Here’s an interesting cutting from the Official Programme of both Manchester City and Newton Heath in December 1898. Back then City’s and Newton Heath’s match programme was a joint affair, shared with a couple of rugby clubs too. Reading this gives an impression of how the rivalry was at the time – I’m sure City fans will find the line about referee Jack Lewis’s decision making interesting!
This game was actually played at City’s Hyde Road on Boxing Day 1898 and, as was typical of the period, both sets of fans were vocal and spread around the ground.
The opening paragraph described an infamous passageway that led to the Hyde Road ground and was often muddy. Also, worth noting that Billy Meredith was the biggest name in football and was a popular City player at this time.
The series of features on the 1890s continues today with a simple look at the average attendances of league clubs. I’m publishing the statistics here for season 1898-99 when Manchester City was a Second Division club – but look where they are in the attendance table! These figures are estimated based on newspaper reports of the period but are widely accepted as a good indication of support enjoyed at each club.
Glossop North End 1898
In the following table every team is in Division One unless (2) appears after their name. This indicates they were a Second Division club that season. Where two teams have the same average then these have been listed in alphabetic order.
1897-9 Average Attendances
Average
Team
20675
Aston Villa
18150
Newcastle
14525
Everton
13975
Liverpool
12300
Sunderland
10675
Notts County
10000
Manchester City (2)
9850
Sheff Utd
9400
Blackburn Rovers
8875
Sheff Wed
8850
Nottm Forest
8025
Stoke
7775
Newton Heath (2)
7550
Wolves
7450
Leicester Fosse (2)
7325
Bolton
7225
Derby
6125
Burnley
6025
Preston
5775
Small Heath (2)
5200
WBA
4600
Burslem Port Vale (2)
4525
Bury
4475
Woolwich Arsenal (2)
3350
New Brighton Tower (2)
3325
Grimsby (2)
3000
Lincoln (2)
2875
Walsall (2)
2775
Luton (2)
2750
Glossop (2)
2400
Barnsley (2)
2375
Burton Swifts (2)
2275
Gainsborough Trinity (2)
1900
Loughborough (2)
1500
Blackpool (2)
900
Darwen (2)
This series of features covers the final years of Ardwick, the birth of Manchester City and the Club’s first national success. Why not subscribe and read every feature? Here’s a link to the story of the 1898-99 season:
Here’s an 1800 article below on Manchester City in the final months of 1899:
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The series of features on Manchester City in the 1890s continues today with a 1900 word article on Manchester City in 1898-99 – the first season that any of the Manchester teams had achieved a national trophy success. Want to know more about this thrilling and landmark season? Then why not subscribe?
This series covers the final years of Ardwick, the birth of Manchester City and the Club’s first national success.
Subscribe to get access
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up a year at a time for the discounted annual fee of £20. This gives access to everything on the site, including PDFs of 3 of my books and various other articles, interviews and audio material. Each subscriber has access to all content posted during their subscription period too. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think?
A new series of features starts tomorrow. This series provides a season by season account of Ardwick AFC and Manchester City FC in the 1890s. Some are 2000+ word articles, others are a bit less, but each adds to the story of how the club evolved. So, if you’ve ever wondered how MCFC came into being and what happened to Ardwick AFC, here’s your chance to find out. This series covers the final years of Ardwick, the birth of Manchester City and Manchester’s first national title.
On this day (April 22) in 1899 Manchester City became the first side to gain automatic promotion when they won the Second Division title after a 4-1 victory over Blackpool. Goals from Meredith (2), Gillespie and Ross gave the Blues the win.
A series of test matches, similar to play offs, had been utilised in previous seasons. The Blues were also the first of the Manchester teams ever to earn promotion and the football season ended with Manchester City as comfortable champions of the Second Division. This meant they were the first Manchester team to win a national League competition too.
Near neighbours Glossop were also promoted that day. Here’s the final table:
Subscribers can read about the final game and other information from that season below:
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On this day (12 November) in 1898 Manchester City’s tenth League game of the season saw them travel to promotion rivals Glossop North End. According to the Glossop Chronicle the attendance was 7,000 with over half the attendance coming from Manchester. City won the match 2-1 with goals from Gillespie and Meredith. The Chronicle reporter described the opener as ‘the softest I have ever seen.’ He went on: ‘Williams [Glossop’s ‘keeper] got down to stop the ball as it rolled quietly goalwards, but he completely missed it, although it was going so slowly it hardly rolled as far as the net.’
The Glossop match came in the middle of a 13 match unbeaten run, placing City as comfortable League leaders. The main photo is of Glossop in 1898 and the following is of City that same season.
Tomorrow Manchester City face Arsenal in the League and there’s the possibility that national goalscoring records could be broken once again. A few weeks back I calculated that if Erling Haaland maintained a goal a game ratio in the remaining League fixtures for Manchester City he would better Tommy Johnson’s 38 goal tally by a goal. Since then Haaland, who is already City’s seasonal record scorer in all competitions, has indeed kept up that ratio – in fact he has surpassed it – and has now broken another barrier: 30 League goals in a season.
To celebrate this I’ve put together a feature comparing every player who has scored 30 goals or more for City, plus those Premier League goalscorers whose achievements could be bettered by Haaland this season. Here goes….
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This article is available for subscribers. It costs £20 a year (here) to access this and everything else on the site, including books, videos and 100s of articles.
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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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £20 a year (here) to access everything since December 2020 or for £3 per month (below) you can access everything from 1 October 2020.
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £20 a year (above) to access everything since December 2020 or for £3 per month (here) you can access everything from 1 October 2020. Why not join for a month and see what you think?
Continuing the weekly series of ‘True Blue’ figures associated with the early years of Manchester City, here’s an article on the City chairman John Chapman who died in office. You can find out why this man was such an important figure in Manchester City history below:
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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).
Continuing the weekly series of ‘True Blue’ figures associated with the early years of Manchester City, here’s an article on Billy Meredith who was the captain and goalscorer for Manchester’s first major trophy success. 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).
Gary James' Football Archive 