Category Archives: 1901-02

Manchester 1840-1919 (Part Nine)

Every week I’m posting a section from my book ‘The Emergence of Footballing Cultures: Manchester 1840-1919’. It tells the story of the origins of men’s football in Manchester and discusses the birth of both City and United plus the clubs that predated them such as Hulme Athenaeum, Manchester AFC, Birch etc. Today’s section is the eighth chapter of the book (a 11,200 word section). This focuses on the establishment of Manchester United and demise of Newton Heath, plus the first major trophy won by one of the city’s clubs. Fans of both Manchester’s League teams should find something in it for them as it talks of how Manchester gained its footballing identity. Bury fans will also be happy as this talks of their FA Cup successes too.

Subscribing costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or you could sign up for a year at the discounted price of £20 per year. Every subscriber gets access to everything posted on the site.

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today.

Subscribe

Manchester 1840-1919 (Part Eight)

Every Monday I’m posting a section from my book ‘The Emergence of Footballing Cultures: Manchester 1840-1919’. It tells the story of the origins of men’s football in Manchester and discusses the birth of both City and United plus the clubs that predated them such as Hulme Athenaeum, Manchester AFC, Birch etc. Today’s section is the seventh chapter of the book (a 10,500 word section). This focuses on football as a business (yes, it was a business even then!), the move into league football for Manchester’s clubs and the relaunch of them as Manchester City and Manchester United.

Subscribing costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or you could sign up for a year at the discounted price of £20 per year. Every subscriber gets access to everything posted on the site.

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today.

Subscribe

United Supporters Club Boycott Committee-Yes, Really!

I’m sure some will believe this didn’t happen but on this day (31 October) in 1930 the previous night’s meeting of the so-called Boycotting Committee of the Manchester United Supporters Club met to discuss their next boycott of a first team game. There was widespread dissatisfaction of the plight of the Reds that season and the season would end with United’s Old Trafford average being 11,685 (the lowest average for either United/Newton Heath or City since Newton Heath averaged 4,650 in 1902). Neither side has attracted a lower average since.

What’s significant about this brief article is the mention of the planned boycott v Arsenal – that game attracted the highest crowd of the season to date! This demonstrates how difficult it is to plan a protest and for all fans to join in.

I explored the boycott and fan related issues in Manchester A Football History (my 2008/2010 update) book. This has been out of print for over a decade but PDFs of every chapter are free to download for all who subscribe. See the following for details of how to subscribe:

How To Subscribe