At the tender age of 7 I was finally deemed old, wise and mature enough to go to Maine Road with my dad and grandad – both long standing season ticket holders. Up to then I had to stay with my sister at my Grandma’s greengrocers shop on Dikenson Raod in Rusholme (just opposite the old church which the BBC used for recording). We played on the orange boxes while the grown ups went to the match.

But it all changed one dark Wednesday evening when I went to see City play West Ham. The young kids were all placed on the wall at the bottom of the Kippax by the pitch. “Stay there son: I’ll come back at the end” said my Dad and off he went up into the dark imposing mass of bodies in the old stand.
Can’t tell you what the score was ! .. but I remember the ref. coming over to the pitch side and telling off a WHU fan who sounded just like Alf Garnett. “Come on you B***** Hammers!” he kept chanting. That was seen as bad language in those days. How times have changed … but some things have never changed … the City roller coaster goes on .. and i’m hanging on to it !