On this day (7 October) in 1995 this report of the Manchester City-Wycombe League Cup tie played on 4 October. The report was written by journalist Simon Mullock, well-known in the press areas at City and to City fans of course. His report seems a fair reflection of the tie that night. If you’re interested, you can now read more on City’s 1995-96 season below. This was a hugely significant season and this article is almost 5,500 words long.
Yes, I know but we can look back and remember from a position of relative comfortability now!
It’s available to subscribers, so why not subscribe and relive this extraordinary season? As with many of these subscriber features it contains material from interviews I’ve performed with key figures from that time.
Here’s the 5500 word article on that season:
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If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read all the other articles? If you’d like to know more about subscribing then see:
This map shows the Maine Road area, where Manchester City’s former ground was, before any of the terraced housing was built. The dark blue shape I’ve placed on the map is approximately where the stadium was built. Maine Road was initially known as Dog Kennel Lane and was renamed in stages as terraced housing was built on it. The lane originally had a bend where the current Maine Road ends and the old lane veered off towards modern day Princess Parkway.
I explain a lot more about this in Farewell To Maine Road and in the Big Book of City. In the MCFC match programme a few years back I explained:
Maine Road itself was a relatively insignificant street in 1923, but in the previous century the road had the name ‘Dog Kennel Lane’ and it had for many decades been a fairly significant but meandering route south of the city. The street was renamed in stages when the area was developed during the late 1800s. For years the reason Maine Road was picked was not clear, but in 2009 I discovered the truth.
The Maine Road name came indirectly from the US State of Maine but this was a compromise. The following newspaper article explains: ‘Dog Kennel Lane took its name from the kennel where hounds were kept. It stood on the right-hand side at the bend about a thousand yards from Moss Lane, opposite to the road which tracked off to the left and led to Demesne Farm. The common name of this lane is so common and unattractive that when the Temperance Company bought the Trafford land they asked the local board to change the name to Demesne Road, and the subject was compromised by calling it Maine Road out of compliment to the Temperance principles of the petitioners.’
The idea of the Temperance movement was to discourage people from drinking alcohol. On 2 June 1851 the State of Maine passed the first recognised prohibition law, and two years later the United Kingdom Alliance was founded in Manchester, pledging to badger Parliament to outlaw liquor in England.
The ‘Temperance Company’ mentioned in the article was actually part of the movement and had bought some land at the top of Dog Kennel Lane – this area is close to the junction with Moss Lane East. They wanted to create a better standard of living and within that area they erected buildings in keeping with their approach to life, such as the Temperance Billiard Hall. However, the ‘Dog Kennel Lane’ name was clearly an issue and so the selection of the name ‘Maine Road’ was made. So the name Maine Road refers to the US State and the part that Maine played in the Temperance movement.
An early 20th century interpretation of an older map, showing modern streets (dotted) with the original roads.
If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:
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On this day (5 October) in 1949 it was reported that ‘Berg’ Trautmann had signed for Manchester City. They of course meant Bert Trautmann but seeing as Berg translates to mountain it seems appropriate for a man who often stood as City’s greatest defensive rock.
You can read plenty of stories about Trautmann on this website. Here’s a link to those tagged with his name:
On this day (4 October) in 1949 it was reported that Frank Swift went to Strangeways prison… to talk to inmates about football. He assumed he would be just talking to the male prisoners but there was so much interest from the female inmates that he spent some time with them first. He talked about his career; City and United and whether Billy Meredith or Stanley Matthews was the greatest all-time forward apparently.
Forty years ago (4 October 1985) it was reported in Drogheda that their talented local footballer Stephen Staunton was being watched by Manchester City. The feeling was that the player may be signed by the Blues, however when City were due to watch him play in a second game (a specially arranged match) the scout had to cancel his trip at the last minute!
Defender Steve Staunton signed for Liverpool a year later and eventually became most famous for his time at Aston Villa and with the Republic of Ireland.
On this day (2 October) in 1920 Bolton Wanderers were defeated by Manchester City 3-1 with goals from Tommy Browell, Fred Fayers and Wilf Woodcock. A crowd recorded as 40,000 at the time watched the match at Hyde Road.
For more on this season why not read the following 2,350 word subscriber article. If you subscribe (see below) I hope you enjoy it. If you are not currently a subscriber then why not try it for a month (£3 per month or sign up for a year at a discounted £20 per year)?
Here’s the article:
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On this day (1 October) in 2011 Manchester City faced Blackburn in the Premier at Ewood Park. Here’s a few words I wrote on that game a few years ago:
At Blackburn on 1st October the home side tried to stifle Mancini’s men for some time. In fact City sat back and took stock of the situation throughout the first half as a negative Blackburn team seemed happy to kill the game at every opportunity. In the second half, as often the case during the opening months of the season, the Blues had total control and ten minutes after the interval Johnson made it 1-0.
Balotelli sent Nasri’s cross home three minutes later, before Nasri added a third and Savić headed City’s fourth. City fans, who had sung Roberto Mancini’s name at various points before and during the match, were in full voice at the end while the Blackburn supporters chanted for the dismissal of their boss Steve Kean. Post match Mancini’s assistant David Platt faced the press: ‘It was the result we were looking for to put Bayern Munich to bed.’
City had lost 2-0 at Munich in their previous game. Here are highlights of the Blackburn match:
On this day (30 September 1985) forty years ago Manchester City manager Billy McNeill highlighted the need for his club to spend if they hoped to stay in the top flight. The Blues had been promoted in May and McNeill felt the squad needed strengthening. City did survive in 1985-86 (in fact they reached a Wembley final) but McNeill’s concerns were valid. The following couple of seasons would see City rely on talented young players coming through the ranks, alongside some seasoned professionals, but many felt the club needed to spend to survive. Unfortunately they were relegated in 1987, by which time McNeill had left, frustrated by City’s lack of investment in the first team.
The 1980s was a truly important decade in the history of Manchester City Football Club and you can find out more on this season by reading the following 2,500 word feature on 1985-86 (available to subscribers). Enjoy!
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Appropriately Saturday saw some further tributes to Ricky Hatton at the Etihad with a couple of banners, plus the Hatton silhouette on the blue moon video pre match (seeing that was quite emotional). These have prompted me to dig out this main image from October in 2011 when I went with City Academy players & staff, Tony Faulkner, Patrick Vieira and Brian Marwood to Ricky’s gym in Hyde. That year I had been performing a series of ‘history’ sessions with City’s Academy and this day with Ricky was a day when Ricky & I were to do an interview about what it’s like being a supporter.
The whole day was wonderful and it was a somewhat surreal experience to do a presentation/talk on the history of MCFC support and then follow that up with an interview with Ricky in the boxing ring itself at Ricky’s gym. It was great for the Academy players to be in the presence of such an iconic sportsman and Ricky was on good form that day. He talked openly and honestly about being a Blue and, as a fellow lad from Hattersley, it was good to share similar experiences about going to Maine Road as kids, catching the 211 bus then the 53 from Belle Vue to the ground.
Ricky spent considerably more time with the Academy players than planned and was welcoming throughout. He demonstrated some of his training techniques and got us all to pose for this photo (I can’t remember quite what we were supposed to be doing but it seemed appropriate and funny at the time).
I’m a few years older than Ricky and it feels so sad when someone dies when still a young man. I remember seeing Ricky as a boy at his dad’s pub the New Inn (my first regular pub when I was a teenager). I used to go there with another City fan, Paul Alexander, who has also passed away in recent years.
The tributes to Ricky are well deserved and he was such an iconic figure, not just in Hattersley, Hyde or Manchester but around the globe.
On this day (28 September) in 2009 Manchester City faced one of Carlos Tévez’s former sides, West Ham. The Hammers were swept aside with a 3-1 victory. Tévez (seen here with Mark Hughes at his signing) netted twice and Martin Petrov scored the other at the City of Manchester Stadium (now the Etihad).
Gary James' Football Archive 