Me and my dad came down on the train from Carlisle where we lived to see City for my first game aged 9. Travelled down me for 25p if dad paid full fare. We grabbed a taxi and i remember stepping out on Claremount Rd to a sea of blue and white. Smell of stewing onion thick in the air from the hot dog van. It was City v Wolves. We had tickets for the main stand and i remember coming up the steps to be faced by a wall of noise and colour….I was hooked for life…We won 3-2 and it was thrills from start to finish. Probably missed half the goals, mouth wide open at the sound and sight of the kippax. Next game as the same season vs QPR, it was 0-0 but a classic example of flowing football without the goals to top it off…t just got better and better. Im a City nut and lets face it you have to be !

I remember it was a midweek game one of the earlier rounds, walking down to maine road ( as the song goes ) i remember seeing the floodlights and on entering the kippax the noise and the smell of wintergreen as the players warmed up! we watched the second half in the platt lane as a frannie hatrick and one from rodney marsh helped us to a big win unfortunately i think that was the season we lost at wembley in the final to wolves nevertheless great memories!

My First Game !

24 February 1973
FA Cup Round 5
Manchester City 2
Sunderland 2
Attendance: 54,478.

I got everything I needed as an eight year old going to my first ever City match; hat, scarf, gloves, dad (Brian) and grandad (Eric) as we drove along Princess Parkway towards Moss Side the home of Manchester City.

We parked what seemed miles away near Alexander Park and we weaved our way down the side streets amongst the huge numbers of people. My hands were held in an iron grip with dad and one side and grandad on the other. We crossed over to Parkside Rd and I could see the floodlights of the stadium that I had not yet been too.

I chirped up that I needed to wee; “Cant you wait”, says dad. I wasn’t the only one and the grandad said, “I need to go too”. Dad said “oh well in for a penny then..”. Three of us let natures call down the aptly named Number 2 passage. Then the fence moved to one side and to our horror all three of us were staring at this poor bloke opening up his back yard to look after peoples bikes. “Oi begger off all of you” – [I think he said begger]. We laughed out loud in various stages of undress as we ran towards the ground. Dad said “don’t tell your mum” grandad said “don’t tell your gran either”. I felt so grown up.

We emerged from Parkside Rd then Lloyd St towards the bedlam of noise and people in front of Maine Road. Ticket touts shouted their prices like stoke brokers. Men with sandwich boards and loud voices warned us all of the evils of drink and the devil. I was frog marched to the ground and this bony hand emerged from behind the turnstile and snatched the ticket stub from my hand. I jumped up to see who this corpse like hand belonged to and was greeted by this poor frail cadaverous man in his 90’s with a bronchitic laugh that exposed his three crooked teeth stained a sickly shade of yellow by a 40 Woodbine a day habit.

“Grandad, will that man get to see the game?” – “I doubt it son, he’ll be lucky to make it through to half time, did you hear him cough”.

Inside, the air was full of foul language, the stench of cheap pipe tobacco and cigarette smoke. I felt even more grown up now. A programme for 5p, a dodgy pie (with mystery meat) and a vimto that was “centre of the sun” hot. We made our way to the seats. The oasis of green looked magnificent; the roar of the 54,478 crowd as the two teams took the field of play was deafening. The sky blue versus the red & white stripes looked fantastic against the huge billiard table playing surface.

City took the lead; Sunderland equalized then went ahead, a late equalizer by City and a late sending off. A four goal thriller, noisy crowd with quick remarks, indigestion and a burnt mouth; brilliant stuff. Even the likes of Doyle, Book, Corrigan, Bell, Lee, Marsh and Summerbee couldn’t beat second division Sunderland. Why? Because we were thwarted by two brilliant players; a winger who made our defence miserable all afternoon and a defender we couldn’t get past. Why couldn’t these two play for City; Dave Watson and Dennis Tueart.

I couldn’t wait for the next game. I still can’t.

i remember being seven, i was taken to the match for the first time.waited outside the players car park for autographs and into the platt lane we went! first thing i said was “where does the commentator sit” the rest is history!

I think it was 1973. (aged 11) Anyhow it was City 4 Wolves 3, and my main memory was the bloke in the seat behind me coninually referring to Joe Royle as a ‘pudding’ and being told off by his son……well a winning start…a great day

My first game was the final match of the 1972-73 season v Crystal Palace – It was just short of my 9th birthday so I wasn’t fully aware of the significance of ‘Big Mal’s’ return. He had just taken over as coach of Palace, but couldn’t stop them from being relegated. My most abiding memory of the day is of walking into the Kippax through the long tunnel at the halfway line and thinking I was walking onto the pitch. I had honestly never seen grass so green in all my life, in fact, to this day I still get a thrill when I see the green of the City pitch.

I had gone with a friend of my older brother’s and a few of his mates and we squeezed to the front of the Kippax – I think there were about 45,000 at Maine Rd that day. The players came and kicked balls into the crowd before the start and I remember there being a mini pitch invasion after every goal, then a huge one at the end of the match – this wasn’t unusual for the last game of the season.

City scored first with a Franny Lee penalty, then went on to lose 3-2. Typical, you might say.

I am now a 45 year old seasoncard holder but my first game was with 54,000 plus for the FA Cup 5th round in February 1973 against the eventual winners Sunderland at Maine Road. As i was only 9 at the time my memories are not great other than it was 2 each and Big Joe Corrigan made a ricket with a kick virtually straight to the Sunderland attacker who scored. City equalised virtually direct from a corner from buzzer. I was taken to the match by my uncle john who in those days was a regular at Maine Road. I will always remember City’s kit which was my favourite with the dark blue socks with a red and white trim. I recently read about this match and City were favourites but as i am now fully used to, things don’t always go as you would expect as a blue.

April 28th 1973. Malcolm Allison newly appointed Crystal Palace manager brings his team to Maine Road. I was 5 years old sat in the main stand, knowing at that age it was the greatest place on the earth, and in typical fashion so began my Manchester City life with a 3-2 defeat to a team who would later be relegated. It didn’t matter though it was City at Maine Road.

After moving with family to Plymouth, some years earlier, it was a visit to family that coincided with the first game of the 1973/74 season, and the return of Denis Law. Two goals from Denis and another from Colin Bell saw City triumph 3-1 and I was allowed to stay up late to relive it on Match of the Day that night with my new silk scarf, which had the legend “Follow your Hart – go City” in honour of then manager, Johnny Hart, still tied around my wrist!

I still attend most games from Plymouth but no longer need permission to watch Match of the Day!

My neighbour asked my dad if I would be interested in going to a City game. I was only 11 and didn’t support a club. Wow – what a first game. It was a 3-3 draw with Frannie Lee hitting two (I think). We sat in the North Stand. True blue through and through ever since. Now watching from afar in New Zealand – would love to visit UK and watch the blues again some time.