On this day (20 October 1934) King Charles III’s grandad attended Maine Road to watch Manchester City face Derby County in the League. It wasn’t the first time a senior member of the royal family attended a City home game, nor was it the last time a future monarch or monarch attended Manchester City’s home. You can read about those visits here:
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This action shot is from 101 years ago today (14 October 1922) and shows Manchester City’s Horace Barnes heading the ball out of the Stoke goalkeeper’s (Scott) hands. City won the match 2-1 (Horace Barnes & Tommy Johnson scoring for City) at Hyde Road and the stand seen in the background is City’s Popular Side.
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City v Newcastle is one of the most enduring fixtures in English football. There have been cup finals, title deciders, dramatic games, shared heroes and so much more. The two clubs first met in the League in October 1893 (Ardwick/MCFC’s 2nd season in the League) and have since played each other 189 times overall with City winning 76 and Newcastle 72 games.
As tonight is a League Cup tie, the most famous meeting of the teams in that competition came in 1976 at Wembley when Peter Barnes and Dennis Tueart both scored for the Blues.
Most Blues of my age and above will remember where they were when our King returned to action on Boxing Day 1977. Here’s an interview I did with him a few years back when we talked about that special day:
There was a really odd thing a while back where a Newcastle paper claimed that their local team had first worn bar scarves at games. A few simple searches soon proved there were much earlier bar scarfs:
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I’ve recently been on the Manchester City Podcast with Rob Pollard and Nedum Onuoha. I was being interviewed about Maine Road, the Etihad and my writing. If you’re lucky enough to have City+ you can watch it here:
Don’t forget I’ve also posted 100 days worth of free features on Maine Road on my website. Each one is titled Maine Road 100 followed by the day (Day One to Day 100 of course). Have a look through past posts or do a search/click the Maine Road tag below. Thanks
As Manchester City are playing Newcastle today (19 August 2023) and I’ve been doing a 100 day countdown to the centenary of Maine Road’s first game, it’s worth pausing to remember that before Maine Road City had another major venue that had staged games at an international level; semi-finals; been the best supported League club at; and had welcomed the King to. That ground was Hyde Road and the old stadium’s last ever League game came on 28 April 1923 when City drew 0-0 with Newcastle United (hence me doing this reminder today!).
The match was watched by a crowd of around 20,000. On the same date Wembley Stadium, built by the same people who were building Maine Road, hosted its first FA Cup final and, because of the extraordinary scenes, very little space was given over to the City game in the national ‘papers. Instead they concentrated on Bolton’s performance and the exploits of Billy, the white horse, in clearing the Wembley pitch.
Three months after the last Hyde Road League match, on 18 August, the last ever game, a practice match, was staged on the pitch. Afterwards the goal posts and a few turnstiles were taken from the old ground and erected at Maine Road – about 6 were still at Maine Road in 2003 when it was demolished. Attempts were made to keep one of the oldest (from 1896) and re-erect it in a public area at the new stadium. Sadly, the day before it was to be removed the external wall was smashed and the turnstile was stolen.
One of the Hyde Road stand roofs was dismantled and sold to Halifax Town to be re-erected at the Shay.
The Shay had opened approximately twelve months before Hyde Road’s last League match, and a stand had already been constructed. When this stand was extended it coincided with the demolition of City’s ground. Basically, it appears that the metalwork from one of City’s multi-span roofs was dismantled and re-erected along the touchline at the Shay. It was linked to the existing roof, and formed one traditional style roof. The roof still exists at the Shay today, although during the early 1990s it was re-clad.
The front stanchions look suspiciously like those at Hyde Road, while my investigations in the late 1990s highlighted that the metalwork matched that of similar roofing at a factory in Sale. That factory’s roof was also a former stand roof from Hyde Road. Both the Shay roof and that in Sale were so similar that it seems likely they had previously been erected at Hyde Road.
The Sale factory was dismantled and sections of the roof given to Manchester City for possible re-use in a City museum. Sadly, by 2002 the metalwork had vanished from Maine Road and its whereabouts unknown.
A page from Charles Thurrell’s copy of Hyde Road’s last league game match programme v Newcastle, 28 April 1923Charles Thurrell’s copy of Hyde Road’s last league game match programme v Newcastle, 28 April 1923
On 18 August 1923 the last ever game, a practice match, was staged at Manchester City’s Hyde Road ground with a crowd of about 10,000. Afterwards the goal posts and a few turnstiles were taken from the old ground and erected at Maine Road – about 6 were still at Maine Road in 2003 when it was demolished. Attempts were made to keep one of the oldest (from 1896) and re-erect it in a public area at the new stadium. Sadly, the day before it was to be removed the external wall was smashed and the turnstile was stolen.
Today (28 April) in 1923 Hyde Road staged its last League game as Manchester City drew 0-0 with Newcastle United.
The match was watched by a crowd of around 20,000. On the same date Wembley Stadium, built by the same people who were building Maine Road, hosted its first FA Cup final and, because of the extraordinary scenes, very little space was given over to the City game in the national ‘papers. Instead they concentrated on Bolton’s performance and the exploits of Billy, the white horse, in clearing the Wembley pitch.
Three months after the last Hyde Road League match, on 18 August, the last ever game, a practice match, was staged on the pitch. Afterwards the goal posts and a few turnstiles were taken from the old ground and erected at Maine Road – about 6 were still at Maine Road in 2003 when it was demolished. Attempts were made to keep one of the oldest (from 1896) and re-erect it in a public area at the new stadium. Sadly, the day before it was to be removed the external wall was smashed and the turnstile was stolen.
One of the Hyde Road stand roofs was dismantled and sold to Halifax Town to be re-erected at the Shay.
The Shay had opened approximately twelve months before Hyde Road’s last League match, and a stand had already been constructed. When this stand was extended it coincided with the demolition of City’s ground. Basically, it appears that the metalwork from one of City’s multi-span roofs was dismantled and re-erected along the touchline at the Shay. It was linked to the existing roof, and formed one traditional style roof. The roof still exists at the Shay today, although during the early 1990s it was re-clad.
The front stanchions look suspiciously like those at Hyde Road, while my investigations in the late 1990s highlighted that the metalwork matched that of similar roofing at a factory in Sale. That factory’s roof was also a former stand roof from Hyde Road. Both the Shay roof and that in Sale were so similar that it seems likely they had previously been erected at Hyde Road.
The Sale factory was dismantled and sections of the roof given to Manchester City for possible re-use in a City museum. Sadly, by 2002 the metalwork had vanished from Maine Road and its whereabouts unknown.
A page from Charles Thurrell’s copy of Hyde Road’s last league game match programme v Newcastle, 28 April 1923Charles Thurrell’s copy of Hyde Road’s last league game match programme v Newcastle, 28 April 1923
On Saturday April 22 1899 the football season ended with Manchester City as comfortable champtions of the Second Division. They were the first side nationally to gain automatic promotion (a series of test matches, similar to play offs, had been utilised in previous seasons) and the first of the Manchester teams ever to earn promotion and win a national League competition.
Subscribers can read about the final game and other information from that season below:
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100 years ago today (April 2 1923) Manchester City won a first team game at Hyde Road for the last time. They defeated Sunderland 1-0 with a goal from Horace Barnes after about thirty minutes. The above is a report of that goal (I love the way these things used to be described – ‘the linesmen drew the attention of the referee…’).
It was a controversial game which angered City’s Hyde Road fans, as this section of the report shows:
Also worth bearing in mind that this was the 3rd game in four days – what would today’s managers make of that! Even in the 1980s I remember games being played on Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Monday.
In the other games City had lost 2-0 at Sunderland (March 30) and beaten Chelsea 3-0 (March 31)at Hyde Road.
The gate receipts at Sunderland on Good Friday we’re said to be quite substantial from a 35,000 crowd. So substantial that the Roger Park offices were broken into that night BUT, fortunately for Sunderland, the takings had already been taken from the ground (presumably by staff not fans!).
After this last win at Hyde Rd two further top flight games were played there – a 1-1 with Nottingham Forest and a 0-0 with Newcastle United. Neither of which attracted particularly significant crowds and there was no great ‘Farewell To Hyde Road’ commemoration (if I’d have been around I’d have tried to write a book on the old place). Maybe fans felt the move still wouldn’t happen as Maine Road was some way off completion?
Interesting note: Maine Road’s last victory was against Sunderland on 21/4/2003 and again there were two further home games to come after it!
Continuing the series of ‘True Blue’ figures associated with the early years of Manchester City, here’s an article on John Allison who was a key figure with Ardwick AFC, Manchester City, Salford Harriers and also at Celtic. You can find out why this man was such an important figure in Manchester City history below:
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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. Annual subscribers can access all the articles, talks, books and interviews posted since December 2020 for an annual subscription of £20 (works out about £1.67 per month). There’s also a monthly subscription (see below).
Monthly subscribers can access all the articles, talks, books and interviews posted since 1 October 2022 for a monthly subscription of £3 (cancel any time).
The full series of True Blue profiles will feature:
Lawrence Furniss, John Allison, Joshua Parlby, Walter Chew, William Sumner, Tom Maley, St Mark’s community leaders, Billy Meredith, John Chapman, William Beastow and James Moores.
