Football writing, thoughts and more by Gary James
The new series on Manchester City in the 1950s continues today with this 2,200 word article on the 1957-58 season. Enjoy!
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On this day (23 February) in 1935 Manchester City established a new Football League record crowd of 79,491. Here’s the story of that day and cuttings. Enjoy!
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On this day (11 January) in 1961 a Maine Road crowd of 39035 watched Les McDowall’s Manchester City play out a goalless draw with Cardiff City in a FA Cup 3rd round replay. The original fixture had ended 1-1. These were the days when drawn FA Cup games would go to a replay and another (and another and another etc.) if necessary.
The draw meant the replay would be played at a neutral venue and Arsenal’s Highbury ground was selected to stage the replay on 16 January. If you’d like to know how that ended (and the rest of that season) have a look at the following subscriber content. If you’d like to read this 1200 word article, plus all other articles on the site, then please subscribe (see below).
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On this day (November 28) in 1936 Manchester City’s game with Brentford was abandoned due to fog. The two were rivals for the League title and the rearrangement of that game did ultimately have a bearing on the title. More on this for subscribers below…
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On this day (25 November) in 1995 Manchester City’s legendary goalkeeper Bert Trautmann officially opened the new Kippax Stand at Maine Road. You can see the new stand at the top of this photo, with the Manchester City lettering on it. If you’re interested, you can now read more on City’s 1995-96 season below. This was a hugely significant season and this article is almost 5,500 words long.
Yes, I know but we can look back and remember from a position of relative comfortability now!
It’s available to subscribers, so why not subscribe and relive this extraordinary season? As with many of these subscriber features it contains material from interviews I’ve performed with key figures from that time.
Here’s the 5500 word article on that season:
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40 years ago today (14 November 1984) Australia visited Maine Road for a friendly. It was part of a series of matches against British clubs. City announced that the Blues would field a team of senior players but in the end this was a mixed team, containing several youth/fringe players.
The game ended in an Australian win. Here’s how the match was previewed in the City programme:
More on the 1984-85 season here:
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DonateToday’s the day (27 October) in 1965 when Malcolm Allison won a significant bet with Pat Crerand about attendances at Manchester City. The Blues had drawn 0-0 with Norwich at Maine Road, ensuring City were top of Division Two and looking like promotional hopefuls. A crowd of 34,091 watched the match and Allison was delighted with that figure. The attendance had won him ten pounds off Manchester United’s Paddy Crerand who had told the City coach that City were a ‘dying club’ and bet him the Blues would never get a crowd above 30,000 at Maine Road again! Later that season 63,034 watched City play Everton – an attendance greater than any domestic crowd at Old Trafford that season. Allison had the last laugh of course!
If you’ve enjoyed this then why not subscribe? Every subscription directly helps support my research and provides each annual 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.
Last night’s Champions League victory over Sparta Prague was not the first time the Czech side travelled to Manchester to face the Blues. Back on 11 December 1967 Sparta were at Maine Road ready to face City but the game was called off that evening as fans queued to enter the ground. The pitch had been frozen earlier but as the ground thawed it became waterlogged.
That night Sparta invited City to a friendly in Prague but that game never occurred either.
Of course the 1967-68 season ended with City as League champions.
On 14 October in 1953 the first game under floodlights at Maine Road took place, Manchester City 6 Hearts 3. Here’s an article about that period and City’s first floodlighting system, including a photo from the actual game and another report.
If you’d like to read this article then why not subscribe? The £20 annual subscription works out about £1.67 per month. 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.
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 City’s record is:
| Competition | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| League | 174 | 71 | 38 | 65 |
| FA Cup | 12 | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| League Cup | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| European | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Other | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
There have been lots of significant games in the League, FA Cup and League Cup. A League Cup final in 1976 saw them meet at Wembley when Peter Barnes and Dennis Tueart both scoring for the Blues.
Anyone remember being at Maine Road on the day City played away against Newcastle at Maine Road? That was in 1975. See:
101 years ago there was the last meeting at City’s famous old Hyde Road ground:
In 2012 a Newcastle v City game was crucial in the Blues’ title charge:
Elano’s wonder goal in 2007:
In 2021-22 there was a memorable City victory:
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:
When I was a teenager there was a second tier meeting that attracted a significant crowd for the period:
My Dad’s generation will remember the 1955 FA Cup final:
During 1956-57 there was a ‘game of the season’ in the FA Cup between the clubs:
My grandad’s generation would’ve remembered Billy Meredith’s last game:
Who remembers the title decider at Newcastle? Details:
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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