It was the first home game of the 78/79 season. I had been waiting all summer as my sister had promised to take me. I was all kitted out in my new city shirt, shorts and socks. It seemed an age walking down Platt lane and then through the kippax car park to the ground. I just couldn’t control my excitement of walking into Maine Road for the fist time. As she was a bit protective, she decided to take me into the Maine stand. I was treated to a huge packet of crisps and a plastic cup of Bovril. It must have been at least an hour before the game started and there was nobody in the ground or on the pitch, but I loved it. To be honest, I can’t remember much after that but we did manage to beat Brighton three goals to two. I have never looked back since then and remain an excited optimistic blue nearly thirty years on.

- Vince Slatford

my first memory is sketchy but it was against ipswich town and all i can remember was getting separated from my dad and ending up getting a ride on a police horse it was great. then in 1986 the entire club from peter swales down sent me a get well card when i was really ill and that made my day. come on you blues

my first game, was a dire 1-1 draw with Wimbledon at Maine Road.

Mark Ward scored an equalising penalty right infront of me (in the Platt Lane end- past a moustached Nigel Martin), whilst my dad listened to the England v France grand slam decider on someones radio.
i was only 8, but hooked ever since. i just gazed at the kippax for most of the game, freezing cold.
i dont understand why i went back, i still dont understand why i go now. the best thing about it though is reading all the other memories, like wembley, and derby wins. at first i thought how lucky, but my first match was a shocker, i know what to expect each week, and if you go often enough once in a blue moon, you’ll actually enjoy it.
KEEP THE FAITH!

I cannot remember my first game I was so young. But I do remember my Dad going down to London for the cup final in 1976, when I was 5. He must have arrived home in the middle of the night, but when i woke there was a brand new City scarf drapped over our sofa. 32 years later that scarf is still on display around my neck.

My Dad died 3 years ago and i still choke singing Blue moon without him. My daughter went to her first game this year though, the 3-0 win over West Ham, then returned for the 3-0 win over Stoke. With this run of luck she is now being paid to attend the Derby.

My first game was carlisle away, the blue’s won 2-1 in the old 2nd division.
What was special about it? On the way home the players were on the same train as the fans Johny Crossan made a point of coming over to speak to me, i was only 10 but the lasting impression that had on me, made me live and breath City for the next 40yrs. Thanks John.

My first City game was on 28/11/1964 at home to Bolton Wanderers,we unfortunately lost 2-4, I had just reached my 12th birthday and my Mum allowed me to go with some school friends, we stood on the Kippax and the steps at the time seemed enormous,due to being small I did not see every minute of the game but it must of had an effect probably the ‘maine road’ thing.

It was common practice for kids to go to City home games one week and then United ones the next and eventually you chose which team you were going to follow,no contest it was City for me.

My first game was only a couple of months ago, liverpool at home 2-3 loss, i’m only 4 and went with my grandad, i loved it so much Grandad got me a season ticket and i go every week now, grandad says growing up to be a blue is as important as my education.

O a great say it was. My 1st ever game to watch my beloved blues for the first time. Ever since that day on i was a blue.

The stands were swarmed with blue flags and scarfs waving around in the air. The noise, the atmosphere it was electric. The game was great i think it ended in a 3-1 win but i do remember one thing and it will stay with me until i die…

When Physco missed his chance to score his 100th club goal with a 90 minute penalty. The Pompey keeper even whispered in his ear that he wasn’t going to move and that he was happy to let him goal his final career goal against him.

He still managed to sky it over the bar. That about sums up Manchester City in one really. Haha, but i wouldn’t change it for the world.

CTID

My first game is a distant childhood memory from 1964; it was a derby game against Bury on Boxing Day the first game at home after the sale of Dave Wagstaffe to Wolves. My over riding memory is of the songs being sung by the Kippax Stand faithful in protest at the sale. I was eight at the time carrying on a family tradition that went back to my Great Uncle who started watching City in the formative years. I remember little about the game it ended 0-0, I spent most of my time running around the half empty Kippax with other young kids.

My Dad and Brother were there standing in the corner between Kippax and Platt Lane with their football mates I use to sit on the top of the wall that formed the tunnel, a great seat. At one game one of the regulars suddenly realised that he had come to the game wearing his slippers! That obviously created a lot of laughter. Anyhow, it certainly hooked me, and from that point, I became a true blue although I had been from birth really. Soon Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison came and the revolution began.

I remember coming out of Old Trafford, City having beaten them 3-1 on our way to winning the Championship and someone in the crowd said “you know for the first time ever I am actually looking forward to going to work tomorrow” and I sure knew what he meant. Obviously I’ve been lucky enough to see the best years in City’s history and I hope that they will be eclipsed and my son, a forth generation blue, will witness silverware in our trophy cabinet we has fans will have earnt it

I’d seen the reserves loads of times but on the way to my first ‘proper game’ My Dad suggested that he fancied Barney Daniels to get a couple. We were playing Leicester City in November 1974 and I was there because my Dad’s mate couldn’t make it. I sat high up in Block H of the Main Stand. When the players ran out the first thing that struck me was that our Blue shirts looked a different shade to the one I had at home. They were a beautiful colour.

Within a minute, Dennis Tueart had scored but Leicester equalised. The next two goals were scored by City and the scorer? Barney Daniels. Keeping in mind that they were the only goals he ever scored for us, just how did the ‘awld feller’ know? Another remarkable thing my Dad could do, was go and insist that the players came back out for the second half when I was getting bored with waiting. “I’ll just nip down to the dressing room and tell them to come back out”, he’d tell me. A minute or so later the players would jog onto the pitch, and then soon after Dad would come back to the seats. I genuinely thought he was a man of huge influence at City. I was thirty four before I realised he didn’t have special access to the changing rooms!

Anyways up, my hero Colin Bell added a fourth and the match was shown on MoTD, which was extra special in a time when only a couple of games were shown each week.
A goal inside a minute, and a 4-1 win, I thought it would always be like that. What happened?