my first game was rodney marsh’s debut v chelsea with tommy booth scoring the only goal.i remember climbing the old steps up to the back of the old kippax and reaching the top to be blown away by the greeness of the pitch and the whiteness of the goalposts – let battle begin! like history repeating itself with marsh in the team we stuffed everyone at home 3-0 or 4-0 at home and lost by the same scores away until he left and we were a team again – remind you of anyone!

My Father had very little interest in football,he was more of a boxing fan(being the landlord of a pub in the Ancoats/New Cross area he had to be !!)so my first baptism to Maine Road was down to my sister Mags and my future brother in law Joe.He had told me all about Mercer and Allison and the City ledgends of yesteryear,and they were going to take me to my first match which was our first home game of the 72-73 season.
I can remember going on the match bus and listening to some of the choice language and good banter!from the fans.Everyone seemed to be talking about this God like figure they called Rodney Marsh!
The admission for the North Stand was 80p and the match programme was 5p.
The first sight of the hallowed turf under floodlights is something i will never forget.
The game itself is a bit of a blur,although i remember we lost 1-0,and the man sat behind me giving the referee a tirade of abuse,and asking him why he had left his handbag at home!!
I was at that moment CTID.
My love for City has stayed with me ever since(probably stronger now than ever)and was a regular visitor to Maine Road in the 70s-80s until i moved to Ireland in 1990.
Saddly Joe is no longer with us,he passed away in November 2000 with cancer, at the very young age of 53.The last time i spoke to him on the phone was just after the 4-1 Blackburn promotion game and he said “typical,City going up,Me going down!”Very sad.
I still get over for 3 or 4 matches a season and often meet up with Joes lad Martin.So if your up there looking down on us from the great North stand in the sky Joe,ask God if he can put some silverware in our direction?

I can’t actually remember whether this was in the 71-72 or the 72-73 season. At the time I was a student at Manchester Uni. and was living in a Young Ones style house just off Lloyd St. South. I’d been a follower of Crystal Palace previously but living so close to Maine Rd I thought it might be diplomatic to at least to pretend to be a City fan.City at the time were in the middle of their legendary ‘purple patch’ and were recognised as one of the top clubs in the country. This brilliant match made me a fan on the spot, and subsequent visits to see games against West Brom (3-0 I think) and a spectacularly violent Manchester Derby match which we won 3-1 confirmed my decision. I’ve been a City fan ever since, through thick and (mostly) thin. City will, I’m sure, rise to the heights again, but I feel privileged to have watched them in their great days, and hope that my son will experience them in their Second Golden Age!

I had just come to live in the area and was looking for some football one evening so I went along to this League Cup evening match which City won 3-1 I think. Marsh. Bell. Lee etc. Little did I know what was to come! 36 years later and still going! Joys and heartache aplenty!

We had come over on the boat from Belfast to Heysham and then down on the train to Manchester. It was such a rought crossing and I thought the boat was perpendicular at one time. I remember being in Picadilly and I thought I was still at sea.It wasnt the old Irishman taking too much drink because I did not drink then. I recall seeing the Arsenal players coming out of their hotel near Picadilly with Alan Ball among them.Would they stay over now. i do not think so as I recall another occasion seeing the Chelsea team at Manchester airport en route to London after losing 5-1 to Liverpool.
I trangress back to the Arsenal game-they were the previous seasons double winners and the team to beat. I recall pat rice handling inside the box and we got a penaly which francis lee scored with. He got the other one two. I think he scored a lot of penalties that season and got the chinese nickname Lee 2 1 pen
of course this put us 5 points clear top of the league with 4 matches to play but we lost 2 games after this and let cloughs derby county in.i think we beat them 2-0 near the end of the season but they pipped us for the title

My first City game was against Southampton in the 1972-73 season.My Dad took me and I can remember having a nice cup of bovril at half time.City won 2-1,Mike Doyle scored for city but I forget who got the second.Mick Channon scored for Southampton(later to join City!).

My first game was when my dad took me to Maine Road at the age of 5. I remember little about the game, but I remember what seemed like hundreds of concrete steps to get to the terraces and then sitting on a metal bar or white sloping wall to watch the game.

At half time to get to the gents we had to climb down those “hundreds” of steps again and squeeze into a tiny toilet with a primitive trough sewage system.

…and then getting back to the game seemed like an eternity as the steps disappeared in the distance !!

I can’t remember what month it was but we were playing Derby County (who went on to steal our title that season) and we (brothers & me) were late and I was running to not miss a moment. As I got through the turnstile I heard a roar, I ran like a nutter to the top of the Kippax stand to see that we had scored…..poo I had missed that first goal. It didn’t spoil it for me I was ten I had only seen pro football previously on TV via match of the day or the cup final and now I was here watching a live, in the real, City game. It made it for me I was hooked CITY FOR EVER…. We went on win the match 3-2 but lost the title and it has been like that ever since. Great days & poor days but days you never forget….The crowd with fantastic humour and good grace made me realise that this was for life and here I am now 36 years later still proud and passionate of the greatest football club in the world……C’MON YOU BLUES

On a warm sunny day in August 1972, my Dad took me to Maine Road for the first time to see City play Norwich. After parking on Whitmore Road, which would turn out to be the same spot for the for the next eleven years & then hearing a local lad asking my Dad ” Mind your car for you ? ” I was only six years old so it took me a few years to understand why he was never there after this or any game ! Going through the turnstiles into the Platt Lane Stand & seeing the huge pitch, and the flags lining the North Stand roof, followed by the sense of anticipation waiting for the teams to come out. City made my day with Francis Lee among the scorers in a 3-0 win.
Rick Worsley.

52,000 crammed in versus Chelsea. Thousands, eagerly awaiting a glimpse of Rodney Marsh’ debut. City riding high at the top of the league. My hero Franny Lee here there and eveywhere. A Tommy Booth headed goal is my main memory of the match….oh and the Jaffa Cakes at half time. Loved the atmosphere and knew I belonged for life…whether you like it or not.