Similarly, the role of these clubs in challenging the FA ban and establishing international, national, and regional competitions is still too often overlooked in mainstream spaces.
Correcting these narratives remains a priority through my ongoing books, talks, and lectures. Recently, this has continued down exciting avenues, including filming with UEFA, discussing theatrical projects for the stage, and holding serious developmental conversations with Manchester’s leading men’s clubs.
Looking back on the last eleven years, the journey has been profoundly rewarding. From creating the Corinthians’ blue plaque appeal and organising player reunions, to preserving the heritage of the early City Ladies, it has been an honour. Most of all, it has been a distinct pleasure to meet and engage with pioneering women across Europe, North America, and Australia who proudly played football in Manchester.
We have come a long way, but the storytelling continues. Watch this space!
On This Day Manchester City v Manchester United
On this day (10 November 1979) City beat United 2-0 at Maine Road with goals from Tony Henry and Mike Robinson. United players Kevin Moran and Mickey Thomas are seen on this photo with Polish World Cup star Kaziu Deyna. Video of the game can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXExWITEtdI
Back in 2003 I wrote this profile of former Manchester City player and Polish World Cup star Deyna. He was such an important and unusual signing at the time he joined City in November 1978 that I feel this article is still appropriate and of interest to subscribers to my blog today.
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Darren Beckford Tribute
Yesterday came the news of Darren Beckford’s death at the age of 59. I wanted to pay a full and proper tribute to him but have only really had the chance today. Darren (seen in 1985 in the main photo taken by John Peters with his parents Val and Dudley and his brother Jason) was a supremely talented forward who attended Burnage High School before joining Manchester City as an apprentice on 16 April 1984. Less than four months later he was deservedly given a professional contract (1 August 1984) and on 20 October that year he made his first team debut, coming on as substitute for Gordon Smith in a 2-1 defeat at Middlesbrough. A fortnight later he came on again (for Graham Baker) in a goalless game at Brighton and on 8 April 1985 he made his first start in a 2-1 defeat at home to Leeds at Maine Road (John Peters photo below).
When I interviewed Darren’s brother Jason a few years back we talked about the Beckfords early sporting interests: ‘Darren and I were mad about any sport as kids – football, cricket, basketball… anything that had a ball really. Back then we just played and played and because Darren’s a couple of years older than me I always seemed to play with him and his mates, not my age group. We played in the street for hours and, I guess where we were different to some of the other lads is that we stayed out for ages after they’d all gone in.’
I asked Jason about the brothers’ footballing support: ‘You tend to get your first interest from your parents. If they take you to a club it becomes part of you, but my parents weren’t really football people. My dad loved his sport but he was more into cricket. Me and Darren loved football but we didn’t get chance to go and didn’t really have any allegiance until we signed schoolboy forms with City. It was just the way it was. We loved playing football but didn’t get the chance to watch it.’
Darren excelled at sport and he represented his city playing football for Manchester Boys (14 year old Darren can be seen in the Manchester Boys lineup on the image below: back row, 3rd from left) and also represented the North West at basketball. In fact he had to make a tough decision as to which sport he focused on and, fortunately for us, he chose football. He made eight England under-15 appearances at soccer and excelled as a youth player with the Blues too.
There was a period where his goalscoring for the youth team gained a few headlines, and made many City fans notice his talent. He netted three hat-tricks in four FA Youth Cup ties during 1984-85 and twice that season he netted four goals in an A team match. Inevitably, he was leading scorer for both the Reserves and City’s A team that season. The following season he scored 24 goals for A team. For all of us who attended first team, reserve or youth games back then the name Darren Beckford was regularly being spoken. I remember desperately wanting him to have a sustained run in the first team but the difficulties of this era meant those chances came few and far between. Darren never got the run of games that some of us felt he deserved to allow him to adjust to the demands of the League. Worth remembering that these were difficult days for City with the team he debuted in being desperate for promotion from the second tier, then 1985-1987 fighting for survival in the top tier. Not necessarily the best place for an attack-minded player to get his grounding.
During the 1984-85 season Tottenham had contacted City about buying Darren and his teammate Paul Moulden. Put across as a ‘name your price’ offer, City rejected the bid. We were all relieved. We saw these guys, Paul Simpson, and the others we knew were developing in the youth team as ‘our’ team. I was a similar age to them all and I was a teenager standing on the Kippax supporting the team. Whenever a player from the youth team made their debut they tended to be either my age or slightly older/younger and, because of that, I always felt they were like me (except they could play football!). Darren was, to use a modern expression, ‘one of our own’, as was Paul Moulden, Paul Simpson and those that followed like David White, Paul Lake and Ian Brightwell. It always felt, to me at least, that our future needed these young players and if City ever sold them it would be a foolish act. These guys were tipped for greatness and Darren was already within the England system, going to Lilleshall and in the youth squad.
In February 1985 Darren made the headlines when he withdrew from the England Youth squad. Religious reasons were cited at the time. It seemed to shock many but others respected his decision.
In 1986-87 Darren was again top scorer in the reserve team with 11 goals. His last first team game for City came on 24 January 1987, a goalless draw at Wimbledon which also Paul Lake’s first team debut.
A spell on loan at Bury came in October 1985, where he gained some valuable experience and on 26 March 1987 he went on loan at Port Vale. The loan went well and on 25 June 1987 they made the move permanent, bringing to an end his Manchester City career. Darren’s most successful spell of his career came at Port Vale where he was signed permanently for a modest £15,000—a fee raised in part by fans doing bucket collections! He established himself as an electric and dominant striker, helping the club secure promotion to the Second Division via the play-offs in 1989 and finished as Port Vale’s top scorer for four consecutive seasons. In total, he scored 81 goals in 214 appearances for the club. This included a memorable goal in the FA Cup against City. I was there at Vale Park that day (this was the year we were convinced City’s name was on the cup. How wrong we were!). You can see his equaliser on this video (after about two minutes) but there’s also a great defensive moment from him earlier, plus the highlights are well worth watching to get a feel for how we all felt that day, plus to see Darren’s goal (top of the net and a good celebration).
A move to Norwich City followed (£925,000 – Vale’s record sale at the time) but he suffered with injuries while there. The main highlight of his time at Carrow Road was a crucial hat-trick against Everton that preserved Norwich’s top-flight status during the 1991–92 season.
On 24 March 1993 Darren was sold to Premier League side Oldham Athletic for £300,000, where he scored some vital top-flight goals for the Latics. He recorded 17 goals in 52 appearances before a severe hamstring injury halted his momentum and led to his release in 1996.
After leaving Oldham, he moved north to Scottish club Heart of Midlothian, where he helped them reach the 1996 Scottish League Cup final, scoring twice during his stay. A succession of brief, short-term spells at a variety of clubs including Fulham, Rushden & Diamonds, Preston North End, Walsall and Total Network Solutions followed before he retired in 1998.
The news of Darren’s death yesterday was an absolute shock and my thoughts remain with his family, friends and of course Jason. I think it’s worth ending this piece with the words from Once A Blue, the Manchester City Former Players Association. They commented on his death: ‘We are truly devastated at the news that one of our own, Darren Beckford, has sadly passed away at the age of 59. Raised in Ancoats and Longsight, Darren was a product of Manchester City’s youth system and made his senior debut against Middlesbrough in October 1984.
‘An athletic striker with a keen eye for goal, he played 12 times for the Blues before continuing his career at Port Vale, Norwich City and Oldham Athletic, among others. He made a total of 324 appearances as a professional footballer, accruing a tally of 100 goals. Darren’s younger brother Jason followed in his footsteps, playing for City between 1987 and 1991. The pair attended the Etihad together earlier this season to watch City v Norwich and both enjoyed this year’s Once A Blue Man City summertime catch-up in Manchester city centre (See image from Once A Blue below).
‘Jason would like to express his gratitude to the staff at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust for all their care and compassion, and would also like to thank Maggie’s Centres Manchester for providing invaluable advice and support to the Beckford family. On behalf of everyone at Once A Blue, may we offer our heartfelt condolences to Darren’s friends, family and team-mates as they come to terms with this huge loss. Rest in peace, Daz. You will never be forgotten Once a Blue, Always a Blue’
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:
Darren Beckford
I’ve just heard the news of Darren Beckford’s passing at the age of 59. Darren played for a variety of clubs but began his career with Manchester City and spent four years at Oldham Athletic. he also had two spells at Bury. My thoughts are with his family, friends and of course his brother Jason.
Darren was born on 12 May 1967 and became a forward with City, making his debut as substiture iv Middlesbrough in October 1984. His full debut came at Leeds on 8 April 1985.
In total he made 12 appearances in City’s first team. He joined Oldham in March 1993 and was with them until February 1997.
Throughout his time at City he was much loved by fans who hoped that he’d get a decent run in the first team. In the reserves and youth teams his skills were clear but some of the managerial change and player churn at City meant his first team chances were limited.
Of course Darren’s most successful spell of his career came at Port Vale. Signed permanently for £15,000—a fee raised in part by fans doing bucket collections—he established himself as an electric and dominant striker. He helped the club secure promotion to the Second Division via the play-offs in 1989 and finished as Port Vale’s top scorer for four consecutive seasons. In total, he bagged 81 goals in 214 appearances for the club.
Coppell: 33 Days
Losing to Forest yesterday is disappointing but today’s ’on this day’ is a reminder of a period when Manchester City fans were absolutely bamboozled by events at the club. Get ready, brave yourself for a nightmare reminder… 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:
Remember When City Scored Ten!
On this day (7 November) in 1987 Manchester City defeated Huddersfield Town 10-1. Paul Stewart, Tony Adcock, and David White each scored a hat-trick while the goal spree was started by Neil McNab. You can read the full story of the game; watch highlights and more here….
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