Football writing, thoughts and more by Gary James
It’s great to see the Manchester City Send It Forward campaign here (link below). I’m also delighted that my City Women history book forms part of the desk set up (there’s another one of my books in there too, but seeing the City Women book there is so pleasing). More on Send It Forward here: https://www.mancity.com/news/womens/send-it-forward-international-womens-day-man-city-63908379?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=organic_social
League Cup holders Manchester City played Sheffield United in the League on 6 March 1976. It’s a game often overlooked and for the first 50 minutes or so had little to offer. Some thought City were off form because of their exploits at Wembley but suddenly they burst in to life when Tommy Booth latched on to a loose ball. He fed it to Asa Hartford who made it 1-0 after 59 minutes.
Eight minutes later Booth headed the ball to Dennis Tueart 15 yards out from goal. Amazingly, the City winger repeated his famous scissor kick from the League Cup final to give the Blues a 2-0 lead and total dominance. Joe Royle headed a third after 71 minutes and Hartford netted his second – a devastating low drive – to make it a 4-0 win. Significantly, in the days before assists were formally recorded, Tommy Booth had supplied the final pass for all four City goals.
A dismal game had been transformed into a real demonstration of City’s strengths. The Blues were now seventh, ten points behind leaders QPR, though the Blues had played 3 fewer League games. However, with eleven games left and only two points for a win it seemed unlikely that further trophy success would follow this season.
You can read more on the 1975-76 season with this 5,320 word article – a season which saw Tony Book guide the club to major success. 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 5,320 word article is on the 1975-76 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!
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A difficult League game at home to Wigan saw the Blues win 1-0 on this day (5 March) in 2011, but it had been a laboured victory with City looking somewhat tired. Journalist Paul Wilson described the goal: ‘City got lucky when the normally reliable Ali al-Habsi allowed David Silva’s tame first-half shot to slip through his fingers and trickle between his legs, though in the context of the way Arsenal dropped two home points on the same afternoon luck is not something to be sniffed at. At least City had the gumption to settle for the points and a flat performance, instead of taking risks trying to be entertaining.’
City were suffering with several injuries and manager Roberto Mancini believed his side had been performing exceptionally well considering the issues. He claimed the squad was thin compared to the other title challengers: ‘Every other team has 20 or 22 players to choose from and you need that if you are playing every three days. We only have 15 or 16 at present. When we recover all our players it will not be a problem, but since January we have been unlucky with niggling injuries and now we have just lost Kolo [via a suspension].’
Writing in the Guardian Paul Wilson had some sympathy: ‘Mancini could be right about the team finding themselves in a difficult moment. The Europa League demands a trip to Kiev on Thursday, just about the last thing a team in need of a rest would fancy, and after the return leg the next league fixture is Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. A home FA Cup tie against Reading on Sunday ought to provide some respite, though City will only arrive back in the country in the small hours of Friday morning and on the evidence of their efforts against Wigan no one will be taking anything for granted.’
Today (5 March) in 1966 two goals from Neil Young helped Second Division Manchester City to a 2-2 draw against First Division Leicester City in the 5th round of the FA Cup. Gordon Banks was the Leicester ‘keeper and City gained many plaudits from this display. More was to follow as the football world began to notice how City were revitalised under manager Joe Mercer and his assistant Malcolm Allison. Were you there that day? If you were please feel free to add your comments.
Here for subscribers are some contemporary match reports and images from this game:
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You can find out more on Manchester City during the 1965-66 season by reading the following 4100 word article. As with most of the other features in this series it includes words from interviews I have performed with those who were there. This is a subscriber article (see below).
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It’s City v Forest tonight (4 March 2026), so here’s a few snippets/features on the two clubs. The first game between them in Manchester was played on 9 April 1900 and ended in a 2-0 City win (see report). This was a First Division game (City became the first Manchester side to earn promotion when they won the Second Division title the previous season). Billy Meredith scored both goals.
There are quite a few articles on Forest and City on here. Here are all the ones tagged Nottingham Forest:
https://gjfootballarchive.com/tag/nottingham-forest/
Also, if you’d like to find out more on the early 1900s for Manchester City then why not start with this subscriber feature on the second half of the 1899-1900 season? It’s a 1300 word article:
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More on the 1900s tomorrow. Why not subscribe and read this and all the other subscriber features?
Continuing here: the story of Manchester City’s origins. Today’s feature is a 3,300+ word feature on the earliest known game, played in November 1880. Have a look elsewhere on the site for other content on this period.
These articles will be available to subscribers to this site. It costs £3 per month (cancel any time) or sign up for a year for the discounted price of £20 per year (works out about £1.67 a month to access every article on this site). To date in excess of 1,500 articles/features have been posted including interviews, talks and more.
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On 2 March 2021 Manchester City defeated Wolves 4-1, extending the Club’s unbeaten run to an outstanding 21 games in all competitions (it was widely reported at this time that no other Premier League team had managed more than four wins in a row so far in 2020-21!). In addition City had extended their unbeaten run to a club record equalling 28th game. Post-match Pep Guardiola rightly told Radio FiveLive: ‘In wintertime in England it’s hell and in that time we did something incredible. It’s more than remarkable.’
On this day (1 March 1930) Manchester City defeated Liverpool 4-3 at Maine Road with goals from Tommy Tait (2), Eric Brook and Tommy Johnson. This match at Maine Road was watched by 29,973. You can find out more on the 1929-30 season below in this piece for subscribers (see below). I hope you enjoy it. If you don’t subscribe 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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As well as subscriber pieces this series on the 1930s includes some free articles.
Manchester City travelled to Wembley for the League Cup final on this day (28 February) in 1976. Here’s a story of that day…
The huge demand for tickets had seen City secretary Bernard Halford take the unusual step of writing to all the other League clubs, apart from Newcastle of course, asking for any spare tickets from their allocations for the final. Many clubs obliged but still thousands of Blues were denied tickets.
Reaching Wembley was an extraordinary achievement considering the injuries (most notably Colin Bell) and suspensions, and demonstrated a wonderful team spirit that had been galvanised by manager Tony Book and captain Mike Doyle following the controversy surrounding former captain Rodney Marsh earlier in the season. Doyle told the media: ‘The success of this City is the complete team work – and individuals don’t count. I’m sorry Colin [Bell] hasn’t made it, but I’m damned sure it hasn’t weakened our chances, because we’ve proved it. We’ve been without him for three months and still reached Wembley.’
Significantly, every member of the side had already played at Wembley except youngsters Peter Barnes and Ged Keegan. When questioned whether those players would be the weak links Doyle said: ‘Peter is not only a tremendously talented player – he’s got his head screwed on the right way. He just isn’t the sort to get all worked up. In fact, I’ll bet that he could prove the biggest success of the whole match. He’s a natural. He does things superbly without having to think or worry. Keegan is in the same mould. He’ll feel at home, because he’s already one of the City first team pool. If he wasn’t something special, he wouldn’t be in it!’
The final began with both teams playing attractive football. Newcastle seemed to have the edge for a while, but a foul by Newcastle’s Keeley on Joe Royle brought an important free-kick. Hartford sent the ball to Royle, who headed the ball across the face of the goal. Barnes stormed in to fire a half-volley into the net to give City an eleventh minute lead.
Barnes, who would be announced as the PFA Young player of the Year that weekend, immediately ran off the pitch towards the stands in celebration.
Twenty-four minutes later Newcastle’s Macdonald sent in a low centre. Watson and Corrigan raced for it, but Newcastle’s Gowling managed to get to it first and stab home the equaliser.
The second half started with City determined to get an early goal – and they did! Years later Dennis Tueart explained: ‘The goal itself… [Donachie’s] going, I’ve gone to the far post, then come away from the far post because Tommy [Booth’s] gone there. But as I’ve checked back into the centre, I’d gone in too far, the ball’s gone over to Tommy. Tommy’s got half a head on it and knocked it back. It just went a wee bit behind me. Well, I’d always been fairly good at volleying right from an early age, and I’d scored a goal, probably it was the first or second game of the season, against Norwich. Which I think was technically a better goal, it flew in the net, overhead kick. I’d scored overhead kicks at school, I’d side volleyed which is slightly different, but timing and volleying had always been a strength, and it just came… Any balls that come to you as a forward, no matter which way they come to you, you just try and twist your body and get some kind of contact onto it. Because you know the general area where the goal is, and I connected pretty well, it went across and bounced in.
‘It was important because it was the 46th minute, just after half time, when we got ourselves back in front.’
Manager Tony Book, who became the first man to win the trophy as a player and as a manager, was delighted with City’s 2-1 win: ‘This was my greatest moment. It was a tremendous final and Tueart’s goal was something special… quite out of this world.’
On the Sunday, City returned home to an incredible tour of Manchester. It was a great day of celebration, and the final would be shown on ITV later that day. In the days before the League Cup was shown live on television, this gave those unable to get a ticket the chance to see the game for the first time.
Match Stats
28 February 1976
Manchester City 2 (Barnes & Tueart)) Newcastle United 1 (Gowling)
Attendance 100,000
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You can read more on the 1975-76 season with this 5,320 word article – a season which saw Tony Book guide the club to major success. 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 5,320 word article is on the 1975-76 season and is available to subscribers 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.
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.
If you’d like to know more about subscribing then see:
Choose an amount
Or enter a custom amount
Your contribution is appreciated.
Manchester City’s 2-1 victory over West Ham on 27 February 2021 saw the Blues take the lead after 30 minutes, when a cross from Kevin De Bruyne was met perfectly by defender Ruben Dias. This was Dias’s first goal for City.
For a while it seemed like this would be a relatively straightforward win, but West Ham had several chances, and the Hammers were as defensive as you’d expect from a team managed by David Moyes. Just before the break they equalised via Antonio.
In the 68th minute a City corner led to John Stones netting City’s second and ultimately the winner.
Gary James' Football Archive 