Category Archives: Seasons

The Peter Swales Video You’ve All Been Waiting For

Here it is online at last! On several occasions over the last decade myself & Will McTaggart have included a video profile of MCFC chairman Peter Swales in our Boys In Blue film show. each time those who missed it have asked if they could see a video of it. That’s never been possible until now! At long last you can now see the Swales profile here…

The BBC have included it in a series of films recently released. I would urge all MCFC fans and others to watch this in all its glory. Some of you may wish to jump to the David Brent-esque clip at 3 mins 20. Others may want to see the Ian Niven roof plan that was thwarted by signing Dave Watson at 1 min 45 secs. Then there’s the scene where Swales gives Watson financial advice (45 secs) and it ends with Swales telling us he was a bit like Kevin Keegan (4 mins).

This really is MCFC gold. Enjoy:

https://bbcrewind.co.uk/asset/6139d63a544c6f0021171865?q=Manchester%20city&size=75

On this day… Malcolm Allison joins Manchester City

On this day (July 20) in 1965 Malcolm Allison was formally interviewed by the Manchester City board to be manager Joe Mercer’s assistant. Mercer had wanted to bring Allison in since he took the job earlier in the month. Here is a feature I did on Allison back in January 2005.

I first interviewed Malcolm in 1991, and, using material from several conversations with him, and in 2005 I took the opportunity of a MCFC v Crystal Palace game to remind everyone of his significance. Today, for subscribers, I’m posting it here.

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Raheem Sterling

I’m sad to see Raheem Sterling is leaving Manchester City but I do wish him well for the future of course. For the final MCFC match programme of the season I included a small piece on Sterling and his status/achievements at the Etihad within my regular feature. To mark his departure I’m posting what I said only a couple of months ago here. Enjoy!

Here’s the unedited original piece as it was written: I want to focus on one of our current players who has been establishing himself as one of our greatest goal scorers of all time. In recent weeks we have rightly remembered the goalscoring exploits of our legendary hero Sergio Agüero, especially that memorable day ten years ago. These achievements have to be celebrated and remembered but we should also look at our current goal scorers and recognise what they are achieving too. Legends like Agüero do not come along every day but in today’s squad we have players whose achievements are way ahead of the majority of other players who have preceded them. 

Although we may celebrate odd goals and moments, we don’t often celebrate the achievements of our players while they are playing, especially as we know we have a squad of talented players helping the club challenge for success. However, I think it’s worth pausing to recognise the achievements of Raheem Sterling during his time at City. Sterling is now the second highest scorer for City in the modern era.

For years our top ten goal scorers of all-time list was fairly static. In fact, before Agüero, the most recent player to enter our top ten goal scorers’ chart was Colin Bell, who had followed Francis Lee into the table around fifty years ago. Agüero, of course, is our number one goal scorer of all time now, followed by 1930s stars Eric Brook & Tommy Johnson, then Colin Bell. At the time of going to press Raheem Sterling is 11th in the list after scoring 131 City goals, only one behind Billy Gilliespie and Fred Tilson, our joint ninth highest goal scorers.

We really should celebrate the career statistics of Sterling. It’s an amazing achievement to have eclipsed ALL but the current top ten prior to today’s game. I’m sure some critics will say ‘ah, but how does his scoring ratio compare?’ Well, sadly, for the majority of players in City’s top ten we are unable to have accurate statistics on the number of minutes played to allow a direct comparison, but we do have goals per game ratio statistics. Sterling’s goals to game ratio is 0.388, which is better than Colin Bell’s ratio of 0.305 goals per game and Eric Brook’s 0.359. Not too shabby then, especially when you consider the nature of modern-day squad football meant that Sterling either came on as substitute or was substituted in over 150 of his 338 games too! 

IN SEARCH OF THE BLUES – Fionan Fagan (interviewed September 2004)

Versatile winger Fionan ‘Paddy’ Fagan joined the Blues at Christmas 1953 and went on to score 35 goals in 164 League and Cup appearances during a seven year City career. I discussed his career with him in September 2004. Here for subscribers is that interview.

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IN SEARCH OF THE BLUES – Johnny Hart (interviewed December 2004)

Johnny Hart joined City at the age of 16 in December 1944 and went on to make a total of 177 League and Cup appearances, scoring 73 goals.  A skilful inside-right, Hart later had a highly successful coaching career with the Blues, and a spell as manager in 1973.  Here’s an interview I did with him at City’s stadium shortly before Christmas 2004

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IN SEARCH OF THE BLUES – Roy Little (interviewed August 2004)

Roy Little was a key member of the exciting FA Cup final sides of 1955 and 1956.  Born in Manchester in 1931, Roy made his City debut in 1953 and went on to play 186 League and FA Cup games for the Blues. Here for subscribers is an interview I did with him in August 2004

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Manchester City Fans

While searching through my articles earlier this week I spotted a piece I wrote in 2019-20 on Manchester City’s support. Back then I became somewhat frustrated with a series of articles criticising City’s support. There were a number of ridiculous comments by some and so I wrote a piece challenging some of these views.

I’m not certain all the points are still valid (though City fans have received some significant abuse since 2020 too!) but readers can be the judge of that. Anyway, here’s the article for those who missed it back then:

Click to access 20200224-mcfc-fans.pdf

Bananarama – The Inflatables Craze

In the 1980s Manchester City fans demonstrated the positive side of football during a troubled decade for the sport. Despite being one of England’s top four clubs and the third best supported side in the League, the Blues suffered a shock relegation in 1983. Financial issues and an inability to invest meant the club relied on two of its greatest strengths – youth football and the loyalty of City’s fans.  Young players like Paul Simpson, Paul Moulden, Ian Brightwell, David White, Paul Lake and Andy Hinchcliffe, ensured the Blues had a chance of re-establishing themselves on the pitch, while off the pitch a dedicated following was the envy of the majority of clubs.

City fans not only turned out in their numbers – they were the sixth best supported side in 1983-84 and 1988-89 (second tier seasons) – but they also brought great humour to football.  The most newsworthy story involving fans during this period was the inflatable banana craze.  

Rather than spell out every moment from that era, here are a few snippets on how the craze started and how it progressed. 

– A dedicated City fan called Frank Newton took a 5ft 6in demonstration banana to City V Plymouth on 15 August 1987. It caused some amusement.

– Newton took the banana to away games, including the match against Oldham at Boundary Park. The fans were drenched; morale was low as Oldham equalised; and yet the banana continued to be waved throughout the game, bringing much needed humour to a depressing game.

– Other inflatables began appearing and by the end of the season a chant for striker Imre Varadi to the tune of the Israeli folk song Hava Nagila was adapted with the word banana replacing Varadi. The banana craze was not a tribute to Varadi (this has frequently been misreported in recent years due to an incorrect news report from the period that wrongly claimed the craze was a direct tribute to Varadi – it wasn’t), but chants utilising his name could easily be adapted to use banana instead of his surname.

– For the last game of the 1987-88 season the City fanzine Blue Print, edited by Mike Kelly, urged fans to take a blow up banana to Crystal Palace on the last day of the season.  Around 50 bananas made it on to the terraces that day and the scene was set for supporters to enlarge on this in 1988-89.

– By the time the new season began the inflatable bananas had grown in number but so too had the variety of inflatable – sharks, Frankensteins, crocodiles, dinosaurs plus many more.

– The craze grew throughout 1988-89 and then on Boxing Day an appeal by the fanzines led to over 12,000 City fans in fancy dress and carrying inflatables, descending on Stoke’s Victoria Ground.  The capacity was a little over 24,000 and Stoke handed over two full sides of the ground to City fans.  Even the players came on to the pitch with inflatables (which they also did v Leicester in January 1989).

– A company that made inflatable bananas increased production to help satisfy the craze, while Fyffes began to sponsor games at City. Thousands of inflatables appeared at some games.

– The craze was copied across English football but it was City fans that were heralded as the ones who had put the fun back into football.

During a decade of disaster, tragedy and much negativity within football City fans demonstrated there could be another way and fans became internationally renowned for their humour. The craze ultimately died out, although bananas continued to appear on occasion or in limited numbers over the years. 

In 2010-11 City’s FA Cup run brought the bananas back as a nostalgia craze and this has continued to some extent, though nowhere near in the numbers of the late 1980s.Maybe it’s time to bring back the inflatables in great numbers?

Manchester City 5-1 Newport County

On this day (June 16) in 1947 the Western Mail carried this match report of Manchester City’s 5-0 victory over Newport County, which was played on June 14. The game was remarkable for a number of reasons:

  • Prior to the 2019-20 Covid affected season this was the club’s latest finish to a season. 2019-20 ended in August (Champions League) with the League campaign ending on July 26 2020. The 1946-47 season had been affected by snow and frozen pitches, causing many games to be postponed.
  • City played with only ten men for much of the second half due to an injury to Billy Walsh
  • The Blues won 5-1 with George Smith scoring all five goals. No player has ever scored more goals for the Blues in a League game (Sergio Aguero of course also scored 5 v Newcastle in October 2015). Denis Law did score 6 goals in a FA Cup tie v Luton but this was abandoned and wiped from the records.
  • Roy Clarke made his City debut and, as City were promoted, he became the first man to play 3 successive league games in 3 different divisions when he appeared in his next City game. He’d joined from Cardiff (Division 3); made his City debut in Division 2 then played in Division 1. Subscribers can read more about Roy Clarke here:
MANCHESTER CITY – HALL OF FAME: Roy Clarke
  • City had achieved promotion over a month earlier (May 10) when they defeated Burnley 1-0 in front of a Maine Road crowd of 69,463. You can read about that game here:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/2021/05/10/69463-watch-mcfc-and-burnley-in-division-two/

  • City were promoted as champions.

Lee One Pen

For decades now Francis Lee’s name has been linked with the 1971-72 season and, especially, with him scoring a record number of penalties that season. He netted 13 penalties in a 42 game League season and it’s a record that still stands to this day. This record has often led to the suggestion that Lee ‘won’ more penalties than perhaps he ought to and so for this article I’ve analysed every penalty awarded and taken by Manchester City that season.

This analysis and commentary on Lee’s penalty record is available to subscribers.

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