I remember my dad parking the car and walking towards the floodlights, my dad putting me in the kids queue for the Platt Lane end, the queue was much shorter than the dads, standing and waiting on the other side of the turnstyles as dad had instructed, waiting as hundreds of men with magnum style moustaches passed me, everyone looking like my dad, finally he came through and held my hand again, 10p for a programme, walkg through the tunnel in the corner and entering gods own arena for the first time, the Kippax packed, the small of piped tobacco, coloured wooden benches and dads vegatable soup at half time, full time and 6-0 to my new blue heroes, a life long love affair had begun, thank you Dad

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 school friend’s Dad had tried to get us into The Swamp for his son’s birthday but they were full so we ended up in the Main Stand as City & Wolves fought out a muddy 0-0 draw. I dimly remember a goal-bound shot stopping dead in the mud on the goal line only for Wolves to clear before any blue shirt could slide it into the net. I was 10 at the time & already a Blue.

My first game was the League Cup Semi Final in 1976. I was only 5 1/2 at the time, but Dad thought it was time for me to be blooded! I remember being in absolute awe of Peter Barnes. We smashed them 4-0 and I thought “this is definitely team for me, it must be like this all the time.” How wrong can you be!! Hopefully with the new owners in place we will have those exciting times back very soon. Whatever happens though, through thick or thin, we are all, and ALWAYS will be, City till we die.

I was 9 when I attended my first City game with my Dad and older brother. I remember we sat towards the front of the Main Stand on the bench seats. City won 3-2. I particularly remember the City forward line of Summerbee Bell Lee Marsh and Law which I still think to this day takes some beating. I was hooked!……..

I watched my first City game on norwegian TV in 1975. City in their beautiful skyblue shirts won 4-0 against Wolves. I was eight years old and had found my favourite club.

Baard Egil Dyrhol

Living just off Maine Road in Moss Side, I was brought up with Manchester City and loved the atmosphere on match days. I used to look out of the window watching all the crowds go by and listening for the cheers once the match had started. Finally, aged 7, I got the chance to go to a game with my family. We sat in the Platt Lane end on the wooden bench seats. I remember walking to our seats and thinking how huge the place was. I don’t remember who we were playing but I got the bug from that day on and from the age of 10, I used to pay my £1.80 with my friend to get into the Kippax. We couldn’t see anything so used to ask someone to lift us on the sides of the tunnels and sit on there for the whole game. We had a great view! Later, I became a season ticket holder and have supported City all my life. I don’t live near Maine Road anymore but have some great memories of it.

One dark ,wintry night, spent in an endless queue for tickets into the Kippax.My father, brother and me! We were playing Liverpool, my father’s team.We were crammed into the stand, it seemed like everyone was holding each other up.I could hardly see the game. We scored,the crowd surged forwards,a hand tapped my fathers trilby off his head and it flew over rows of heads infront of us.It never came back!!!
Come on, hand it over!

My heroes were coming to town, well Oxford anyway. We lived 20 miles away in Buckinghamshire.

The closest I had got to my idols up till then was walking round the corner to a family friends house to watch Match of the Day on a colour TV. They were City through and through.

My father was not a fan, didn’t understand the game, but he got press ganged into taking me to see my beloved City at Oxford Utd.

So off we went, with a crate for me to stand on, I was only 12!

The only problem was my old man had no idea about fan segregation, ends or violence, so we bought a ticket and proceeded to stand right in the middle of the home supporters (London Rd end).

Well done Dad!

Actually they took pity on us and I was a bit of a star, cheering every goal, and there were plenty. Seven in total, luckily five to City.

I only remember one goal, a Denis Law header. That seals the year, as he only arrived on a free in the summer of 73 and I went to the League Cup final against Wolves later that season, so it must have been 1973.

I saw Colin Bell, Tony Book, Glyn Pardoe, Tommy Booth, Mike Summerbee, Francis Lee, Alan Oakes and Big Joe.

I went back to Oxford many times as I got older, it had a great atmosphere. I remember OPR, Chelsea, Orient, Wolves, Bolton, Sunderland and even the Rags. Needless to say I was an Oxford supporter on all those days, but I never returned to the London Rd end, the memories were to precious, my first City game amongst the yobs.

I did return to Oxford to watch City many years later. I can’t tell you the year, probably about 1986. After getting off the train we were collected by the local constabulary, but we were marched to the London Road turnstiles, at which point we realised this wasn’t the local constabulary as they didn’t know which end was which. Probably brought in for the match. After a few strong words and bottles in the air we ended up in the right place.

I think it was a one nil win.

I live in Western Australia now, so live starved of decent football, but those days on terraces at Oxford, Wycombe, Wimbledon, West Ham, Arsenal, Bristol Rovers, Cardiff, Chelsea, Luton, QPR, Saints, Spurs etc will live with me forever.

Maine Road is the real memory and it’s still home.

The game has changed the passion has subsided, so I hold all those memories dear.

First game in 1973, and I was there at Wembley in 1999, and I am still always there, maybe now not in body, but all the passion remains.

CTID

Ian Spencer

My first match was the FA Cup 5th round tie at Maine road. I was just a kid and my dad sat me up on the wall at the back of the Kippax so that I’d have a good view. The atmosphere was fantastic! We drew 2-2 that day and lost at Sunderland. But some good came of it because we ended up buying the great Denis Tueart, and Dave Watson from the Mackem’s. Iv’e been a blue ever since that day.