IN SEARCH OF THE BLUES – Frank Carrodus (interviewed September 2004)

Midfielder Frank Carrodus joined Manchester City in November 1969.  Over the course of the following five years Frank made a total of 37 appearances plus ten as substitute before joining Aston Villa in July 1974.  Gary James caught up with him at the City Social in September 2004 to discuss his career. Here for subscribers is that interview.

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Only 13,646 at Old Trafford

On this day (30 October) in 1973 The second round League Cup tie between Manchester City and Walsall went to a second replay.  City won the game 4-0 with a hat-trick for Francis Lee, but a pitiful crowd of 13,646 witnessed the match at Old Trafford.  City fans didn’t mind playing a 2nd replay, but they did object to it being played at United’s ground.

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If you’d like to support my research then why not subscribe? Every subscription directly helps support my research and provides annual subscribers 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.

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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. 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.

On This Day – Francis Lee

On this day (9 October) in 1967 Francis Lee finally signed for Manchester City from Bolton Wanderers. Heres a long profile of Lee I’ve written on him:

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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. 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.

Managerial Merry Go Round

On this day (7th October) in 1997 Steve Coppell became Manchester City’s manager. Here’s the story of that period with quotes from exclusive interviews I have performed with Coppell’s assistant Phil Neal.

This article is available for subscribers…

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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. 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.

Allison’s Red and Black

On this day in 1968 Manchester City wore Red & Black stripes for the first time. Malcolm Allison had suggested adopting AC Milan’s colours and City first wore them for their meeting at Everton on October 5th 1968. Sadly, City were defeated 2-0 at Goodison and the colour change wasn’t popular with fans at first. However, due to a colour clash with Leicester, the new colours were worn in the 1969 FA Cup final. The club won that trophy and the kit soon entered City folklore as an important kit.

City chose to wear the new style for all the successful major finals that followed during Joe Mercer & Malcolm Allison’s time, including the club’s first European trophy in 1970.  At one point Allison suggested making red and black the first choice kit.

There were however plenty of complaints about City adopting the colours. Take a look at an earlier post I made on those complaints here:

MAL’S MISSION – VILLA PARK 1972

On this day (August 5) in 1972 Manchester City faced Third Division Champions Aston Villa in the Blues’ first Charity Shield match played at Villa Park. Here’s a feature on it and a match report from the game.

Subscribers can view the article and all others on here (including the entire Manchester A Football History and a PDF of my first book). It costs £20 a year (works out about £1.67 a month) and you can sign up below. Thanks.

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Lee One Pen

For decades now Francis Lee’s name has been linked with the 1971-72 season and, especially, with him scoring a record number of penalties that season. He netted 13 penalties in a 42 game League season and it’s a record that still stands to this day. This record has often led to the suggestion that Lee ‘won’ more penalties than perhaps he ought to and so for this article I’ve analysed every penalty awarded and taken by Manchester City that season.

This analysis and commentary on Lee’s penalty record is available to subscribers.

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Manchester City Win The League

On this day (May 11) in 1968 Manchester City defeated Newcastle United and won the League title. Here’s the build up to that game; the story of the match itself and quotes from those involved.  Enjoy!

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MCFC 20TH CENTURY CHRONICLE SEASON 1967-68

The Matches

As with the 1936-7 Championship season, the first few weeks gave little indication of what the Blues were ultimately to achieve as only one point – a goalless game with Liverpool – was obtained during the first three matches.  Fortunately, this was followed by a 5 match unbeaten run, lifting City into the top 5. 

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Manchester City in the Early 1990s

We hear so much about the Premier League era and how the game has changed, so for today’s feature I’ve decided to take a look at the early 1990s and the birth of the Premier League. It’s almost thirty years since the structure of league football changed forever and during that time some clubs have benefitted from the new structure and others have found life difficult. City have experienced both extremes of course.

The narrative that we often hear about the Blues’ journey over the last thirty years is that they’ve gone from a struggling club to a hugely successful one and, while it is true City are highly successful today and that the Blues entered their lowest ever point in the late 1990s, it is wrong to assume that the position the club found itself in by 1999 was typical of the club’s full history. 

So, here for subscribers, I’m taking a look back at the early 1990s and remind ourselves where the Blues were; who their rivals were; and the state of football at that time:

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