Tag Archives: Denis Law

The 1970s: Where Do You Get Your Shirts Dyed?

Here’s an interesting article from today (18 February) in 1974 which tells the story of FH Drabble & Sons, Tansley, Matlock. Who? Well look at these wonderful shirts from the 1974 League Cup final – They were that colourful because of Drabble! So who was Drabble & Sons? Read on…

This was an important company in the production of football shirts and they dyed shirts for Manchester City, Wolves and many international teams. In essence, if you had an Umbro shirt (or another British manufacturer prior to the late 1970s) then there’s a good chance it was dyed at their works.

I’ve been interested in football kit production for many, many years and spent some great time about twenty years ago with Umbro people going through collections and spotting unique work etc. There are a lot of people interested in kits today and, rightly so, they define great eras and often show football clubs at their best. Think of a great team and no doubt you’ll remember the style of kit worn.

One area that is often overlooked though is the actual process of kit manufacture, especially the dyeing. This is odd seeing as it’s so often the colour, especially for teams wearing unique or rare colours (I see MCFC as one of these – other clubs have copied City’s blue but for MCFC this colour or a shade of it goes back to their days as Ardwick when they wore ‘quartered’ shirts of pale blue and white), that is the brand or identity as far as many of us are concerned. 

Ah well, I could go on for hours, but have a read of this. Sadly, Drabble’s dye works was derelicht by the 2000s. Maybe polyester football shirts/overseas production put an end to their operation. Did you work at Drabbles? Any memories of their football related dyeing?

This series of articles and features on Manchester City in the 1970s has been running throughout January with indepth articles some days and smaller ‘on this day’ style posts on others. Every day in January will offer something to enjoy.

Subscribers will get access to everything. If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 1,700 word article is on the 1973-74 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

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FAC Draw a Reminder! Law’s Expunged Six

It’s interesting that yesterday (28 January), the day Luton Town were drawn at home to Manchester City in the FA Cup, was the anniversary of one of the most remarkable FAC games between the two clubs. On 28 January 1961 Denis Law’s six goals for City against Luton in the FAC were wiped from the records when the game was abandoned.  City were winning 6-2. Here for subscribers to the blog is the story of that game and the ‘typical City’ replay that followed.

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The 1970s: 1974-1975  Look At His Face

The series of features/articles covering Manchester City in the 1970s continues with a 1,600 word article on the entire 1974-75 season – a season which saw Denis Law score for City (he definitely had not retired following the previous season’s Manchester derby!) and Tony Book guide the club for his first full season as manager. You can read this below. This series of articles and features on Manchester City in the 1970s has been running throughout January with indepth articles some days and smaller ‘on this day’ style posts on others. Every day in January will offer something to enjoy.

Subscribers will get access to everything. If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 1,600 word article is on the 1974-75 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) to access everything posted since 1 October 2022 or there’s a special annual rate below which gives greater access and works out much cheaper.

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The 1970s: Away at Plymouth

This footage of Plymouth v Manchester City from fifty years ago today (23 January 1974) is well worth watching for a few reasons. First it’s an important game on the way to Wembley for Manchester’s Blues. Also, you can see both a disallowed goal from Denis Law and a muddy slip by Willie Donachie (extremely rare for any slip up from Donachie but it was the conditions here that failed!). Also, when Tommy Booth rescues the League Cup tie for the Blues listen out for Helen ‘the Bell’ Turner’s bell!

Keep watching and you can see the replay too!

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The 1970s: 1973-1974 Wembley Return

The series of features/articles covering Manchester City in the 1970s continues with a 1,700 word article on the entire 1973-74 season – a season which included a Wembley final, multiple managerial changes and a controversial Manchester Derby at Old Trafford! You can read this below. This series of articles and features on Manchester City in the 1970s has been running throughout January with indepth articles some days and smaller ‘on this day’ style posts on others. Every day in January will offer something to enjoy.

Subscribers will get access to everything. If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 1,700 word article is on the 1973-74 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

Subscribe to get access – Monthly

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) to access everything posted since 1 October 2022 or there’s a special annual rate below which gives greater access and works out much cheaper.

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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (above) or £20 a year (here) to access everything posted since the site was created in December 2020. This special rate works out about £1.67 a week and gives access to everything posted, including PDFs of 3 of my books.

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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.

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The 1970s: Denis Law Header

Here’s film of Denis Law scoring a header 50 years ago today (19 January 1974) for Manchester City at Birmingham City. Wearing red & black stripes City drew this game 1-1 but it’s worth seeing the goal for that kit and to recognise Law’s final season in League football.

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The 1970s: Law and Marsh

Here are highlights of the goals from fifty years ago today (12 January 1974) when Denis Law and Rodney Marsh both scored in Manchester City’s 2-0 victory over Leicester City at a muddy Maine Road. I’m sure that second goal would go through one of those panels these days to try and work out who actually scored it though I think both Law and Marsh knew it was Marsh’s. Watch out for Colin Bell too.

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Newcastle Thrashed

Manchester City defeated Newcastle United 6-1 eight years ago today (3 October 2015). It was a day when Sergio Aguero scored five and I remember being disappointed that he was substituted off – no City player has ever scored more than five in a competitive game that wasn’t abandoned! I had hoped that Sergio would become the first man to score six for the Blues (Yes, I know Denis Law scored 6 in a game but that was abandoned and wiped from the records). Anyone remember who scored the other City goal? See below for the answer.

You can see highlights of the Newcastle game here:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/match-highlights/2015/october/city-v-newcastle-united-extended-highlights

The other City scorer that day was Kevin De Bruyne.

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

Decisive Derbies – MCFC v MUFC 15 May 1963

Score 1-1, Attendance 52,424 Maine Road

City’s penultimate match of the season turned out to be one of the most controversial derby matches of all time.  Both clubs were languishing at the foot of the table, and a derby victory would more or less guarantee the victor’s survival.  

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