Tag Archives: Platt Lane

Maine Road 100 – Day 16

The only abandoned Manchester derby at Maine Road… It’s day 16 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game and with the FA Cup final tomorrow I thought I’d post a Manchester derby related feature.

This photo is of a section of my book The Pride of Manchester (co-written with Steve Cawley) which shows the scene at the only Manchester derby to be abandoned (without the result standing!).

The game was a League match played on 27 August 1960 (date on original book caption is a typo!) at Maine Road. It was abandoned due to a water-logged pitch with the score at 2-2. City’s scorers were Denis Law and Joe Hayes; United’s were Dennis Viollet and Alex Dawson. Attendance 51,927.

The match was replayed and ended in a 3-1 United win on 4 March 1961 before 50,479.

For those unfamiliar with Maine Road this photo may help locate where the photo was taken from. It was taken on the pitch, somewhere near the Kippax corner/Scoreboard End (roughly on a line from number 2 below, and in front of number 10), looking towards the Platt Lane goal (a little below number 3).

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road
27 August 1960 (date on image is incorrect). The abandoned Manchester derby.

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One
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Maine Road 100 – Day 15

With a European final coming for City later this month it seems appropriate to include an image of a major European trophy at Maine Road for day 15 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. This team photo is from 1970 and shows the Manchester City team in front of the Platt Lane Stand with both the League Cup and the European Cup Winners’ Cup (at the time UEFA’s 2nd most significant competition).

I know we’re often told that City have no European history but they did actually win a major UEFA trophy before many teams that are today regarded as major European clubs, such as Liverpool, Juventus and even Barcelona. Barcelona had won the Fairs Cup but this was not a UEFA tournament and its entry rules were not always about where you finished in the League, for example the initial idea was to invite cities to play in the competition and the cities of Barcelona and London (a composite team) competed.

In 1970 City’s Mike Doyle joked that wining the League Cup (which brought a Fairs Cup place) was City’s way to ‘keep United out of Europe’ as the competition had a rule that a city could only be represented by one club if two were in qualifying positions…. it was often confusing!

For those unfamiliar with Maine Road this photo may help locate where the photo was taken from. It was taken on the pitch in front of the Maine Stand (number 1) at an angle looking towards the Platt lane Stand end (number 5).

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One
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Maine Road 100 – Day 11

Day 11 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. Today follows on from yesterday’s post and shows the demolition of the original Platt Lane Stand.

I know the quality isn’t great but hopefully you can just make out the end of the concrete terracing and see how the 1935 roof was built over a wooden extension to the stand.

Have a look back at yesterday’s post to find out more.

To help those unfamiliar with Maine Road locate the specific location of this post, the Platt Lane Stand is the one where the number 4 & 5 are on this plan. The demolition photo was taken from near the number 6 looking towards the stand.

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One

Maine Road 100 – Day 10

Day 10 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. Today the original Platt Lane Stand can be seen in this image, taken in 1991. The stand was initially a terraced stand and the original terracing built in 1923. 8 years later the corner (on the left of this image) was roofed, extended a little on wood and the terracing re-profiled for seats. Then, in 1935 the rest of the Platt Lane was roofed and extended on wood but this remained a standing terrace.

The Platt Lane’s development was the first two phases in a planned development which was supposed to see the Main Stand/Scoreboard End corner roofed around 1939, then the neighbouring terracing (later North Stand) roofed to match the Platt Lane by about 1945 and then within about five years the entire Popular Side/Kippax was to be extended and roofed.

Apart from Platt Lane, none of those developments occurred due to the war.

Platt Lane was seated in the 1960s (you can read more on that and all the plans for the stadium in Farewell To Maine Road) and this images shows the steps that were built at the back of the Platt Lane when it was extended. I remember as a young boy climbing up those to get to the benches we sat on occasionally and I was always scared I’d fall through the gaps.

To help those unfamiliar with Maine Road locate the specific location of this post, the Platt Lane Stand is the one where the number 4 & 5 are on this plan.

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One
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Maine Road 100 – Day 9

Day 9 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. Today this grainy image highlights something that was, until the end of the Kippax in 1994, a regular part of the Maine Road match experience. If you look carefully you can see the tea urn being pushed around the ground. It’s currently in front of the Platt Lane Stand and I remember being in that stand as a young boy in the 1970s and desperately wanting something from the vendor. Chipmunk crisps, Waggon Wheels & TipTop orange drinks were three of the items I remember them selling.

Usually, we brought a flask to games (often broken in the excitement of a goal) and occasionally Dad would have enough money to let us go and get some crisps or something. For those who never experienced Maine Road or the tea urns, basically a couple of young matchday staff, usually lads, but sometimes girls, would push a tea urn around in front of the white wall that surrounded the pitch. Presumably they had filled the tea urn at some point early into the game and I guess older fans knew how long it took the tea urn to get from one end to the other. If you were at the wrong end of the Platt Lane Stand your brew may not have been as hot as you’d want.

The Platt Lane tea urn, early 1970s

I never had a hot drink from it, so I don’t know if the urn had hot water in so that they could add a tea bag, Nescafe or bit of Bovril to it or whether it was already made up. If it was maybe there were different drinks in multiple urns that I didn’t spot? Anyone here ever work one or know more about that? If you did please leave your comments, or if you’ve any other memories of Maine Road that you’d like to share.

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One

To help those unfamiliar with Maine Road locate the specific location of this post, the Platt Lane tea urn photographed is heading towards the number 3 on this plan.

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road
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Maine Road 100 – Day 7

Day 7 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. Today it’s the story of the Platt Lane tunnel. Maine Road had four large corner tunnels, plus two in the Kippax and three (including the Players’ tunnel) in the Main Stand. The corner tunnels when built were all the same but the one in the Platt Lane/Main Stand corner was altered within 8 years of being built. Many people don’t realise this or know why, so here’s the story…

The tunnels were designed by architect Charles Swain to make access to and departure from the terracing easy after the problems Wembley experienced in its opening game. These huge tunnels became a feature of Maine Road for most of its existence but ground developments led to them all, apart from the Main Stand’s tunnels disappearing by the mid 1990s.

The first one to change was the Platt Lane/Main Stand corner tunnel.

In 1931 the club decided to enlarge Maine Road and they started with that corner. There was a demand for additional seating and so the club rebuilt the corner terracing. They built on top of what was already there by increasing the terracing rake to make it more appropriate for seating. They didn’t demolish the original corner, they built on top of it. This created a problem because the walls of the tunnel were now too low in parts, creating a potential safety issue. So the club raised and remodelled the tunnel walls a little. These are not great images but I hope they give you enough of a feel for how the tunnel was adapted.

The older image is during construction, with the other image showing the stand in 1981. That corner stand was extended a little on wooden steps, as was the rest of the stand when it was extended in 1935. The difference was that the rake of the terracing elsewhere in the stand was not changed.

Remodelled Platt Lane/Main Stand corner tunnel as seen in 1981

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One
1923 Platt Lane/Main Stand corner tunnel

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Maine Road 100 – Day 6 Answer

Day 6 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game asked you to name the year this aerial photo was taken. I gave a few clues which may help date this:

  • None of the temporary stands have yet been constructed in the corners
  • The MCFC lettering appears at the bottom section of the North Stand
  • The Souvenir Shop still appears to be operational and doesn’t look like it’s been turned into offices yet
  • Both the Platt Lane Stand and the Kippax have been replaced BUT what about the end panelling of the Kippax? Is that complete?

The answer is 1995.

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One

If you’d like to support my research and this website 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 keeps the website going too. Thanks.

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Maine Road 100 – Day 6

Day 6 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. Today it’s an aerial shot of Maine Road. Can you guess the year?

I’m a bit of a ground obsessive (as you may have guessed) and I spend much of my time seeking out images of football grounds (not just City’s) and trying to date them. It drives me crazy when I see something misdated…. Anyway, before I waffle on can you work out which year this was taken?

I’ll give the answer tomorrow but I always look for clues, so I’ll give you a few which may help date this:

  • None of the temporary stands have yet been constructed in the corners
  • The MCFC lettering appears at the bottom section of the North Stand
  • The Souvenir Shop still appears to be operational and doesn’t look like it’s been turned into offices yet
  • Both the Platt Lane Stand and the Kippax have been replaced BUT what about the end panelling of the Kippax? Is that complete?

I’ll give you the answer tomorrow.

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One

Manchester City in the Early 1990s

We hear so much about the Premier League era and how the game has changed, so for today’s feature I’ve decided to take a look at the early 1990s and the birth of the Premier League. It’s almost thirty years since the structure of league football changed forever and during that time some clubs have benefitted from the new structure and others have found life difficult. City have experienced both extremes of course.

The narrative that we often hear about the Blues’ journey over the last thirty years is that they’ve gone from a struggling club to a hugely successful one and, while it is true City are highly successful today and that the Blues entered their lowest ever point in the late 1990s, it is wrong to assume that the position the club found itself in by 1999 was typical of the club’s full history. 

So, here for subscribers, I’m taking a look back at the early 1990s and remind ourselves where the Blues were; who their rivals were; and the state of football at that time:

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