My series on Manchester City in the 1930s begins today with a 1,300 word subscriber article on the 1929-30 season. If you subscribe (see below) I hope you enjoy it. If you don’t subscribe then why not try it for a month (£3 per month or sign up for a year at a discounted £20 per year)?
Here’s the article:
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A new series of articles and features starts tomorrow on Manchester City in the 1930s. Some features will be available for all and some will be available only for subscribers. If you’d like to find out more on subscribing see:
Last night (27 February 2024) Erling Haaland became the third Manchester City player to score five goals in a FA Cup game when he faced Luton. The two previous players to achieve this feat were Frank Roberts (see link below for video of the game he scored 5 in) and Bobby Marshall. Marshall’s five came in a FA Cup replay at Swindon on 29 January 1930 when City won 10-1. The attendance for this Tuesday afternoon match was 46,082 – a remarkable figure for an afternoon game in the days before floodlit competition.
Here are a couple of reports of that game (the second contains the goalscoring times/sequence):
For Haaland there were a few records/points to note:
He is regarded as the first player to score five or more in the FA Cup (1st round onwards) since Duane Darby scored 6 for Hull v Whitby in 1996-97.
He is the first to score five or more for a top-flight club in the FA Cup since George Best scored 6 for United v Northampton in 1970.
He is the first to score five against Luton for City since Denis Law in 1961 when Law scored 6 but all were wiped from the records as the game was abandoned.
This is the second time Haaland has scored five goals in a game in his senior career, previously doing so for City against RB Leipzig in the Champions League in March 2023.
Since his debut for City in July 2022, Haaland has scored 79 goals in 83 games in all comps, 30 more than any other Premier League player in the that time (Salah 49).
Today (30 March) in 1929 legendary goalscorer Tommy Johnson netted twice as Manchester City defeated Burnley 4-1 at Maine Road (other scorers were Brook and Marshall). These were Johnson’s 32nd and 33rd League goals of his record breaking season when he netted 38 League goals. I wonder if he’ll still hold the record for most City League goals in a season by the end of this current season.
Manchester City have scored ten goals or more on a few occasions since formation, most famously in 1987 against Huddersfield Town when the Blues won 10-1. Today (29 January) is the anniversary of another 10-1 victory. This came in 1930 when the fourth FAC tie played by City in 18 days ended in a 10-1 victory over Swindon Town. Subscribers can read reports of the game below.
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While we look forward to the return of domestic football it’s worth remembering that before the pause for the World Cup there had already been records broken by Manchester City, such as the incredible goalscoring start to the season by Erling Haaland; results like the Manchester Derby 6-3 victory and Rico Lewis becoming the youngest player to score in his first Champions League start. In mid-August there was a flurry of excitement across social media and elsewhere when City were top of the Premier League and United were bottom. People asked when was the last time that had happened.
It turned out that the two clubs had last been in those positions way back in November 1929 and it seemed to surprise some that it was so long ago. The truth is that no matter how poor United or City may have been in past seasons, it has been extremely rare for either club to occupy the bottom spot over the decades. It has been even rarer for the other ‘Manchester’ club to be top at the same time.
So for this 1400 word subscriber article I’m going to talk about when one team has been top and the other bottom and then I’ll take a look at 1929 and the years that followed to highlight how the two Manchester clubs fared. Enjoy….
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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. Subscribe here for £20 a year and get access to everything posted on the site since launching in December 2020. Subscribe below for £3 a month for access to everything since 1st October 2022. Whichever subscription you take out you will get access to everything for the full length of your subscription. Why not do £3 for a month to see what you think?
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. Subscribe above for £20 a year and get access to everything posted on the site since launching in December 2020. Subscribe here for £3 a month for access to everything since 1st October 2022. Whichever subscription you take out you will get access to everything for the full length of your subscription. Why not do £3 for a month to see what you think?
Gary James' Football Archive 