On this day (15 January) in 1966 Manchester City drew 0-0 with Preston at Maine Road but look at the kit City are wearing. This photo shows George Heslop (5) and Alan Oakes (6) in unusual colours for Maine Road. Subscribers can find out more about this kit and day below, plus read several contemporary match reports:
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On this day (12 January) in 1966 Manchester City defeated Rotherham 3-1 with goals from Mike Doyle (2) and Johnny Crossan (a penalty). Subscribers can read a contemporary match report of that important game in City’s quest to earn promotion from the second tier. What also made the day special was that City ended the day level on points with the Second Division leaders Huddersfield Town.
Here for subscribers is a contemporary match report of City v Rotherham:
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On this day (8 January) 1966 Portsmouth welcomed Manchester City to Fratton Park. Subscribers can read a contemporary match report below of that important game in City’s quest to earn promotion from the second tier (Joe Mercer was not happy!). What also made the day special was that Portsmouth chose that day to introduce a policy of free tickets for women (to accompany their men according to this cutting in my collection!). I’m not certain how long their policy lasted but it’s worth noting that many clubs had previously had a policy of half price tickets for women (City had been doing that from the 1890s).
Here for subscribers is a contemporary match report of Portsmouth v City (you can find out why Joe Mercer was angry too!):
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Here’s an odd item from my collection. It’s a compliment slip by a Star Press (the ‘champion printers’) which lists the players in Manchester City’s 1967-68 title winning team. There are a couple of spelling mistakes. See if you can spot them. One side of the compliments slip shows the League Champions and the other side looks like this:
I’m not certain if there was a close connection between Manchester City and Star Press at this time.
You can find out more about the 1967-68 season by reading the following subscriber article. If you’d like to read this 7,600 word article (yes, 7,600 words on one season!), plus all other articles on the site, then please subscribe (see below). As with most of the other seasonal features it includes words from interviews I have performed with those who were there.
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On this day (12 December) in 1970 a hat-trick from Francis Lee was City’s last hat-trick in a Manchester derby until Haaland and Foden in October 2022! The 1970 game also saw a goal from Mike Doyle to gave City a comfortable 4-1 victory over Manchester United before an Old Trafford crowd of 52,636. That victory meant City had won 5 and only dropped 4 points in 8 consecutive League derby meetings with the Reds. There was also a devastating injury to Glyn Pardoe (more on that in another post!). Here is the background, report and verdict of that game…
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On this day (7 December) in 1968 reigning Champions Manchester City defeated Burnley 7-0 at Maine Road with goals from Bell (2), Young (2), Doyle, Lee, and Coleman.
You can find out all about Manchester City during the 1968-69 season by reading the following subscriber article. If you’d like to read this 6,000 word article , plus all other articles on the site, then please subscribe (see below).
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Fifty years ago today (3 December 1975) Manchester City defeated Mansfield Town 4-2 in the League Cup. Subscribers can read all about the game below.
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You’ve got to watch this film of Manchester City v Wolves from today (29 November) in 1975. City win the game but there’s a deliberate handball that prevents a goal but doesn’t end up with a dismissal; a missed penalty; the referee taking out Mike Doyle and much more. Enjoy:
You can also read more on the game below if you subscribe to my site.
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Fifty years ago today (11 October 1975) a goalless draw with Burnley led to lots of issues at Maine Road. Dressing room disagreements (some say fights) led to captain Rodney Marsh being placed on the transfer list. Some fans protested but new captain Mike Doyle spoke out, explaining that the players supported the manager. Marsh never played for City again and in the games that followed Dave Watson and Tommy Booth both filled in as forwards in games (and both scored). Centre forward Joe Royle was injured as well.
While you’re here why not subscribe and read a 5,320 word article on the entire 1975-76 season – a season which saw Tony Book guide the club to major success. You can read this below.
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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (above) or £20 a year (here) to access everything posted since the site was created in December 2020. This special rate works out about £1.67 a week and gives access to everything posted, including PDFs of 3 of my books.
If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.
On 3 June 2023 Ilkay Gundogan City secured his place in national football history with the quickest goal in a FA Cup final. It was a stunning volley after only 12 seconds. That day Gundogan scored two and helped City to 2-1 FA Cup final victory over Manchester United.
As well as the speed of the first goal, Gundogan’s goals gave him another MCFC record. Dave Masey, who has been collecting stats and historical information on Manchester City for years contacted me to tell me about one of his spreadsheets which holds details of City scorers in trophy winning games.
His records capture those who have scored in major cup finals, but besides Cup Finals he also records other trophy-winning games. These include the deciding League games from 1937 onwards against Sheffield Wednesday (1937), Newcastle, QPR, West Ham, Brighton and Villa (2022), but nothing from three recent title successes where the Blues clinched the title when they were not playing. Got that? Good, now….
Dave tells me that the FA Cup success saw Gundogan move to the top of the list with 5 goals, overtaking Neil Young and Sergio Aguero. So he has scored more goals in trophy-winning games than any other Blue.
The list of scorers in trophy winning games reads:
1904
Meredith
1934/7
Tilson (3), Brook (2), Doherty
1956
Hayes, Dyson, Johnstone
1968/70
Young (4), Lee (2), Summerbee, Doyle, Pardoe
1976
P Barnes, Tueart
2011-(former)
Aguero (4), Y Toure (2), Nasri (2), Kompany (2), D Silva (2),Jesus (2), Sterling (2), Dzeko, Zabaleta, Navas, Fernandinho
2016-(current)
Gundogan (5), Laporte (2), Rodri (2), Mahrez, De Bruyne
Dave also tells me that in the three seasons where somebody else’s defeat clinched the title for City, the scorers in the club’s last game before the title confirmation were:
Gundogan (3), Sterling (2), Jesus, Haaland.
As Dave says, Ilkay gets a remarkable number of important goals, particularly for somebody who is ‘just’ a 1 goal in 5/6 games player (63 in 357 for City by June 2025).
Gary James' Football Archive 