On Wednesday 1 February at 6pm (UK time) come and join me for one hour of discussion about the origins of Manchester City FC, focusing on St Mark’s & the club’s development prior to its re-birth as Ardwick AFC. Sign up to listen to this free event where I will explain how the club was born and developed. There are lots of myths out there, so come and listen to the facts. This hour will include the opportunity to ask questions as I’m keen to hear your thoughts on the birth of the club.
The event will be live on Zoom on 1/2/23 at 6pm and a link will be sent to all those who have registered for the event beforehand (probably earlier that day). To sign up for this online Zoom talk please register via this link:
Register now to join this online zoom discussion. The plan is to present the facts and history of the birth of the club and its development in the West Gorton and Gorton areas of Manchester prior to 1887. Dispelling myths and revealing the latest research and evidence of what actually happened.
There will be an opportunity to ask questions about this critical period for football development in Manchester.
The link will be sent out shortly before the event is live to all those registered. Only those registered will be admitted into the video chat site. You must register here if you want to get involved.
The talk will last about 1 hour and will be online on zoom, so you should be able to access it anywhere. This is a free event but there are a limited number of tickets. These must be ordered in advance.
There is a limited capacity so please book early if you want to listen and watch the presentation.
On this day (19 January) in 1991 Mark Ward scored twice as Howard Kendall’s Manchester City defeated Sheffield United 2-0 before 25,741 at Maine Road. However, the game opened with the visitors’ Vinnie Jones getting booked after just 5 seconds play! He was later sent off too. You can see highlights (and Jones’ tackle) here:
I was sat in the Main Stand that day. Were you also at this match? If you were why not leave your memory as a comment or email it to me for possible future use on this website?
Here’s a profile of goalkeeper Tommy Wright who made his Manchester City debut on this day (18 January) in 1997. Enjoy….
Northern Ireland international Tommy Wright joined City from Nottingham Forest on loan in January 1997 and despite being cup-tied and missing out on his new club’s 1997 FA Cup run (City reached the fifth round, losing controversially to Middlesbrough), Tommy made a terrific impression on the fans at Maine Road and finally signed a permanent deal in March 1997. The Blues had endured a managerial merry-go-round during the early part of the season with four men taking charge of first team games before the arrival of Frank Clark as manager on 30th December 1996. With injury to Immel both Andy Dibble and Martyn Margetson had played but Clark felt he needed to bring in more experience, especially as naming a goalkeeper as substitute meant that a bigger pool of players was needed than a decade earlier.
Wright made his debut on 18 January 1997 as City drew 1-1 with Huddersfield in Division One and made a total of 13 League games that season. It would have been more but a leg injury caused him to miss the final six games of the campaign and the start of the 1997-98 season – he suffered a torn quadriceps muscle during the club’s close-season tour to Scotland. Nevertheless, when fitness returned Clark made sure Wright knew that he was the manager’s first choice and the ‘keeper made 18 appearances in 1997-98. Clark was dismissed in February and less than a month after the arrival of Joe Royle the new manager replaced Wright with Margetson.
The following season Nicky Weaver became City’s first choice with Wright helping the young ‘keeper develop. Wright went on loan to Newcastle and Wrexham, making a total of 19 appearances, in 1999 and then in January 2001 he went to Bolton where he made four League appearances.
Appearances: League: 33 FAC: 2 League Cup: 1
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On this day (17 January) in 1925 Manchester City’s Frank Roberts scored four as Liverpool were defeated 5-0 in Division One.
Roberts’ feat was remarkable because he was playing as centre-forward (a position he seemingly was not keen on playing) due to regular centre-forward Tommy Browell being struck down with influenza.
He normally played as City’s inside-right, his preferred position.
It was Roberts’ first outing as centre-forward that season and it was the first time he’d ever scored four in a game. It made him the League’s top scorer with 24 goals so far that season.
City’s opening goal had been scored by legendary, amateur footballer Max Woosnam in the opening minute. Sadly, accurate time keeping was not a feature of football then (some would argue that some referees still don’t have accurate time keeping but that’s for another day) and so we don’t know how few seconds this was actually netted in. Some reports say straight from the kick-off.
The Liverpool Echo talked of the game starting in a gale which worked against the Liverpool club (some local newspapers still make excuses for their teams). The Athletic News makes no such comment preferring, instead, to talk of City’s ‘lightening like movements’ and their approach being ‘the way to win’.
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Here’s a story I’ve told often but I still see it incorrectly reported on occasion. It’s the tale of the 1980s game when Middlesbrough played Manchester City at Maine Road wearing Manchester United’s shirts. It’s the anniversary (17 January) of that game today, so here is the story, a match report and some video clips of that game…
It was January 1981 and Middlesbrough travelled to Maine Road for what was nothing more than a mid table top flight clash. John Bond’s City had faced Liverpool in a controversial League Cup semi final first leg 3 days earlier – don’t get me started on that one! You can read about and listen to John Bond comment on it (from my interview with him back in the 1990s) elsewhere on this site.
The City-Middlesbrough game wasn’t scheduled to be on TV or anything. Remember this was a time when games would only be filmed if they were to be shown as highlights on TV that night or the following day and the news of what games would be on the telly would often be kept secret until shortly before kick off, or sometimes announced at the end of one of the lunchtime football shows on BBC or ITV, depending on which channel had the TV rights for Saturday night games that year. In 1980-81 ITV had the rights to Saturday night football and in Granadaland our programme was called Match Night, presented by Elton Welsby.
That night Granada TV planned on showing the Bolton home game as their match but a waterlogged pitch at Burnden Park meant that game was called off, so a quick decision was made to move the Granada cameras to Maine Road and film the City game instead. I remember arriving at Maine Road with my Dad and being surprised at seeing the Granada TV trucks outside the Main Stand. In those days spotting the TV trucks outside the ground brought a bit of excitement because it also meant you’d have the unusual experience of seeing a game, or at least highlights of it, again. I was 13 at the time, and this was always a big bonus.
Of course, I wasn’t the only person surprised by the TV switch to Maine Road as Middlesbrough were also caught out by it. Back in 1980-81 shirt sponsorship was still a bit of a thorny issue in football and clubs were allowed to wear sponsors names on their shirts but not in games televised. Middlesbrough arrived at Maine Road with shirts wearing their sponsor’s name and this meant the filming of the game was now in jeopardy.
City hadn’t yet struck a deal for shirt sponsorship – that was to come later in the year when Saab became the club’s first sponsor – which meant the club did not need as many shirt variations as Middlesbrough. Whether this had any bearing on what happened next isn’t clear but, instead of wearing City’s second strip, Middlesbrough asked Manchester United if they could borrow their shirts instead. Someone sent for a full set of United home shirts from Old Trafford and Middlesbrough played in United’s unsponsored red instead of their own shirts.
The game was filmed and broadcast that night – Granadaland viewers had the choice of the game or the end of the Parkinson show/start of a Burt Reynolds film.
The game ended in a 3-2 City win with goals from Tommy Hutchison, Bobby McDonald and Kevin Reeves. Middlesbrough’s Hodgson became the first man to score wearing a United first team shirt at Maine Road that season. In fact, Hodgsonnand McAndrew were the ONLY men to score at Maine Road that season in a first team game wearing United’s colours!
Were you at this match? If you were why not leave your memory as a comment or email it to me for possible future use on this website?
You can read a report of the game here:
Here’s some film of the match too:
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If you have enjoyed this free post and would like to support my research and writing then please subscribe. Annual subscribers (£20 per year, sign up here) get access to everything posted on the site including PDFs of 2 of my out of print books and archived content like my exclusive audio interviews with John Bond, Malcolm Allison etc. Not only that but you’ll be helping to support this site’s development and my research.
Why not sign up for a month (cancel any time)? Monthly subscribers (£3 per month, cancel anytime and sign up here) get access to everything posted on the site since 1 October 2022. Not only that but you’ll be helping to support this site’s development and my research.
100 years ago today (16 January) the previous Saturday’s game between Manchester City & Sunderland was reported on. The game had ended in a 3-2 City win at Roker Park. The weather was poor, affecting the attendance and, as this report shows, preventing the reporter from being able to report properly on the game.
I know I’ve written plenty about Colin Bell over the years but, to be frank, you can never read or write enough about Bell. So for today’s subscriber article here’s a 1,900 word piece (plus videos of the Ballet On Ice game and his first return game v Derby in April 1976 – yes that’s right!) on the legendary Manchester City and Bury footballer. Enjoy!
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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £20 for an annual subscription (above; access everything from December 2020) or £3 per month (here; access everything since 1 October 2022).
Manchester football historian Gary James assesses what City’s 2011 FA Cup success means from a historical perspective. This was written in April 2011 and is published here to provide consideration of how that point in history was viewed at the time. It has not been altered to reflect later views.
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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. If you’d like to support my research then why not subscribe? Every subscription directly helps support my research and provides annual subscribers with access to everything posted on this site, including the entire Manchester A Football History and From Maine Men To Banana Citizens books, plus interviews, articles and more. I am not employed by anyone and all my research is self funded or comes from subscriptions to this site.
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.
On a day when there’s a controversial refereeing decision in a Manchester Derby here’s a reminder that today is the anniversary (14 January 1981) of a notorious refereeing error in a Manchester City Liverpool League Cup semi-final. You can read about that elsewhere on the site. the anniversary though has given me the impetus to post this 9,000+ word article on the 1980-81 season. This was a remarkable season and you can read it below:
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This 9,000+ article is for subscribers only. You can subscribe at £20 a year (here) or £3 per month (below). Annual subscribers access everything posted since December 2020 and monthly subscribers access everything since 1 October 2022.
This 9,000+ article is for subscribers only. You can subscribe at £20 a year (above) or £3 per month (here). Annual subscribers access everything posted since December 2020 and monthly subscribers access everything since 1 October 2022.
On this day (13 January) in 1987 Peter Barnes re-signed for Manchester City from Manchester United and made his first appearance at home to Liverpool four days later.
You can still purchase copies of my acclaimed biography of Peter Barnes. Every copy bought direct from me will be signed by me. You can order here:
Gary James' Football Archive 