Category Archives: 2023-24

4-4 at Chelsea (again!)

Yesterday’s 4-4 draw for Manchester City at Chelsea was heralded as a great game by the Sky TV pundits but of course, as fans, these sort of games never feel like great games at the time. They tend to feel like opportunities lost or maybe great comebacks depending on which side you support. Immediately after the game I was asked when City’s previous 4-4 draw was and I spent a few minutes thinking ‘I’ve never seen one before involving City, or have I?’ So, I then started to scour the material in my collection and was somewhat surprised to find it was against Grimsby in September 1950! Certainly many, many years before I was born.

My favourite goal yesterday was the one Haaland scored with his er… um… er… shorts area. The City scorers were: Haaland (25 minutes pen, 47 minutes),  Akanji (45+1 minutes),  Rodri (86 minutes) and for Chelsea (including two City old boys): Thiago Silva (29 minutes),  Sterling (37 minutes),  Jackson (67 minutes),  Palmer (90+5minutes pen)

Yesterday wasn’t the first time City drew 4-4 at Chelsea and, coincidentally I’d tweeted about this before the game. I never expected history to repeat itself. You can read about that match via the link below. Incidentally, the game was in 1936-37 and City won the title that year. Will history repeat itself again?

Chelsea 4 Manchester City 4

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Manchester City v Red Star

I thoroughly enjoyed last night’s (19 September 2023) game in the Champions League between the reigning European champions Manchester City (and treble winners – will we ever get tired of remembering that?) and Red Star Belgrade. The Blues won 3-1 and, to be frank, could have scored a lot more had it not been for the heroics of Omri Glazer in the opposition goal (and a few weird finishes but it was a miserably wet night too!).

Summerbee brings in the Champions League trophy

Despite being a goal behind at half time it felt as if the Blues had enough to win the match from the outset and the the second half commenced in style when Julian Alvarez met an Erling Haaland throughball, rounded the keeper and prodded home the equaliser. This was about 73 seconds into the second half. Many Blues missed the goal as they were still returning from the toilets and the bars!

Alvarez opening goal celebration, 19 September 2023 Champions League MCFC v Red Star Belgrade

Alvarez netted a second when his free-kick from the left flew past ‘keeper Glazer after about 1 hour. Then after 73 minutes Rodri did what Rodri does best when he sent a curling strike into the net. It was another classic, just like the final in Istanbul. You can read what Istanbul (and relive that night) meant here:

From Istanbul to Istanbul

City have posted highlights of the game here:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/manchester-city-red-star-belgrade-highlights-63830758

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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2023-24 MCFC Match Programme

I’m delighted to say that I’ve been asked to write for the Manchester City match programme again this year. This time I’ll be doing a feature on each of the seasons City have spent at their current home. It won’t be chronological – I’ll vary the seasons each game – but I do start this weekend with the 2003-04 season. I’m looking forward to it developing over the season.

This season will see the 30th anniversary of my first article in the MCFC match programme. It was a piece on the history of the Kippax Stand for a special pull out section of the programme for the final game of the 1993-94 season (the last in front of the old Kippax). After that I was asked later in the decade to fill in for City’s historian/statistician John Maddocks on occasion. It meant the world to me when John put my name forward to Polar Publishing to cover for him during a period of ill health. John trusted me to keep up the excellent work he’d been doing since the 1980s and I wanted to make sure I delivered to his standards and that of publisher Julian Baskcomb.

Eventually, following John’s death I was asked to continue writing for the programme throughout the 2000s. Many years ago I was dropped (and quickly reinstated thanks to some moving letters & emails to the person responsible from fans) and some competitions (typically FA Cup & League Cup) do not always have my feature in them, but other than odd programmes I have been fortunate to write my own feature every season for about 22 seasons (apart from that season when Covid meant a programme was not physically printed).

Thanks to Reach for asking me again but mostly thanks to those who read my programme articles and have helped over the years. I’m always amazed when I hear that someone has enjoyed my articles, so thanks. It means a lot and here’s hoping this next season is successful both for the articles and for City of course (what am I talking about – it already is successful for City! Another European trophy! Nice work Blues!).

City v Burnley

Today’s game with Burnley provides a great opportunity to remember some key games and stories from years gone by featuring the two clubs. I’ve written a lot about City & Burnley games over the years so sit back and get yourself in the mood for tonight’s game by having a look at these articles:

A game in 2001:

Capacity Crowd Watch City And Burnley

An amazing crowd for a second tier match:

69,463 watch MCFC and Burnley in Division Two

Another incredible crowd for a City-Burnley match:

An Incredible Crowd and Day in 1921

Sterling inspired City here:

Sterling Double

One of my quests to find missing objects involves the 1904 FA Cup final ball. I know it was in Burnley for over 40 years and was still there in the 1950s but where is it today? Can you help find it? Have a read of this:

Finding 1904 Objects

Jimmy Ross was a brilliant footballer for both City and Burnley but he’s often forgotten. You can find out who he was here:

The Great Jimmy Ross

More on Ross here:

The Death Of Jimmy Ross

John Bond managed both. Here’s an exclusive interview I did with him many years ago where we talked about his career at both:

John Bond Interview – Part 5

A season when City and Burnley challenged each other for the title:

MCFC 20TH CENTURY CHRONICLE – SEASON 1920-21

The earliest known surviving film of a City Ladies (now Women) match was against Burnley:

Manchester City Ladies – The Earliest Film

There are of course several articles mentioning Burnley manager Vincent Kompany’s time at MCFC. You can access some of them here:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/tag/vincent-kompany/

Live Podcast Tonight at 7pm (UK Time)

I’ve been asked to do a Q&A style chat live tonight on the 93:20 podcast at 7pm. You can listen here:

Andy Savage, who is interviewing me, says: ‘Tonight at 7pm we will be live with @GaryJamesWriter to chat about anything @ManCity and the history of our great club. Join us and you’ll be able to ask questions via the chat. I’m looking forward to this.’ So am I. Come and join us.

Khaldoon’s Annual Message: Part Two

The second part of Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak’s annual message to fans has been posted. In this he talks about the following:

  • The expansion of the North Stand at the Etihad Stadium
  • The Mike Summerbee, Colin Bell and Francis Lee statues
  • The success of the Manchester City Academy
  • The progress of the wider City Football Group

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/chairman-2023-annual-interview-part-two-63822846

If you missed yesterday’s here it is:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/chairman-2023-annual-interview-part-one-63822759

Manchester City 2023-24 Fixtures

No surprise that treble-winning City’s first Premier League game of 2023-24 will be against Vincent Kompany’s Burnley. I think we could all have predicted that.

Here are the fixtures in full. Obviously, many of these will be changed for TV and also clashes with FA Cup ties and so on. Interesting reading though.

  • 11/08/2023 – Burnley (a)
  • 19/08/2023 – Newcastle United (h)
  • 26/08/2023 – Sheffield United (a)
  • 02/09/2023 – Fulham (h)
  • 16/09/2023 – West Ham United (a)
  • 23/09/2023 – Nottingham Forest (h) 
  • 30/09/2022 – Wolverhampton (a) 
  • 07/10/2023 – Arsenal (a) 
  • 21/10/2023 – Brighton (h) 
  • 28/10/2023 – Manchester United (a) 
  • 04/11/2023 – A.F.C. Bournemouth (h) 
  • 11/11/2023 – Chelsea (a) 
  • 25/11/2023 – Liverpool (h) 
  • 02/12/2023 – Tottenham Hotspur (h) 
  • 05/12/2023 – Aston Villa (a) 
  • 09/12/2023 – Luton Town (a) 
  • 16/12/2023 – Crystal Palace (h) 
  • 23/12/2023 – Brentford (h) 
  • 26/12/2023 – Everton (a) 
  • 30/12/2023 – Sheffield United (h) 
  • 13/01/2024 – Newcastle United (a) 
  • 31/01/2024 – Burnley (h) 
  • 03/02/2024 – Brentford (a) 
  • 10/02/2024 – Everton (h) 
  • 17/02/2024 – Chelsea (h) 
  • 24/02/2024 – A.F.C. Bournemouth (a) 
  • 02/03/2024 – Manchester United (h) 
  • 09/03/2024 – Liverpool (a) 
  • 16/03/2024 – Brighton (a) 
  • 30/03/2024 – Arsenal (h) 
  • 03/04/2024 – Aston Villa (h) 
  • 06/04/2024 – Crystal Palace (a) 
  • 13/04/2024 – Luton Town (h) 
  • 20/04/2024 – Tottenham Hotspur (a) 
  • 27/04/2024 – Nottingham Forest (a) 
  • 04/05/2024 – Wolverhampton (h) 
  • 11/05/2024 – Fulham (a) 
  • 19/05/2024 – West Ham United (h)