This was my first game as an 8 year old taken to see the blues by my old dad in the “real” doldrum George Poyser years when City played to home crowds of circa 15,000. We just about won this game but it was notable for the appearance of one Tony Book playing for Plymouth!!! From that day to this 44 years in total I have had blue blood in my veins and am proud to say still watching the best club in the world with my youngest daughter (8) from the family stand. She is as blue as I was all those years ago.

city v burnley, sat on my dads shoulders in the Kippax, someone called Willie Morgan playing for Burnley! Dad now 80, my son and I are now season ticket holders in the Singin South stand!!!

My first ever City game was Feb 25th 1961. I was 10 and my Mum let me go Maine Road with the “big kids” off the street ( they must have been all of 13!).
The game was against Spurs who that year were to win the first post war double. City lost one nil.
My overiding memory of the game was we were behind the goals in the old scoreboard end when two teenage girls climbed over the wall and onto the pitch to give Denis Law a large silver key for his 21st birthday.This match was just a few weeks after the 20 year old Law had famously scored 6 goals in the abandoned cup tie against Luton.
The City team that day included Steve Fleet in goal, Jackie Plenderleith and Clive Colbridge. I wonder how they remember playing with Law against the double winners!

It was a dull and quite miserable Saturday afternoon when my new fround friend, who had recently returned from living in Canada for five years with his parents, convinced me to go and see his beloved Man City take on Wolves? Newcastle? Liverpool? – who knows? The opponents that day were irrelevant. The important thing was two 11 year old friends taking the 53 bus from Belle Vue, ready to part with their 4 shillings (or 20p as it would soon become) to sit in the front row of the Platt Lane stand, directly behind the goal, sipping piping hot Bovril and feasting on a meat and potato pie. Watching the likes of Lee, Bell and Summerbee destroy the opposition by six goals to one, or was it seven? Harry Dowd, our trusty keeper, turning round while the ball was at the scoreboard end and talking to us as if we were mates. Yes, it was a different era but that one experience made me a Blue for life. Before kick-off, I stood outside the Platt Lane car park, collecting the autographs of the City players as they arrived. They stopped and chatted with us. It made us feel 12′ tall. And 39 years later, that kindness and consideration the players show when meeting the fans still exists. With all the money we could wish for at our club’s disposal, we remain a friendly family club. Man City and the players are the loves of our lives.

I have been racking my brain, to remember which was my 1st match, but all i can tell you is my dad took me, and he stood me up on the back of the kippax st stand, and the team we played, were wearing black and white, so could have been newcastle, i know it was in the very early 60s, the 1st one i remember going to with my mates, was against, dortmand in a pre season friendly, and i think we beat them 4-0, that was the start of the great wining years when we won everything they put in front of us, so i was lucky to have started watching them then, but that got me for life, and although i now live in the south, i still get to go to a few games and will be city till i die, and beyond — lol.

my very first game as a city fan , everybody expected city to beat reading at maine road in the 3rd round of the fa cup
city dominated the game and won a penalty late into the 2nd half
expectation was high as tony colemand stepped up to take the penalty to put city through into the 4th round, coleman blazed the ball over the crossbar , and the game ended 0-0 which meant a replay at reading which man city went on to win 7-0

once a blue always a blue

Charity Shield game played at Maine Road. Wonderful attacking football with still the most audacious goal from a free kick I have seen.
There was no pre match warm up on the pitch in those days and the teams came out separately. The away team came out first. I still miss that wall of noise that built up from the Kippax waiting for City to come out. “Bring on the Champions”.

I went with my mates to my first game, which was the last match of the 1965/66 season. Don’t remember too much about the game itself, which was pretty unmemorable. There wasn’t too big a crowd either, although we he had won the 2nd Division Championship several weeks before. Southampton were already promoted as runners-up, so the game turned into a goal-less draw.

Things livened up after the match though, when we all went round from the Kippax to the Main Stand doors, where we sang and chanted outside and waited for the team to come out. Everybody was in a happy mood, so I couldn’t believe my eyes when we were charged by a full contingent of baton-wielding police on police horses. Community relations had a different meaning in those days!

I obviously enjoyed it, because I went to the first game of the next season, also to Southampton, although it took me two days to hitch-hike down there. Something else you don’t see today. That game was also a draw, but by that time I was hooked.

Nowadays I travel in the comfort of coaches laid on by the Didsbury Blues Official Supporters Club, but I often wonder if people would bother to make a pretty uncomfortable four day journey to watch a domestic game today.

September 1962, home to West Ham. I went with 3 of my uncles-Eddie, Bob and Len. True blues. Maybe 60,000 fans, noisy and frightening, but very exciting. Saw Bert Trautmann clearly as I was at the scoreboard end — carried down to the front by strong arms. What a shocker of a game to a new fan, only 10 years old! Trautmann sent off, I remember he kicked the ball at the ref when it happened. We got hammered 6-1. Last game of the season was the same score in London and we were relegated. My uncles couldn’t speak, took me back to my Gran’s then vanished to the pub.I was hooked, though. Watched every season. Moved to the South Coast in the 80s, formed the Sussex fan club. Now living in China for the last 4 years, but I see nearly every game on TV. Seen more ups and downs than my mates, and never regretted any of them. Up the blues!
- Alan

My first game at Maine Road was on the 12th October 1968 against Tottenham Hotspur. City won 4-0 with goals from Lee Connor and Coleman. I was 8 years old at the time, and sat on the old wooden benches in the Platt Lane stand. My Dad and his friend used to alternate between going to City one week and United the other but when i started to show an interest, he choose City
thanks Dad — best choice