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:
Gary James' Football Archive 