The 1960s: 1964-1965 A Possible Merger

Continuing the series of features on the 1960s, here’s a subscriber article on Manchester City during the 1964-65 season. This was a remarkable season when a City director held meetings, hoping to merge City and United! Plus much more. If you’d like to read this 2350 word article, plus all other articles on the site, then please subscribe (see below). As with most of the other features in this series it includes words from interviews I have performed with those who were there.

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The 1980s: New Year’s Eve at Swindon

The series of articles covering Manchester City in the 1980s continues today with a reminder of the day in 1988 when City travelled to Swindon on New Year’s Eve. I’ll give the result lower down but first here’s highlights of the game. The commentary is from Piccadilly Radio’s Brian Clarke:

That game was played on 31 December 1988 and ended in a 2-1 City win with goals from Brian Gayle and Jason Beckford. If you want to know more of the 1988-89 season for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read the following 4,100 word feature on the 1988-89 season. Enjoy!

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Tomorrow’s feature is the last on the 1980s as we tell the story of the 1989-90 season. If you missed the earlier features then start here:

The 1980s: 1980-1981 Gow, Hutchison & McDonald

Swindon Town 0 Manchester City 2

On this day (1 April) in 2000 Manchester City won 2-0 at Swindon Town. The game was watched by 12,397 and the goals came from the now dependable (there had been concern amongst fans earlier in his City career) Shaun Goater – his 27th of the campaign – and Mark Kennedy.

Manager Joe Royle was delighted, although concerned by City’s first half performance: ‘I am delighted with the victory and I thought we fully deserved the points. It wasn’t the best game in the first half, but Shaun Goater did well for the first goal, and we always looked comfortable after the half-time interval and more dangerous after we changed things around.’

The game had not been a good one for 25-year-old midfielder Tony Grant who had made his first start since January. He was replaced by Ian Bishop early in the second half and from that point on the game came alive. Despite the result the Swindon directors were pleased with the match. The Wiltshire club had allowed City fans to occupy both ends of their tiny ground, and it was reported that over half of the 12,397 crowd were supporting the Blues. At £17 per ticket it was calculated the additional gate money was worth over £100,000 to the relegation bound club.

In the table, City had a game in hand over most clubs, and now lay third on 72 points. The near invincible Charlton (87 points) still headed the League while Barnsley (74 points) were second. Ipswich were fourth – one point behind City after the same number of matches – while Birmingham were fifth on 69 points.

Greenacre Debut and Horlock’s First Goal

Today (22 February) in 1997 forward Chris Greenacre made his debut for Manchester City when he came on as substitute for Paul Dickov in the 3-0 victory over Swindon Town. The game also saw the first City goal of Kevin Horlock’s career. You can see that and other highlights here:

City’s scorers were Horlock, Uwe Rosler and Nicky Summerbee.

Remember When City Scored Ten?

Manchester City have scored ten goals or more on a few occasions since formation, most famously in 1987 against Huddersfield Town when the Blues won 10-1. Today (29 January) is the anniversary of another 10-1 victory. This came in 1930 when the fourth FAC tie played by City in 18 days ended in a 10-1 victory over Swindon Town. Subscribers can read reports of the game below.

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Swindon 3 Manchester City 4

Goals from Imre Varadi and Paul Simpson, plus a couple from David White gave Manchester City a memorable 4-3 victory over Swindon Town on this day (31 October) in 1987. You can watch highlights here:

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On This Day: Dickov

On this day (27 September) in 1997 Swindon Town, then top of the First Division, were beaten 6-0 at Maine Road by Manchester City.  Paul Dickov could have scored a hat-trick but instead chose to set the expensive Lee Bradbury up for a much needed morale boosting goal.

Here’s some film of that game:

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