Category Archives: Maine Road

Maine Road: The Back of Platt Lane

During my Maine Road 100 series of free articles commemorating the centenary of Manchester City’s former stadium I had hoped to post this image showing players playing head tennis on the directors’ car park with the Platt Lane Stand in the background. I couldn’t find my scan until this week sadly, so here it is now.

As a kid I used to sit in the Platt Lane and sometimes, if we didn’t walk through the corner tunnel, we’d climb those steps up to the back of the stand. You can see elsewhere (follow links below) stories about the old stand explaining how it was expanded, its age and so on, but the relevant bit for me today is the stair case(s). Back in the 70s they used to scare me. Climbing up or down I felt they were rickety and you could see through the gaps. I much preferred going down the tunnel.

Do you have memories of the old Platt Lane? Feel free to post them as comments here. Thanks.

Maine Road 100 – Day 10
Maine Road 100 – Day 7
Maine Road 100 – Day 11

Fenerbahce Blues

On this day (18 September) in 1968 Manchester City’s first European Cup fixture against Fenerbahce ended goalless at Maine Road.  This was the first time two British clubs from the same city had competed in the European Cup. Here’s a match report of the City game:

Francis Lee (left) and Mike Summberbee (right) threaten the Fenerbahce goal in City’s first European Cup tie in 1968.

Subscribers can read a feature about that game here:

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Maine Road interview on Radio Manchester

On Monday I recorded an interview with Mike Sweeney for BBC Radio Manchester about Maine Road and the Etihad. You can listen to it here (I’ve not listened but I’ve been told I’m about 90 minutes in):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0g4bc0m

Maine Road 100 – Day 100: The English Hampden

2023 marks the 100th anniversary of Maine Road’s first game and to commemorate this landmark moment I have been posting a different image or feature on the old stadium each day for the last 100 days. Today is day 100 and is the actual centenary of that historic first game. So guess what I’m covering today? On this day (25 August) in 1923 Manchester City’s Maine Road Stadium staged its first game. Here is film of that landmark day in Manchester’s sporting history…

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-million-spectators-welcome-return-of-football-1923-online

You can also read a 1100 word article about the opening of the stadium and on why the ground was considered to be the ‘English Hampden’ and not the ‘Wembley of the North’ that some have tried to claim in more recent times.

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Maine Road 100 – Day 99

It’s Day 99 of my Maine Road 100 countdown to the centenary of Maine Road’s first game. One more day to go! I hope you’ve enjoyed this free series. Today it’s about the oldest and youngest players to have appeared for City at Maine Road. Any ideas who they may be?

Billy Meredith was the oldest to play for City at Maine Road. He was 49 years & 238 days old when he played for City against Preston on 22/3/1924. This was Maine Road’s first season too!

Billy Meredith Returns to MCFC in 1921

Glyn Pardoe was the youngest to play for City at Maine Road. He was 15 years and 314 days old when he made his debut v Birmingham City on 11/4/1961.

Tomorrow will be the centenary of Maine Road’s first game. I hope you have enjoyed my 100 day countdown. If you have enjoyed this series of articles and posts on Maine Road then why not become a subscriber and access all the other great content. To find out more see:

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Maine Road 100 – Day 98

It’s Day 98 of my Maine Road 100 countdown to the centenary of Maine Road’s first game. I hope you’ve enjoyed these. Today it’s about the players who have scored most goals in individual games at Maine Road. Any ideas who may be heading the list and how many goals they may have scored in a single game at Maine Road?

The following are the players who have scored most in a single game for each of the domestic competitions at Maine Road:

League: 5 goals – scored by Tommy Browell v Burnley 24/10/25 & George Smith v Newport 14/6/47

FA Cup: 5 goals – scored by Frank Roberts v Crystal Palace 20/2/26

League Cup: 4 goals – scored by Dennis Tueart v Notts County 29/10/80. You can see stuff on this here:

Bond’s First; Tueart Scores 4

You can read about Frank Roberts v Palace here:

Maine Road 100 – Day 91

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Maine Road 100 – Day 97

It’s Day 97 of my Maine Road 100 countdown (almost there!) to the centenary of Maine Road’s first game and today it’s a simple one on the club that visited Maine Road as an away team the most. Any ideas who that was?

The team that’s played as a away side the most at Maine Road in League games is Arsenal. Of course Manchester United did play home games at Maine Road during the 1940s, but as an away team Arsenal have been the visitors the most. They’ve played City in 56 League games at Maine Road.

The team that’s appeared as an away team against the Blues the most in the FA Cup is Leicester City (6) while Blackpool (7) have been the most frequent Maine Road opponents in the League Cup.

Fans at MCFC v Arsenal and Mossley v Wigan, February 1935

If you have enjoyed this series of articles and posts on Maine Road then why not become a subscriber and access all the other great content. To find out more see:

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Maine Road 100 – Day 96

It’s Day 96 of my Maine Road 100 countdown (not long to go now!) to the centenary of Maine Road’s first game and a brief post on the first and last first team penalty takers at Maine Road. Anyone know who they were? I’m sure many people reading this were there when the last penalty was taken in a first team game at Maine Road. Got it?

That’s right the last first team competitive penalty taken at Maine Road was by Stuart Pearce on 21 April 2002 v Portsmouth. He missed (Elsewhere on this site I tell the story of that day – well worth reading if you’re wondering what was so special about it).

The first penalty at Maine Road was also missed. That was taken by Frank Roberts in the opening game v Sheffield United on 25 August 1923.

Of course Garry Bradbury will claim it’s actually him who took the last penalty at Maine Road as he took one for Merseyside CSA in the Supporters’ Club challenge against Prestwich & Whitefield, in a match that was claimed to be the final game at Maine Road on 12 June 2003.

If you have enjoyed this series of articles and posts on Maine Road then why not become a subscriber and access all the other great content. To find out more see:

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BBC & MCFC Interviews

Busy day today talking about the history of Manchester City, in particular the story of City’s stadia. It’s 100 years on Friday since Maine Road’s first game and we’ve just had the 20th anniversary of the Etihad’s (then known as City of Manchester Stadium) first game. Time flies!

The interviews today started with Mike Sweeney interviewing me about Maine Rd and the Etihad for BBC Radio Manchester – that will be played on Friday assuming all is okay – and then it was off to Manchester City for the next set of interviews about the club’s grounds and other stuff.

Later I’m chatting elsewhere about football, sorry soccer, in the USA. A busy day.

Mediacity BBC

Maine Road 100 – Day 95 Answer

It’s Day 95 of my Maine Road 100 countdown (not long to go now!) to the centenary of Maine Road’s first game. Earlier I asked the question: Of all the brilliant players who graced Maine Road over the decades who do you think was the one who scored most goals at the old stadium? Answer later today. Watch this space about 9pm UK time!

Well, the answer is Colin Bell. Colin scored 107 first team goals at Maine Road with Eric Brook next on 106 first team goals. The main image is Colin scoring v Spurs in December 1967.

I bet there are a few fans out there who saw every one of Colin’s 107 first team Maine Road goals. Feel free to leave comments on the great City star below. Also, why not check out the other articles that mention Colin such as this on his debut for Bury:

Goalkeeper Dowd Scores; Colin Bell’s Bury Scoring Debut

Or this interview I did with him many years ago:

IN SEARCH OF THE BLUES – Colin Bell MBE (interviewed in January 2005)