Football writing, thoughts and more by Gary James
This action shot is from 101 years ago today (14 October 1922) and shows Manchester City’s Horace Barnes heading the ball out of the Stoke goalkeeper’s (Scott) hands. City won the match 2-1 (Horace Barnes & Tommy Johnson scoring for City) at Hyde Road and the stand seen in the background is City’s Popular Side.
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Here’s an interesting article about Tommy Booth and Manchester City from 14 October 1978. It talks about him being ‘Mr Dependable and back in the City first team despite the big spending of the Blues. Actually it’s really interesting how the City spend. spend, spend view exists in this article from all those years ago. Anyway, enjoy this flashback to a time when Tommy Booth remained a key member of City’s first team.
On this day (13 October) in 1979 Kaziu Deyna scored the only goal of the City-Nottingham Forest League game at Maine Road. A crowd of 41,683 witnessed the City win with future Spanish TV presenter Michael Robinson wearing the number 9 shirt for the Blues that day.
Back in 2003 I wrote this profile of former Manchester City player and Polish World Cup star Kazimierz Deyna. Deyna was such an important and unusual signing at the time he joined City in November 1978 that I feel this article is still appropriate and of interest to subscribers to my blog today.
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Rare action images from Hyde Road taken on this day (October 12) in 1912 as Manchester City were defeated 1-0 at home to Newcastle before a capacity 40,000 crowd.
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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.
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 1-1 draw saw Tottenham Hotspur’s run of consecutive victories from the start of the season come to an end at 11 wins (a run of 13 consecutive League wins in total). City of course now hold this record. A crowd of 58,916 saw the game on this day (10 October) in 1960 when City, wearing maroon and white stripes, ended Spurs’ run.
Tottenham’s Bobby Smith heading the opening goal past Bert Trautmann. The City ‘keeper had been superb and went on to demonstrate his skills throughout the game.
City’s Clive Colbridge equalised five minutes into the second half but most newspapers focused on the significance of Tottenham’s winning run with some believing it would never be bettered. They obviously couldn’t predict the brilliance of Pep Guardiola’s team.
Tottenham did go on to win the double (in the days when that seemed an impossibility, never mind a domestic treble or treble involving a European Cup! There was some praise for City in the report.
Here’s a contemporary match report of the Spurs game in 1960:
On this day (9 October) in 1976 Lee Peacock was born. Peacock was a Mansfield Town player who joined Manchester City in 1999, making his debut as a substitute in the League game with QPR on 6 November 1999. Co-incidentally his last game was also against QPR on 8 March 2000. Not bad considering he only made ten actual appearances for the Blues
Prior to joining City Peacock did play his part in one game that often gets talked about when discussing City in the late 1990s and this is the infamous Auto Windscreen Shield tie of December 1998. It was a competition City did not want to be in and it was a fact known across City’s supporter base. They also knew that a weakened team would be played and, to be frank, we were mostly full of apathy for the competition. The League was the only competition that mattered that season.
For the record Peacock scored twice for Mansfield – a 53 minute penalty and another three minutes later. If you want to relive that game (why would you?) here’s a match report from a Mansfield based newspaper:
The 8th of October marks the anniversary of one of those ‘one game wonders’ who played for Manchester City. On this day in 1988 defender Bill Williams made his one and only appearance for City’s first team when he came on as substitute for Mark Seagraves in the Blues’ 1-0 defeat at Ipswich Town. He did make seven reserve appearances but that game at Ipswich was the only first team appearance.
It was a strange situation because City had signed him from Stockport where he had developed a good reputation in defence and as captain. Asa Hartford was the Stockport boss at the time and was sorry to see Williams leave but told the press that he couldn’t do much because of the glamour associated with City.
Williams returned to Stockport on 1 December and fans of both clubs seemed confused. At Edgeley Park County fans were delighted he’d returned but at Maine Road rumours circulated. City had sold him back to County for a discount price and had managed to get special dispensation off the League – back then a player could not be sold back to his original club within the same season.
There were rumours that Williams had a business (painting and decorating if my memory is correct – anyone remember?) and that by joining City he needed to spend more time training etc. than at County and that, ultimately, that meant he couldn’t earn as much at Maine Road as he had while working for himself and playing at Stockport. I’m not certain if that is true but that’s the rumour that circulated.
Whatever the situation, City lost money on the deal and Williams became a one hit wonder for the Blues.
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Former Manchester City player Jimmy Broad, whose dad was a popular City coach for decades, scores for Stoke against City on this day (7 October) in 1922. The game ended in a 1-1 draw. The goalkeeper is Mitchell and the City scorer was the great Tommy Johnson. The game took place at the Victoria ground before about 20,000.
The winner of a copy of the new book on Maine Road and the Etihad has been drawn. It is Steve Doohan. Congratulations Steve. The publisher, Reach, will be posting it out soon.
The question was: Who was the architect of Maine Road when it was first built in 1923?
The answer was Charles Swain. We had dozens of correct answers so we’ll done to Steve.
As for the book…
I’m delighted to say I’m one of the co-authors on the new book which focuses on Maine Road and the Etihad stadia (the two most recent permanent homes of Manchester City).
I’ve contributed the Introduction, the story of Maine Road’s first game and the 100 Maine Memories of Maine Road. I tried to make sure the 100 Maine Memories cover both the great and the unusual so, inevitably, Colin Bell is featured but so is the wonky North Stand scoreboard! If you attended Maine Road it will all make sense and if you didn’t it’ll give you a great feel for what life was like at the old place.
Please enter the competition and good luck with it.
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