Tag Archives: Joe Mercer

Were You There 60 Years Ago Today? Manchester City 0 Southampton 0

On this day (18 May) in 1966 Second Division Champions Manchester City and second placed Southampton played out a goalless draw to end the season at Maine Road in front of 34,653. The Second Division trophy was presented that day.

Were you there that day? If you were please feel free to add your comments.

You can find out more on Manchester City during the 1965-66 season by reading the following 4100 word article. As with most of the other features in this series it includes words from interviews I have performed with those who were there. This is a subscriber article (see below).

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Fifteen Years On: 2011 FA Cup

Today (14 May 2026) marks the 15th anniversary of Manchester City’s 2011 FA Cup final success over Stoke. There are so many angles to that first major success of the modern era for Manchester City and it is impossible to cover them all here. Elsewhere on this website I talk about the 2011 FA Cup run, especially that semi-final win over Manchester United. If you’ve not heard it have a listen to this:

Restored 2011: The All-Manchester FA Cup Semi Final

Today I’ll focus on the final itself with a lengthy article on the final below. This is a subscriber article. It costs £3 a month to subscribe OR take out an annual subscription at £20 (works out about £1.67 a month). All subscribers get full access to everything throughout their subscription.

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Former Blue Matt Busby Congratulates Manchester City

60 years ago today (5 May 1966) Matt Busby formally congratulated Manchester City on their return to football’s top flight. The previous day City had won 1-0 at Rotherham to earn promotion. Colin Bell was the scorer. If you missed this yesterday, here are some contemporary match reports and photos from that day.

Here for subscribers are match reports and details of that day:

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Sixty Years Ago Today: “We Went To Rotherham, We Won 1-0….” Manchester City’s Promotion

60 years ago today (4 May 1966) Manchester City won 1-0 at Rotherham to earn promotion back to football’s top flight. Colin Bell was the scorer and the win became immortalised in a song. Here are some contemporary match reports and photos from that day:

Here for subscribers are match reports and details of that day:

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1969 Manchester City’s Fourth FA Cup

On this day (26 April) in 1969 Manchester City defeated Leicester City 1-0 in the FA Cup final. City’s scorer was Neil Young. If you’d like to know more about that success or the 1968-69 season then have a read of this subscriber article on Manchester City during the 1968-69 season.
If you’d like to read this 6,000 word article , plus all other articles on the site, then please subscribe (see below). As with most of the other features in this series it includes words from interviews I have performed with those who were there.

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City v Gornik in Copenhagen

Today (31 March) is the anniversary of a 1971 European Cup Winners’ Cup between Manchester City and Gornik Zabrze played in Copenhagen. This was a replay after the earlier games had ended 2-2 on aggregate. Back then replays were used instead of penalty shootouts to decide games like this. For subscribers, here’s an article looking back at this day.

This 1500 word article is available for subscribers…

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1966 FAC Quarter Final Replay: Everton V Manchester City

60 years ago today (29 March 1966) 60,349 watched a goalless FA Cup quarter final replay at Goodison Park between Everton and Manchester City. Once again City ‘keeper Harry Dowd was one of the star men but a curious team selection issue cropped up before the game. City striker Neil Young went down with flu on the way to the match. Then Ralph Brand turned down the chance to play as he believed he was not fit enough. Manager Joe Mercer turned to Matt Gray, but he couldn’t play because he didn’t have any boots! City looked for some size 8 boots but couldn’t find any. So Gray couldn’t play. Ultimately, Roy Cheetham managed to get to Goodison Park 15 minutes before kick off and took Young’s place.

Here for subscribers are match reports and details of that day:

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1966 FAC Quarter Final: Manchester City V Everton

60 years ago today (26 March 1966) 63,034 watched a goalless FA Cup quarter final at Maine Road between Everton and Manchester City. It was a day that ultimately brought a lot of attention City’s way and City ‘keeper Harry Dowd was the star man according to some journalists. Here for subscribers are match reports and details of that day:

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1966 FAC Quarter Final MCFC V Everton

60 years ago Manchester City and Everton were due to meet in the following day’s FA Cup quarter final (to be played on 26 March – more on that tomorrow). City were a Second Division team that season and were managed by former Evertonian Joe Mercer. Everton had finished the previous season fourth and had participated in the Fairs Cup during 1965-66. They were managed by Harry Catterick. Their views on their teams and opponents make interesting reading for fans of both City and Everton. Sadly, I don’t know which newspaper this is from. It’s in a scrapbook on the entire 1965-66 season I have.

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Colin Bell’s City Debut Goal

60 years ago today (19 March 1966) Colin Bell made his debut for Manchester City in a League game with Derby County. The game ended 2-1 with Colin Bell scoring a debut goal (see main photo). Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison often joked about the goal (according to Allison it hit him and went in which Allison claimed caused Mercer to cry out: ‘Oh no, what have we done!’). That was more of a story used years later when Colin had proved his worth time and time again.

Bell signed on 16 March. Here for subscribers are contemporary match reports and also an image of Young’s goal too:

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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up at a discounted £20 per year. Every subscriber gets access to the 1000s of articles already posted and those posted throughout your subscription. This includes the full Manchester A Football History and my first City book published in 1989

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If you’d like to find out about Colin’s Bury debut (which was against Manchester City), you can read that here:

The 1960s: Colin Bell’s Bury Debut