I don’t remember the exact years, but when I was a very young kid I watched City play Newcastle United in the Cup Final at Wembley on the telly together with my Mum. We lost, but Wembley Stadium looked and sounded like a Magic Kingdom.

Then City were there again against Birmingham City squeezing out a win due to the unbelievable heroics of Bert Trautmann.My first game at Maine Road was when my Dad took me to a night match against Burnley with Jimmy McElroy. I heard the crowd was a record of over 84,000 but we couldn’t get in . We stood outside with thousands of others while Burnley won the Championship.

After that I was a Kippax Street regular for many years, through ups and downs, and experienced the Glory Years of Joe Mercer. Now, living in Vancouver, Canada I clearly see that it is The Blues who put the City in Manchester.

I would only have been 8 years old when my uncle took to me my first game at Maine Road. Kinders coach from Dukinfield and a cold wet day for Blackburn Rovers. The score 4 – 0 for City and Colin Barlow scored two. I remeber sitting on a tunnel at the Platt Lane end and that was it I was hooked. My heroes at the time Bert and Billy McAdams and I also went to Leeds for my first away game when dennis Law made his debut. If I had a pound for every Blues game sine I’d be rich. Last game before migrating to Australia Fowlers missed pen at home to Middlesboro the sort of game that summed up being a City fan.

My dad took me to my first match on 14th April 1956. We played Burnley and lost 3-1. Even so, I was smitten at the age of 11 and have been a blue ever since. If I remember rightly, my forever hero, Bert Trautmann received his Footballer of the Year award at that match.

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 !

I was only 8 years old and I remember somethings like they were only yesterday, I went to my fist City game in the Kippax with my father, I spent most of the game on his shoulders. We played a team in red and white stripes but I’m not sure who it was. I was totally in ore, pipe tobacco and Fiery Jack. This is your local team my father said, it’s mine and yours and Gran dads too God bless him!

I CAN REMEMBER LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY. I WAS NEARLY FIVE YEARS OLD,WHEN MY DAD TOOK ME TO MAINE ROAD TO SEE CITY PLAY EVERTON IN THE 6TH ROUND OF THE FA CUP IN 1956. THE CROWD WAS ENORMOUS AND THE ATMOSPHERE TRULY ELECTRIC AND A LITTLE FRIGHTENING FOR SUCH A LITTLE BOY. EVERTON SCORED FIRST AND WERE LOSING AT HALF TIME. THE 2ND HALF CITY WERE ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT. ABOUT 20 MINUTES INTO THE 2ND HALF JOE HAYES HEADED IN TO EQUALISE FROM A FREE KICK. AFTER ANOTHER 10 MINUTES THE RIGHT WINGER BOBBY JOHNSTONE THREW HIMSELF TO HEAD IN THE WINNER FROM A ROY CLARKE CENTRE.NO WAY WERE CITY GOING TO GIVE THE BALL BACK TO EVERTON. I DIDN’T GO TO THE FINAL BUT MY DAD DID.

March 3rd 1956 City home to Everton in the 6th round of the FA Cup.
My mate Billy Lyth and I were 9 years of age, and we decided that this was going to be our first taste of seeing the Blues. We walked to Maine Road from near Preston Street in Hulme,where we lived, and this was to become the beginning of a lifetime of watching my team.
We got to the ground at around 1230pm for the 3 o’clock kick off and there was already a buzz of excitement about the place.
In the ground we were helped by some adults on to the sloping wall of a tunnel at the scoreboard end. In our short pants with our legs astride we had a great view of the pitch and the drama of what was to come.
The gates were locked at 2.00pm with 76000 fans packed inside.
I can’t speak for Billy, but I was absolutely knocked out by the day’s events-The singing and cheering of both sets of supporters, the doors opening with 20 minutes to go when thousands more entered the ground with the score at 2-1 for city.
We held on to add Evertons scalp to that of Liverpool in the previous round, and were now one game from Wembley.
On the way home two very happy lads talked about the game and I remembered the words of the great Roy Paul the previous year in Albert Square. After losing to Newcastle at Wembley He said ‘Don’t worry we’ll be back next year to win it’
And the rest is history-
Manchester City my team for ever!

28th December 1957 the Derby match. I was 10 and stood in the Platt Lane End at the front with my brother. Bert Trautman looked so huge.The noise sticks in my mind. We drew 2-2. Of course the events of Feb. 1958 could not have been anticipated.

My second “first game” was my first visit to Eastlands. I was unprepared for the sight of the stadium when you first see the pitch. I cried, it is by far the best stadium I have seen.

It was 1955,I was 13. My uncle John had already taken me to my first game : at Old Trafford. The Reds had won 3-0 against Portsmouth, but somehow it wasn’t right.
The second was at Maine Road, against United.
What a revelation. My boyhood heroes, Trautmann, Revie and Johnstone all played. The ground itself, the magnificent uniform bowl that was the stadium’s original design, impressed me mightily, as did the huge and vociferous crowd.
City won 1-0 with little Joe Hayes getting the winner. I can still replay the goal in my mind’s eye over 50 years later.
A revelation it was and still remains.
Thanks City.

My dad took me to maine road we played Blackpool I can still recall the bright coloured shirts our blue ones and the tangerine of blackpool.

Been going ever since. I have 50 years of supporting City, my dad died shortly after the game at a very young age so I always remember the day and thank him for taking me to the best football club in the world my lads and my granchildren are city fans.