Category Archives: Oldham Athletic

The 1980s: City’s Women’s Team’s First Game

Continuing my new daily series of articles for subscribers started earlier this month covering the 1980s. The last ten days or so have taken a seasonal journey through a truly important decade in the history of Manchester City Football Club’s men’s team. But what about the women’s team? Well, today (27 November 2023) marks the 35th anniversary of the women’s team’s first game (as Manchester City Ladies v Oldham Athletic at Boundary Park – I was there!). Today’s article is a 2,200 word long read on this historic first game. Enjoy!

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Today’s feature was the last on the 1980s. I hope you’ve enjoyed them. If you missed the earlier features then start here:

The 1980s: 1980-1981 Gow, Hutchison & McDonald

Happy Anniversary

Today (27 November) is the 35th anniversary of the first game played by Manchester City Ladies (now Women). This was against Oldham Athletic Ladies at Boundary Park. This photo is the earliest press team photo of the club. 

These are pioneering City players and many dedicated considerable time to the club for years. The first ever game ended in a 4-1 City victory with Donna Haynes scoring 2 (including the historic 1st goal). Heidi Ward also scored 2 that day. I was there watching this historic first game and I included some brief details in my first book, published in 1989. 

This match report was in an Oldham newspaper & was reproduced in my 2019 Manchester City Women An Oral History book (see https://gjfootballarchive.com/shop/ for details of it). 

The club was founded via City In The Community (CITC) with Neil Mather playing the lead role as manager of the club. His drive and the determination of the women involved ensured this club had a life. At the time the wider Manchester City club (in particular CITC) did something that few other clubs were doing. The achievements back then and the years of dedication by the women involved ensured this club lived for years.

When the club was relaunched as Manchester City Women some national newspapers and others in the media suggested this was a new club without a history. That was damaging and hurtful to all those involved back in 1988 and the years that followed. If anything the history of Manchester City Ladies before it became City Women was similar to the majority of women’s clubs. It had gone through the trials and tribulations most face and was kept going by a dedicated band of players and supporters. Unlike Everton and Liverpool (and many others) City did not take over an existing club, they created one back in 1988 when the others had zero interest. So today’s anniversary is important in recognising the wonderful work of these women (and of the men like Neil Mather, Godfrey Williams, Ian Lees and others who were involved over the decades) and of Manchester City itself. 

The club gets criticised often for a lack of history but this is all rubbish spouted by rivals. City have delivered in men’s football longer than many rivals and they’ve delivered in women’s football longer than. many rivals too.  

Later today I’ll be posting a detailed 2,200 word article on the club’s first game back in 1988.

Happy anniversary.

Wealthy Manchester City Help Financially Struggling Oldham – Reported in China

An interesting article here from April 1933 published in the the China Press (that’s right, a newspaper based in Shanghai in the 1930s carried Manchester football news!). It talks about wealthy Manchester City helping out its neighbour Oldham Athletic. Have a read and enjoy!

The Last Before The Premier

On 2 May 1992 Manchester City defeated Oldham 5-2 in the last League fixture before the birth of the Premier League. The win gave City a fifth place finish (for the second year running), 12 points behind champions Leeds and six points ahead of 6th placed Liverpool. David White scored a hat trick but this had been a disappointing final placing overall as the Blues had been hoping to mount a serious challenge for honours.

The launch of the Premier League and the actions of the following year or so would have major repercussions for City and the Blues would ultimately lose pace with those clubs they had matched or bettered in recent seasons.

Maybe I’ll do a detailed analysis of how football changed one day but for the time being it’s worth remembering that no one team dominated English football at the beginning of the 1990s but by the end of that decade one did and the financial gap meant traditional giants, like City, Leeds, Newcastle, Everton, Villa and others were unlikely to find League success. It also meant that teams like Oldham would be unable to keep pace with the ‘next’ pack and ultimately they became the first Premier League title to be relegated out of the entire League in 2022.

Highlights of the game here:

Monthly Football Articles – Oldham, Rochdale, City & United

A few months back I started writing a series of articles on football in the Manchester region for the Manchester Confidential website. If you’ve missed the and are interested here are links to them:

Oldham:

https://confidentials.com/manchester/oldhams-green-shoots

Rochdale:

https://confidentials.com/manchester/dale-drop?id=641c3189d2891

City:

https://confidentials.com/manchester/when-will-manchester-city-achieve-european-champions-league-glory?id=63ef59984ff4e

United:

https://confidentials.com/manchester/manchester-united-looking-backward-to-push-forward?id=63c9274f540ba

There will be a new article each month.

Happy Birthday Joe Royle

Future Oldham Athletic manager, Manchester City player and manager Joe Royle was born at Norris Green, Liverpool on this day (8 April) in 1949 .  During his City career Royle won the League Cup as a player and back to back promotions as a manager. There are quite a few Royle articles on this site such as:

Royle Goal
On This Day 1977 – Manchester City and Joe Royle
99 Dreams
MCFC 1999-2000 LEAGUE and CUP REVIEW

History Talk – MCFC Away Days Now Live For Subscribers

On Wednesday 18 January I held a discussion about Manchester City FC away games. Subscribers can now listen to a recording of that talk here (it costs £20 a year to access everything on the site or £3 per month). The talk lasts about 1 hour so get yourself a brew and listen to the story of traveling away.

We talk about the train specials that the City Supporters Travel Club used to organise and their coaches too (remember number one coach with Helen ‘the Bell’ Turner?). Amongst the moments/subjects discussed were the history of travelling to away games; Trevor Francis’ debut; railway & coach specials; the experience of being an away fan; games at Notts County, Barnsley, Stoke, Bradford, Oldham, QPR, Leeds & more.  Thanks to all who participated in this for your efforts, especially Graham Ward, Roger Reade and the guys from the Lad & Dad Away Days podcast who all brought up their own memories of games.

The next History Talk will take place later today 1/2/23 at 6pm-7pm UK time. This will be more of a presentation and will be about the origins of Manchester City. You can register for that and find out more here:

Free Online Presentation on the Origins of MCFC – Register Now

Here’s the recording of the MCFC Away Days talk. This is for subscribers only:

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If you would like to access it here and support my writing & research while also reading all the great content (including PDFs of Manchester A Football History and From Maine Men To Banana Citizens) then please subscribe. It costs £20 a year (access everything) or £3 per month (see below).

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New Monthly Football Column – Manchester Confidential

I’ve got some good news to report. From today Manchester Confidential will be publishing my new monthly column on football in Greater Manchester. Each month I’ll be focusing on a different club from the region and will write a piece combining the team’s modern day situation with a historical angle. My first feature is about Manchester United and next month’s piece will be about Manchester City. Follow the link below for this month’s first article:

https://confidentials.com/manchester/manchester-united-looking-backward-to-push-forward?id=63c9274f540ba

I do intend covering the League clubs of Greater Manchester, plus some of our other prominent sides, over the coming months. I hope you enjoy them. Thanks.

History Talk – MCFC Away Days Now Live

On Wednesday 18 January I held a discussion about Manchester City FC away games. You can now listen to a recording of that talk here. It lasts about 1 hour so get yourself a brew and listen to the story of traveling away.

There’s a link further down this page to the recording. We talk about the train specials that the City Supporters Travel Club used to organise and their coaches too (remember number one coach with Helen ‘the Bell’ Turner?). Amongst the moments/subjects discussed were the history of travelling to away games; Trevor Francis’ debut; railway & coach specials; the experience of being an away fan; games at Notts County, Barnsley, Stoke, Bradford, Oldham, QPR, Leeds & more.  Thanks to all who participated in this for your efforts, especially Graham Ward, Roger Reade and the guys from the Lad & Dad Away Days podcast who all brought up their own memories of games.

The next History Talk will take place on 1/2/23 at 6pm-7pm UK time. This will be more of a presentation and will be about the origins of Manchester City. You can register for that and find out more here:

Free Online Presentation on the Origins of MCFC – Register Now

Here’s the recording of the MCFC Away Days talk. This was freely available until 31 January and now it is for subscribers only:

Subscribe to get access – Annual

If you would like to access it here and support my writing & research while also reading all the great content (including PDFs of Manchester A Football History and From Maine Men To Banana Citizens) then please subscribe. It costs £20 a year (access everything) or £3 per month (see below).

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Dowd Joins Oldham

On this day (1 December) in 1970 Manchester City’s 1969 FA Cup winning ‘keeper Harry Dowd joined Oldham Athletic. Dowd had achieved a great deal at City over the years, including scoring a goal. You can read about that goal here:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/2022/02/08/goalkeeper-dowd-scores-colin-bells-bury-scoring-debut/