21/04/1979

City 3 QPR 1 (Own 2, silkman).

Have very vague recollections of the game think Gary Owen scored at the Platt Lane End and it was a sunny day however and i was perched on one of the wall of one of the two exit tunnels at the North stand end of the Kippax, i do recall being astonished by the size of the Wagon Wheels and the enormous bags of crisps and i think kia ora drinks, Burger carts outside the ground which would fail every health and safety and hygiene law these days, a fantastic glossy programme and the crowds at the end and the absolute bottleneck at the kippax meets the North stand and the Pink final van ..fantastic memories.

I will always remember my first visit to Maine Road. August 1979. City played host to Brighton. City won 3-2. Mick Channon scored at least once for City. U was living in Torquay and had supported The Mighty Blues since 1968. Never ever ever looked back. Come on you Blues. Keep the Faith.

North Stand swathed in hot dog smoke, the tiny turnstile entrance, the smell of the programme, the steps up and up and then that bright light and the perfect patch of summer grass, as green as you like. Nothing prepares you for that view the first time. You stand there like a rabbit in the headlight, wondering at the symmetry and beauty (or in Maine Road’s case asymmetry and beauty). What a sight. It almost didn’t need any football, any Dennis Tueart penalties or Willie Young fouls (which we got as a bonus that day). It was plenty good enough just as it was. 30 years on, that first sight inside the hallowed ground is as sharp a memory as any. A truly life-defining moment, a sensation we have all shared and never replicated, but we keep coming back for more. Next it will be these two: how do I put into words what they will feel as that view opens up, that smells hits the nostrils and the noise wafts over you? They will have to see for themselves, liek the rest of us!

I was 9 at the time, my older brother took me. We were in the Kippax. I was only small at the time, so didn’t get to see any of the match. We won 3-0 if I remember.

The home Central League match against Coventry City in 1979, will always mark, for one three year old who was in the crowd, a seminal life changing event.
The tightly packed streets that surrounded Maine Road, disguised a huge stadium, who’s floodlight reached further than I could see. In the ground the maze of corridors, and the smell of Bovril greeted me. I then climbed the steps to be met by an ocean of luscious green, and a huge bowl of terraces and seats. I don’t know what the score was or what players played that day, but what I do know is that I instantly fell in love, with a team that could infuriate me, put me in ecstacy, make me laugh, make me cry-but a team I could never leave, I would always be a blue.

It is a distant memory, but not a dream that at the end of the ’70s my dad took me to see City reserves at home. The memory was not the match, but the fact that my dad and I got into the changing rooms at the end of the game to meet Watson, Channon and Barnes. Aged 9 I was too shy to speak, but confident enough to stride out on the pitch afterwards to take air penalties which nestled into the goal at the North Stand End.

My first city game on my own was 1979. I cycled from wilmslow back to withington having just moved to meet my mate jeff hart. We then parked our bikes in someone’s backyard for i think 5 or 10p. the game was nottingham forest. i think it was a 1-1 draw. we stood in the kippax and i think archie gemmil was playing. then i had the daunting task of a ten mile bike ride home. I was 12 years old, it was worth it definitely.

I remember my first game as if it was yesterday! My first visit to Maine Road at the age of 8 – Sitting on the wall at the front of the Kippax with the other kids – Not able to put your legs over towards the pitch! No fences in those days!

Borussia Mönchengladbach playing in green and white on a cold Wednesday night in March.

City scored first and I was in dreamland – Soon after my world was shattered – They scored to level the match and there 100 or so supporters in the bottom of the main stand went beserk!

I heard from my Dad a couple of weeks later that we had lost the away leg….. but no matter, I was hooked! The rest as they say is history!

Stoke (I think), Christmas 1979, 8 years old. Police horses, the smell of chips and holding on tight to my dad’s hand. Up the steps through the back of the Main stand to see the pitch – the brightest green I’d ever seen and Joe Corrigan who looked like a giant. I was freezing. Dad said, “Don’t worry. If it snows, we’ll be fine. We’ve got undersoil heating. United haven’t got that you know.”

- Vicky, Manchester