Category Archives: 1930-31

The 1920s: Peter Hodge

Continuing the series on Manchester City in the 1920s here’s a brief post on 1920s City manager Peter Hodge. Enjoy!

Peter Hodge

City Manager between: 26 April 1926 – 12 March 1932

Previously:  Former Leicester City manager.

Took Over From: Committee led by vice-chairman Albert Alexander snr.

Inherited: Sam Cowan, Tommy Johnson & Frank Roberts.

Players Brought In: Eric Brook & Fred Tilson.

Youngster Gave Debut To: Matt Busby

Players He Let Go/Sold:  Tommy Johnson in 1930, leading to widespread demonstrations and a boycott (crowds dropped by around 8,000 following the move). 

First Game: City 2 Leeds Utd 0 (City scorers Austin & Johnson), 27 April 1926, Division One, attendance 43,475 

Lows: Relegation five days and 2 games after taking over in 1926.

Last Game: Arsenal 1 City 0, 12 March 1932, FA Cup semi final at Villa Park,  attendance 50,337.  

Unusual Start:  It was agreed Hodge would become City manager in 1926 but would only take up the post after his current club Leicester ended their own season.  Their last game was on 24th April 1926 and he became City’s manager with 2 League games left the following Monday.  The Blues looked safe from relegation, but defeat at Newcastle saw City demoted (a point would have kept them up).

Similar End:  Hodge’s City career ended with defeat by a solitary goal in the dying seconds of the FA Cup semi-final with Arsenal in 1932.  The manager had already agreed to return to his previous club Leicester once City’s FA Cup campaign ended.

Season By Season Record:

League

1925-26 P 2 W 1      D 0      L 1      GF 4               GA 4   Pts 2

1926-27 P 42 W 22 D 10    L 10    GF 108          GA 61 Pts 54

1927-28 P 42 W 25 D 9      L 8      GF 100           GA 59 Pts 59

1928-29 P 42 W 18 D 9      L 15    GF 95             GA 86 Pts 45

1929-30 P 42 W 19 D 9      L 14    GF 91             GA 81 Pts 47

1930-31 P 42 W 18 D 10    L 14    GF 75             GA 70 Pts 46

1931-32 P 32 W 11 D 10    L 11    GF 70             GA 59 Pts 32

2 points for a win

FA Cup

1925-26 City competed in the FA Cup Final 2 days before he took over.

1926-27 P 1 W 0      D 0      L 1      GF 1   GA 4   Reached 3rd round

1927-28 P 3 W 2      D 0      L 1      GF 3   GA 2   Reached 5th round

1928-29 P 1 W 0      D 0      L 1      GF 1   GA 3   Reached 3rd round

1929-30 P 5 W 2      D 2      L 1      GF 18 GA 7   Reached 5th round

1930-31 P 1 W 0      D 0      L 1      GF 0   GA 3   Reached 3rd round

1931-32 P 5 W 4      D 0      L 1      GF 16 GA 7   Reached semi-final

TOTAL (League & cup fixtures)

P260   W122  D59     L79     GF  582         GA 446

Trophies Won: Second Division title 1927-28, the season after missing out on promotion by the tightest margin in the history of the game.

Followed By: City secretary Wilf Wild who went on to become a truly successful manager.

If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.

Choose an amount

£2.50
£5.00
£7.50

Or enter a custom amount

£

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate

Subscribe to get access – Annual

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £20 a year to subscribe (it works out £1.67 a month) or £3 if you’d like to sign up a month at a time. Annual subscribers get full access for as long as you subscribe (you can always try it for a month). It’s worth bearing in mind that the 2010 Manchester A Football History cost £24.95 and all subscribers will be able to access all of that for as long as they are a subscriber (plus all the other stuff of course).

Subscribe

Subscribe to get access – Monthly

It costs £3 a month to subscribe a month at a time. Why not give it a try! Monthly subscribers get access to everything posted since 1 October 2022 for as long as you subscribe.

Subscribe

Albert Alexander (Junior): MCFC Chairman

Back in the late 1960s there was a popular Manchester City chairman whose family had been involved with the club since the very beginning of the club. That was Albert Alexander. Here’s a profile I wrote in 2012 on him. It’s about 900 words long and is free to read. Enjoy!

Albert Alexander was the second generation of the Alexander family to play a prominent role in the development and history of Manchester City.  His father, also Albert, had been involved with the Club from the 1890s and had held various positions including vice-chairman, and even manager for a spell in 1925-26.

Like his father, the younger Albert dedicated his life to the Blues.  Inevitably, he spent most of his boyhood watching the Club develop and, as he grew, he became more involved with behind the scenes work at the Club’s first home Hyde Road.  He was a member of the Ground Committee which performed crucial activities such as stewarding and ground maintenance.

Alexander also managed the Club’s A team and provided support in whatever way necessary to ensure the Blues succeeded.  He was more than happy to work through the ranks and take on any duty necessary.  His son Eric, who was Chairman in the early 1970s, remembers that his father had suffered during the First World War but that didn’t stop him from putting his energies into the Blues:  “He was a very good footballer and cricketer but he was gassed in the Great War and had to give it up.  It affected him throughout his life, although it’s fair to say he recovered enough to fulfil a happy normal life apart from playing of course. 

“He took up golf, but his love for football was such that he started the ‘A’ team at City.  He started it in 1921 and ran it through until 1963.  He enjoyed working with the youngsters and developing them.  He gained an awful lot of satisfaction from that, particularly when players like Matt Busby developed their skills and style as part of the ‘A’ team.”

Ultimately, after many years of loyal service Alexander became a City director.  This came after the Blues became aware that Manchester United were hoping he would join their board.  It is highly likely Alexander would have turned the Reds down, and it was appropriate that he became a director at Maine Road.  It was an honour he deserved for years of dedication to the City cause.

While director he felt the passion all fans feel for the Blues and he also felt the pain and worries during the Club’s struggles in the early Sixties.  He wanted better and, in 1965 as fans demonstrated following City’s lowest attended League game, he came out to face them and talk with them about his hopes and ambitions for the Club.  He apologised for City’s appalling decline.  It says much about his courage and the respect fans had for him that they dispersed.  It is doubtful whether any other director would have been respected in this manner at such a low point.

Understandably, Alexander who was City’s Chairman by this point wanted to see his side successful and later that summer he appointed Joe Mercer as manager.  It was a brave decision as Mercer had been out of work for a year and had suffered a stroke at Aston Villa.  Other names, such as former City hero Peter Doherty and Liverpool manager Bill Shankly, had been expected to be appointed by the media, so this move could easily have been seen negatively.

Alexander guided City through the successful years of the Mercer-Allison period and was probably the first Chairman to be hugely popular with fans.  Everyone seemed to love ‘Little Albert’ as Mercer dubbed him.

Many of City’s achievements during these years were dedicated to Alexander by Mercer, while journalist Bill Fryer commented in 1970:  “He is highly revered in the game and by the public, and I have no doubt good deals have been done for City out of Albert’s friendships because in reality the whole of football is a ‘club’.”

Sadly, despite the Chairman’s popularity, his final years saw him suffer at the hands of the 1970 takeover battle.  Alexander found out about the takeover when he received a knock on his door at breakfast one day.  It was a complete shock to him.

The takeover destroyed much that was good about City at this point, including the Mercer-Allison partnership.  However, it is rarely mentioned how the takeover affected Alexander, the man who had guided City with distinction through some dark days when no one else wanted to know.  He had taken the Club from the lowest point it had experienced since joining the League, to a position of strength with trophies galore.  Those bidding for control wanted the glory, Alexander’s motives were somewhat different – like all true fans he wanted City no matter what. 

Alexander stood down as Chairman and was made Life President – an honour first given to Lawrence Furniss seven decades earlier, proving the significance of this recognition.  Unfortunately, Alexander’s health was deteriorating by this point and he passed away soon after.

Manchester City owes a great deal to the dedication of Albert Alexander and the other members of his family.  The Alexanders helped guide the Blues from the 1890s through to the reign of Peter Swales, and in some ways on via the continuing involvement of Eric Alexander (still a regular attendee until his death in 2019).  Their contribution should never be forgotten.

If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.

Choose an amount

£2.50
£5.00
£7.50

Or enter a custom amount

£

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate

Subscribe to get access – Annual

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £20 a year to subscribe (it works out £1.67 a month) or £3 if you’d like to sign up a month at a time. Annual subscribers get full access for as long as you subscribe (you can always try it for a month). It’s worth bearing in mind that the 2010 Manchester A Football History cost £24.95 and all subscribers will be able to access all of that for as long as they are a subscriber (plus all the other stuff of course).

Subscribe

Subscribe to get access – Monthly

It costs £3 a month to subscribe a month at a time. Why not give it a try! Monthly subscribers get access to everything posted since 1 October 2022 for as long as you subscribe.

Subscribe

The 1930s: MCFC in 1930-31

My series on Manchester City in the 1930s continues today with a subscriber article on the 1930-31 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:

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 a month (cancel anytime) or sign up for a year at £20 per year. Subscribers have access to the 1000s of articles, features, interviews etc. posted so far and all those posted during your subscription.

Subscribe

Starting Tomorrow: MCFC in the 1930s!

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:

How To Subscribe

Manchester Central

Over 90 years ago Manchester City and Manchester United worked together to help kill off the threat of an ambitious Manchester club, Manchester Central. At the time United we’re struggling, while City we’re riding high, but what exactly happened? I’ve researched the story extensively over the years and here’s an overview I wrote about 16 years ago on it. Enjoy!

In recent years much has been made of the growth of FC United of Manchester and their impact on support, community work and attitudes in Manchester. However, the United offshoot were not the first Mancunian side created following dissatisfaction among supporters. In fact FC United arrived 80 years after a bigger offshoot had seriously challenged the livelihood of Manchester’s two major sides. The difference being that in the Twenties it was Manchester City’s move to Maine Road that prompted the creation of a new forward-looking club – Manchester Central FC, who joined the semi-professional Lancashire Combination in 1928-29. 

One of the main figures behind Central was former City director John Ayrton, who that felt that Maine Road, in the south of Manchester, was too far from City’s old base in the east: “Ever since the City club left the Hyde Road district, I have thought of having a club on this side of Manchester. Our whole object is to develop local talent, and gradually to build up the club so that one day it may take its place in the Third Division of the Football League. Manchester has the biggest sporting community in the provinces. Surely then we have every reason to hope that there is plenty of room for our club.”

Many well known figures in Manchester football were involved in the creation of Central, including the great Billy Meredith, plus Charlie Pringle and Charlie Roberts, former captains of City and United respectively. As with FC United, the side attracted significantly better players than many of their Combination rivals – who included Morecambe, Chorley and Darwen – simply because of who they were. Central was chosen as a name so that the club could use the initials MCFC, which were spelt out on the ironwork above the main entrance of their 40,000-capacity Belle Vue ground on Hyde Road, half a mile from City’s old stadium.

After a couple of failed attempts, Central were on the verge of League football when Wigan Borough withdrew from Division Three (North) during October 1931. Central, now based in the Cheshire League, immediately offered to take over their fixtures. The existing Division Three sides supported Central’s application, including, significantly, Stockport County, who saw Central’s acceptance as being a positive development for local football.

In the Daily Dispatch, journalist ­“Adjutant” commented: “Manchester Central potentially are not merely a Second Division, but a First Division club of the future. There should be room in Manchester for three League clubs.” Second Division United and First Division City did not share the enthusiasm. Working together they complained to the League and, as they were classed as full members of the League while Division Three’s clubs had fewer rights, the League rejected Central.

The local press was appalled, as were many City and United supporters. So why did the two clubs object? At first glance it would seem that Central’s aim to be “the new MCFC” simply upset City. However, the truth is that Central were actually more of a threat to United, who were struggling on and off the pitch. Crowds were small – United’s nearest home gate to Central’s bid was 6,694 (against Notts County), while Central had attracted several crowds higher than this despite being non-League.

Respected journalist Ivan Sharpe of the Sunday Chronicle argued that Central should have been admitted because United were failing: “A third club in Manchester would not damage the City at all seriously. It would build up football interest. I don’t like the way Manchester is slipping back in football. Where are those 30,000 football followers who used to assemble at Old Trafford? The odd 25,000 are missing. It is time something was done about it.” 

Central were hugely disappointed and chairman George Hardman said: “We think there ought to be League football in the Belle Vue area, where there are 440,000 people within two miles, and a million people within four miles. This is surely enough for two League clubs in a place like Manchester.There seems to be a sad lack of enterprise so far as League football is concerned.”

It seems Hardman deliberately ignored United when he talked of “two” clubs as he knew it was the threat to United that was the deciding factor. Ivan Sharpe: “In view of Manchester United’s sorry position I certainly think Manchester Central should have been admitted.” “Nomad”, writing in the Evening Chronicle, held a similar view: “Keen disappointment is expressed that Manchester is not to have a third Football League club, especially as there is a splendid ground available at Belle Vue, and that Manchester United are so signally failing to keep Manchester on the football map.”

Within a year Central folded, feeling the close relationship of City and United would continue to severely restrict their progress. At City the 1930s proved to be a golden era with record crowds and significant success, while United struggled. Post-1945 it all changed, of course, but had Central been accepted into the League during 1931 then football in Manchester today might have been very different.

A more detailed account of Manchester Central’s story appears in my book Manchester A Football History, which subscribers can download and read here:

Manchester A Football History part one

If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.

Choose an amount

£2.50
£5.00
£7.50

Or enter a custom amount

£

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate

Two Minutes Silence

Today (11 October) is the anniversary of a game played in 1930 which highlights something about remembrance for me. These days the periods prior to football games when a recently deceased person or a tragedy is remembered tends to be either a minute’s silence or a minute’s applause. The approach varies depending on the deceased, the mood of the time and other factors. Back in 1930 it was normal to be silent for two minutes and this cutting from 1930 shows the footballers of both Manchester City and Portsmouth paying their respects to the victims of an airship disaster.

Remembering the victims of R101 airship which crashed in France, October 1930

The crash occurred in France (the airship’s first journey overseas) on 5 October 1930 and 48 of the 54 people on board died. The football match this image was taken at was played on 11 October 1930. It ended in a 3-1 City defeat (Bobby Marshall scored for City).

On the R101 – when I was researching and writing Farewell To Maine Road 20 years ago an elderly man told me how he remembered an airship flying over the ground when he was a young boy. I do know another airship, the R100, travelled over Manchester at times (including in 1930). Maybe some in the crowd at the Portsmouth game remembered seeing the airship R100 fly over the ground earlier that year?

A Dominant Derby Performance

On this day (4 October) in 1930 the Manchester derby ended City 4 United 1. It was
the Reds’ ninth straight defeat of the season and they were relegated at the end of it.  The Athletic News claimed:  “City obviously grew sympathetic and declined to rub it in.” That’s the kind of wording they could have used again to describe the October 2022 derby when City were leading 6-1! Here’s the detailed story of that day:

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. £20 per year to subscribe and for that you get access to all the interviews, articles and books already posted. Those subscribing £20 a year have access to everything posted since December 2020.

Subscribe

Subscribe to get access

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). For those subscribing £3 per month you will be able to access all content from October 2022 onwards for as long as you are a subscriber. Those subscribing £20 a year have access to everything posted since December 2020.

Subscribe