Tag Archives: Mark Kennedy

City on the Hill

On this day (7th May) in 2000 Manchester City achieved promotion by beating Blackburn 4-1 on the last day of the season. A large group of fans gathered on the hill above Ewood Park to watch as much of the game as possible (were you one of those fans – please get in touch with your story if you were).

As with most things City did back then, the journey to promotion had not been as straightforward as fans hoped it would be.

“We will not be going to Blackburn to defend or looking for just one point, that would be inviting disaster.  We will be playing to take three points.  Legends are born in games like this and particularly at a massive club like City with the fan base we have.  Someone can be a hero, not just for a day but for a long time.”  

These were the words Joe Royle used in the build up to City’s crucial match with Blackburn on the final day of the 1999-2000 season.  He wanted to send a strong message to the rest of football that City were determined to return to the Premier League, and return they did.  The game with Blackburn was extremely tense at times, and there were a number of occasions when everyone connected with the club felt that Blackburn would be added to the names of Luton and Liverpool in the City cock-up list.  However Royle’s City showed resilience and success followed.

Here is my review of that game and the 1999-2000 season. To read the rest of this piece then please subscribe below:

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The 1990s: 1999 The Fightback

The series of articles covering Manchester City in the 1990s continues today with an indepth article on the opening months of 1999-2000 season. City had been promoted the previous May and the last few months of 1999 saw the Club continue its resurrection. The article is almost 4,000 words long. It’s available to subscribers, so why not subscribe and relive this period and an extraordinary decade? As with all these 1990s subscriber features it contains material from interviews I’ve performed with key figures from that time.

Here’s the 4900 word article on that season:

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This series of articles and features will run throughout March with indepth articles some days and smaller ‘on this day’ style posts on others. There will be flashbacks to great games, players and more. Every day in March will offer something to enjoy.

Subscribers will get access to everything, while some on this day material will be free for all to view.

If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? If you’d like to know more about subscribing then see:

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Former Player Scores (Typical!)

Today (22 January) is a reminder of one of those days when a former player who has recently signed for another club faces your team and scores the only goal. Which game am I talking about? This was the Manchester City match at Sheffield United on this day in 2000. Anyone remember who the player was?

It was Michael Brown who in January 2000 signed for Sheffield United and then, sure enough, he has to face City within a short period following his move and he nets the only goal of the match. Ah well! We can remember it now without getting too worked up but these things do have a tendency to occur more frequently than they ought to – or at least it feels that way!

This match report remembers that day.

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Swindon Town 0 Manchester City 2

On this day (1 April) in 2000 Manchester City won 2-0 at Swindon Town. The game was watched by 12,397 and the goals came from the now dependable (there had been concern amongst fans earlier in his City career) Shaun Goater – his 27th of the campaign – and Mark Kennedy.

Manager Joe Royle was delighted, although concerned by City’s first half performance: ‘I am delighted with the victory and I thought we fully deserved the points. It wasn’t the best game in the first half, but Shaun Goater did well for the first goal, and we always looked comfortable after the half-time interval and more dangerous after we changed things around.’

The game had not been a good one for 25-year-old midfielder Tony Grant who had made his first start since January. He was replaced by Ian Bishop early in the second half and from that point on the game came alive. Despite the result the Swindon directors were pleased with the match. The Wiltshire club had allowed City fans to occupy both ends of their tiny ground, and it was reported that over half of the 12,397 crowd were supporting the Blues. At £17 per ticket it was calculated the additional gate money was worth over £100,000 to the relegation bound club.

In the table, City had a game in hand over most clubs, and now lay third on 72 points. The near invincible Charlton (87 points) still headed the League while Barnsley (74 points) were second. Ipswich were fourth – one point behind City after the same number of matches – while Birmingham were fifth on 69 points.

MCFC 1999-2000 LEAGUE and CUP REVIEW

On this day (7th May) in 2000 Manchester City achieved promotion by beating Blackburn 4-1 on the last day of the season. As with most things City did back then, the journey to promotion had not been as straightforward as fans hoped it would be.

“We will not be going to Blackburn to defend or looking for just one point, that would be inviting disaster.  We will be playing to take three points.  Legends are born in games like this and particularly at a massive club like City with the fan base we have.  Someone can be a hero, not just for a day but for a long time.”  These were the words Joe Royle used in the build up to City’s crucial match with Blackburn on the final day of the 1999-2000 season.  He wanted to send a strong message to the rest of football that City were determined to return to the Premier League, and return they did.  The game with Blackburn was extremely tense at times, and there were a number of occasions when everyone connected with the club felt that Blackburn would be added to the names of Luton and Liverpool in the City cock-up list.  However Royle’s City showed resilience and success followed.

Here is my review of that game and the 1999-2000 season. To read the rest of this piece then please subscribe below:

Subscribe to get access

To read this and access all other content please subscribe. It works out about £1.67 a month if you take out an annual subscription (£20 per year) or £3 a month if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time. Each subscriber gets full access to the 300+ articles posted so far (including audio interviews with John Bond, Malcolm Allison, George Graham and the entire Manchester A Football History book) and the hundreds scheduled to be posted in the coming weeks.

Subscribe