Tag Archives: Billy McAdams

Scored in Consecutive Games for Manchester City

I’ve received separate queries from two major national media outlets today asking whether a record will be set if Semenyo scores in his third consecutive game. They wondered if any player had scored on his debut and in his next two games. Hopefully he’ll play (and score!) against United on Saturday (17 January 2026) but, incredibly, that won’t in itself be a City record as there’s definitely one City player who scored in his debut and the three games that followed (4 consecutive games). There are also others who have netted on their debut and the two games that followed (three consecutive matches). Here are the facts…

One of the media companies mentioned Adebayor and the fact he scored on his debut and in the two League games that followed, making three consecutive scoring League games. That’s true he did, but there was a League Cup tie in between the 2nd and 3rd Premier League games and he didn’t score (he did play). That makes two consecutive games.

There are many City players who have scored in 2 consecutive games such as David Cross in 1982; Stan Bowles in 1967 etc. but there are a couple of players who scored in 3 successive games (regardless of competition) and there’s even a player who scored in 4 consecutive league games (no other game breaks his sequence).

The players/sequences are:

4 consecutive games – (all ‘old’ Div 2/2nd tier): Jimmy Ross – 4/3/1899 (2 goals v Barnsley) & 18/3/1899 (v Walsall) & 25/3/1899 (2 goals v Burton Swifts) & 31/3/1899 (v Gainsborough)

3 consecutive games – Billy McAdams – 2/1/54 (v Sunderland, top flight) & 9/1/54 (FAC, 3 goals v Bradford Park Avenue) & 16/1/54 (top flight v MUFC, so a potential parallel with Semenyo if he scores)

3 consecutive games (all top flight) – Jack Dyson – 8/10/55 (v Sheffield United) & 22/10/55 (penalty v Birmingham City) & 3/12/55 (v Burnley).

There was a big gap between Dyson’s 2nd and 3rd appearances. He’d got his first chance due to injury to striker Bobby Johnstone, then returned to the reserves. His next chance came when he was selected ahead of the great Don Revie (who was having issues behind the scenes with City’s management). Dyson then kept his place for most of the season.

I have to stress I don’t have a comprehensive list of players who scored on their debut and then went on to have a sequence of scoring but I do feel the above are worthy of mention. Jimmy Ross is an interesting figure – he was one of the Preston Invincibles in 1888-89 and scored 7 (occasionally reported as 8) v Hyde in Preston’s 26-0 victory over Hyde in the FA Cup. Ross was a teammate of the brilliant Billy Meredith at City and Meredith often claimed his success back then was down to Ross. Sadly Ross died in 1902 while still a City player.

You can read more on Jimmy Ross here:

Preston and City Great: The Death Of Jimmy Ross

City v Wolves: A Manchester City Goal After 14 Seconds!

It’s Wolves x Manchester City this weekend. There are plenty of features on games between the two clubs on my site such as this one… On 22 March) in 1958 City pulled off a surprise draw at eventual champions Wolves. The odds had been against City getting a point with the football world of the time assuming Champions-elect Wolves would easily defeat City. Amazingly, City took the lead after a mere 14 seconds. Here’s a description of the goal (it was an own goal! Is this the earliest own goal ever?):

Here’s the rest of the match report:

To find out more on this period in football then why not read my series on Manchester City in the 1950s. Here’s a 2,200 word article on the 1957-58 season. Enjoy!

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The 1950s: Season Ends With A Victory

On this day (29 April) in 1959 Manchester City’s season ended with a 3-1 victory over Leicester City with goals from Joe Hayes, Billy McAdams (photographed) and Ray Sambrook. You can read more on this season for City below. It’s a 1,500 word article on the 1958-59 season which should put this game and result in to context. Enjoy!

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The 1950s: Manchester City 1 Leeds United 0

Today (29 March) in 1958 saw Manchester City defeat Leeds 1-0 with a goal from Billy McAdams. Here’s a brief match report:

To find out more on this period in football then why not read my series on Manchester City in the 1950s. Here’s a 2,200 word article on the 1957-58 season. Enjoy!

This is a subscriber article and you can read it by subscribing below.

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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month or you can subscriber for the discounted annual rate of £20 per year. Each subscriber gets access to everything posted so far, including PDFs of a couple of my books.

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The 1950s: A Manchester City Goal After 14 Seconds!

Today (22 March) in 1958 Manchester City pulled off a surprise draw at eventual champions Wolves. The odds had been against City getting a point with the football world of the time assuming Champions-elect Wolves would easily defeat City. Amazingly, City took the lead after a mere 14 seconds. Here’s a description of the goal (it was an own goal! Is this the earliest own goal ever?):

Here’s the rest of the match report:

To find out more on this period in football then why not read my series on Manchester City in the 1950s. Here’s a 2,200 word article on the 1957-58 season. Enjoy!

This is a subscriber article and you can read it by subscribing below.

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month or you can subscriber for the discounted annual rate of £20 per year. Each subscriber gets access to everything posted so far, including PDFs of a couple of my books.

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The 1950s: The 1958-59 Season

The new series on Manchester City in the 1950s continues today with this 1,500 word article on the 1958-59 season. Enjoy!

This is a subscriber article and you can read it by subscribing below.

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The 1950s: The 1953-54 Season

The new series on the 1950s continues today with this 1,700 word article on the 1953-54 season. Enjoy!

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Billy McAdams

On 13 October in 2002 Fifties goalscoring star Billy McAdams died. During his Manchester City career he made 134 first team appearances and scored 65 goals. He had joined City on 6 December 1953 and on 2 January 1954 McAdams, signed from Distillery, made his debut. It was a memorable one as he scored an equaliser in the 49th minute against Sunderland at Maine Road.  The game was played in poor, foggy conditions but City won.

A week after the Sunderland game, McAdams scored a hat-trick in City’s 5-2 Cup win at Bradford.  He followed that with an equaliser in the 56th League derby match at Old Trafford.  His arrival and goalscoring streak was viewed as refreshing that season..

Derby Day 1959

Manchester City dominated the Manchester derby played on this day (19 September) in 1959. That day the Blues defeated the Reds 3-0 with an outstanding performance from Joe Hayes. Enjoy the match report here:

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Fulham Defeated

On this day (2nd September) in 1959 Ian Barton, a key member of the Manchester City Supporters Club, attended his first game. I spoke with Ian years ago about this and here’s his story of that day all those years ago: ‘It may not be the most significant game in City’s history but for me it shines out like a beacon light.  As a 5 year old – I’ve given my age away now! – it was my first ever game. I had looked forward to this more than anything I could remember, after all my Dad, cousins, uncles and everyone else in the family could go to Maine Road so it was natural for me to follow on.

‘I remember how huge the place looked.  I’d never seen anything on such a scale and I’ll never forget the smell which was a combination of tobacco, wintergreen & Bovril which always seemed to permeate around the stadium.  Then there were the floodlights.  They created a fantastic effect for a young boy and to this day I always think night games have a dramatic feel to them.  

‘Our team had the great Bert in goal, Joe Hayes up front, with Colin Barlow on the wing and Ken Barnes at wing half.  Sadly the local hero Denis Law was injured so didn’t play.  Fortunately his heal, which he put to such good use some 15 years later, was not harmed.  Although he was soon to become a firm favourite of mine, it was short-lived.  For some reason – and I’m sure all Blues agree on this one – Law seemed to disappear from the scene for most of his career only to have one glorious season before retiring in style.

‘Fulham had some names which were to become famous namely Bobby Robson, George Cohen, Alan Mullery & Jimmy Hill, but neither Hill nor Robson turned out that night.  City turned on the style and won comfortably.  I was hooked for life.

‘Since then like all City fans I have suffered the ups and downs the highs and lows which we accept as the norm.  From Rotherham to Newcastle…  from Wembley to Vienna…  from Stoke to Blackburn via Wembley… it’s been a hell of a ride and I don’t regret one moment of it.

‘I look upon this game with Fulham as the day when my lifelong passion was born.’

The Fulham consolation goal was scored by debutant Alf Stokes, who joined Fulham for £10,000 in July 1959 from Tottenham, although it’s doubtful the young Ian would have cared about the opposition of course!

Statistics:  Football League 2nd September 1959.

City 3 Fulham 1

Scorers – City: McAdams (2; the image at the top of this article is of McAdams), Colbridge

Fulham: Stokes

City: Trautmann, Branagan, Kerr, Cheetham, McTavish, Barnes, Barlow, Hannah, McAdams, Hayes, Colbridge 

Fulham:  Macedo, Cohen, Langley, Mullery, Bentley, Lawler, Leggat, Stokes, Doherty, Cook, Chamberlain

Attendance: 37,485 

You can read more about Billy McAdams here:

A Manchester City Death in 2002