Tag Archives: Aston Villa

On This Day: Christmas at Manchester City

Had your Christmas dinner yet? If not then spare a thought for those days when professional football in England would take place on Christmas Day. In the modern era the thought of playing League football on Christmas Day is totally unacceptable, but in years gone by games were played on consecutive days over Christmas, including Christmas Day, and these were often the best attended matches of the winter.  

The last Christmas Day game featuring Manchester City took place in 1957 when the Blues were defeated 2-1 at Burnley.  The City team for that landmark game was:  Trautmann, Leivers, Little, Barnes, Ewing, Warhurst, Barlow, Kirkman, Johnstone, Hayes, and Fagan.  Fionan Fagan was the last City player to score on Christmas Day

The following day City defeated Burnley 4-1 at Maine Road in front of a crowd of 47,285.  The only change to the line up was Ron Phoenix, who replaced Bobby Johnstone. 

The First Noel

The first League game ever played by City on Christmas Day was at Christmas 1896 against Newton Heath (present day Manchester United).  The game was played at Bank Street, Clayton (roughly across the road from the Etihad, the site of the BMX centre behind the present Velodrome) and was attended by 18,000 – a figure described by the Athletic News as being huge for Newton Heath:  “The crowd was an enormous one and I never saw so many lads at a football match.  They were really the cause of the encroaching in the first half, for they were continually creeping under the rails, and as a natural consequence their elders were bound to follow if they were to get a glimpse of the game.”  

Fans streamed on to the pitch on several occasions and the game was almost abandoned at half time:  “Mr. J. Parlby, one of the League Management Committee, told the crowd point blank that if they did not keep beyond the touchline, the game could not proceed, and the Newton Heath Club would have to suffer the consequences.”

Parlby, was actually a City director, and his words may have been influenced by the fact Newton Heath were the better side that day!  The game ended 2-1 to the Heathens.

The two sides met on two further occasions on Christmas Day, the last (1902) ended 1-1 at Clayton before 40,000 with Billy Meredith scoring for the Blues.

Highest Christmas Crowd

City tended to be away from home on Christmas Day, but the best Maine Road crowd on the 25th was 56,750 in 1930 when City faced Arsenal.  The following day a mere 17,624 attended the return game at Highbury.

The previous year a crowd reported as 70,000 watched Aston Villa beat City 2-1 on Boxing Day at Maine Road.  This is the highest Christmas crowd at a City League game.

Christmas Thriller

Perhaps the most entertaining – if disappointing – game ever played by the Blues on Christmas Day was the 6-5 defeat by Bury at Gigg Lane in 1925.  

Debuts

The following players made their Manchester City League debuts on Christmas Day:

1946 – Peter Robinson (V. Plymouth Argyle)

1933 – Frank Swift (V. Derby County)

1902 – Johnny Mahon (V. Manchester United)

1909 – George Wynn (V. Bradford Park Avenue)

Bunny Shaw: Record Scorer

Congratulations to Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw on becoming the first Manchester City Women player to score 100 goals since the relaunch of the club. It’s a wonderful feat and she deserves immense praise. Here’s City’s report of today’s (14 December 2025) 6-1 victory over Aston Villa which saw Shaw score 4 goals:

https://www.mancity.com/news/womens/man-city-aston-villa-wsl-match-report-december-2025-63901308

Top Two Divisions Attendances and Table From 40 Years Ago!

Last week I posted the top flight attendances for this last week forty years ago and this led to a number of comments/questions and so to answer some of those I’ve now posted the top two divisions attendances together with the two League tables AND the end of season average attendances. People asked for clarity on how the figures compared to the second tier and whether League position played its part in affecting crowds. As a reminder here’s last week’s attendances…

And here’s this week’s (published 24 November 1985) and the League table too.

Obviously, these are only snapshots from that season but to add a bit more context here are the end of season averages here are the top 46 best supported clubs in order that season (hopefully it might make those who sing songs like ‘Where Were You?’ think about the crowds at their own clubs first):

A few notable League positions for those who do sing ‘Where Were You?’… The top eight clubs in the League were: Liverpool (champions), Everton, West Ham, Man Utd, Sheff Wed, Chelsea, Arsenal and Forest. Manchester City (who were 4th best supported club) were 15th (only 4 points above relegation zone), Spurs were tenth, Newcastle 11th and Aston Villa 16th.

In the Second Division best supported club Sunderland were 18th (avoiding relegation by 4 points); the top four were Norwich, Charlton, Wimbledon and Portsmouth.

If you’d like to know more about Manchester City at this time, here’s a 2,500 word subscriber feature on the 1985-86 season. Enjoy!

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Attendances 40 Years Ago!

These two results tables for top flight football in November 1985 make interesting reading. I’ve included the details published today (17 November, for games played the previous day) in 1985 and also the week after’s details too. This gives an idea of what the top clubs were attracting back then. Notice West Ham’s game attracted more at home than Arsenal’s and that Liverpool were over 26,000 less than Manchester United. Arsenal’s crowd was 6,000 less than struggling Manchester City and Tottenham attracted more than Arsenal too. Reigning League champions Everton were some way ahead of the London clubs and only about 600 behind Liverpool. Obviously, these are only snapshots from two weekends but hopefully it might make those who sing songs like ‘Where Were You?’ think about the crowds at their own clubs first.

the Marwood scoring for Sheffield Wednesday was of course Brian Marwood who went on to play a key part in Manchester City’s modern return to glory. If you’d like to know more about Manchester City at this time, here’s a 2,500 word subscriber feature on the 1985-86 season. Enjoy!

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Lessons From History: MCFC 2020 & 2025

It’s part of the football circus these days that occasional defeats are greeted as devastating occurences. Social media goes into meltdown; shock jock style radio stations begin to predict the end of eras and even the BBC seems to take a ‘your all doomed’ approach if you lose a game. After City’s narrow defeat at Villa last week the BBC’s website stated: ‘In the context of the title race, there are concerning signs for City’ and elsewhere on the BBC there were fans quoted complaining about the weaknesses in the team. So, to take a more reasoned view I decided to take a look at the 2020-21 season when similar reporting occurred of City’s games. Back then pundits like the former Arsenal player Martin Keown were highly critical of City. After five games of the 2020-21 season City were 12th and Keown said: ‘there’s certainly some rebuilding to be done. We will see how good Pep really is now; he’s got to rebuild the team.’

Those Keown comments are similar to some being aired at the moment about City being rebuilt etc. Pep proved back then (I wonder if he chatted to Keown about his comments in 2020?) how good he was.

Back in 2020-21 City lost to Tottenham in their eighth League game. That put Spurs top and some began predicting the London club may manage to actually win the league. Similarly, some predicted that City were too unpredictable to lift the title. The statistic often quoted that weekend was that City’s points total of 12 from eight games was the club’s lowest at that stage since 2008-09. Very similar style comments to this season when the BBC quoted (after the Villa defeat): ‘City have lost three of their opening nine games in the Premier League this season (W5 D1), with the Cityzens last suffering more defeats at this stage of a league campaign in 2008-09 (four).‘

As a direct comparison it’s worth noting that City are two points behind where they were five years ago, and in both seasons faced criticism. Remarkably City ended up winning the Premier League in 2020-21 by 12 points and the early season leaders Spurs finished seventh. Some pundits and journalists would later rewrite history and go on to talk as if the 2020-21 title race had been a foregone conclusion with City ‘dominating football’ like no other team had ever done before (it was ‘bad’ for football, blah, blah blah). They talked negatively about other teams not standing a chance etc. but that is so wrong.

So, what am I going on about. Well, if 2020-21 shows us anything it is that no league title is decided so early in the season. Nor does a defeat mean all is lost. City are currently two points behind where they were in that remarkable 2020-21 season, when they won the title by 12 points. Imagine if that happened again? I know it’s doubtful and Arsenal are certainly a better team than they were back then and Spurs were too. But football’s unpredictable and anything is possible.

For those wondering here are 2020-21’s results at this stage followed by a table with this season’s:

DateOpponentVenueResultPoints
21/09/2020Wolverhampton WanderersA3-13
27/09/2020Leicester CityH2-50
03/10/2020Leeds UnitedA1-11
17/10/2020ArsenalH1-03
24/10/2020West Ham UnitedA1-11
31/10/2020Sheffield UnitedA1-03
08/11/2020LiverpoolH1-11
21/11/2020Tottenham HotspurA0-23
28/11/2020BurnleyH5-03
Total18

Here’s this season’s results:

DateOpponentVenueResultPoints
16/08/2025WolvesA4-03
23/08/2025SpursH0-20
31/08/2025BrightonA1-20
14/09/2025UtdH3-03
21/09/2025ArsenalA1-11
27/09/2025BurnleyH5-13
05/10/2025BrentfordA1-03
18/10/2025EvertonH2-03
26/10/2025Aston VillaA0-10
Total16

Steve Staunton for Manchester City?

Forty years ago (4 October 1985) it was reported in Drogheda that their talented local footballer Stephen Staunton was being watched by Manchester City. The feeling was that the player may be signed by the Blues, however when City were due to watch him play in a second game (a specially arranged match) the scout had to cancel his trip at the last minute!

Defender Steve Staunton signed for Liverpool a year later and eventually became most famous for his time at Aston Villa and with the Republic of Ireland.

Manchester City 3 Bolton Wanderers 1

On this day (2 October) in 1920 Bolton Wanderers were defeated by Manchester City 3-1 with goals from Tommy Browell, Fred Fayers and Wilf Woodcock. A crowd recorded as 40,000 at the time watched the match at Hyde Road.

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Manchester City 3 Arsenal 1

On this day (18 September) in 1920 Arsenal were defeated by Manchester City 3-1 with goals from Horace Barnes, Tommy Browell and Billy Murphy. A crowd recorded as 38,000 at the time watched the match at Hyde Road.

For more on this season why not read the following 2,350 word subscriber article. If you subscribe (see below) I hope you enjoy it. If you are not currently a subscriber then why not try it for a month (£3 per month or sign up for a year at a discounted £20 per year)?

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Manchester City 3 Liverpool 2

On this day (4 September) in 1920 Liverpool were defeated by Manchester City 3-2 with a City hat trick from Tommy Browell. A crowd recorded as 30,000 at the time watched the match at Hyde Road.

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Manchester City 3 Aston Villa 1

On this day (30 August) in 1920 Aston Villa were defeated by Manchester City 3-1 with goals from Tommy Browell (2) and Billy Murphy. A crowd recorded as 40,000 at the time watched the match at Hyde Road.

For more on this season why not read the following 2,350 word subscriber article. If you subscribe (see below) I hope you enjoy it. If you are not currently a subscriber then why not try it for a month (£3 per month or sign up for a year at a discounted £20 per year)?

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