Here’s my film of the Bell, Lee & Summerbee light show from before last night’s Manchester City v Leipzig at the Etihad. I normally sit behind the goal but I was in the Colin Bell Stand last night, so it’s a different angle to my normal view of these things.
The light show, like the statue itself, highlights the names of all the players who appeared in City’s 1967-68 season and the FA Cup, League Cup and ECWC triumphs 68-70. I love the fact that City’s statue and tribute remembers them all, even if it inevitably focuses on Colin Bell, Francis Lee and Mike Summerbee.
After the light show the club played the Boys in Blue song and it was great to see that they had used the North West Film Archive’s footage of the recording of the song from March 1972 which featured the players. Sadly, I didn’t manage to record that but you do get the first few seconds at the end of my clip below. Anyway, enjoy the light show:
A new daily series of articles for subscribers started last week covering the 1980s. This is a seasonal journey through a truly important decade in the history of Manchester City Football Club. Today’s article is a 4,000 word feature on the 1987-88 season. Enjoy!
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Today (14 October) marks the anniversary of the death of legendary Manchester City coach Malcolm Allison. He passed away in 2010. I’ve interviewed Malcolm often over the years and you can listen to one of those interviews here:
Here’s also an article I published in September this year on Allison. It included comments from a variety of interviews I have performed over the decades. Allison’s views on then young footballer Shaun Wright-Phillips are captured and comments from various people who know Allison well are included.
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City v Newcastle is one of the most enduring fixtures in English football. There have been cup finals, title deciders, dramatic games, shared heroes and so much more. The two clubs first met in the League in October 1893 (Ardwick/MCFC’s 2nd season in the League) and have since played each other 189 times overall with City winning 76 and Newcastle 72 games.
As tonight is a League Cup tie, the most famous meeting of the teams in that competition came in 1976 at Wembley when Peter Barnes and Dennis Tueart both scored for the Blues.
Most Blues of my age and above will remember where they were when our King returned to action on Boxing Day 1977. Here’s an interview I did with him a few years back when we talked about that special day:
There was a really odd thing a while back where a Newcastle paper claimed that their local team had first worn bar scarves at games. A few simple searches soon proved there were much earlier bar scarfs:
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On this day (18 September) in 1968 Manchester City’s first European Cup fixture against Fenerbahce ended goalless at Maine Road. This was the first time two British clubs from the same city had competed in the European Cup. Here’s a match report of the City game:
Francis Lee (left) and Mike Summberbee (right) threaten the Fenerbahce goal in City’s first European Cup tie in 1968.
Subscribers can read a feature about that game here:
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On this day (10 September) in 1974 the great Manchester City star Colin Bell scored three goals as his City team defeated Scunthorpe 6-0 in the League Cup. The Blues had been League Cup finalists the previous season.
I’ve recently been on the Manchester City Podcast with Rob Pollard and Nedum Onuoha. I was being interviewed about Maine Road, the Etihad and my writing. If you’re lucky enough to have City+ you can watch it here:
Don’t forget I’ve also posted 100 days worth of free features on Maine Road on my website. Each one is titled Maine Road 100 followed by the day (Day One to Day 100 of course). Have a look through past posts or do a search/click the Maine Road tag below. Thanks
It’s Day 95 of my Maine Road 100 countdown (not long to go now!) to the centenary of Maine Road’s first game. Earlier I asked the question: Of all the brilliant players who graced Maine Road over the decades who do you think was the one who scored most goals at the old stadium? Answer later today. Watch this space about 9pm UK time!
Well, the answer is Colin Bell. Colin scored 107 first team goals at Maine Road with Eric Brook next on 106 first team goals. The main image is Colin scoring v Spurs in December 1967.
I bet there are a few fans out there who saw every one of Colin’s 107 first team Maine Road goals. Feel free to leave comments on the great City star below. Also, why not check out the other articles that mention Colin such as this on his debut for Bury:
For the first time in my series of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game I’ve posted an image of a letter. This Day 44 feature is about the day Manchester United offered George Best to Manchester City.
Basically, Best was put on the transfer list by United and they sent a letter to every team in the top two tiers telling them he was available. In 1968 Best had said that he wanted to play for City as he felt they had the most attack-minded team in the League and he loved the thought of playing in a team that contained Colin Bell (below, seen in 1972-73), Mike Summerbee and Francis Lee.
Malcolm Allison did show interest in signing him but ultimately it never happened. Nevertheless this MCFC stamped letter is a rare item showing that United did offer the player to City and the other clubs in 1972.
Here’s an aerial photo of Maine Road from 1971, the year before Best was offered to City.
Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road
If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:
If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.
I’ve been asked whether Gundogan’s goal in the FA Cup final was the fastest Manchester City goal of all time. Sadly, it’s impossible to prove as we do not have accurate times for the majority of goals scored throughout football history. Often in the past reports would say things like: ‘From the kick-off City rushed forward and scored.’ No time and even when this is said in reports highlights that have been found often show that this was not the case, so it’s impossible to say conclusively.
We know it’s the fastest FA Cup final goal of all time and, at 12 seconds, it’s also the fastest goal in a Manchester derby. Back in 1975 Dennis Tueart netted what was claimed to be the fastest derby goal at 35 seconds. I interviewed him about it a few years ago:
GJ: ‘You played in lots of significant derbies over the years, but there is one, above all others, that we should mention – the November 1975 League Cup tie at Maine Road.‘
DT: ‘I scored the first goal after about 35 seconds and that is the fastest goal in a Manchester derby. It was a midweek game at Maine Road and I loved night matches, under the floodlights, packed stadium. Incredible. The lights meant that the stadium shone out amongst the dark streets – it was the whole focus.
Dennis Tueart scores after 35 seconds v United, 1975
‘We were 1-0 up and played great football. 3-0 up after 36 minutes when I got my second goal after Asa Hartford had got City’s second. Colin Bell was injured and stretchered off which was by far the worst moment of the evening and would impact us for the next few years.
‘After the game we went to Cellar Vie in the city centre, and I walked in and I got a standing ovation from everyone in there. Again it hit home how important the derby was to the city of Manchester.’
Now Gundogan holds the record but we should also mention Shaun Goater who in 2003 netted after only 9 seconds of coming on as substitute. You can read about that here:
Gundogan’s goal is the fastest in a derby, while Goater’s goal was the fastest ever netted in a derby from a player’s arrival on the pitch, regardless of stage of the game.
If you’d like to read the indepth material on this website, or download the entire Manchester A Football History, Farewell to Maine Road or my first book then why not subscribe? Details here:
If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.
Gary James' Football Archive 