I had only ever been to one football match..an FA Cup replay at Old Trafford between United and Stoke..a friend of my Dad’s from Stoke got me a free ticket, I wasn’t overly impressed.

Later,Phil Blinkhorn, a schoolmate from Salford Grammar, asked me if I wanted to go to a League Cup Tie at Maine Road versus Coventry.
We stood in the Kippax…I had found my home.
City lost the match but I went home a Blue.

Many memories hve been revived reading these comments..the 0-0 draw at home to Southampton when we got presented with the Div 2 trophy. The 1-1 at the Dell in the first game of the next Div 1 season. Terry Paine scored for Saints and Buzzer equalised. It was also Tony Books league debut for us. We were so well treated by the Southampton locals and businesses.
The first home game, as memtioned elsewhere was against Liverpool, the champs, at Maine Road. A packed ground, I was surounded by Scouse dockers in the Kippax but they were great. Jimmy Murray opened the scoring for us. Roger Hunt equalised and in the very last minute, with the ball pinging around the box, it broke to Colin Bell to the right of the goal and he smashed it in to the roof of the net. I remember Tommy Smith lying prostrate on the ground and the MIrror headline the next day ” Champs Ko’d at the Bell “