Football writing, thoughts and more by Gary James
This is the second chapter of the 2010 edition of the book Manchester A Football History (Gary James, published by James Ward). As with everything else on this site copyright laws apply. The book is published here for the personal use of subscribers to this site. For any other use please email the publishers at info@manchesterfootball.org
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On this day in 1953 Manchester City defeated Swindon Town 7-0 in the FA Cup third round at Maine Road. The goalscorers were Hart (4), Broadis, Cunliffe, and Williamson.
Exactly one year later future Manchester United and Manchester City full-back John Gidman was born in Garstang. Gidman went on to make 123 first team appearances for United and 71 for City. He briefly became a cult hero at Maine Road by stating that City were the only side he would leave Old Trafford for at the time of his transfer in 1986.
Eric Alexander was a wonderful man who had lived and breathed football, in particular Manchester City and the Lancashire FA for his entire life (he was also a key member of the Isle of Man TT for decades). Sadly Eric passed away in 2019. I met up with Eric often over the years, once travelling across to the Isle of Man where he gave me a personal tour of the island and told me some fascinating tales (maybe I should post some of those sometime?)
Every Manchester City fan should know about Eric and his family – who were key figures at City from formation as MCFC in 1894 through to Eric’s death. So, here’s an interview I did with Eric in 2015, shortly after he celebrated his 82nd birthday in July that year.
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There was an absolutely brilliant, emotional tribute to Colin Bell on the BBC’s Football Focus yesterday by ‘James Bond’ actor and MCFC fan Timothy Dalton. Everyone should watch it. It really was a nice piece.
Plus I was surprised to see myself later in the programme talking about Manchester City and the recent purchase of the FA Cup they won in 1904. The reason I was surprised is that I filmed the piece for MCFC and didn’t think the BBC would bother showing me and would just focus on the trophy itself.
I was delighted it appeared because it was so important the story of the significance of that trophy to Manchester is fully known. It was the point when Manchester became a Footballing City.
The BBC Iplayer has the episode available for the next 6 days. Watch it while you can:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000r753/football-focus-09012021
This is the first chapter of the 2010 edition of the book Manchester A Football History (Gary James, published by James Ward). As with everything else on this site copyright laws apply. The book is published here for the personal use of subscribers to this site. For any other use please email the publishers at info@manchesterfootball.org
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. You can sign up for a year at £20 here or at £3 per month lower down.
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. You can subscribe at either £20 per year (above) or at £3 per month here (cancel any time).
I did an interview for the Blue Moon Podcast the day after Colin Bell MBE passed away. It was an emotional morning of course. The guys at the podcast have made the entire interview free to listen to here:
The City of Manchester Stadium, as it was then known, staged the UEFA Cup Final in 2008 and this presented Manchester City with all the evidence the club needed that European football was something the Blues had to strive for. Fortunately they didn’t have to wait long for the chance to prove what they could do.
Qualification for the final season of the UEFA Cup (the competition was to be rebranded Europa League for 2009-10) was achieved via the Fair Play League and, as with 2003-04, City had to progress via qualification rounds. This time however, competition started much earlier for City with games played in July. It is also worth noting that the Blues had to travel to the remote Faroe Islands for their first match in the tournament.
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Following the purchase of the oldest surviving FA Cup by Sheikh Mansour I helped Manchester City with the story of the cup and its significance to Manchester. They’ve produced a video telling the story and it can be viewed here:
https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/manchesters-first-trophy-1904-fa-cup-documentary-63745781
For more on the significance of this FA Cup trophy check out the category 1903-04 in the drop down list below.
This is the Introduction for the 2010 edition of the book Manchester A Football History (Gary James, published by James Ward). As with everything else on this site copyright laws apply. The book is published here for the personal use of subscribers to this site. For any other use please email the publishers at info@manchesterfootball.org
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. You can subscribe for £20 a year (works out about £1.67 per month) here.
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In recent years fans of rival clubs have taunted Manchester City with jibes like ‘Empyhad’ yet evidence shows that, unlike most other clubs, City has been a major crowd-pulling club since first entering the League in the 1890s. Over time I’ll be posting lots of attendance related data on gjfootballarchve.com and I start here with a piece listing every occurrence of City topping the League or their division’s attendance charts.
Subscribe to this site to find out more (it costs £20 a year – about £1.67 a month – or £3 a month if subscribing a month at a time. For that you get full access to everything posted on this site and all new posts until your subscription ends. You’ll also be supporting my writing and research – Thanks. It is appreciated).
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