Football writing, thoughts and more by Gary James
Subscribers to my site download a PDF of my entire first book. It was published back in 1989. It’s not my best but if you subscribe why not have a look and see where it all began. Here are more details:
https://gjfootballarchive.com/2021/06/22/a-complete-pdf-of-my-1st-book-to-download/
The book was published in April 1989 and I talk a little bit about it here:
The 200th Post – Joe Mercer
and here:
A Writing Flashback!
On this day (5 October) 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. The game ended in a 2-0 defeat and the result brought a lot of complaints from fans about the use of the colours. 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:
Manchester City meeting Ipswich this weekend is a nice reminder that a fixture between the two almost 50 years ago made an enormous contribution to the birth of a City chant. That chant is still sung today and is known as either the Viking Call or ‘The Best Team In The Land…’
Chanting at football games is rarely documented correctly with many myths, rumours and stories developing over the years. Te following feature is designed to give a potted overview of the development of singing at City and tells the story and part Ipswich played in it:
Now, for subscribers is an 1800 word article on the history and development of chants at Manchester City:
Read more of this content and everything on the site when you subscribe today.
As we’re in a period of International football, I thought it would be worth remembering that there were four full internationals played at Maine Road.
Each of these took place during a six year spell in the 1940s.
FULL INTERNATIONALS AT MAINE ROAD
| Date | Type of game | Against | Score | Scorers | Crowd | Team |
| 16 October 1943 | War Interna-tional | Scotland | W 8-0 | Lawton (4), Hagan (2), Carter, Matthews | 60,000 | Swift, Scott, Hardwick, Britton, Cullis, Mercer, Matthews, Carter, Lawton, Hagan, Compton |
| 24/4/46 | Burnden Park Disaster Fund Match | Scotland | D 2-2 | Welsh (2) | 70,000 | Swift, Walton, Hardwick, Wright, Leuty, Mitchell, Matthews, Welsh, Lewis, Fielding, Mannion |
| 13/11/46 | Home International | Wales | W 3-0 | Mannion (2), Lawton | 59,121 | Swift, Scott, Hardwick, Wright, Franklin, Johnston, Finney, Carter, Lawton, Mannion, Langton |
| 16/11/49 | Home International/ World Cup qualifiers | N. Ireland | W 9-2 | Rowley (4), Froggatt, Pearson (2), Mortensen (2) | 69,762 | Streten, Mozley, Aston, Watson, Franklin, Wright, Finney, Mortensen, Rowley, Pearson, Froggatt |
In addition to these matches various other representative matches have been played at Maine Road. These include the following inter-league games, under-21 fixtures and B Team games.
You can read more on the 8-0 victory over Scotland in 1943 here:
On 15 June 1972 one of the most shameful days in the history of Manchester City Football Club occurred when Joe Mercer resigned to take over at Coventry City. It’s a long story, which I go into in significant detail in Football With A Smile: The Authorised Biography of Joe Mercer, but in essence following the takeover battle of 1970-71 the new guard of directors (which included Ian Niven and Peter Swales) were gradually gaining greater control of the club. Niven, a proud supporter of Malcolm Allison, always felt Allison should have control of all aspects of team affairs and never actually rated Mercer (Niven asked me in 1989 when my first book came out: ‘Why’ve you got Mercer writing the foreword? He did nothing for City!’).
Joe felt unwanted and he was probably right. Despite being City’s most successful manager of all time until the trophy-successes of Pep Guardiola, the new board wanted Malcolm in control. Ultimately, Malcolm also felt let down by the new board and he resigned within a year.
It was a shameful day when Mercer felt so let down that he had to leave City. The highly successful era he had managed came to an end and it is significant that under the new board only one major trophy was ever won. The club lost its way and the die was cast. There were some great moments – but they were moments not years of success like Mercer had brought with Allison as his number two.
Copies of my Mercer biography are still available here:
A reminder that subscribers to my site can download lots of my writing, including all of Manchester A Football History and a PDF of my entire first book. It was published back in 1989 and sold out within 6 months of publication. Here are more details:
The book was published in April 1989 and I talk a little bit about it here:
The 200th Post – Joe Mercer
and here:
A Writing Flashback!
This Sunday Manchester City and West Ham face each other in the Premier League with a City victory (or an equal result to Arsenal’s game) giving the Blues the title. It’s another of those last day title deciders that City fans have had to get used to over the years.
Although there had been other seasons when City needed to get a good result in their final game to avoid relegation, earn promotion etc. the first last day title decider involving the Blues came in 1968. Back then Joe Mercer was manager and Malcolm Allison his number two. They believed in entertaining football – a contrast to what the rest of English football seemed to believe it as the following report shows.
Have a read of what was said back in May 1968 to fully appreciate how wonderful that team was and how refreshing City were to late 1960s football:
You can read about the build up to that game; the story of the match itself and quotes from those involved below. Enjoy!
Read more of this content and everything else on this site when you subscribe today. £20 a year (works out about £1.67 a month) and you access all the interviews, articles and the entire Manchester A Football History book too for as long as you’re a subscriber. Thanks Gary
You can also sign up on a monthly basis for £3 per month (cancel anytime). So why not try it for a month?
I’ve posted a lot on this in the past but it’s always worth revisiting, especially as recent years have seen dozens of new chants established at Manchester City. Successful eras often bring new chants – and that’s definitely happened recently – but failing periods can also generate new supporter songs.
Chanting at football games is rarely documented correctly with many myths, rumours and stories developing over the years. This feature is designed to give a potted overview of the development of singing at City.
I explained about some of the chants in this talk I did a couple of years ago. If you’ve got time watch it:
Now, for subscribers is an 1800 word article on the history and development of chants at Manchester City:
Read more of this content and everything on the site when you subscribe today.
If you want to know more on subscribing first have a read of this:
On this day (April 26) in 1969 Manchester City defeated Leicester City in the FA Cup final. It is worth pausing to consider how the Blues compared to football’s other successful sides in the competition at this time in football history. City’s four FA Cup successes placed them 7th in the all-time list of FA Cup winners – can you guess the clubs they were behind? Liverpool? No! MUFC? No! Arsenal? No! Keep going…
They were behind Aston Villa (7), Blackburn Rovers (6), Newcastle United (6), Tottenham Hotspur (5), The Wanderers (5) and West Bromwich Albion (5). Bolton, Sheffield United and Wolves had, like City, each won four FA Cups, while Manchester United and Arsenal had only won three, Liverpool one and Chelsea had not yet won the trophy. In fact Chelsea had only won one major trophy (the League Championship) at this point in their history.
Here for subscribers is a long read on that final and the events surrounding it:
Read more of this content when you subscribe today.
Defender Bobby Kennedy proved to be a popular player after joining the Blues in 1961. He went on to make 251 (plus 3 as sub) appearances for City over a seven year period and was a key member of City’s mid sixties side. In April 2005 Gary James caught up with him at the stadium.
Read more of this content when you subscribe today.
Gary James' Football Archive 