Continuing the weekly series on Manchester City’s seasons from 1999-2000 through to 2008-09. Each week I’ll be publishing here the story of a different season of that remarkable ten-year period. Today we have a 4,200 word article on the 2003-04 season (below) which was City’s first at the City of Manchester Stadium (now Etihad of course).
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Starting on Monday is a new weekly series on Manchester City’s seasons from 1999-2000 through to 2008-09. Each week I’ll be publishing an article here telling the story of a different season of that remarkable ten-year period. The series will start on Monday with an 8,800 word article on 1999-2000 and will end with the 2008-09 season. There will be a new season each week, following on chronologically.
Subscribe to get access – Annual
This series will be for subscribers to my website. It costs £20 a year to access everything on the site since creation in December 2020. That includes articles, history talks, videos, interviews & more. There’s also a monthly option below.
This series will be for subscribers to my website. Monthly subscription costs £3 per month to access everything on the site since 1 October 2022 (cancel anytime). All subscribers access all new material until their subscription ends. Why not give it a try for a month?
Manchester City have announced plans to develop the Etihad Stadium further, increading capacity to about 60,000 plus lots of other stuff. There’s a fan and community consultation as part of the plans too. The club have said: ‘Manchester City is delighted to unveil concepts for a best-in-class fan experience and year-round entertainment and leisure destination at the Etihad Stadium, with fans and the local community invited to share their feedback from today until Sunday 26 March.’
The announcement follows City’s announcement in December 2022 that feasibility studies were underway to explore concepts that could form part of ‘a future stadium development, consistent with the long-held vision to establish the Etihad Campus and the wider area as a globally relevant and competitive sport, leisure and entertainment destination.’
According to the plans released today: ‘several connected all-weather facilities, fully integrated into the stadium, are centred around an expanded North Stand with one larger, single upper tier above the existing lower tier, increasing stadium capacity to over 60,000.’
City Square will also be improved with: ‘a covered City Square fan zone, with a capacity of 3,000 and a wide variety of food and drink outlets, new club shop, museum and hotel, are all proposed in order to offer a broader range of dynamic matchday and non-matchday activities.’
It all sounds good and continues the investment in Manchester, community and facilities. If only all clubs could invest in their communities like this. More details:
Sorry to hear the news about John Motson, who has died. I’ve several Motty anecdotes that I’ll always cherish. I wrote to him over 30 years ago about Joe Mercer not really expecting a reply but he phoned me up at 10.30pm to share his memories. Wonderful stuff though it did initially worry me that someone was phoning from a number I didn’t recognise at that time. I answered the phone thinking that there could be some sort of family emergency only to hear the voice on the other end say: ‘Is that Gary James? This is John Motson. How are you doing old boy?’
Another time there was also a surreal moment when I drove him to his 1st visit to the COM Stadium (now Etihad of course). I’d asked him to do some voice over work for the new MCFC museum – I was project managing the development as a freelance consultant. Throughout the 20 mins journey he bombarded me with statistical questions before I managed to divert his attention on to a few of his anecdotes. I’d never been questioned so much on long lost players and records. That journey even made it into Motty’s book….
A page from Motty’s Year. John Motson’s book.
Though he didn’t reveal how he’d kept me on my toes throughout the journey and our meeting that day!
The recordings we were due to do that day were delayed considerably as I’d invited City’s Secretary Bernard Halford over for lunch. Bernard and Motty were great friends and they spent several hours talking about various people and clubs. It was a wonderful insight into how their minds worked.
When we did get around to do the recording John had a few questions about the scripts I’d written. There was one bit that he told me off about! I’d written about the 1981 FA Cup final when Tommy Hutchison scored both for City and against City. My words said something like: ‘Then tragedy struck as Hutchison diverted the ball into his own net.’ Motty looked at me and said: ‘Now then Gary. It wasn’t a tragedy.’ I replied something like: ‘It was to City. It cost us the game and everything that followed.’
‘Yes, but Gary that’s not a tragedy. Heysel’s a tragedy. Conceding a goal is a misfortune.’ Motty was of course absolutely right and while football is full of hyperbole ever since that day I’ve always tried to focus on the specific meaning of words like that. An own goal or defeat is a misfortune.
Thanks Motty for your help that day and on the other occasions over the decades we’ve chatted etc.
On 17th of this month I posted the first part of a two part feature on the royal family and Manchester City. Now, as promised, here’s the second part focusing on visits to Manchester City by the UK monarchs over the decades plus a few other snippets. Enjoy this free to read article…
Before I start with part two here’s a link to the first part of the feature:
Over the years Manchester City has proved to be a very popular club for visits by significant members of the British Royal family and of other nations’ royalty. Whether this has anything to do with the club’s success, the stadium’s importance, or the role of Manchester in terms of industry and commercial activity is unclear (probably a bit of all of that!). There have been two major royal visits to Maine Road and there has been a significant visit to the club’s former ground at Hyde Road (though some people incorrectly think there have been two!). In addition, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh plus other senior royals visited the City of Manchester Stadium (now Etihad) twice for the Commonwealth Games. Prince Philip was creating history by becoming the first senior member of the Royal family to visit two of City’s venues.
The first Royal visit to Maine Road was on 20 October 1934 when the Duke of York (future King George VI, Queen Elizabeth II’s father) watched City’s 1-0 defeat by Derby County. Prior to the match the Duke was introduced to both sides and then he took his seat at the front of the Directors’ Box. The previous year he had witnessed City’s FA Cup final defeat to Everton at Wembley.
The next major Royal visit came on Thursday 7 May 1964 when Prince Philip witnessed a City-United derby match. The game had been organised by the Variety Club of Great Britain as a charity fund raiser for underprivileged children, and it had been hoped a capacity crowd of over sixty thousand would be present, however appalling weather limited the attendance to approximately 36,000. Philip, as with the Duke of York thirty years earlier, sat in the Directors’ Box, although this time, according to newspaper reports the box had been decked out with flowers and was christened the Royal Box for the evening.
The game ended with Philip presenting the Duke of Edinburgh Cup to United’s captain Denis Law on the pitch in the pouring rain. Thousands of children, according to local reports, swarmed on to the pitch, as the Duke became drenched. Interestingly, Philip’s visit to the Commonwealth Games in 2002 also saw him suffer with the rain. Perhaps he remembered his 1964 visit as he waited for the 2002 Games to end!
City’s current stadium has welcomed a variety of international royal guests, including the former King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, who attended City v Liverpool in March 2017, while Maine Road saw several visits by middle eastern princes and others over the years.
The most significant Royal visit of all to a City venue has to be the 1920 appearance of King George V at Hyde Road. This was the first visit to a provincial ground by a reigning monarch and as such is of immense importance. A month or so earlier the King had gone to watch a FA Cup tie at Stamford Bridge between Chelsea and Leicester.
It has been suggested that twenty years earlier, however, Queen Victoria’s son, the Prince of Wales (future King Edward VII), attended Hyde Road. This is a myth – please don’t believe it! I’m always keen on finding evidence and the author who propagated this story actually mistook City director Joshua Parlby for the future King on a photograph!
I’ve performed extensive research on this so-called visit and have revealed in earlier books (most notably Farewell To Maine Road in 2003) that the visit did not occur. As with all myths I try to work backwards to understand how these things take hold and why some become convinced (don’t get me started on the myth about Anna Connell!). I find it helps to get to the source because that way it becomes clear why someone who hasn’t performed detailed research becomes convinced. So, here’s the story of how some authors have incorrectly claimed a royal visit in 1900…
Back in 1930 City’s first true history, Manchester City Football Club Souvenir History by Fred Johnson, stated: ‘The Hyde Road ground was honoured with the presence of His Majesty the King on March 27th 1900 when Liverpool were opposed.’ This is clearly a typographical error as the incident it refers to is the visit of King George on 27 March 1920 (Liverpool were the visitors).
This explains the birth of the error but a photograph has also been produced by one author ‘showing’ the King at Hyde Road. It shows nothing of the sort and the photo (below) is clearly a red herring. It is Hyde Road (the stand in the background is the Stone Yard Stand) but the two gentlemen wearing top hats have been claimed to be leading royals with the one closest to the camera supposedly future King Edward. However, he is not. I’ve compared these photos to others in my collection and published in the early 1900s. These images are actually from the visit of future Prime Minister Arthur Balfour in September 1900.
Balfour was the only significant visitor that day and his head actually appears on the image (between the ladies and the top-hatted men). One of the women is described as Balfour’s daughter on another photo from this day. The top-hatted gent at the back is City director W. Richmond (director between 1896 and 1902), while the other top-hatted man looks an awful lot like Joshua Parlby (the club’s former manager and a director in 1900).
Regardless of this myth, it is amazing that three successive monarchs had attended City’s grounds, albeit in George VI’s case he was still Duke of York when he attended Maine Road in 1934.
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On this day (14 September) in 2003 two penalties from Nicolas Anelka helped Manchester City to their first League victory at the City Of Manchester Stadium (now Etihad Stadium). The match with Aston Villa ended 4-1 and it also saw Anelka score the first hat-trick at the new stadium and the first penalty.
You can watch about ten minutes of highlights here:
On this day (14 August) in 2003 the City of Manchester Stadium (now Etihad Stadium) staged its first competitive game as City defeated TNS 5-0 in the UEFA Cup. Relive that night (and Granada TV!) with this video of the game:
Watch this film taken from the away section at the Etihad last week of Manchester City’s third (and title winning) goal. The celebrations are great to see from this end:
Those celebrations hey? Genuine, powerful, raw… it matters!
Every time City win a trophy in dramatic fashion I always think ’ah, well we’ll never experience anything like that again. Next time it’ll feel different’ but then they go and do something like today. As time goes by we’ll start to think of this as an incredible way to win the title. For now its more of a ’phew!’
Congratulations City. Great achievement and it’s been an incredible season. To win the Premier League you have to be the best, most consistent team that season. Cup competitions are important and it’s great winning them but ultimately winning the League – especially one that we are often told is the greatest in the League – is the mark of a truly great team. Brilliant work City.
Let’s not forget it’s 4 titles in 5 seasons too!
Years ago the great City coach Malcolm Allison told me that ‘it’s important to celebrate each success as if it’s your first because it could be your last.’ Let’s keep celebrating Blues. Never take anything for granted.
The first Manchester derby at Manchester City’s new stadium (then called the City of Manchester Stadium, now the Etihad) occurred on this date (14th March) in 2004. For pride’s sake it was important Kevin Keegan’s side did not lose that fixture, but with United some 13 places above the Blues pre-match Ferguson’s side were clear favourites. It was time for City to upset the form book.
On a wonderful day, perhaps the best the stadium had enjoyed in its inaugural year, a terrific atmosphere helped Keegan’s side achieve a memorable victory. Fowler opened the scoring in the third minute and Macken made it 2-0 after 32 minutes. Scholes made it 2-1 three minutes later.
In the second half goals from Mancunian Trevor Sinclair (73) and Shaun Wright-Phillips made it 4-1 to the Blues. You can hear my interview with Trevor Sinclair about this game here:
Matt Dickinson (The Times): “Humiliated by Manchester City last season, Sir Alex Ferguson and his men used the pain to fuel their drive to the title. Humiliated again yesterday, they are condemned to live with the despair for months – perhaps even years.”
Keegan felt the win was thoroughly deserved: “We had played better against Chelsea and lost. But against United we got that important early goal which gave us something to hang on to. We had personnel problems because we had players doing jobs that don’t come naturally to them and also had to make two enforced changes at the interval.”
Chris Bailey explained the significance of the match in the Manchester Evening News: “Maine Road saw some pulsating derbies in its time but few could have matched this first-ever neighbourly spat at Eastlands. And how satisfying that Kevin Keegan’s side should choose this day of all days to win their first home game since October 18 and banish all thoughts of the drop.”
In 2012 Dennis Tueart, who was a director at the time of the stadium move, told me his memories of that derby match, believing it was an important moment in the stadium’s inaugural season: “When we moved to the stadium Kevin Keegan worried about whether the atmosphere would be the same and I told him that fans would take a bit of time getting used to it because they were no longer sat with the people they’d been with for years. The dynamics were different. He felt we should try and get fans in the ground earlier, but I said that performance on the pitch would be the most significant factor.
“When we beat United 4-1 in the first derby at the stadium the atmosphere was incredible. Kevin came to me afterwards and said ‘I see what you mean’. That then set the tone of the place. The place was rocking – people were singing as they walked down the spirals at the end of the match and the atmosphere was absolutely superb.”
If you would like to read about other Manchester derbies then check out this:
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