Tag Archives: QPR

Stan Bowles’ Birth

On this day (24 December) in 1948 the great maverick Mancunian footballer Stan Bowles was born. Here’s a profile of him…

Bowles joined City as an amateur on 27 July 1965, becoming an apprentice on 1 October 1965 and then professional on 29 December 1966.

Then in 1967 things really began to happen and Bowles’ first game was as a substitute in a League Cup tie at home to Leicester City. He scored two goals in the second half and the following Saturday he made his League debut another memorable one. He scored two again!

Lots of stories have circulated over the years about his time at City. Like Mario Balotelli many years later some are truthful; others are exaggerations and some are completely make up.

The stories go that Bowles once missed a flight to Amsterdam where City were to play against Ajax, and that Bowles’ interest in the horses led to Joe Mercer saying: ‘If Stan could pass a betting shop like he can pass a ball, he’d be a world beater.’ Suspensions and other issues led to Stan refusing to sign a new contract and he asked to leave. That in itself led to him being suspended for 14 days on the advice of the Football League.

Inevitably Bowles moved on, first to Bury (July 1970) and then to Crewe (September 1970).

A spell at Carlisle followed and then in September 1972 a bid of £110,000 took him to Loftus Road where he won five England caps as a QPR player.

Seven years later Nottingham Forest’s Brian Clough bought him for £210,000 but sold him again less than a year later after further issues. Further spells were reported at Orient, Brentford, Hounslow and Epping.

In 2015 it was announced he was suffering with Alzheimer’s Disease, like his former boss Joe Mercer. Bowles died on 24 February 2024.

At City Bowles made a total of 20 first team appearances, scoring 4 goals, but he remains recognised as a hugely talented player.

There are articles on this site mentioning Bowles. Here’s a selection:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/tag/stan-bowles/

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30 Years Ago Today: Horton’s Blues v QPR

Thirty years ago today (25 October 1994) Manchester City faced QPR in the League Cup in what was an incredible game that kept fans on the edge of their seats. The Blues had already disposed of Barnet 5-2 on aggregate in the second round and clearly expected to put in a good performance at Loftus Road. Sadly, within a minute they conceded a goal just as they had in the earlier League Cup match at Barnet and Brian Horton’s side suffered for a while. By the 37th minute they managed to get their act together a little and Summerbee equalised with a 20 yard volley. A minute later Rangers took the lead again. 

Fortunately, in the 46th minute Keith Curle netted a penalty to bring City level once again, followed eight minutes later by a magnificent Beagrie volley which made it 3-2 and brought a series of somersaults from the popular ex-Evertonian. Five minutes later, the same player headed through to Lomas who made it 4-2. 

In the 87th minute Rangers pulled a goal back (4-3) to keep City on their toes, but the referee’s whistle signalled the start of a party for the fans while their QPR equivalents began to demonstrate against their chairman.  Apparently, some unhappy QPR fans were keen to listen to the advice of a few experienced Mancunian demonstrators! 

You can watch highlights of the game here:

The victory gave City a home tie against Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle United.

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50 Years Ago Today: Rodney Marsh Overhead Goal V QPR

It’s incredible to think for those of us there that day (I was 6) but it’s fifty years today since a memorable overhead goal by Rodney Marsh. It was the match winner too! Below is a detailed article on the goal. This is available to subscribers (see below for details of how to subscribe).

Many goals over the years are described as the greatest ever by a City player.  Sometimes these become a talking point for a few days, sometimes for a few years but unless they happen to occur in a major trophy winning game goals tend to lose their significance as time moves on.  This is especially true for games prior to the 1990s when television coverage was limited to, at best, a handful of top flight games.

The idea of this piece today is to highlight this spectacular goal that many won’t have been able to see and one that wasn’t filmed. Rodney Marsh’s overhead kick from the City-QPR Division One game of 28 September 1974.  

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What a Day That Was: The Final Whistle from MCFC v QPR, 13 May 2012

On this day (13 May) in 2012…

I’m sure it gets boring to some but for those of us there that day the drama and the emotion can never be forgotten. Here’s my own personal film of the moment the final whistle went on that incredible day when MCFC won the Premier League title in 2012.

I know the camera’s all over the place (I was jumping up and down like everybody else) and the sound isn’t great but I hope it helps to show what it was like to all those who couldn’t be there that day.

https://gjfootballarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2012-aguerooooooooo-sd-480p.mov

You can also read this 3,400 article about the day:

Happy Agueroooo Day!

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Stan Bowles

I’ve just heard the news of Stan Bowles’ death. He was born on 24 December 1948 and was a great maverick Mancunian footballer. Here’s a profile of him, focusing on his Manchester City days.

Bowles joined City as an amateur on 27 July 1965, becoming an apprentice on 1 October 1965 and then professional on 29 December 1966.

Then in 1967 things really began to happen and Bowles’ first game was as a substitute in a League Cup tie at home to Leicester City. He scored two goals in the second half and the following Saturday he made his League debut another memorable one. He scored two again!

Lots of stories have circulated over the years about his time at City. Like Mario Balotelli many years later some are truthful; others are exaggerations and some are completely make up.

The stories go that Bowles once missed a flight to Amsterdam where City were to play against Ajax, and that Bowles’ interest in the horses led to Joe Mercer saying: ‘If Stan could pass a betting shop like he can pass a ball, he’d be a world beater.’ Suspensions and other issues led to Stan refusing to sign a new contract and he asked to leave. That in itself led to him being suspended for 14 days on the advice of the Football League.

Inevitably Bowles moved on, first to Bury (July 1970) and then to Crewe (September 1970).

A spell at Carlisle followed and then in September 1972 a bid of £110,000 took him to Loftus Road where he won five England caps as a QPR player.

Seven years later Nottingham Forest’s Brian Clough bought him for £210,000 but sold him again less than a year later after further issues. Further spells were reported at Orient, Brentford, Hounslow and Epping.

In 2015 it was announced he was suffering with Alzheimer’s Disease, like his former boss Joe Mercer.

At City Bowles made a total of 20 first team appearances, scoring 4 goals, but he remains recognised as a hugely talented player.

There are articles on this site mentioning Bowles. Here’s a selection:

Stan Bowles Debut
Welcome to Gary James’ Football Archive

The 1970s: Icy Conditions

The series of features/articles covering Manchester City in the 1970s continues with this brief reminder of a day when icy conditions brought chaos to many grounds. City managed to get their game against QPR on and it was played on this day (11 February) in 1978. City still had ambitions to catch League leaders Liverpool. There’s a report of the game and post match League table below but the highlights were that Corrigan made some significant saves; Bell scored his first goal since his return on Boxing Day and Mike Channon scored the other in a 2-1 City victory.

Here’s the report:

Here are the top two divisions’ results and positions post match. Note some of those clubs in the second tier.

The following 3,700 word article is on the 1977-78 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

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The 1970s: Attendance Flashback to 1978

The series of features/articles covering Manchester City in the 1970s continues with this brief post about average attendances. We hear so much baloney these days about which clubs are giants and so on but the truth is that in terms of success no team has ALWAYS been at the top and in terms of support most clubs have had highs and lows. There are some clubs that generation after generation have been popular with fans and this cutting from the Manchester City match programme of 1977-78 may interest some.

I’m not going to point to any club or anything but look at the numbers and make your own minds up. Manchester City, incidentally, tended to be the 3rd best supported club (no matter where they finished) behind United and Liverpool throughout the mid to late 70s and early 1980s. They occasionally dropped to 4th depending on whether Everton or Spurs had a good season and even in City’s 1982-83 relegation season Manchester’s Blues were the 4th best supported club. Not bad for a failing club!

This series of articles and features on Manchester City in the 1970s will run throughout January 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 January will offer something to enjoy.

Subscribers will get access to everything. If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 5,200 word article is on the 1970-71 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

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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.

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Horton’s 9 Men Hold On

Manchester City were down to nine men when they defeated QPR 2-1 on this day (15 October) in 1994. It was a bit of a strange one for Brian Horton’s Blues with both goalkeeper Andy Dibble (two footed challenge on Les Ferdinand) and Richard Edghill (2nd bookable offence) sent off.

City had taken a 56th minute lead via a Garry Flitcroft header but then followed a frantic seven minutes or so. Paul Walsh scored City’s second when the ball went in off his face! Then Andy Dibble raced forward under pressure from Ferdinand and was judged to have handled the ball outside the area. Former blue Clive Wilson netted from the free kick.

After that came the sending off of Dibble then Edghill. You can read more on the game in this contemporary match report from the Telegraph:

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Lee Peacock

On this day (9 October) in 1976 Lee Peacock was born. Peacock was a Mansfield Town player who joined Manchester City in 1999, making his debut as a substitute in the League game with QPR on 6 November 1999. Co-incidentally his last game was also against QPR on 8 March 2000. Not bad considering he only made ten actual appearances for the Blues

Prior to joining City Peacock did play his part in one game that often gets talked about when discussing City in the late 1990s and this is the infamous Auto Windscreen Shield tie of December 1998. It was a competition City did not want to be in and it was a fact known across City’s supporter base. They also knew that a weakened team would be played and, to be frank, we were mostly full of apathy for the competition. The League was the only competition that mattered that season.

For the record Peacock scored twice for Mansfield – a 53 minute penalty and another three minutes later. If you want to relive that game (why would you?) here’s a match report from a Mansfield based newspaper:

Rodney Marsh Special

I’ve talked about this before but it’s always worth reminding ourselves of it. On this day 49 years ago (28 September 1974) Rodney Marsh netted a spectacular overhead goal. It was the only goal of the match with QPR at Maine Road. Do you remember it? The following subscriber post tells the story of that classic goal and images of it step by step.

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