Category Archives: Seasons

Don’t Leave Early: The Goal Standard

On 18 October 1978 in the UEFA Cup 2nd round first leg Manchester City defeated Standard Liege 4-0. Three of those goals (one a penalty) came in the last 5 minutes, demonstrating that no one should ever leave early (unless there are significant reasons of course). No game is over until the final whistle and this game against Liege is one that should always be remembered. The reason I say this… My dad made us leave early as it was a school night (I’d celebrated my 10th birthday a week or so earlier). We left when it was 1-0 with about 6 minutes to go.

I remember us walking down the Platt Lane tunnel and getting to the exit gates and hearing the roar – an obvious goal! Then as we walked down the pink passage behind the Platt Lane there was another roar. A third roar was heard a little later and then a fourth just as we neared our car and that was that! We only knew the actual score when we got home because, back then, there was no radio in dad’s car. Throughout that journey back to Hyde me, my brother and my dad tried to guess what the final score would be. We knew we’d heard four roars and assumed we’d missed four goals but the first roar would’ve been for the penalty award and the second for the penalty itself.

Missing three goals at the age of ten is not great. Hmm!

Anyway, for those, like me, who missed it here are the match facts and a video of those goals:

Attendance: 27,487

City Goalscorers: Hartford, Kidd 2 (1 pen), Palmer

City: Corrigan; Clements, Donachie, Booth, Watson, Viljoen (Keegan), Palmer, Bell, Kidd, Hartford, Barnes

Asa Hartford scored in the 13th minute but, despite several attempts that was all that separated the clubs up to the 85th minute.  A frantic late rally by the Blues saw three goals in four minutes to create a decisive and emphatic victory.  All those who had left the stadium early (to get to their cars and buses) realised that no game is over until the final whistle. 

The transformation was heralded as a high point in the career of Peter Barnes.  Barnes demonstrated his skills superbly as he made Liege suffer with attack after attack.  Peter Gardner:  “Twisting, turning, tormenting and teasing the harassed Belgians, Barnes paved the way for that final three-goal fling with Kidd grabbing tow and Palmer the last.  It was Barnes at his brilliant best although Hartford and Watson were also heroes on a night when City proved that patience always pays.”

My biography of Peter Barnes talks about this game of course and you can buy copies here:

Shop

John Bond Becomes MCFC Manager

On this day (17 October) in 1980 John Bond officially became the Manchester City manager. Back in November 1995 I interviewed the former Manchester City manager. At the time I was researching my in-depth history of the club called Manchester The Greatest City (later updated as Manchester The City Years).

I met John at his home and spent a good few hours with him chatting about the Blues and his career. I loved doing this interview and was always grateful for the time he gave me. He was quite frank, open and honest – which delighted me because he was a great talker. He was also happy for me to quote everything he said in the interview. I did end up quoting him extensively in the book (and in others I’ve produced) but none of the interview has ever been heard by the wider public.

You can hear the interview I did that day. In this first section he talks about the steps taken by City to appoint him; the interview (and the directors involved in that notorious filmed job interview for the City documentary in 1980-81); the signing of Tommy Hutchison, Bobby McDonald and Gerry Gow. As I said earlier, he is quite frank in his comments and that may surprise a few.

This audio recording of the first 17 minutes of the interview is available to subscribers of my blog whether annual or monthly. If you want to hear it then please subscribe below.

Of course as this interview was recorded on my old cassette recorder the quality isn’t the best but I’m sure you’ll appreciate the exclusive nature of this.

Subscribe to get access – Annual

If you would like to listen to this frank interview and read the in-depth articles on this site (including the entire Manchester A Football History book) then please subscribe. It works out about £1.67 a month if you take out an annual subscription (£20 per year; here) or £3 a month (see below). Annual subscribers access everything posted since December 2020.

Subscribe

Subscribe to get access

If you would like to listen to this frank interview and read the in-depth articles on this site (including the entire Manchester A Football History book) then please subscribe. A monthly subscription is £3 a month (cancel anytime) if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time (here). Monthly subscribers access everything posted since 1 October 2022. Why not join up for a month and see what you think?

Subscribe

The other parts of the interview are available here:

John Bond Interview Part Two
John Bond Interview – Part Three
John Bond Interview – Part Four
John Bond Interview – Part 5
John Bond Interview Part 6 (of 7)
John Bond Interview Part 7 (Final Part)

I’ve also posted an obituary I wrote to John here:

Johnny Bond, Johnny Bond, Johnny Bond

Chelsea Defeated

Pre-match the Times claimed: ‘if only one [goal] is needed, Chelsea usually find it.’ Well, not this day as Manchester City became the only team to beat Chelsea during their title winning season (their 2nd title; their first was 50 years earlier).

Nicolas Anelka netted an early penalty to give Manchester’s Blues the 1-0 win on this day (16 October) in 2004.

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.

Choose an amount

£2.50
£5.00
£7.50

Or enter a custom amount

£

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate

Horton’s 9 Men Hold On

Manchester City were down to nine men when they defeated QPR 2-1 on this day (15 October) in 1994. It was a bit of a strange one for Brian Horton’s Blues with both goalkeeper Andy Dibble (two footed challenge on Les Ferdinand) and Richard Edghill (2nd bookable offence) sent off.

City had taken a 56th minute lead via a Garry Flitcroft header but then followed a frantic seven minutes or so. Paul Walsh scored City’s second when the ball went in off his face! Then Andy Dibble raced forward under pressure from Ferdinand and was judged to have handled the ball outside the area. Former blue Clive Wilson netted from the free kick.

After that came the sending off of Dibble then Edghill. You can read more on the game in this contemporary match report from the Telegraph:

If you’ve enjoyed this piece why not subsribe to the site or make a donation to support further research and keep the site going? See below for details.

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.

Choose an amount

£2.50
£5.00
£7.50

Or enter a custom amount

£

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate

City Beat Stoke

This action shot is from 101 years ago today (14 October 1922) and shows Manchester City’s Horace Barnes heading the ball out of the Stoke goalkeeper’s (Scott) hands. City won the match 2-1 (Horace Barnes & Tommy Johnson scoring for City) at Hyde Road and the stand seen in the background is City’s Popular Side.

If you like these daily snippets why not subscribe to the site and see all the other great content. For details see:

How To Subscribe

Tommy Booth Return

Here’s an interesting article about Tommy Booth and Manchester City from 14 October 1978. It talks about him being ‘Mr Dependable and back in the City first team despite the big spending of the Blues. Actually it’s really interesting how the City spend. spend, spend view exists in this article from all those years ago. Anyway, enjoy this flashback to a time when Tommy Booth remained a key member of City’s first team.

Kaziu Deyna Goal v Forest

On this day (13 October) in 1979 Kaziu Deyna scored the only goal of the City-Nottingham Forest League game at Maine Road.  A crowd of 41,683 witnessed the City win with future Spanish TV presenter Michael Robinson wearing the number 9 shirt for the Blues that day.

Back in 2003 I wrote this profile of former Manchester City player and Polish World Cup star Kazimierz Deyna. Deyna was such an important and unusual signing at the time he joined City in November 1978 that I feel this article is still appropriate and of interest to subscribers to my blog today.

Subscribe to get access – Annual

If you would like to read this in-depth article and all the others on this site (including the entire Manchester A Football History book) then please subscribe. It works out about £1.67 a month if you take out an annual subscription (£20 per year) or £3 a month (see below) if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time. Each subscriber gets full access to the 1000+ articles posted so far and the hundreds scheduled to be posted in the coming weeks.

Subscribe

Subscribe to get access – Monthly

If you would like to read this in-depth article and all the others on this site (including the entire Manchester A Football History book) then please subscribe. It costs £3 a month (cancel anytime) of take out a special annual subscription for £20 (above).

Subscribe

Rare Hyde Road Images

Rare action images from Hyde Road taken on this day (October 12) in 1912 as Manchester City were defeated 1-0 at home to Newcastle before a capacity 40,000 crowd.

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.

Choose an amount

£2.50
£5.00
£7.50

Or enter a custom amount

£

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate

Two Minutes Silence

Today (11 October) is the anniversary of a game played in 1930 which highlights something about remembrance for me. These days the periods prior to football games when a recently deceased person or a tragedy is remembered tends to be either a minute’s silence or a minute’s applause. The approach varies depending on the deceased, the mood of the time and other factors. Back in 1930 it was normal to be silent for two minutes and this cutting from 1930 shows the footballers of both Manchester City and Portsmouth paying their respects to the victims of an airship disaster.

Remembering the victims of R101 airship which crashed in France, October 1930

The crash occurred in France (the airship’s first journey overseas) on 5 October 1930 and 48 of the 54 people on board died. The football match this image was taken at was played on 11 October 1930. It ended in a 3-1 City defeat (Bobby Marshall scored for City).

On the R101 – when I was researching and writing Farewell To Maine Road 20 years ago an elderly man told me how he remembered an airship flying over the ground when he was a young boy. I do know another airship, the R100, travelled over Manchester at times (including in 1930). Maybe some in the crowd at the Portsmouth game remembered seeing the airship R100 fly over the ground earlier that year?

City End Spurs Run

A 1-1 draw saw Tottenham Hotspur’s run of consecutive victories from the start of the season come to an end at 11 wins (a run of 13 consecutive League wins in total). City of course now hold this record. A crowd of 58,916 saw the game on this day (10 October) in 1960 when City, wearing maroon and white stripes, ended Spurs’ run.

Tottenham’s Bobby Smith heading the opening goal past Bert Trautmann. The City ‘keeper had been superb and went on to demonstrate his skills throughout the game.

City’s Clive Colbridge equalised five minutes into the second half but most newspapers focused on the significance of Tottenham’s winning run with some believing it would never be bettered. They obviously couldn’t predict the brilliance of Pep Guardiola’s team.

Tottenham did go on to win the double (in the days when that seemed an impossibility, never mind a domestic treble or treble involving a European Cup! There was some praise for City in the report.

Here’s a contemporary match report of the Spurs game in 1960: