Tag Archives: Billy Meredith

The 1890s: 1894-1895 Parlby’s City

The series of features on Manchester City in the 1890s continues today with a 2800 word article on Manchester City’s first season.

This series covers the final years of Ardwick, the birth of Manchester City and the Club’s first national success.

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The 1890s: 1893-1894 Ardwick’s Last

The series of features on Manchester City in the 1890s continues today with a 2000 word article on Ardwick’s last season in the Football League, 1893-94 and the birth of Manchester City.

Ever wondered how MCFC came into being and what happened to Ardwick AFC? Well, now’s your chance to find out. This series covers the final years of Ardwick and the birth of Manchester City.

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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?

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More on the 1890s tomorrow. Why not subscribe and read this and all the other subscriber features?

Manchester City’s All-Time Best FA Cup Winning Eleven

So far I’ve told you about Bert Trautmann, Tony Book, Glyn Pardoe, Vincent Kompany and İlkay Gündoğan in my all-time best Manchester City FA Cup final winning team and today it’s the time for another couple of names.

I was asked to select an all-time City eleven and had two rules – they had to actually play in a winning final (so, unused substitutes were not allowed) and they could not be a member of the current playing squad. I also tried to focus on the fact that this eleven would also be facing an all time Manchester United eleven. Therefore victories over United in key games were always in the back of my mind.

The next two players selected are:

David Silva (2010-2020)

This World Cup winner joined City in 2010 and immediately impressed. ‘El Mago’ (the magician) was a member of both the 2011 and 2019 FA Cup successes, but was also the star man time and time again as the Blues won eleven major trophies in his decade.

Billy Meredith (1894-1906 & 1921-1924)

A Welsh international and Manchester’s first superstar who was idolised by both Blues and Reds. Captain and goalscorer in City’s first FA Cup success in 1904. This talented right-winger narrowly pipped 60s & 70s legend Mike Summerbee to this spot. Imagine either man playing in a side managed by Pep!

Meredith is the earliest name in my list and you can read more about 1904 here:

Manchester City – FA Cup Winners Since 1904

More on the all-time Manchester City FA Cup winning eleven tomorrow. It was a tough selection and over the next few days I’ll post the rest of the starting eleven.

You can read about the significance of 2011 in this feature here:

2011 – What It Meant Historically

More on the all-time FA Cup winning eleven tomorrow.

Manchester City V Brighton – The Story And Film Of The First Ever Meeting

Tonight (25 April 2024) Manchester City and Brighton meet in the Premier League. The first game between the two clubs came 100 years ago in 1924. This game was a newsworthy FA Cup tie due to the return of a legend to the City team. In fact it was so newsworthy that a movie company sent their camera (you’ll see from the footage it never moved!) to Brighton’s Goldstone Ground to capture the return of a true Blue hero.

Here’s film of that game, though sadly we don’t see Meredith or the goal. City are the dark shirted team (actually the club’s ‘Lucky Scarlet’!):

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-football-the-cup-action-from-the-third-round-of-the-fa-cup-653-1

Subscribers can also read an article about that day here:

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The 1900s: Manchester’s First Major Trophy Success

On this day in 1904 (23 April) Manchester City won its first major trophy a mere decade after being established as MCFC. The captain and goalscorer was, of course, the great Billy Meredith.

A few years back, following the purchase of the oldest surviving FA Cup by Sheikh Mansour (to loan to the National Football Museum) I helped Manchester City with the story of the cup and its significance to Manchester. They’ve produced a video telling the story and it can be viewed here:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/manchesters-first-trophy-1904-fa-cup-documentary-63745781

City chairman John Chapman used City’s success as part of his political campaign.

For more on the significance of this FA Cup trophy check out the category 1903-04 in the drop down list below.

The 1890s: Manchester’s First National Success

On this day (April 22) in 1899 Manchester City became the first side to gain automatic promotion when they won the Second Division title after a 4-1 victory over Blackpool. Goals from Meredith (2), Gillespie and Ross gave the Blues the win.

A series of test matches, similar to play offs, had been utilised in previous seasons. The Blues were also the first of the Manchester teams ever to earn promotion and the football season ended with Manchester City as comfortable champions of the Second Division. This meant they were the first Manchester team to win a national League competition too. 

Near neighbours Glossop were also promoted that day. Here’s the final table:

Subscribers can read about the final game and other information from that season below:

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100 Years Ago Today: Meredith’s Last Competitive Game

Here are some images from Billy Meredith’s last competitive game on this day (29 March) in 1924. these are great images of the general scene. The match was a FA Cup semi final between Manchester City and Newcastle at Birmingham City.

Subscribers can read more and watch film of Meredith’s last game here:

Billy Meredith’s Last Game: 1924 FA Cup Semi

100 Years of a National Crowd Record for MCFC!

Today (8 March) marks the centenary of a record Manchester City set on this- the record is the highest attendance on a club ground! Happy 100th anniversary! The record set in 1924 saw 76,166 attend City v Cardiff. City had moved to their new Maine Road stadium in August 1923. The capacity of the venue was estimated at around 90,000 but was actually approximately 83,000 when the stadium opened (it was enlarged in 1931 and 1935).

In its first season the capacity was tested and, on this day (8 March) in 1924 the largest attendance for any footballing fixture (including three FA Cup Finals) in Manchester gathered to watch the Blues. This was also, at the time, the record crowd for any game played on an English club ground. It was beaten ten years later when 84,569 watched City v Stoke – so It’s 100 years of this record for the Blues!

You can read about the remarkable day in 1924 below:

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You can read about the attendance that brought this record (again by City at Maine Road) here:

A National Record – 84,569

Other record crowd articles can be seen here:

Welcome to Gary James’ Football Archive

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City 2 Glossop North End 1

On this day (12 November) in 1898 Manchester City’s tenth League game of the season saw them travel to promotion rivals Glossop North End.  According to the Glossop Chronicle the attendance was 7,000 with over half the attendance coming from Manchester.  City won the match 2-1 with goals from Gillespie and Meredith.  The Chronicle reporter described the opener as ‘the softest I have ever seen.’ He went on:  ‘Williams [Glossop’s ‘keeper] got down to stop the ball as it rolled quietly goalwards, but he completely missed it, although it was going so slowly it hardly rolled as far as the net.’

The Glossop match came in the middle of a 13 match unbeaten run, placing City as comfortable League leaders. The main photo is of Glossop in 1898 and the following is of City that same season.

You can find out about the return game here:

Glossop Beat City!

Nice Old Team Photo

Here’s a team photo of Manchester City, taken at Hyde Road, in 1900. It’s a typical squad pose in front of the old Hyde Road main stand which was destroyed by fire twenty years later. Notice the way the wooden wall of the stand was painted in City blue and white. People often talk about Hyde Road as if it was this dull, dismal ground but the stand here had only been erected a few years earlier and Joshua Parlby, Lawrence Furniss and the others behind the club made sure it was frequently painted blue and white (plus green) wherever possible.

Over the following twenty years City continued to invest in the ground but the site restricted the club’s growth and 40,000 crowds could not be accommodated particularly well. Often gates would be closed some way off capacity under the orders of the local police who tried to keep crowds back. Bennett Street and even Hyde Road itself were often overcrowded with fans hoping to get in.

There’s lots more on here about Hyde Road and City’s other grounds. Do a few searches and see what you find. Some is only for subscribers but much is available freely. It takes a lot of time, effort and money to research Manchester’s football history so if you want to support this work and get something back then please subscribe. Thanks.

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