Category Archives: Seasons

The 1970s: 1978-1979 Milan Meeting

The series of features/articles covering Manchester City in the 1970s continues with a 5,700 word article on the entire 1978-79 season – a season which saw City mount a UEFA Cup challenge and a former hero return (if only he hadn’t!). My article, like the other indepth pieces, contains material from interviews I have performed with many of the key figures – chairman, managers, players and others. You can read this below.

This series of articles and features on Manchester City in the 1970s has been running throughout January and now into February with indepth articles some days and smaller ‘on this day’ style posts on others. Every day in January offered something to enjoy and I’ll continue this series for a little while yet. Thanks for all the positive comments about it.

Subscribers can access everything. If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 5,700 word article is on the 1978-79 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

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The 1970s: 1977-1978 Bell’s Return

The series of features/articles covering Manchester City in the 1970s continues with a 3,700 word article on the entire 1977-78 season – a season which saw an emotional return to the League for Colin Bell and a MCFC title challenge (well, we hoped!). You can read this below. This series of articles and features on Manchester City in the 1970s has been running throughout January and now into February with indepth articles some days and smaller ‘on this day’ style posts on others. Every day in January offered something to enjoy and I’ll continue this series for a little while yet. Thanks for all the positive comments about it.

Subscribers can access everything. If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 3,700 word article is on the 1977-78 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

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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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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (above) or £20 a year (here) to access everything posted since the site was created in December 2020. This special rate works out about £1.67 a week and gives access to everything posted, including PDFs of 3 of my books.

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Second Tier Crowd to Rival Leaders Liverpool?

Here’s another attendance flashback piece. This is from February 1984 when Second Division Manchester City were reported as only being a few thousand behind League leaders Liverpool. The article praised City fans of course but it also highlighted the support Newcastle were also getting in the second tier of English football at the time.

In recent years it has become fashionable to knock fans when stadia are not quite full but in the past we tended to praise and recognise those that continued to be loyal. With the cost of football now considerably higher than it was back in the 1980s then I think it’s only fair that we start to go back to recognising the dedication and loyalty of fans. It is so frustrating when modern day fans (often who don’t pay to attend games) or even journalists/commentators/former players on TV (again, often who do not pay to attend games) criticise the supporters of any club if they see a seat or so empty. If only they realised the efforts fans go to to attend games at times usually arranged for the media’s benefit and not ours.

Parking issues, money concerns, travel gridlock, strikes, weather, travel, work… a whole host of things get in the way and it takes dedication to attend any game.

Lots more on this website about attendances. If you want to know crowd comparisons for the decade before 1983-84 season then this is well worth reading. It may surprise fans of some clubs:

The 1970s: Attendance Facts Not Fiction

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Manchester City v Burnley

Today’s game with Burnley and the return of Vincent Kompany provides a great opportunity to remember some key games and stories from years gone by featuring the two clubs. I’ve written a lot about City & Burnley games over the years so sit back and get yourself in the mood for tonight’s game by having a look at these articles:

A game in 2001:

Capacity Crowd Watch City And Burnley

An amazing crowd for a second tier match:

69,463 watch MCFC and Burnley in Division Two

Another incredible crowd for a City-Burnley match:

An Incredible Crowd and Day in 1921

Sterling inspired City here:

Sterling Double

One of my quests to find missing objects involves the 1904 FA Cup final ball. I know it was in Burnley for over 40 years and was still there in the 1950s but where is it today? Can you help find it? Have a read of this:

Finding 1904 Objects

Jimmy Ross was a brilliant footballer for both City and Burnley but he’s often forgotten. You can find out who he was here:

The Great Jimmy Ross

More on Ross here:

The Death Of Jimmy Ross

John Bond managed both. Here’s an exclusive interview I did with him many years ago where we talked about his career at both:

John Bond Interview – Part 5

A season when City and Burnley challenged each other for the title:

MCFC 20TH CENTURY CHRONICLE – SEASON 1920-21

The earliest known surviving film of a City Ladies (now Women) match was against Burnley:

Manchester City Ladies – The Earliest Film

There are of course several articles mentioning Burnley manager Vincent Kompany’s time at MCFC. You can access some of them here:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/tag/vincent-kompany/

The 1970s: 1976-1977 Maintaining A Title Challenge

The series of features/articles covering Manchester City in the 1970s continues with a 2,100 word article on the entire 1976-77 season – a season which saw City come close to League success. You can read this below. This series of articles and features on Manchester City in the 1970s has been running throughout January with indepth articles some days and smaller ‘on this day’ style posts on others. Every day in January has offered something to enjoy.

Subscribers can access everything. If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 1,200 word article is on the 1976-77 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

Subscribe to get access – Monthly

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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Subscribe to get access – Annual

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (above) or £20 a year (here) to access everything posted since the site was created in December 2020. This special rate works out about £1.67 a week and gives access to everything posted, including PDFs of 3 of my books.

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The 1970s: An Angry Colin Bell!

Colin Bell getting angry in a game? No, never! Err, yes actually. The unassuming, introverted Colin Bell had had enough on this day (30 January) in 1971 and you can see exactly why and his reaction in this video clip.

It’s actually a City defeat at home to Leeds but it is worth watching for Bell’s reaction – a nice reminder that all players have moments when they get angry with the ref. In the clip you’ll notice that it’s Francis Lee who acts as the calming influence with Bell – you’d expect it to be the other way around!

Also, look out for the old Invacar disabled cars parked pitchside in the corner between Kippax and Platt Lane. Just before Leeds score their second you can see that one of the guys in an Invacar has his windscreen wiper on – looking at the conditions it must have been difficult to see at times from inside those vehicles. Prior to this clip ITV presenter Brian Moore had told viewers that this was third placed City v leaders Leeds and that there was no game of more significance in the League that week.

This is part of my series of features/articles covering Manchester City in the 1970s. Watch the highlights of this game here:

Were you at the game and do you remember it? Feel free to give your story in the comments.

This series of articles and features on Manchester City in the 1970s will run throughout January with indepth articles some days and smaller ‘on this day’ style posts on others. There will be flashbacks to great games, players and more. Every day in January will offer something to enjoy.

Subscribers will get access to everything. If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 5,200 word article is on the 1970-71 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

Subscribe to get access – Monthly

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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It’s 1998 and Everton Should Learn from MCFC

Here’s an interesting newspaper cutting from 1998 which basically compares Manchester City and Everton and says City’s future looks bright because the club is getting itself in shape for the future. It suggests Everton could learn from City – even though Manchester’s Blues were in the middle of their greatest descent in football history! To be frank, it was accurate.

The article was published in the Liverpool Echo in May 1998 and that season ended with City dropping to the third tier for the only time in their history. It was a brief stay – and there was lots of drama as we all know (you can read about a lot of that elsewhere on the site) – and the club was in a better shape than it had been previously thanks to David Bernstein, John Wardle, David Makin, Chris Bird and several others.

Since 1998 of course Manchester City have moved stadium and found major success. They’ve also received major investment of course that has helped to transform parts of Manchester. Everton have had investment themselves but not won a trophy and their stadium development has taken some time (during which time the club has fallen behind further).

People often talk about City’s investment in 2008 as being the thing that changed the club but as you can see from this article the seeds were sown via Bernstein, Bird & Co. who put the effort in back in the late 1990s. Without that the stadium and everything else would never have happened. Maybe Everton should have got to grips with things in 1998 as the article suggested? Life may well have been different for Merseyside’s Blues.

The 1970s: City Go Top!

The series of features/articles covering Manchester City in the 1970s continues with this match report from today (29 January) in 1972. The Blues defeated Wolves 5-2 with goals from Francis Lee (3), Tommy Booth and Tony Towers to go top of the League. As a bonus you can also read the WBA v Manchester United match report too.

If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 4,700 word article is on the 1971-72 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

Subscribe to get access – Monthly

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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Subscribe to get access – Annual

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (above) or £20 a year (here) to access everything posted since the site was created in December 2020. This special rate works out about £1.67 a week and gives access to everything posted, including PDFs of 3 of my books.

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The 1970s: Title Favourites According to Spurs

The series of features/articles covering Manchester City in the 1970s continues with this cutting from today (29 January) in 1972. It’s a story which basically quotes Bill Nicholson, the Spurs manager, who believed that City were the best team Tottenham had faced all season. It came prior to City’s 5-2 thrashing of Wolves that day.

City and Spurs had met at White Hart Lane 21 days earlier and that match had ended in a 1-1 draw (Wyn Davies scoring for City).

People tend to forget how wonderful this period was in City history. The 70s was a brilliant decade with the Blues, for example, winning their first European trophy (beating Liverpool, Chelsea & many others to this feat). They also won more major trophies in the 1970s than United. It’s often overlooked but for much of the 70s City and Liverpool saw themselves as THE Granadaland rivals, especially when United were in the Second Division or when the two clubs challenged each other for the League.

If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 4,700 word article is on the 1971-72 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

Subscribe to get access – Monthly

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.

Subscribe

Subscribe to get access – Annual

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (above) or £20 a year (here) to access everything posted since the site was created in December 2020. This special rate works out about £1.67 a week and gives access to everything posted, including PDFs of 3 of my books.

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How To Subscribe

If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.

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The 1970s: In the Event of a Replay…

Today (29 January) in 1977 Manchester City faced Newcastle United in the FA Cup 4th round at St James’ Park and the local newspaper in Newcastle published this information for fans about how to get tickets for a potential replay. Back then replays would be played midweek of the following week, often on Tuesdays in case further replays were required.

As you can see from this cutting a replay was scheduled for the following Tuesday (if needed) at 7.30pm. The cheapest tickets available were 70p for Kippax terracing with seats at various prices.

In the end a replay wasn’t needed as City defeated Newcastle 3-1 with goals from Gary Owen, Joe Royle and an own goal from Craig.

If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.

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