Category Archives: Seasons

Barney Daniels

I’ve heard the sad news that the former Manchester City and Stockport County player Barney Daniels has died. He also played for Manchester United (though not in the first team), Chester City, Ashton United and Hyde United.

He joined City on 30 March 1973 and made his first team debut against Derby County on 6 Feb 1974 (report below). In total he played 3 games in 1973-74 (debut v Derby 1-0 win; 9/2/74 at Chelsea & came on as sub at Liverpool on 16/4/74).

Screenshot

The following season (1974-75) he made ten appearances and the first of those was against Leicester on 23/11/74 when he scored 2 goals and made the headlines as he helped City go to the top of the top flight (see following report):

Daniels moved to Chester City on 9 July 1975 (Chester’s record signing at the time) and went on to join Stockport County (July 1976), Ashton United (1978-82), Hyde United 1982 and back to Ashton United (1982-84).

At City he was a consistent performer for the reserves.


John Maddocks (City’s former statistician/historian in the 80s/90s) gave these notes he’d written on Barney in the late 1990s which are worth posting here: ‘Most enjoyable it was watching Barney Daniels in action in the Reserves in the 1970’s. He scored an average of almost a goal a game in 1973-74 including several hat-tricks and he deserved his first team chance when it came. He had had trials with Blackpool, scoring three goals in four reserve games, but was not taken on, and in his first season with Ashton United he scored 27 goals. City bought him for £1,000 and also played a friendly at Ashton.

‘Barney was top reserve team marksman in consecutive seasons from 1973-75, scoring 44 times.’

John’s stats showed that Barney made the following City appearances:

FL:9+4 apps. 2 gls.

TOTAL:9+4 apps. 2 gls.         

Res:61+1 apps. 44 gls.

Other:10+2 apps. 12 gls.

The 1990s: New Manager for City?

On 15 June 1995 Manchester City’s efforts to replace Brian Horton as manager seemed to be stumbling. Brian Kidd had been wanted by chairman Francis Lee, but that wasn’t happening; others who would be discussed widely (and fans were told would be possible) included George Graham and Franz Beckenbauer. Ultimately City appointed Alan Ball (you can read about his time at City elsewhere on this website if you’re brave enough to be reminded of those days!).

The 1940s: George Smith 5

On 14 June in 1947 Manchester City’s George Smith (on right of photo the following season playing against Manchester United) scored five as the Blues defeated Newport 5-1 in the Second Division. At the time this was City’s latest finish to a season (eclipsed by the Covid affected 2019-20 season of course!). You can read more on the 1946-47 season below. This was the first league season after the war and ended with City winning the Second Division title. There were some truly significant – and well attended – games that season and future Liverpool manager Joe Fagan made his debut this season too. This subscriber article includes comments from an interview I did with George Smith back in 2003.

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The 1970s: Summerbee Leaves City

On 13 June 1975 Mike Summerbee signed for Burnley from Manchester City. That day also saw Burnley sign Manchester United’s Willie Morgan too. These were sad departures from both City and United as far as Manchester fans were concerned. Here’s a report including quotes from the 14 June 1975:

City’s Swedish Tour in Doubt

Back in June 1985 English football clubs planned tours and preseason games were in doubt after first UEFA, then FIFA instigated bans on English clubs playing outside of the UK. According to the Liverpool Echo Manchester City was to be the first team to challenge the ban (see below for details). The bans followed the awful, tragic scenes at the 1985 European Cup Final featuring Liverpool. That day was an absolutely disgraceful day that saw 39 people die – please find a way to read about the circumstances. It really was horrific.

The reason this became a story on 11 June in 1985 in the Liverpool Echo is that City’s planned trip to Sweden was in jeopardy and the newspaper wanted to raise awareness of the possibility that the ban could be lifted.

Ultimately, City did not get to Sweden in 1985 and they played in the Isle Of Man tournament in July and August instead.

Swales Out 1983

As part if my Maine Rd 100 countdown in 2023 I posted this image of Manchester City fans demonstrating against chairman Peter Swales and his supporting board of directors. It’s always worth remembering those days as a reminder of how things change.

Of course fans still demonstrate and make their feelings known over various issues (as is their right) but these days it tends to be over specific issues. Back then it was about the direction of the full club. This image was from 1983 but protests against Swales and the board began in 1979 and continued until 1993-94. Here’s a photo of John Bond stood in front of the Main Entrance in 1983. The ‘cage’ protecting the entrance would often get locked to prevent fans forcing their way in during demonstrations.

John Bond, 1983

Here’s a 1995 image of Maine Road showing the forecourt in front of the Main Stand where most demonstrations occurred:

The 1980s: Mark Lillis Signs

On this day (7 June) in 1985 it was reported that Manchester City had signed City fan Mark Lillis (see the image for the story). Lillis soon became a cult hero to Kippax fans.

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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Tomorrow’s feature is on the 1986-87 season. If you missed the earlier features then start here:

The 1980s: 1980-1981 Gow, Hutchison & McDonald

50 Years Ago: Dave Watson

Here’s a newspaper cutting from this day (5 June) in 1975 about England International Dave Watson who was rumoured to be leaving Sunderland. Manchester City seemed favourites to sign him and, of course, he was ultimately to join the Blues (becoming my hero too!). There are lots of articles that mention Dave on my site and here’s a link to all those tagged ‘Dave Watson’:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/tag/dave-watson/

Gundogan Record

On 3 June 2023 Ilkay Gundogan City secured his place in national football history with the quickest goal in a FA Cup final. It was a stunning volley after only 12 seconds. That day Gundogan scored two and helped City to 2-1 FA Cup final victory over Manchester United.

As well as the speed of the first goal, Gundogan’s goals gave him another MCFC record. Dave Masey, who has been collecting stats and historical information on Manchester City for years contacted me to tell me about one of his spreadsheets which holds details of City scorers in trophy winning games.

His records capture those who have scored in major cup finals, but besides Cup Finals he also records other trophy-winning games. These include the deciding League games from 1937 onwards against Sheffield Wednesday (1937), Newcastle, QPR, West Ham, Brighton and Villa (2022), but nothing from three recent title successes where the Blues clinched the title when they were not playing. Got that? Good, now….

Dave tells me that the FA Cup success saw Gundogan move to the top of the list with 5 goals, overtaking Neil Young and Sergio Aguero. So he has scored more goals in trophy-winning games than any other Blue.

The list of scorers in trophy winning games reads:

1904Meredith
1934/7Tilson (3), Brook (2), Doherty
1956Hayes, Dyson, Johnstone
1968/70Young (4), Lee (2), Summerbee, Doyle, Pardoe
1976P Barnes, Tueart
2011-(former)Aguero (4), Y Toure (2), Nasri (2), Kompany (2), D Silva (2),Jesus (2), Sterling (2), Dzeko, Zabaleta, Navas, Fernandinho
2016-(current)Gundogan (5),  Laporte (2), Rodri (2), Mahrez, De Bruyne

Dave also tells me that in the three seasons where somebody else’s defeat clinched the title for City, the scorers in the club’s last game before the title confirmation were:

Gundogan (3), Sterling (2), Jesus, Haaland.

As Dave says, Ilkay gets a remarkable number of important goals, particularly for somebody who is ‘just’ a 1 goal in 5/6 games player (63 in 357 for City by June 2025).

Manchester City’s European Tours

These days pre-season tours are an expected part of a football club’s activities but that’s not always been the case. Pre-1939 it was highly unusual for English teams to travel for friendlies before a season, but some clubs did enjoy post-season tours. The idea was that a trip to mainland Europe was a reward for first team players after an arduous season. Here for subscribers to my site is a brief overview of some of Manchester City’s European tour firsts.

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