Tag Archives: Crystal Palace

Managerless City in 15 Goal Thriller

Today (20 February) in 1926 Manchester City recorded an amazing victory. It was a fifth round FA Cup tie with Crystal Palace to Maine Road. The Blues, without a manager since November, were being managed by committee with director Albert Alexander senior making the final decisions. It’s an incredible thought that a director without ever being known as a player, could make these decisions but Alexander was a knowledgeable football man and had been with the club since formation in 1894.

By half-time the score was 7-0 to the Blues, but Palace would not give up and quickly pulled back four goals.  City were knocked out of their period of complacency and soon found their goalscoring touch again.  By the end it was 11-4 and, according to a number of spectators present on the day, Manchester fans rushed on at the final whistle and carried off the Palace ‘keeper shoulder high.  Apparently he had played extremely well and, somehow, managed to keep the score down, although one cannot help wondering if he’d have been given such a reception had the scores been reversed.

Frank Roberts was the City star for this particular game, scoring a remarkable five, while Tommy Browell also earned a few plaudits with his hat-trick. With no management and such a miserable time in the League, no one could believe how City had been able to deliver such strong cup performances.  Here’s film of the game:

https://www.britishpathe.com/video/crystal-palace-overwhelmed

Perry Suckling

On this day (12 October) in 1965 1980s Manchester City ‘keeper Perry Suckling was born in Hackney. Here’s a brief profile of him:

Perry Suckling

Bought for £50,000 plus the popular David Phillips, England youth international Perry Suckling was anticipated to be City’s first choice for several years when he arrived from Coventry City in May 1986.  It didn’t work out that way however and by the end of December 1987 he was on loan at Chelsea.  A permanent move to Crystal Palace followed in January 1988 – City received £100,000 – and after 39 League appearances that was it.

Spells for West Ham, Brentford, Watford and Doncaster followed. 

Appearances:  League: 39 FAC: 1 League Cup: 3

Subscribe to get access

Enjoying this website? Fancy supporting my research into Manchester football history? Why not subscribe? Every subscription directly helps support my research and provides the subscriber with access to everything posted on this site, including the entire Manchester A Football History and From Maine Men To Banana Citizens books, plus interviews, articles and more. I am not employed by anyone and all my research is self funded or comes from subscriptions to this site.

Subscribe

Subscribe to get access

You can subscribe at either £20 per year (above) or at £3 per month here (cancel any time). For those subscribing £3 per month you will be able to access all content from October 2022 onwards for as long as you are a subscriber. Those subscribing £20 a year have access to everything posted since December 2020.

Subscribe

On this day… Malcolm Allison joins Manchester City

On this day (July 20) in 1965 Malcolm Allison was formally interviewed by the Manchester City board to be manager Joe Mercer’s assistant. Mercer had wanted to bring Allison in since he took the job earlier in the month. Here is a feature I did on Allison back in January 2005.

I first interviewed Malcolm in 1991, and, using material from several conversations with him, and in 2005 I took the opportunity of a MCFC v Crystal Palace game to remind everyone of his significance. Today, for subscribers, I’m posting it here.

Subscribe to get access

Read this article and all other content when you subscribe today.

Subscribe

MCFC Managers – MALCOLM ALLISON

Malcolm Allison gave Manchester City confidence and a will to win that few have ever equalled.  He was an exceptionally brilliant and confident coach – some would say the greatest the world has ever seen (probably Allison himself would say this!) – and working with Joe Mercer he helped the Blues achieve incredible success.

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today.

Subscribe

Palace Overwhelmed – Report and Film

City hadn’t had a manager since November and were struggling in the League when the Blues played a FA Cup fifth round tie against Crystal Palace on this day (20th February) in 1926. The tie, played at Maine Road turned out to be a fifteen goal thriller with City in rampant form.  

By half-time the score was 7-0 to the Blues, but Palace would not give up and quickly pulled back four goals.  City were knocked out of their period of complacency and soon found their goalscoring touch again.  

By the end it was 11-4 and, according to a number of spectators present on the day, Manchester fans rushed on at the final whistle and carried off the Palace ‘keeper Callendar shoulder high.  Apparently he had played extremely well and, somehow, managed to keep the score down, although one cannot help wondering if he’d have been given such a reception had the scores been reversed.

Frank Roberts was the City star for this particular game, scoring a remarkable five, while Tommy Browell also earned a few plaudits with his hat-trick. Browell had been ill for most of the week and had been unable to train.

With no management and such a miserable time in the League, no one could believe how City had been able to deliver such strong cup performances. 

Remarkably, film of the game has survived and can be viewed here:

https://www.britishpathe.com/video/crystal-palace-overwhelmed

Historic Name That Ground – Week 30 Answer

Did you recognise this ground? This is a 1920s photo of this ground which, at the time was fairly new. The ground remains a prominent venue today and has staged Premier League games. The curved road still exists, as does much of the housing. In fact even the stand that’s clear on this photo existed last time I went to this ground, though plans were made in recent years to replace it (work should have started and be progressing well but I’ve not checked). Here’s the answer…

It’s Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park.

While you’re here why not subscribe to my site and you can then access every article, interview, audio recording etc. already posted and those that will be posted during your subscription. It costs £20 per year (about £1.67 a month) or you can sign up on a monthly basis at £3 per month (you can cancel at any time, so you could sign sign up for a month, access everything you want and then cancel). You can subscribe below:

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today.

Subscribe

I had planned to run ‘Historic Name That Ground’ only during the close season 2021 as in previous years, but it’s proving of interest so I’ll keep it going for a little while yet. If you have an old image of a ground that you think it’d be worth including in this weekly quiz then please get in touch. They don’t have to be from the 1900s to 1960s – even ground images from the 70s and 80s may prove a challenge to identify these days. You can email me at gary@GJFootballArchive.com Thanks.

Aguero’s 250th and 251st Goals

On this day (18 January) last year Manchester City looked set to take all three points against Crystal Palace when Sergio Aguero netted twice in five minutes late in the game but then Fernandinho diverted a ball from Zaha into the net in the last minute to end the game 2-2.

The Blues had gone behind six minutes before half time.

Aguero’s first goal came in the 82nd minute when he sent home a Gabriel Jesus cross. This was the Argentinian’s 250th goal for the Blues and five minutes later he netted his 251st when he headed home from a Benjamin Mendy delivery.

The game was, on the whole, somewhat frustrating for those of us in the 54,439 Etihad crowd and this was exacerbated when after the break City appeared to have been awarded a deserved penalty. Referee Graham Scott had pointed to the spot for a Jairo Riedewald handball, but then the video assistant referee overruled the decision. It was decided that a replay of the incident showed the ball had came off the defender’s foot first as he blocked Joao Cancelo’s cross. Few City fans were convinced of course!

As well as Aguero reaching 250 goals, the match saw another landmark as David Silva made his 300th Premier League appearance for City.

Highlights here:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/match-highlights/2020/january/city-v-crystal-palace-extended-highlights

Subscribe to get access

This was just a taster of the content in GJFootballArchive.com. If you would like to read the in-depth, longer articles (including the entire Manchester A Football History book) then please subscribe below. It works out about £1.67 a month if you take out an annual subscription (£20 per year) or £3 a month if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time. Each subscriber gets full access to the 150+ articles posted so far and the hundreds scheduled to be posted in the coming weeks.

Subscribe
Log in

On This Day – Shauny Wright, Wright Wright

On this day (15th January) in 2005 – Two goals from Shaun Wright-Phillips helped Manchester City defeat Crystal Palace 3-1 before a 44,010 crowd at the City of Manchester Stadium (now the Etihad of course).  

According to one report it wasn’t just SWP’s goals: ‘which caught the eye; more the sheer panic his appearance on the ball instilled in the Palace defence.

The other City scorer was Robbie Fowler and it was the former Liverpool man who got most of the headlines, though SWP was definitely the star as far as most Blues were concerned. Fowler’s goal came just over two minutes after Shaun’s first.

This was just a taster of the content in GJFootballArchive.com. If you would like to read the in-depth, longer articles then please subscribe below. It works out about £1.67 a month if you take out an annual subscription (£20 per year) or £3 a month if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time. Each subscriber gets full access to the 120+ articles posted so far and the hundreds scheduled to be posted in the coming weeks.

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this website when you subscribe today.

Subscribe
Log in