Football writing, thoughts and more by Gary James
Malcolm Allison gave Manchester City confidence and a will to win that few have ever equalled. He was an exceptionally brilliant and confident coach – some would say the greatest the world has ever seen (probably Allison himself would say this!) – and working with Joe Mercer he helped the Blues achieve incredible success.
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As League champions, the Blues were expected to coast through the 1968-9 season, particularly as the Charity Shield match against Cup winners West Bromwich Albion ended in a comfortable 6-1 City victory. Unfortunately life is rarely that easy and only one of the first nine games ended in victory – a 3-2 win over Wolves. The Blues simply could not get into the rhythm they had enjoyed the previous season. One of the reasons for this was that they had embarked on a rather disastrous tour of America during the summer which, amongst other problems resulted in an injury to captain Tony Book He was kept out of action until January.
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Back in the 1960s and 1970s, despite major success in England, reaching a European quarter-final was a bit of a rarity. So,I’ve decided to take a look back at Manchester City’s first ever European quarter-final, I’ve written this feature looking at the first time the Blues reached a UEFA organised tournament’s quarter-final. That was in 1969-70.
This article is available to subscribers below (you can subscribe now and access this and all the other content on my site):
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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.
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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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If you think that it’s only in recent years that fans have been upset when their club has tinkered with their colours then think again. Back in November 1969, shortly after City had worn red and black stripes for the first time, City and local media outlets were inundated with fans complaining about the new shirts. Here’s just a taste of the complaints. These letters (apologies for the poor scanning on my part) were right to talk of City’s traditional away colours as being maroon of course, but it’s interesting how now, 52 years later, many fans believe red and black stripes are City’s traditional away colours.
For the record City have worn maroon more than any other main colour (other than blue & white of course).
From tomorrow (Tuesday June 22 2021) subscribers to my site will be able to download a PDF of my entire first book. It was published back in 1989 and, Ignoring yearbooks, this was only the 6th book (and two of those were more like pamphlets published in the 1930s & 40s) ever published specifically on Manchester City.
Watch this space tomorrow for 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!
On 29th April 1970 Manchester City won the European Cup Winners’ Cup beating Gornik Zabrze from Poland 2-1 at the Prater Stadium in Vienna. Here are a few comments and feelings from supporters, players, and others affected by the game. These were gathered as part of a project I organised to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the final. As we’ve now past the 51st anniversary they have become an even greater historical record.
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As it had still been possible for either Manchester City or Manchester United to win the League on the final day of the 1967-68 season, the Championship trophy was left at the home of the reigning champions United.
City won the League at Newcastle while United lost 2-1 to struggling Sunderland.
You can read about that final day of the season here:
https://gjfootballarchive.com/2021/05/11/manchester-city-win-the-league/
At United the Championship trophy vanished at some point during that day. The Daily Express reporter Alan Thompson set off on a mission to track it down. He started questioning the Old Trafford staff: “Secretary Les Olive was under the impression that a League official had taken it earlier in the week, Matt Busby was not at all sure what had happened to it, and for a minute or two it was lost until a member of the female staff admitted that it had been locked up ‘in the vault’. You are at liberty to allow full rein to your imaginations in concluding exactly where the ‘vault’ is at Old Trafford. But the centre of the boardroom table, where the League Championship Cup has stood proudly for the last 12 months was occupied by five shillings worth of flowers. Sit down the City fan who says symbolic.”
City still needed the trophy to be presented (Joe Mercer had offered to walk all the way from the Newcastle game to Old Trafford to collect it if he had to!) and so a friendly against Bury was hastily arranged for the Tuesday (May 14 1968) following the Newcastle game to enable the Championship trophy to be presented.
If the destination of the title was not obvious during the season, the trophy would be presented at the League’s annual dinner but as City would be on tour in America, the League agreed to present it at Maine Road. The presentation took place before the Bury game with Tony Book and the rest of the players going on a lap of honour before Mercer was handed the trophy to lift above his head. The crowd roared with delight and then witnessed a 4-2 victory.
Bury’s two goals were scored by Bobby Owen who, two months later signed for the Blues.
The game was noteworthy for it also included an appearance by Malcolm Allison. For much of the game he’d sat, wearing his familiar red tracksuit then, with about ten minutes left he substituted George Heslop and entered the field himself wearing the number 8 shirt. This caused a little confusion as Colin Bell remained on the pitch with the same number but nobody complained, after all it was a night to enjoy especially when Allison threw himself into the game. He forced a great save from Neil Ramsbottom, the Bury ‘keeper, and had a goal disallowed. The City supporters chanted ‘Allison for England’, and even called for Mercer to take to the field.
Tonight (May 4, 2021) Manchester City will play the second leg of their Champions League semi final with PSG. It’s not the first European semi final the Blues have played of course, but for those thinking City’s European heritage began after the 2008 takeover here’s the story of City’s first European semi-final. This came way back in 1970!
In 1969-70 City, managed by Joe Mercer, played their first European semi-final. The second leg was was to be the best and most important European victory ever at Maine Road.
Here for subscribers is the story of both the first and second legs of that first European semi-final for the Blues.
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