Category Archives: Manchester Derbies

The 1910s: 1919-1920 The King’s Blues

The new series of features on Manchester City in the 1910s continues today with a 2,400 word article on the 1919-20 season. This was an important season in the history of City. If you’re a subscriber you can read all about this season below. If you’re not a subscriber then why not sign up for a month and see what you think?

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up a year at a time for the discounted annual fee of £20. This gives access to everything on the site, including PDFs of 3 of my books and various other articles, interviews and audio material. Each subscriber has access to all content posted during their subscription period too. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think?

Subscribe

Manchester’s Support

Here’s a map I published in my book Manchester A Football History. It shows the spread of support for both City and United across Manchester as recorded in an academic study back in 2002 (using data from 2001). Basically this was based on season ticket holders in each postcode area of Manchester and shows whether a postcode area was Red or Blue at that time. You can see that back then City had more season ticket holders in almost every district of the city centre and east Manchester while United tended to have more in western districts. However, this was based on the number of season ticket holders in 2001. Since then of course the numbers attending games at both clubs have increased significantly.

In my chapter I made a comment about how this analysis might change:

Screenshot

Manchester Trophy Success

As it’s the Manchester Derby this weekend some always seem to want to compare the records of the clubs. Back in 1991 I wrote (together with Steve Cawley) the Pride of Manchester (the history of the Manchester Derby with forewords by Matt Busby & Joe Mercer). We included in that lots of statistical stuff including a First & Last table showing all major trophies and listing Manchester’s first and most recent successes. So I thought I’d update that table today. Here goes…

Manchester Firsts and Lasts

CompetitionFirst SuccessTeamMost Recent SuccessTeam
FA Cup1904City2024United
League1908United2024City
European Cup/CL1968United2023City
League Cup1970City2021City
European CWC1970City1991United
UEFA Super Cup1991United2023City
FIFA Club World Cup2008United2023City
Europa League2017United2017United
Domestic Treble (League, FAC & LC)2019City *Only club ever to achieve this2019City
Treble (League, FAC & EC/CL)1999United2023City

Individually here are the firsts and lasts for each club:

City’s Success

CompetitionFirst SuccessMost Recent Success
FA Cup19042023
League19372024
Major European Trophy19702023
League Cup19702021

United’s Success

CompetitionFirst SuccessMost Recent Success
FA Cup 19092024
League19082013
Major European Trophy19682017
League Cup19922023

The 1910s: 1912-1913 Mangnall Walks Out On United 

The new series of features on Manchester City in the 1910s continues today with a 2800 word article on the 1912-13 season – A season which saw United’s most successful manager (at the time) walk out on the Reds to become City’s manager (he believed that City, with the larger pulling power, was a more ambitious club). If you’re a subscriber you can read all about that and the rest of the season below. If you’re not a subscriber then why not sign up for a month and see what you think?

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up a year at a time for the discounted annual fee of £20. This gives access to everything on the site, including PDFs of 3 of my books and various other articles, interviews and audio material. Each subscriber has access to all content posted during their subscription period too. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think?

Subscribe

More on the 1910s soon. Why not subscribe and read this and all the other subscriber features?

Fancy Christmas Day in an Armchair at United v City?

It’s Christmas Day 1902 and these were the ticket prices for the big Manchester Derby match played at Clayton (the present day BMX site next to the velodrome). The game ended in a 1-1 draw. It’s so strange to think today that many of us would have headed off to a ground on Christmas Day in years gone by. Notice the seats that you could have at United – arm chairs! That’s right. It’s Christmas Day so I’ll hold off making any funny comments but imagine if Old Trafford advertised ‘arm chairs’.

Merry Christmas to all. I hope it’s a safe, comfortable and enjoyable few days for you all wherever you are.

The Last City Derby Hat-trick Until Haaland & Foden

On this day (12 December) in 1970 a hat-trick from Francis Lee was City’s last hat-trick in a Manchester derby until Haaland and Foden in October 2022! The 1970 game also saw a goal from Mike Doyle to gave City a comfortable 4-1 victory over Manchester United before an Old Trafford crowd of 52,636.  That victory meant City had won 5 and only dropped 4 points in 8 consecutive League derby meetings with the Reds. There was also a devastating injury to Glyn Pardoe (more on that in another post!). Here is the background, report and verdict of that game…

Subscribe to get access – Annual

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. Annual subscribers pay £20 per year to access all material posted since December 2020 and all articles throughout the life of their subscription. Monthly subscribers pay £3 per month (see below).

Subscribe

Subscribe to get access – Monthly

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. Monthly subscribers pay £3 per month to access all material posted since 1st October 2022 and all articles throughout the life of their subscription. Annual subscribers pay £20 per year (see above).

Subscribe

Nobby Stiles Has “Dialogue” with Manchester City Fans

Today (3 December) in 1969 saw this image of United star Nobby Stiles having ‘dialogue’ as the original caption claims with City fans at the Platt Lane end of Maine Road. This was the first leg of the League Cup semi final and City won the leg 2-1 with goals from Colin Bell and Franny Lee. You can watch highlights here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0Y1KpM49Og

Manchester’s two top flight clubs met in their first ever League Cup tie between them during the 1969-70 season. That was the first season when all 92 League clubs entered the competition.

Here, for subscribers, is the background to each of the 1969-70 semi-final legs and a report on each game with lineups, attendance details etc.

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. Subscribing gives access to all the articles posted so far, including a PDF of the book Manchester A Football History

Subscribe

Malcolm Allison Autographed Copy of The Pride of Manchester

As part of my tidy-up of my collection I have a copy of The Pride of Manchester signed by Malcolm Allison available if anyone wants to buy it. I’m open to offers and will accept the best offer received by Sunday 30 November. The book was published in 1991 and originally retailed at £21.95. It was, at the time, the full history of the men’s Manchester Derby.

The dedication by Big Mal is ‘To Gary’, so if you’ve got a Gary in your family maybe it would be worth buying it for them. I’ll also be happy to write a personal dedication for the buyer.

Malcolm signed this copy when I interviewed him at his home in Yarm about Joe Mercer in 1992-93. The dustjacket is damaged a little with wear and tear at top and bottom. The book is over 30 years old so inevitably will show some wear and tear, but is in a good condition overall.

Minimum offer is £26 to cover UK postage and book original value.

To make your offer email Gary@GJFootballArchive.com with your bid (including UK postage; I won’t be blue to post this outside the UK unfortunately). I’ll review all offers on 30 November and will let everybody know as soon as I can after that.

A Classic Manchester Derby From 1971

Here’s film of the 6 November 1971 Manchester Derby which ended 3-3. Well worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_KgV5f55Qg

You can find out more about the 1971-72 season for Manchester City in the this 4,700 word article on the entire season – a hugely significant season though one that’s often neglected. This 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.

Subscribe

If you’d like to know more about subscribing then see:

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

Memorial Cards: Sledging Rivals in 1912

I’ve posted this before but it’s always worth another look. It is believed the memorial card seen here was printed to mark Manchester United’s 2-0 victory over Manchester City on December 28 1912. Cards like these were popular at most high profile games and in Manchester there was a significant industry behind football funeral cards.

They seem a bit macabre today in our half-half friendship version of professional football but back then cards were used to highlight games frequently. I’ve written and talked a lot on this over the years.

Here for subscribers I’d like to provide an overview of the industry, how it existed, what activities were carried out and provide a potted history of the funeral card business. This is about 3,500 words, so get yourself a brew and settle down to read…

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this and everything else on the site when you subscribe. It costs £20 a year or £3 a month to subscribe and you can access exclusive interviews, articles and more.

Subscribe