On this day (31 July) in 2008 Manchester City played a home game at Barnsley. This game made history as it was the first occasion the Blues had played a home European tie outside of Manchester. Previously City had played home European games at Maine Road and at the City Of Manchester Stadium, but work at Eastlands following a concert by Bon Jovi prevented the Club from staging the game at home. The decision was taken to stage the match at Barnsley. Subscribers can read about both legs of the European tie here:
Category Archives: Maine Road
A Kind Of Magic: Cassidy, Queen and Maine Road
On this day (July 16) in 1986 Queen played Maine Road. This was often considered to be the first major concert at Manchester City’s old stadium. However, it wasn’t. The first was actually a concert by David Cassidy in May 1974. This feature takes a look at that concert and the one by Queen which set the tone for legendary music performances at Maine Road.
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69,463 watch MCFC and Burnley in Division Two
On this day (May 10) in 1947 a solitary goal from Alec Herd against Burnley was enough to give Manchester City promotion. The attendance for this Second Division game was recorded by the media at the time as 67,672 but official records reviewed almost sixty years later showed that City actually recorded the attendance as 69,463.
Typically, the attendance figures City used to give the media for League games through to the 1960s tended to exclude season tickets. So the Blues’ management would give the figure of tickets or pay on the gate admission for the game but exclude season ticket holders. Back in 1946-47 City had around 1,800 season ticket holders and almost every League attendance back then is understated by that amount.
FA Cup games were the actual attendances as these were always sold game by game.
As this practice of excluding all season ticket holders continued for many, many decades at Maine Road attendance figures for League games are usually understated (they were often understated in the 1970s & 1980s as well but for different reasons and back then Peter Swales, Bernard Halford and the others involved in calculating attendances would deny any discrepancy despite many fans, fanzines and others challenging them often).
For comparison purposes it’s worth looking at the attendances of the Division One champions in 1947 to see how the Blues compared. This attendance against Burnley was almost 17,000 higher than Division One champions Liverpool’s highest crowd that season (52,512 v Wolves in December) and the Merseyside Reds nearest home game to City’s Burnley match was watched by 48,800 and that was Liverpool v Manchester United (May 3). Liverpool did average 45,732 that season, whereas City averaged 39,283 but they were a Second Division club.
The City-Burnley crowd was the Second Division’s record at the time and it was higher than every First Division crowd since the 1937-38 season (The Second Division record is now held by Tottenham v Southampton which had 70,302 in 1949-50).
Film of City v Burnley does exist but it’s in a most unlikely place. It was actually filmed as part of a Mancunian Films drama called Cup Tie Honeymoon. The company was run by a Manchester City fan who made this film, which starred Sandy Powell and Pat Phoenix (under her original name of Pilkington). A football game is crucial to the plot and scenes were filmed at Maine Road and interspersed with real action from the City-Burnley game to add credibility.
Myself and Will McTaggart have shown these scenes in our Boys In Blue film shows which have been staged at the Dancehouse and Cornerhouse in Manchester over the last decade. Maybe I’ll explain more about the film and those talks another day.
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You can access all of the content on this site, including the in-depth articles, audio recordings/interviews and entire content of my Manchester A Football History book by subscribing. It costs £20 a year (about £1.67 a month) and you have full access throughout your subscription. You can also give it a try by signing up for £3 a month (again full access throughout your membership). Thanks Gary.
Don’t forget you can order Peter Barnes’ biography now (before May 20th) and get your name printed in it (and a copy signed by both Peter and myself). Details here:
Manchester City Chants
Chanting at football games is rarely documented correctly with many myths, rumours and stories developing over the years. This feature is designed to give a potted overview of the development of singing at City.
I explained about some of the chants in this talk recently:
Now, for subscribers is an 1800 word article on the history and development of chants at Manchester City:
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Today in 1976
On this day (20 March) in 1976 a penalty from Dennis Tueart and a goal each from Mike Doyle and Ged Keegan gave City victory by the odd goal in five against Wolves at Maine Road. City ended the season eighth while Wolves were relegated alongside Burnley (their last appearance in the top flight until 2009-10) and Sheffield United.
Video of my online talk on history of MCFC Support/Match Day at Maine Road
Earlier today (Saturday March 5 at 3pm UK time) I did an online talk/presentation on the history of Manchester City’s support and match day at Maine Road. It was a celebration of fans and a reminder of Maine Road. I’ve now posted below a free to view video of the talk for anyone to watch…
The online talk lasted over 1 hour and was recorded live, so you should able to access it anywhere.The talk covered the history of Manchester City’s support with particular reference to:
•Match day ritual at Maine Road
•The Viking Call
•The ‘Boys Stand’
•Record crowds
•Songs & chants
•Fancy dress, bananas & bells
•Fanzines
•The Supporters Club
I had a couple of technical issues but you can watch it now here:
I’m keen to hear thoughts on the idea of doing other talks like this for subscribers to my site. If you’re interested then please get in touch and let me know what you’d like me to talk on. I have quite a few ideas I’m keen to do and am also open to suggestions. Thanks.
If you enjoy the talk then please subscribe to my site. I am a self employed historian and spend all my working week writing, researching and publishing my work. I am not an employee of any organisation (I know some think I’m employed by a football club but I’m not an employee of any club). I am independent of any organisation and care passionately about the quality and accuracy of my work.
A limited amount of content will always be free for anyone to read but those subscribing will have access to everything on this site for as long as they subscribe. For subscribers I guarantee to post a minimum of 4 articles alongside adding material from my archives each month (in practice it’s been much more than this!). To subscribe costs £3 a month or £20 a year (a reminder that the 2010 edition of Manchester A Football History cost £24.95 when published and is now out of print but available to subscribers as a downloadable pdf as part of their subscription.).
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Last Chance to Book: Free Online Talk on History of MCFC Support/Match Day at Maine Road
Tomorrow (Saturday March 5 at 3pm UK time) I will be doing an online talk/presentation on the history of Manchester City’s support and match day at Maine Road. It will be a celebration of fans and a reminder of Maine Road. If you want to watch/listen you’ll need to register by noon tomorrow (UK time; Saturday 5th March 2022). Details of how to do that are below…
The talk will last about 1 hour and will be online, so you should able to access it anywhere. It will cover the history of Manchester City’s support with particular reference to:
•Match day ritual at Maine Road
•The Viking Call
•The ‘Boys Stand’
•Record crowds
•Songs & chants
•Fancy dress, bananas & bells
•Fanzines
•The Supporters Club
This presentation and talk is based on my popular 2019 talk at the Dancehouse Theatre in Manchester (if you attended that you will already have seen it!). I go into detail about the history of City’s support and celebrate some of the unique aspects of over 125 years of Manchester City FC.
This is a free event but there are a limited number of tickets. These must be ordered in advance. There is a limited capacity and no one will be able to join the event without first registering. If you want to participate. Book here:
Free Online Talk on History of MCFC Support
On Saturday March 5 at 3pm (UK time) I will be doing a talk/presentation on the history of Manchester City’s support. If you want to watch/listen you’ll need to register. Details of how to do that below…
The talk will last about 1 hour and will be online, so you should able to access it anywhere. It will cover the history of Manchester City’s support with particular reference to:
•Match day ritual at Maine Road
•The Viking Call
•The ‘Boys Stand’
•Record crowds
•Songs & chants
•Fancy dress, bananas & bells
•Fanzines
•The Supporters Club
This presentation and talk is based on my popular 2019 talk at the Dancehouse Theatre in Manchester (if you attended that you will already have seen it!). I go into detail about the history of City’s support and celebrate some of the unique aspects of over 125 years of Manchester City FC.
This is a free event but there are a limited number of tickets. These must be ordered in advance. There is a limited capacity so please book early if you want to participate. Book here:
Free Online Talk on History of MCFC Support – Register Now
On Saturday March 5 at 3pm (UK time) I will be doing a talk/presentation on the history of Manchester City’s support.
The talk will last about 1 hour and will be online, so you should able to access it anywhere. It will cover the history of Manchester City’s support with particular reference to:
•Match day ritual at Maine Road
•The Viking Call
•The ‘Boys Stand’
•Record crowds
•Songs & chants
•Fancy dress, bananas & bells
•Fanzines
•The Supporters Club
This presentation and talk is based on my popular 2019 talk at the Dancehouse Theatre in Manchester (if you attended that you will already have seen it!). I go into detail about the history of City’s support and celebrate some of the unique aspects of over 125 years of Manchester City FC.
This is a free event but there are a limited number of tickets. These must be ordered in advance. Subscribers can order their tickets now. There is a limited capacity so please book early if you want to participate. If any tickets are left I will open this up for non-subscribers at a later day (though this cannot be guaranteed of course). Further details below for subscribers:
Subscribe to get access
Book your ticket for the talk and access all the articles, interviews and archive material on this site when you subscribe today.
MCFC 6-1 Brentford
Here’s film from this day (23 January) in 1932 of Manchester City playing Brentford at Maine Road. The 1930s was a good era for both clubs – in fact Brentford challenged City for the 1936-37 League title. The game shown here is a FA Cup tie at Maine Rd in front of 56,190.
The game is the second on this film and starts after about 1 minute 25 seconds. Watch out for some lads obviously playing up for the camera at the start of the City-Brentford clip. My favourite is the lad who larks around with his coat (below image).
There’s also a cracking City goal right at the end of the clip. Enjoy!
https://www.britishpathe.com/video/hard-luck-for-the-wolves
City’s scorers were Tilson (3), Brook (2) and Halliday.
Gary James' Football Archive 