On this day in 1982 Manchester City should have played their first League game with a sponsor’s name on their shirt. However the match was televised and in those days TV did not allow clubs to wear sponsors names in televised games. The match was a 2-1 win away at Norwich and City’s first sponsor was the car company Saab.
New signing David Cross scored the opener after 3 minutes and 5 seconds (below) and we all thought this was going to be a great season. I won’t spoil it by saying what happened the following May!
New signing David Cross scoring after 3 minutes and 5 seconds at Norwich, August 1982
On this day (27 August) in 1960 the only Manchester Derby to be abandoned (and the game replayed) took place. It was abandoned at 2-2 with heavy rain at Maine Road.
Strictly speaking another derby (the one at Old Trafford in 1974) was also abandoned but the result for that game was allowed to stand.
27 August 1960 (date on image is incorrect). The abandoned Manchester derby.
On this day (26 August) in 1996 the reign of Alan Ball as Manchester City boss finally and thankfully came to an end. It was by some way the worst managerial period of the last fifty years at the club (and that’s saying something!).
Three games into the new season he resigned. He should have gone at least a year earlier!
City would’ve been better with Bobby Ball as manager!
The first League meeting between Manchester City and Wimbledon came on this day (25 August) in 1984. It was an altogether new experience for City. Relegation in May 1983 had brought many changes to the club, including the arrival of manager Billy McNeill and his assistant Jimmy Frizzell. Their first season in charge had seen the Blues finish fourth behind Chelsea, Newcastle, and Sheffield Wednesday, and much was expected from their second campaign. Subscribers can read a feature, including match reports, on the first meeting with Wimbledon below:
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2023 marks the 100th anniversary of Maine Road’s first game and to commemorate this landmark moment I have been posting a different image or feature on the old stadium each day for the last 100 days. Today is day 100 and is the actual centenary of that historic first game. So guess what I’m covering today? On this day (25 August) in 1923 Manchester City’s Maine Road Stadium staged its first game. Here is film of that landmark day in Manchester’s sporting history…
You can also read a 1100 word article about the opening of the stadium and on why the ground was considered to be the ‘English Hampden’ and not the ‘Wembley of the North’ that some have tried to claim in more recent times.
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It’s Day 99 of my Maine Road 100 countdown to the centenary of Maine Road’s first game. One more day to go! I hope you’ve enjoyed this free series. Today it’s about the oldest and youngest players to have appeared for City at Maine Road. Any ideas who they may be?
Billy Meredith was the oldest to play for City at Maine Road. He was 49 years & 238 days old when he played for City against Preston on 22/3/1924. This was Maine Road’s first season too!
Billy Meredith Returns to MCFC in 1921
Glyn Pardoe was the youngest to play for City at Maine Road. He was 15 years and 314 days old when he made his debut v Birmingham City on 11/4/1961.
Tomorrow will be the centenary of Maine Road’s first game. I hope you have enjoyed my 100 day countdown. If you have enjoyed this series of articles and posts on Maine Road then why not become a subscriber and access all the other great content. To find out more see:
It’s Day 98 of my Maine Road 100 countdown to the centenary of Maine Road’s first game. I hope you’ve enjoyed these. Today it’s about the players who have scored most goals in individual games at Maine Road. Any ideas who may be heading the list and how many goals they may have scored in a single game at Maine Road?
The following are the players who have scored most in a single game for each of the domestic competitions at Maine Road:
League: 5 goals – scored by Tommy Browell v Burnley 24/10/25 & George Smith v Newport 14/6/47
FA Cup: 5 goals – scored by Frank Roberts v Crystal Palace 20/2/26
League Cup: 4 goals – scored by Dennis Tueart v Notts County 29/10/80. You can see stuff on this here:
If you have enjoyed this series of articles and posts on Maine Road then why not become a subscriber and access all the other great content. To find out more see:
It’s Day 96 of my Maine Road 100 countdown (not long to go now!) to the centenary of Maine Road’s first game and a brief post on the first and last first team penalty takers at Maine Road. Anyone know who they were? I’m sure many people reading this were there when the last penalty was taken in a first team game at Maine Road. Got it?
That’s right the last first team competitive penalty taken at Maine Road was by Stuart Pearce on 21 April 2002 v Portsmouth. He missed (Elsewhere on this site I tell the story of that day – well worth reading if you’re wondering what was so special about it).
The first penalty at Maine Road was also missed. That was taken by Frank Roberts in the opening game v Sheffield United on 25 August 1923.
Of course Garry Bradbury will claim it’s actually him who took the last penalty at Maine Road as he took one for Merseyside CSA in the Supporters’ Club challenge against Prestwich & Whitefield, in a match that was claimed to be the final game at Maine Road on 12 June 2003.
If you have enjoyed this series of articles and posts on Maine Road then why not become a subscriber and access all the other great content. To find out more see:
Busy day today talking about the history of Manchester City, in particular the story of City’s stadia. It’s 100 years on Friday since Maine Road’s first game and we’ve just had the 20th anniversary of the Etihad’s (then known as City of Manchester Stadium) first game. Time flies!
The interviews today started with Mike Sweeney interviewing me about Maine Rd and the Etihad for BBC Radio Manchester – that will be played on Friday assuming all is okay – and then it was off to Manchester City for the next set of interviews about the club’s grounds and other stuff.
Later I’m chatting elsewhere about football, sorry soccer, in the USA. A busy day.
As Manchester City are playing Newcastle today (19 August 2023) and I’ve been doing a 100 day countdown to the centenary of Maine Road’s first game, it’s worth pausing to remember that before Maine Road City had another major venue that had staged games at an international level; semi-finals; been the best supported League club at; and had welcomed the King to. That ground was Hyde Road and the old stadium’s last ever League game came on 28 April 1923 when City drew 0-0 with Newcastle United (hence me doing this reminder today!).
The match was watched by a crowd of around 20,000. On the same date Wembley Stadium, built by the same people who were building Maine Road, hosted its first FA Cup final and, because of the extraordinary scenes, very little space was given over to the City game in the national ‘papers. Instead they concentrated on Bolton’s performance and the exploits of Billy, the white horse, in clearing the Wembley pitch.
Three months after the last Hyde Road League match, on 18 August, the last ever game, a practice match, was staged on the pitch. Afterwards the goal posts and a few turnstiles were taken from the old ground and erected at Maine Road – about 6 were still at Maine Road in 2003 when it was demolished. Attempts were made to keep one of the oldest (from 1896) and re-erect it in a public area at the new stadium. Sadly, the day before it was to be removed the external wall was smashed and the turnstile was stolen.
One of the Hyde Road stand roofs was dismantled and sold to Halifax Town to be re-erected at the Shay.
The Shay had opened approximately twelve months before Hyde Road’s last League match, and a stand had already been constructed. When this stand was extended it coincided with the demolition of City’s ground. Basically, it appears that the metalwork from one of City’s multi-span roofs was dismantled and re-erected along the touchline at the Shay. It was linked to the existing roof, and formed one traditional style roof. The roof still exists at the Shay today, although during the early 1990s it was re-clad.
The front stanchions look suspiciously like those at Hyde Road, while my investigations in the late 1990s highlighted that the metalwork matched that of similar roofing at a factory in Sale. That factory’s roof was also a former stand roof from Hyde Road. Both the Shay roof and that in Sale were so similar that it seems likely they had previously been erected at Hyde Road.
The Sale factory was dismantled and sections of the roof given to Manchester City for possible re-use in a City museum. Sadly, by 2002 the metalwork had vanished from Maine Road and its whereabouts unknown.
A page from Charles Thurrell’s copy of Hyde Road’s last league game match programme v Newcastle, 28 April 1923Charles Thurrell’s copy of Hyde Road’s last league game match programme v Newcastle, 28 April 1923
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