In 1953 I was 8 when my dad first took me to CITY and introduced me to the KIPPAX for the first time. This was in spite of the fact that his elder brother ( my uncle Reuben Scott) had played for United before and after the war.

Thanks DAD I got 50 years in at main road and am still going strong in the East Stand together with your grand children and great grand children

Also thanks Dad for letting me go with my mates when you couldn`t make it. I will never forget us standing at the back of the crowd in the score board end just before KO and then being passed/rolled down to the front. We used to enjoy it so much that at half time we would work our way back up to the top move along a bit and then say ” aye Mr can you pass us down again we have had to go for a wee ” – hands in pockets of course holding on to the bus fare home.

Thanks Dad

I was 10 and had never been to a profesional game of football.I was sat on an iron crush barrier by my dad.We played huddersfield town and lost 4-2 ,don revie scored 2 one a pen.Even so I was hooked and still am.The remarkable thing is that my dad never took me again ,I went on my own on the number 1 bus from didsbury ,arrived at 1-30 to get on the white wall so that I could see and if you had any bother (from say older lads) the nearest bloke would sort them out–oh for those days again instead of all this pc stuff where a bloke would be scared of touching a badly behaved youth for fear of getting in trouble themselves.
Everyone talks about the bell/lee/summerbee side quite rightly but the 55/56 team was very good too and soon after my first trip to maine road we were at two cup finals in two years the second one a win against birmingham city.

I remember watching the cup final in 55 and again in 56 on a little 7inch TV behind a large magnifying glass. We lost the first one but won the second, but my first memory of going to Maine Road was, I think in the September. We played Blackpool and it was the tangerine shirts of Blackpool I remember most. We were in the main stand at the back and the seats, I think, were like the pews in a church, long and brown. I suspect all the regulars from the Cup Final played, and possibly Stan Matthews. I know we won 2-0. So, three matches, won two, lost one and in the three matches, TWO cup finals. Great days!

12th February 1955 defined my footballing future. I was 13 Years old and it was my first City game ever and it was at Old Trafford and the scoreline was United 0-5 City. It was
a day I will never forget. No crowd segregation Reds & Blues together in the boys pen.
Great victory and 53 yrs later I am as dedicated to the Blue cause as I was then. Wonderful memories have followed over the years but that day in 1955 was a defining moment in my life!

I was 10 years old in 1959. My dad had a chip shop on Claremont Road – close to Maine Road. We couldn’t afford to pay to go in but my mum knitted me a blue and white scarf and I used to stand outside with my friends and enjoy the atmosphere. There was usually a man carrying a big board that said , ‘the end of the world is nigh’. I wondered if he was right or was he just a fan who understood what it was really like to be a City supporter?

I also remember a van that used to print the ‘Football Pink’ right outside the ground – you could almost smell the ink! At about 20 past 4 they used to open the gates and sometimes we sneaked in to watch the last 20 minutes of the game! These days I have a season ticket with my youngest son, Sam, in the Colin Bell Stand. Next year I celebrate my 60th birthday, 50 years of watching City and thankfully the world still hasn’t come to an end although. just like MCFC, life has had it’s ups and downs!

I can’t remember when my first match was but I do remember being on the Kippax in pouring rain in a crowd of 85,000. However my most vivid memory is of going by coach to the Cup Final. We arrived in London well before lunch and decided to have a walk round. It was a hot day and my feet were getting sore so I bought a pair of open sandals and off we went to the match.

When City scored their first goal my husband jumped up in the air and landed on my bare toes (all 6 ft. 14 stone of him). We were standing behind the goal where Bert Trautman broke his neck and I shall never forget the way he soldiered on and the protection Dave Ewing (who always got stick from supporters for his clumsiness) gave him – a truly heroic performance from both of them!

My first attendance at a City match was a game against Wolverhampton Wanderers just before Christmas 1955.
With two of my friends we caught an ‘85′ from Chorlton to Lloyd Street South and followed the crowd to Maine Road.

Once through the turnstiles at the scoreboard end we made our way down to the front and stood just to the right of the goal.
The real life colours of the ground were in stark contrast to the black and white images of the time.The pitch was vivid green with carefully sanded goalmouths, the goals themselves were amazingly white and bedecked with perfect nets and all was contained and marked with lines of perfect white.

A mild commotion opposite the players tunnel erupted into spontaneous applause as the teams ran out onto the pitch,even those amongst us with their strange accents and black and gold scarves cheered as eagerly as every one else.

Soon the game was on, the players in their brilliant attire striving with might and main to take advantage of their opponents, all of them using their sublime skills to try and force an opening while all around the crowd roared them on with surging enthusiasm.
Suddenly Jackie Dyson was through and lashed the ball into the net to a tremendous roar of acclamation.Moments later Joe Hayes darted in and cracked in goal number two.

Boy was this good! What a game! What a place!
What a day!

Eventually the final whistle sent us all flooding from the stadium and the three of us made our way back to Chorlton.
As we went along we talked about the power and speed of it all,about City’s dashing cavalier performance and about the two fantastic goals by our heroes Dyson and Hayes.
No one ever mentioned the iron men of Wolverhampton or the performance of the referee or even the two lucky goals that trickled in at the other end for we had already become do or die supporters of the greatest football club on earth.

My first game was City v Leeds United, Sept. 5th 1956. It was an early evening K.O. and I went with a pal from school, we were 9 years old at the time. We caught the 53 from Longsight to Claremont Road and walked the rest of the way.

THE most abiding memory is of the crowd. I’d never experienced anything like it before, the noise deafened me. The repartee struck me straight away. I didn’t realise that there were so many “club footed sken eyed” footballers. It took more visits to cotton on to the fact that if you scored or played a great pass you were a genius, on the otherhand a blatant miss put you in the afore mentioned category. I was drawn to the crowd so much I let parts of the match pass me by. There was one particular thing that struck me and that was the men who walked amongst the crowd selling cigarettes (singles), chewing gum and I think, soft drinks. One of these men walked by me shouting what I heard as “Gitchy Gum, penny a stick” Never having seen or tasted “Gitchy Gum” I coughed up a penny and to my utter disappointment was given a piece of good old Wrigley’s. It was only quite some time later that I realised that he was actually saying “Get your gum”. He probably had a Saturday night job selling the Empire News. The seller on our corner used to bellow “Empiyaaa !” They were probably brothers. The match ended with a 1-0 win for City (Billy McAdams) and we went home happy. One remaining question remains unanswered. Why did Leeds give up the great Blue and Gold strip and end up looking like a poor man’s Real Madrid ?

I first started going to Maine Road around 1955 but my memories of that era are rather dim now except for my memory of City playing Santos of Brazil in a friendly and seeing the great Pele in the flesh!!
I remember him taking a penalty with Trautmann in the City goal and Pele must have changed direction about five times before sliding the ball home.
What a great night that was!!
City till I die!!

My brother-in-law took me to my first game back in the early 50’s, but for such a memorable game I find it strange that I cannot find any record of it. Two of the best goalkeepers in the country, and although it was Bartram’s day I went on to idolise Trautmann just like many others did. I think the score was about 6-0 for Charlton, and Bert got Red carded for refusing to stand up for a penalty kick right at the end.
Eric Thomas