Consulting my Ray Goble City Compilation book the date had to be April 18, 1959. I can’t find Blackburn in the first division in the immediate preceding years.
My first ever visit to a professional football match was a spontaneous ride on a Charabanc with our local supporters club from the Wellington Inn on Stretford Road – Hulme. Jim lyons, my father, surprised me by suddenly announcing that there was room on the coach and I had to grab my jacket and away we were! Until that moment I hadn’t even been aware of any connections with the Wellington, because if my Dad had a ‘pub’then it had to be the ‘Grant’s Arms’ on Jackson Street.
Very few memories remain of the game, I vaguely remember that Blackburn had a number of legends playing for them, Douglas, Clayton spring to mind. What I can remember, vividly was the vast crowd compacted into Ewood Park, locals and Mancunians intermingled and the incessant unmalicious banter throughout the game. The frightening squashed feeling as we were channeled towards and through the claustrophobic exits after the game and the ride home again to Hulme at the back of the bus. I was sick of course. Oh and City got beat that day, some things never change!