My first match was when i was 9 yrs old and i went to Maine Road with my dad.
I remember i was sat on the wall at the open corner between the Kippax and the Platt Lane stand.
I remember the noise, the crowds and the smell of hot Bovril and hotdogs and onions.
The atmosphere was overwhelming with excitment and fear.

City won 5-1 that day with Neil Young scoring two, Colin Bell, Francis Lee and Mike Summerbee adding to the goals. Fulham played in an all dark strip.
Franny Lee wore the no 7 shirt and Mike Summerbee with the no 9 shirt, we all know now that this changed later on for the rest of the footballers careers to the other way round where Lee wore the no 9 shirt and Summerbee no 7 shirt!

Happy Days

28-9-68
LEEDS AT HOME … Bremner, Charlton, Grey, Giles, Reaney, Lorimer etc – top of the league, unbeaten, invincible.

CITY 3 LEEDS 1.
Been a blue ever since!

I rode to Maine Road on the pillion of my Dads BSA motorbike. I watched the floodlights as we went down Princess Parkway and was really excited. The smells, my Dads Brylcreem, cigarette smoke, Bovril etc. It was a night match against Bury Fc [friendly] I was about 12 at the time and wanted to swear like the grown ups did at the players but my Dad was a Royal Marine during the war and would have none of that. It was a dark cold night and then it happened……The City mascot ran around the pitch and the most wonderful sight, the City players came out of the tunnel in the most bluest of blue kits and most of them seemed to have blonde hair a light in all this gloom. I,ve been hooked ever since. They even brought Malcolm Allison on as a sub and he scored but the ref disallowed it so I muttered “bloody” or some other swear word under my breath. Thanks Dad. What I would give to be at the game with you watching our lads today play now. RIP.
Alan Cafferky [53]

Walking up to Old Trafford 2 hours before kick off at the end of March 1968 hoping to see City take another step towards the championship as a 10 year old. City fans everywhere, excitment incredible. The ground filling up, just before Kick off a drunken United fan stood blocking my view, gently moved on by my Dad. The teams came out , the tension unbearable “we were going to win the league” George Best scored after 36 seconds, my Dad just said never mind this is City we had to give United a chance. Thet never had another George Heslop, Colin Bell and Frannie Lee 3 – 1 to City. We will be champions.

My late dad took me to my first City match v Arsenal in February 1968. Team: Mulhearn, Book, Pardoe, Doyle, Heslop, Oakes, Lee, Bell, Summerbee, Young, Coleman. Sub: Connor. The game finished 1-1. I was 8-years-old at the time. He took me on the 53x match bus from where we lived near Belle Vue. We got off on the corner of Dickenson Road and Wilmslow Road just by Roy Clarke’s sports shop. I remember cutting through the back entries watching fans park their bikes in back yards. My dad lifted me over the turnstile and in we went. (Those full length turnstiles would painfully catch my ankles as I would go in in later years!) We stood in the corner between the Kippax and the old Scoreboard end. To get a better view my dad lifted me on to the whitewashed sloping wall leading from the tunnel. Being February, the cold wall froze my legs as I was only wearing short trousers and I walked back to Belle Vue like John Wayne. My dad bought me my first pair of long trousers for the next game against Coventry which we won 2-1. I remember Colin Bell going up for an aerial challenge with Coventry’s German centre half Dietar Bruck. The top of the King’s head collided with Bruck’s chin and both were spark out for several minutes. There was silence around the ground until both players got up and continued to play to huge applause. Wouldn’t happen today – that’s for sure!

My first game was the early 60s with me sat on my dads shoulders aged 6 armed with my scarf & rattle Johhny Crossen was captain long b4 the glory days of colin bell mike summerbee and franny (dive in the box Lee)Now i only hope to live long enough to see those glory days again.come on Sparky,bring us some glory

My uncle took me to my first game.

United V City 1968 at Old Trafford.I was 6.

I was carried above everyone’s head to the front.

He was a red and I was not really bothered so I bet him a “tanner” City would win.
We did 1-3.
My uncle had to wait 20 minutes for me to get back to him after the game was over-he was not best pleased.
I have been hooked ever since. I never did get my tanner……

It was back in the late 1960’s when I was about 10 years old. My mate lived close to maine road and every home match we use to hang around the small staff carpark at the front of maine road waiting for my hero colin bell to arrive. Colin let me carry his bag from the carpark to the main entrance every time and just after half time the gates were left open when I was able to enter maine road, mix with the crowds attempting to look over someones shoulder to see my hero. wow all those people, and the singing and clapping and that woman ringing her bell as my bell scored. Now I am 50 and having worked overseas for some years I am reconnecting with my city siting in a stand named after my hero and I am still looking out for Colin Bell to carry his bag. Maybe he will let me one day soon.

Geoff Siddall

i was 14yrs old when i went to my first city game it was city v everton city won 2.1 i went with my dad who was as big blue and he went to every game it took me a while to get him to take me because he said football was not for girls every match day i asked can i come with you and then came the day when he said ok i give in you can go i was over the blue moon as they say and off we went to maine road we sat in the platt lane stand it was packed when the game started i remember the noise was deafening yet that did not matter i was at maine road watching city watching them win and later that season win the league that was the day i fell completely in love with m.c.f.c.and colin bell and after all this time i am still hooked so are my son and granddaughter who go with me now to every game.sadly my dad passed away in 2002 still a true blue yet i will never forget my first city game that he took me to.city till i die lynn p daly

I was 8 years old when I attended my first game at Maine Road. It was the third round FA Cup tie against Reading who in those days were in the old fourth division. City were flying high in the first division at the time and would, of course, go on to claim the first division championship later on that season. My dad took me along to the game with my two brothers expecting an easy win for City but it wasn’t to be and Reading earned themselves a creditable 0 – 0 draw with Tony Coleman missing a penalty for City. Even though the match may not have been too memorable I remember being overawed by the atmosphere and the sheer volume as the crowd in a packed Kippax Street stand sang a rendition of ‘The Mighty Glyn’ a tribute song to then City left back Glyn Pardoe to the tune of Manfred Mann’s ‘The Mighty Quinn’. I also remember being taken with how green the grass on the pitch appeared and how big the stadium was. In the replay played a few days later City were to win at Reading by 7 goals to nil and left the pitch to the sound of the Reading stadium announcer paying tribute to a fantastic City team. I had seen City greats such as Bell, Lee, Summerbee, Young and Doyle play live for the first time and, in spite of the result, it left a great impression on me and I was to see these great players and many more play for my beloved Blues throughout the ensuing years at both Maine Road and Eastlands. Despite the huge influx of cash this year I doubt I will ever see players to rival the truly great City players who performed so admirably in the trophy winning sides of the sixties and the seventies and there can never be another managerial partnership to rival that of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison.