Tag Archives: Norwich

Fans Attack Mayor Believing Him To Be Referee!

This is an unusual tale from this day (9 September) in 1965. On that day Manchester City’s game with Norwich was abandoned at half time due to a waterlogged pitch. Norwich had taken an early lead via a Ron Davies header.

Neil Young equalised for the Blues in the 37th minute and fans had been hopeful of a win but referee Jim Carr (Sheffield) abandoned the match stating: ‘The lines were not visible. In seven seasons on the list, I can’t remember a ground in this state at this time of year.’

Journalist Peter Gardner thought the ref had made a mistake as conditions seemed to be improving. Many fans agreed and after the abandonment several confronted a man they believed to be the ref but it was actually Stretford mayor Edward Cavanagh. He claimed about 300 people confronted him as he headed for his car. A woman apparently kicked a councillor who was with him and the ‘mob’ started to bang on his car too!

The story made the papers. The replay ended in a goalless draw before over 34,000 on 27 October.

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Sponsorship Arrives

On this day in 1982 Manchester City should have played their first League game with a sponsor’s name on their shirt. However the match was televised and in those days TV did not allow clubs to wear sponsors names in televised games. The match was a 2-1 win away at Norwich and City’s first sponsor was the car company Saab.

New signing David Cross scored the opener after 3 minutes and 5 seconds (below) and we all thought this was going to be a great season. I won’t spoil it by saying what happened the following May!

New signing David Cross scoring after 3 minutes and 5 seconds at Norwich, August 1982

Maine Road 100 – Day 85

Post 85 of my Maine Road 100 countdown is a FA Cup reminder of a day that I know I loved as a kid. It was the day (24 January) in 1981 when John Bond’s Manchester City defeated his former club Norwich 6-0 in the FA Cup fourth round tie. I was sat in that uncovered bit between the Main Stand and the North Stand (it was cheaper but if it rained it was somewhat unpleasant, especially when the rain blew off the Main Stand roof on to us!).

This 1971 image shows the area I was sat in (number 2) that day:

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road

Subscribers can read a report and watch highlights of the game here:

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Latest Manchester Confidential Article: Rochdale

My lates monthly article on football in the Greater Manchester area on Manchester Confidential has been published. This one is about the first team from the region to reach the League Cup final. That’s right – Rochdale AFC. It can be read here:

https://t.co/xR5QhjeB0a

Thanks to Rochdale fan Greg Ingham from the It’s Only A Game podcast for your help ( https://twitter.com/Its_OnlyAGame ).

My earlier articles for Manchester Confidential were on United and City (see below):

https://confidentials.com/manchester/when-will-manchester-city-achieve-european-champions-league-glory?id=63ef59984ff4e

https://confidentials.com/manchester/manchester-united-looking-backward-to-push-forward?id=63c9274f540ba

Delia’s Day

On this day (28 February) in 2005 goals from Robbie Fowler (2) and Antoine Sibierski gave Manchester City a 3-2 victory at Norwich City, but the most newsworthy part of the night came when Norwich’s Delia Smith went on to the pitch at half time to encourage the home fans to make a bit of noise.  

She memorably called out: “A message for the best football supporters in the world: We need a twelfth man here. Where are you? Where are you? Let’s be having you! Come on!”

A lot of people in the media both then and in the years that have followed, criticised Delia but the truth is that she was exhibiting the type of passion and fervour for her club that many of us want to see. Maybe the manner was a bit too much but how great would it be if those in charge of our clubs could demonstrate similar passion?

City 6 Norwich 0

On this day (24 January) 1981 John Bond’s Manchester City defeated his former club Norwich 6-0 in the FA Cup fourth round tie. Subscribers can read a report and watch highlights here:

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If you would like to read this and all the other great content on here then please subscribe. Annual subscribers (£20 per year, sign up here) get access to everything posted on the site including PDFs of 2 of my out of print books and archived content like my exclusive audio interviews with John Bond, Malcolm Allison etc. Not only that but you’ll be helping to support this site’s development.

Subscribe

Subscribe to get access

If you would like to read this and all other great content on here then please subscribe. Monthly subscribers (£3 per month, cancel anytime and sign up here) get access to everything posted on the site since 1 October 2022. Not only that but you’ll be helping to support this site’s development.

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80 Years Ago Today Manchester City’s And Norwich’s John Benson Was Born

On this day (23 December) in 1942 future Manchester City player and manager John Benson born at Arbroath. He joined the Blues at the age of 15 in July 1958 and went on to make 52 League and Cup appearances before being transferred to Torquay in 1964.  Spells at Bournemouth, Exeter and Norwich followed, before John moved into coaching.  In 1980 he returned to Manchester as assistant to manager John Bond.  Here’s an interview I did with him during October 2004.

Sadly, John died on October 30 2010 at the age of 67.

Here for subscribers is the interview from 2004.

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Subscribers get access to lots of additional content on this site. Annual subscribers get access to everything since December 2020 (including PDFs of 2 out of print books plus ausio interviews with John Bond, Malcolm Allison etc.) while monthly subscribers get access to everything from 1st October 2022. Annual costs £20 here and monthly is £3 per month below.

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Subscribers get access to lots of additional content on this site. Annual subscribers get access to everything while monthly subscribers get access to everything from 1st October 2022. Annual costs £20 above and monthly is £3 per month here.

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John Bond Interview – Part 5

Here’s the fifth part of the 1995 interview I performed with former Norwich City, Manchester City and Burnley boss John Bond. In this section, exclusive to subscribers, Bond talks about the great players he had at City. Most notably he talks about Dennis Tueart, Kevin Reeves, Joe Corrigan, Paul Power and Tommy Caton.

He was extremely frank, open and honest – which delighted me because he was a great talker. It’s well worth listening to. At the time we did this I was researching my in-depth history of the club called Manchester The Greatest City (later updated as Manchester The City Years). 

I met John at his home and spent a good few hours with him chatting about the Blues and his career. I loved doing this interview and was always grateful for the time he gave me. He was also happy for me to quote everything he said in the interview. I did end up quoting him extensively in the book (and in others I’ve produced) but, until now, none of the interview has ever been heard by the wider public.

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If you would like to listen to the fifth part of this frank interview (and the other parts) and read all the in-depth articles on this site (including the entire Manchester A Football History book) then please subscribe. It works out about £1.67 a month if you take out an annual subscription (£20 per year, here) or £3 a month (below) if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time. Annual subscribers gets full access to everything posted since December 2020.

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Subscribe to get access

If you would like to listen to the fifth part of this frank interview (and the other parts) and read all the in-depth articles on this site (including the entire Manchester A Football History book) then please subscribe. It works out about £1.67 a month if you take out an annual subscription (£20 per year, above) or £3 a month (here) if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time. Monthly subscribers gets full access to everything posted since 1 October 2022.

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John Bond Interview Part Two

There’s a lot to interest and perhaps surprise Manchester City fans here. This is the second part of my interview with John Bond from November 1995. When I interviewed him he was frank in his views and at times outspoken – and I loved every minute of our chat!

In this clip John talks about the controversial 1981 League Cup semi-final with Liverpool; the FA Cup final (first game) against Tottenham; the way City’s directors handled the draw with Spurs (this astounded me at the time of our interview); how certain directors treated him; and how he almost resigned in between the FA Cup final and its replay. 

As this was recorded in November 1995 it is important to remember that our comments about the ‘present day’ Manchester City refer to the club as it was at that time. Similarly, when we talk about the takeover we mean the 1993-94 takeover of the club. Listening again to this piece now I’m quite pleased that my own perception was fairly accurate.

There’s also some great comments about Norwich City which will please supporters of that club.

This is about 17 minutes long (the previous piece was a similar length too). So get yourself a brew, relax in your favourite chair and listen along.

Subscribe to get access

If you would like to listen to the second part of this frank interview and read all the in-depth articles on this site (including the entire Manchester A Football History book) then please subscribe. It works out about £1.67 a month if you take out an annual subscription (£20 per year, here) or £3 a month if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time (below). Annual subscribers access everything posted since December 2020.

Subscribe

Subscribe to get access

If you would like to listen to the second part of this frank interview and read all the in-depth articles on this site (including the entire Manchester A Football History book) then please subscribe. It works out about £1.67 a month if you take out an annual subscription (£20 per year, above) or £3 a month if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time (here). Monthly subscribers access everything posted since 1 October 2022.

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Part three tomorrow.

The origins of the “Best Team in the Land and all the World” chant

On this day (23 October) in 1976 Manchester City fans first did their ‘Viking Call’. The chant eventually evolved into ‘The best team in the land and all the world’ but for some time was basically City fans doing a C-iii-ttt-yy chant to the first part of the song. You can hear the song and find out its story in this talk I did earlier in 2022 (if you don’t want to watch the full talk, jump to about 23mins 40 seconds for the Viking Call story):

https://wordpress.com/post/gjfootballarchive.com/5329