Category Archives: 1991-92

Starting Tomorrow: The 1990s

A new series of articles starts tomorrow on Manchester City in the 1990s. There will be a seasonal journey through a truly important decade when Manchester City began the decade hoping to challenge for the Premier League. People often forget how things changed that decade. A giant of a club at the start of the decade and one that the whole football world recognised as being part of English football’s aristocracy. By the end of the decade it was the loyalty of fans that most recognised the club for.

Those that claim City has ‘no history’ may learn something about a decade that is often highlighted for its failings but which actually had some wonderful, incredible, positive moments too. This series of features will show how that decade actually went and will hopefully help to explain why the narrative of ‘third tier club that got lucky’ is so wrong! For the entire month of March there will be features to make every Blue proud, while also recognising the true nature of football – some times it’s great being a fan and sometimes it’s awful. That’s football!

Re-live the highs and lows of the 1990s decade from tomorrow onwards.

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Manchester City in the 1990s

Following on from the series of articles and features on the 1970s and 1980s over the last few months a new series on Manchester City in the 1990s will be starting in March. As with the 1970s & 1980s there will be different content posted each day from indepth articles on each of the seasons through to on this day reminders of games, players and more.

Some of the material will be available for subscribers only and some will be free for anyone to read. If you’d like to know how to subscribe and read all the incredible content on here then see:

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Feel free to send in ideas or areas that you’d like me to discuss on 1990s Manchester City. I’m always open to adapting stories or content based on feedback. Thanks for reading.

Maine Road 100 – Day 51

It’s 51 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game and today I’m looking at the segregation fence in the old Kippax Stand.

On the main photo above you can see the segregation fence as it looked in the early 1990s. The gap between away fans and home fans had increased compared with the image below from the mid 1980s. The police used to patrol up and down this narrow pathway and on the image below you can see some police within that area.

Kippax Segregation mid 1980s

To help the police control the crowd a few simple platforms were constructed out of scaffolding. It all seems so primitive now but I guess clubs were reacting to increasing violence and needed quick solutions. The following was one of several platforms in the Kippax by the end of the 1980s.

Kippax Segregation police platform early 1990s

Before the segregation fence had an alleyway for the police to walk through there was one fence and scaffolding was erected next to it to separate the fans further (see next two images). Similarly this approach was used to widen the segregation fence at other times in later years.

Kippax Segregation early 1990s

The single fence with scaffolding to separate fans further (below).

Early Kippax Segregation

I explain a lot more about this area in Farewell To Maine Road. Formal segregation started in the mid 1970s but not for every game. By the end of the decade it was permanent and in place game after game.

This 1971 image shows the Kippax Stand and the segregation area was roughly where the number 8 is within the stand.

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One

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Maine Road 100 – Day 11

Day 11 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. Today follows on from yesterday’s post and shows the demolition of the original Platt Lane Stand.

I know the quality isn’t great but hopefully you can just make out the end of the concrete terracing and see how the 1935 roof was built over a wooden extension to the stand.

Have a look back at yesterday’s post to find out more.

To help those unfamiliar with Maine Road locate the specific location of this post, the Platt Lane Stand is the one where the number 4 & 5 are on this plan. The demolition photo was taken from near the number 6 looking towards the stand.

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One

Maine Road 100 – Day 10

Day 10 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. Today the original Platt Lane Stand can be seen in this image, taken in 1991. The stand was initially a terraced stand and the original terracing built in 1923. 8 years later the corner (on the left of this image) was roofed, extended a little on wood and the terracing re-profiled for seats. Then, in 1935 the rest of the Platt Lane was roofed and extended on wood but this remained a standing terrace.

The Platt Lane’s development was the first two phases in a planned development which was supposed to see the Main Stand/Scoreboard End corner roofed around 1939, then the neighbouring terracing (later North Stand) roofed to match the Platt Lane by about 1945 and then within about five years the entire Popular Side/Kippax was to be extended and roofed.

Apart from Platt Lane, none of those developments occurred due to the war.

Platt Lane was seated in the 1960s (you can read more on that and all the plans for the stadium in Farewell To Maine Road) and this images shows the steps that were built at the back of the Platt Lane when it was extended. I remember as a young boy climbing up those to get to the benches we sat on occasionally and I was always scared I’d fall through the gaps.

To help those unfamiliar with Maine Road locate the specific location of this post, the Platt Lane Stand is the one where the number 4 & 5 are on this plan.

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One
How To Subscribe

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.

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Bad Memories!

Warning! The following 600 word article is the story of Manchester City’s final game of the 1997-98 season. It was against Stoke on 3 May and, well, let’s just say it was a 5-2 easy victory but the consequences were grave for the club. If you have no idea what I’m on about then have a read – or if you want to relive a painful memory then carry on. Fortunately, I’ve made this article available to subscribers only so people won’t just catch site of our misery just by passing! If you can then enjoy looking back and remembering those days!

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The Last Before The Premier

On 2 May 1992 Manchester City defeated Oldham 5-2 in the last League fixture before the birth of the Premier League. The win gave City a fifth place finish (for the second year running), 12 points behind champions Leeds and six points ahead of 6th placed Liverpool. David White scored a hat trick but this had been a disappointing final placing overall as the Blues had been hoping to mount a serious challenge for honours.

The launch of the Premier League and the actions of the following year or so would have major repercussions for City and the Blues would ultimately lose pace with those clubs they had matched or bettered in recent seasons.

Maybe I’ll do a detailed analysis of how football changed one day but for the time being it’s worth remembering that no one team dominated English football at the beginning of the 1990s but by the end of that decade one did and the financial gap meant traditional giants, like City, Leeds, Newcastle, Everton, Villa and others were unlikely to find League success. It also meant that teams like Oldham would be unable to keep pace with the ‘next’ pack and ultimately they became the first Premier League title to be relegated out of the entire League in 2022.

Highlights of the game here:

Mayhem in Manchester

On this day (April 7) in 1992 a Keith Curle penalty, in front of an Old Trafford crowd of 46,781, helped Manchester City to a 1-1 draw in a controversial Manchester derby.  The game was viewed as being highly significant in the title race as only four days earlier the Blues had beaten title-hopefuls Leeds 4-0 at Maine Road. Here’s the story of that game including quotes from an interview I performed with Neil Pointon, who gives his views on a controversial incident that was pivotal to this derby…

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Derby Draw

On this day (16 November) in 1991 the Manchester derby ended goalless at Maine Road but so many, many chances went City’s way! It was a frustrating draw for the Blues and came at a time when neither side had won the League since the 1960s (City in 1967-68 if you want to know). It was felt that momentum was building at Maine Road. This is one of those periods when football history could’ve gone in a different direction.

There was pressure on United boss Alex Ferguson. He had brought the ECWC and FA Cup to United by this time but it was the League that the club craved. City had ended 1990-91 in fifth place and United were 6th. Had City had a bit of fortune around this time they may well have found some success.

Arsenal had won the League in 1991 but no team dominated the League year after year. The birth of the Premier League was coming (1992) and the new riches that came with that meant that the teams that did find League success from then on could potentially dominate in a way no club had before. With United’s title success in 1992-93, United and Arsenal became the two clubs that benefited most from the riches of the Premier League. That created a gap that only strong investment could bridge.

Ah well! Money and football is nothing new. Anyway, here are a few highlights of the derby:

David White Double v Liverpool

On this day (21 August) a Wednesday night meeting with Liverpool ended in a 2-1 victory for Manchester City. You can see highlights of the game (and relive the days of night matches on the Kippax/at Maine Rd) including two David White goals here: