Football writing, thoughts and more by Gary James
The new series on the 1950s continues today with this 1,700 word article on the 1953-54 season. Enjoy!
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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month or you can subscriber for the discounted annual rate of £20 per year. Each subscriber gets access to everything posted so far, including PDFs of a couple of my books.
The new series on the 1950s continues today with this 2,000 word article on the 1952-53 season. Enjoy!
This is a subscriber article and you can read it by subscribing below.
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month or you can subscriber for the discounted annual rate of £20 per year. Each subscriber gets access to everything posted so far, including PDFs of a couple of my books.
The new series on the 1950s continues today with this article on the 1951-52 season. Enjoy!
This is a subscriber article and you can read it by subscribing below.
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month or you can subscriber for the discounted annual rate of £20 per year. Each subscriber gets access to everything posted so far, including PDFs of a couple of my books.
The new series on the 1950s continues today with this 1,500 word article on the 1950-51 season. Enjoy!
This is a subscriber article and you can read it by subscribing below.
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month or you can subscriber for the discounted annual rate of £20 per year. Each subscriber gets access to everything posted so far, including PDFs of a couple of my books.
The new series on the 1950s starts today with this 2,300 word article on the 1949-50 season. Enjoy!
This is a subscriber article and you can read it by subscribing below.
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month or you can subscriber for the discounted annual rate of £20 per year. Each subscriber gets access to everything posted so far, including PDFs of a couple of my books.
Starting tomorrow I’ll be posting a series of articles on Manchester City in the 1950s. It will be similar to the series I’ve posted on the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s etc. The series will start with a subscriber article on the 1949-50 season – a season that saw Bert Trautmann make his City debut.
I’m not certain how many match going fans realise how close the site of Manchester City’s is to the site of Manchester United’s old Bank Street ground. The Reds moved back in 1910 to Old Trafford and the site is now the home of the BMX indoor centre. You can see the old ground on the right of the old map below (c.1910), while City’s current Etihad Stadium can be seen in the middle of the newer map. A few other things to look out for:
Move the arrows in the photo to compare maps.
With Manchester City and Plymouth meeting this weekend it’s worth remembering this past encounter between the two teams. They met on 10 November 1987 – only three days after City had thrashed Huddersfield 10-1 in the League. The meeting with Plymouth was in the Full Members’ Cup – then sponsored by the unforgettable Simod Sports Shoes. Manchester’s football focus had been on Mel Machin’s goalscorerd and, once again, City entertained.
Plymouth suffered a 6-2 defeat only three days after the Huddersfield massacre. Again the press picked up on City’s exploits and for once the rather irrelevant Simod Cup dominated the back page headlines. The Star concentrated on the role played by Tony Adcock who had scored his second hat-trick in three days. Under the headline “Adcock’s ‘Arf Hour” reporter Kevin Francis concentrated on the news that the £80,000 signing from Colchester was only in the side because of injury to Imre Varadi, and suggested that Machin would have a difficult selection problem once Varadi returned to fitness. Machin, who also had the prolific Paul Moulden recovering from injury, looked forward to the time when he would actually be faced with the problem of selecting two of the four decent strikers he had on his books!
Interestingly, City’s first goalscorer against Plymouth, Andy Hinchcliffe, was being watched by Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish. Already the Blues were aware that almost all the wealthiest British clubs of the period were keen on City’s headline grabbing young players. Only four months later Rangers manager Graeme Souness arrived at Maine Road to watch the game against Swindon. He paid to sit in the North Stand, and watched the exploits of Paul Stewart while covering half his face with a scarf to hide his identity! It didn’t work. A Sunday People reporter spotted the Rangers manager and his assistant, Walter Smith, and forced the pair to leave before they attracted further attention.
For a while the interest in the achievements of City’s young players was high and this meeting with Plymouth certainly gained more headlines for them. The goalscorers that night for City were: Andy Hinchcliffe, Paul Lake, Paul Stewart and Tony Adcock (3).
Subscribers can find out more about the 1987-88 season by reading my 4,000 word feature on it below. Enjoy!
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) to access everything posted since 1 October 2022 or there’s a special annual rate below which gives greater access and works out much cheaper.
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Tomorrow’s feature is on the 1988-89 season. If you missed the earlier features then start here:
The 1980s: 1980-1981 Gow, Hutchison & McDonald
On this day (27 February) in 2024 Erling Haaland scored five against Luton Town in the FA Cup. On a night when memories of Denis Law scoring six in the FA Cup against Luton (and then getting them all wiped from the records as the game was abandoned) it was a wonderful performance, coming in Manchester City’s 6-2 victory.
When asked about the goals afterwards City manager Pep Guardiola discussed both Haaland’s scoring and the influence of Kevin De Bruyne too: ‘Erling is on fire and Kevin… the connection was perfect… Kevin needs players like Erling and Erling needs players like Kevin. Erling needs a guy with the vision, the quality, the generosity. Kevin is the less selfish player in front of goal. Kevin needs the movement from Erling. We know how aggressive they are.’
By this time De Bruyne had made nine assists in his previous five FA Cup games for De Bruyne. Surprisingly, one more than he managed in his first 23 appearances for City in the competition but he’d been waiting for a player like Haaland to come along for some time. De Bruyne was making similar moves and passes but the end product had not been there consistently prior to Haaland’s arrival.
Talking of De Bruyne, Haaland commented: ‘Kevin De Bruyne is massive. He is doing what he is best at. It’s a pleasure playing with him. We know what we both want from each other. It clicks well. He is a smart player and I like to play with him.’
Haaland became the 3rd Manchester City player to score 5 in a men’s FA Cup (and it still stands) game. Earlier players who achieved this feat are Frank Roberts & Bobby Marshall. Here’s Roberts’ game (there’s film of that match in 1926 via the link):
Of course Haaland had scored five before:
https://gjfootballarchive.com/?p=8883
For Haaland there were a few records/points to note:
Tonight’s it’s Tottenham v City. The two teams first met in a FA Cup tie in January 1909 with the first League game coming at White Hart Lane on 27 December 1910. City’s first scorer in a League match with Spurs was John Smith, who netted in that first League game (a 1-1 draw). Smith played in only 18 League games (scoring 6) for City.
There are plenty of articles on my website concerning games between City and Tottenham, and here’s a link to the heatwave game played on 27 September 1913:
Here’s a link to all other features tagged Tottenham:
Gary James' Football Archive 