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:

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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