Tag Archives: Denis Law

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.

Subscribe

Subscribe to get access – Annual

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.

Subscribe

If you’d like to know more about subscribing then see:

How To Subscribe

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.

How To Subscribe

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.

How To Subscribe

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.  

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today.

Subscribe

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today.

Subscribe

Expunged – Law’s 6!

On this day (28 January) in 1961 Denis Law’s six goals against Luton in the FAC were wiped from the records when the game was abandoned due to fog.  Manchester City were winning 6-2, and lost the replay 3-1 (Law scored City’s consolation).

Subscribers can read a report of the game and more on Law & this game below.

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £20 a year (here, works out about £1.66 per month) or £3 per month (below). Annual subscribers access everything posted to the site including PDFs of 2 out of print books and 100s of articles/interviews etc.

Subscribe

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £20 a year (above) or £3 per month (here). Monthly subscribers access everything posted to the site since 1 October 2022 and can cancel anytime, so why not try it for a month?

Subscribe

Denis Law and Rodney Marsh Both Score

On this day (12 January) in 1974 Denis Law and Rodney Marsh provided the goals as Manchester City defeated Leicester City 2-0 in a thrilling game at Maine Road.  

City were in blistering form for this game and absolutely tore in to Leicester. Only the brilliance of England ‘keeper Peter Shilton kept the score down as the report shows.

I was six years old and sat in the ‘old’ Platt Lane Stand with my dad that day. Were you also at this match? If you were why not leave your memory as a comment or email it to me for possible future use on this website?

Film of the game here:

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this website when you subscribe today. It works out about £1.67 a month if you take out an annual subscription (£20 per year – you can access everything posted since December 2020 including PDFs of 2 out of print books and listen to audio interviews with John Bond and others) or £3 a month (access everything posted since 1 October 2022) if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time. Sign up for annual here and monthly below.

Subscribe

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this website when you subscribe today. It works out about £1.67 a month if you take out an annual subscription (£20 per year) or £3 a month (access everything posted since 1 October 2022) if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time. Sign up for annual above and monthly here.

Subscribe

The Story of 1974-75

Here’s a review of the 1974-75 season as experienced by Manchester City. That year Manchester City finished 8th with an average attendance of 32,898 (fifth highest in the top flight). The following explains how Denis Law played on into the 1974-75 season, even scoring in one game (this is often ignored by those who incorrectly claim Law retired after the 1974 Manchester derby – he did not and played club football in 1974-75 for City!).

Subscribe to get access

This 1500 word article is available to subscribers. It costs £3 per month (below) or £20 a year (here) to subscribe. Annual subscribers get access to all material (including PDFs of 2 books out of print and audio interviews etc.) posted since December 2020 and monthly subscribers get access to everything posted since 1 October 2022.

Subscribe

Subscribe to get access

This 1500 word article is available to subscribers. It costs £3 per month (here) or £20 a year (above) to subscribe. Why not subscribe for a month and see what you think? Monthly subscribers get access to everything posted since 1 October 2022.

Subscribe

Denis Law and United’s Relegation

Over the years there has been a lot of discussion on Denis Law and his backheeled goal for Manchester City v Manchester United at Old Trafford in April 1974. If you’re a Blue you tend to say it relegated United; if you’re a Red you tend to say ‘absolutely not! It made no difference.’ So, for this feature I decided to focus on the facts, emotion and mood of the era to paint an accurate picture of that day and the significance or not of that goal. Hopefully, Blues & Reds alike will gain a good understanding of it all. I include quotes from some of the interviews I’ve performed in the past. This article will be free to read until 27th September then it’s available to subscribers only. Here goes…

Subscribe to get access

If you have read this and enjoyed it then please subscribe and access more content like this. No one pays for my research and so please support my writing if you can. Subscribers get access to everything on here, including the entire Manchester A Football History book and my first book. It costs £20 a year (works out £1.67 per month).

Subscribe