Before to many eye brows get raised, I’ll explain…….
It was August 1989 and I’d had a little bit, well a big bit of a thing for Gary Lineker!! It was silly I know but there you go…. A friend at school told me that he was going to the City game at the weekend and that they were playing Spurs. Now, I didn’t know much about football at the time, didn’t know anything about City, didn’t know much about United either (oh how I wish that was still the case!!) I did know that my dream man played for Spurs. My dad didn’t see it my way…. “Girl’s don’t go to football matches”. So, I did what every good girl did – I lied and went anyway. Sorry dad!!

I remember the walk from the bus, there were people everywhere….. I don’t think I’d ever seen so many people in one place. The colour, the smell of that chippy on the corner – it was all very odd. Walking up the stairs with the corrugated iron sides then to walk onto the Kippax, I’d like to say the hairs standing on the back of my neck were for the Blues as they do now but they weren’t…. and if they were it wasn’t for the blues. The players were warming up, City players near the North stand and Spurs players at the Platt Lane end – all the fans were at the City end but I headed straight to see him…….. I’d stood there for about 10 mins watching him, oblivious to anything else, then it happened…… the inevitable……… he slipped while sprinting side to side and fell right on his back side – all the City fans jeered and I was trying to hush them all on my own!!

The game started and my love for Gary was suddenly overtaken with a new feeling. The noise, the singing, the game – a new love was born. I remember talking about the game all the following week and pestering my school friend for the next fixture…… That’s why I’m a city fan – kind of fell into it but a love that you can’t explain or replace – It is like a marriage, for better or for worse. I often ask myself why Blue, was it the football…… is the humour……Who does come up with the chants that you’d never get at any other ground. Is it the ability to laugh at ourselves? I remember playing Arsenal at Maine Road – night game, god awful weather! Getting beat, convincingly at half time. The north stand in unison starting to sing “can we play you every week” and when the inevitable chants by the Arsenal fans – “going down, going down, going down – City fans singing “so are we, so are we, so are we”. Didn’t hear much from the gunners after that! Confusion mainly kept them quiet!! My school crush on Mr Lineker soon died…… Well mostly!

Caroline Tonge
P.S – Genius idea City……

Well what night match, sat in the north stand, the weather was gloomy, City strode out and what a display. My Dad had taken my as my birthday present, I was 9 years old that day. The atmosphere was electric. I was with 2 school friends and my Dad, the match was amazing. David White, hat trick, Tony Adcock, hat trick, Paul Stewart, hat trick. And the old gaurd himself, Neil McNab, sneaking in 1 himself. 10 – 1, I was a blue forever. I still have the match highlights from Granda Soccer night on VHS. What an awesome first match.

although id been a fan many years before it wasnt till may 89 when i went to my first game it was the last home game of the season if we had won that that game we would have won promotion i remember standing on the kippax and being blown away by the atmosphere we were 3 -0 up by half time and ended up drawing 3 -3 me brother swore he would never take me again but he did we went up the week after drawing 1-1 with bradford

my first derby match was the famous 5-1 against utd , it was my first ever City game, the atmosphere generated in that game was electric, i have never looked back since. City Till I Die.

Dad and Godfather teamed up to rescue me from the ragssupporting mother and took me to my first City game. I was 9. City won 1-0 thanks to a long run from ourown half by Ian Bishop. I remember praying we’d score about 5 minutes earlier, so I was convinced there and then that someoneup there is a City fan too. Not looked back.

My 1st game was City v Norwich on boxing day 1989. City won 1-0 and I was sitting in the North Stand with my Dad. I have been going ever since!!

My first city game made me a blue, when i was ten years old. (i’m now 31) We travelled over from Dublin, with the football team and this was the first match we saw v Everton. The bell lady was in full swing, that was the clearest memory i have, i cant remember who scored but i know we won 1-0. I still have the match ticket and have it signed by a few players as well. I have been a blue ever since and have been a season ticket holder for a few years. but i’ve been over a few times every year since 1990. I could never imagine the journey that i would be brought on following this great football club. love it. CTID.

My first game was against chelsea at home on 18.03.89. Although we lost on the day 3-2, I was to become a true blue. Aged only 4 with my dad, mum and brother. My dad bought us both a scarf which i still have and a inflatable banana which was popped by somebody with a cig. I rememeber Gleghorn i think missing a sitter at the back post for 3-3 which i thought had gone in cause i was sat in the main stand.

I remember one part and one part only of my first city game, but I remember it vividly. It was my 7th birthday and we were playing Leicester in the old old division two. Paul Lake, the greatest talent to have pulled on a city shirt other than my name sake Mr Bell, was involved in a clash of heads and swallowed his tongue. The image that most stuck with me is one of his twitching leg as he lay on the ground and of Roy Bailey rushing to his rescue; I later heard Roy got a bitten finger for his trouble but his quick thinking that day saved the life of someone who I now realise was little more than a boy himself but at the time seemed to me to be this man of such awesome stature that it made his vulnerability all the more shocking. I’m sorry to say I don’t remember anything else about that game and had to check with my Dad (we won 4-2, Trevor Morley hat trick!)but his twitching leg will live with me forever.

Whilst he was lucky that day, there is no doubt in my mind that, if he had more luck with the later injuries that cost him his career,all my future City (and England) matches would have involved watching a team far more successful than the 90s proved to be. He was that special.

My first city game was at Maine road on the first day of the season. I am not 100% on the year but I think it was around 1989! Me and two of my mates, Didsy and Mark Trayor caught the 232 Maynes bus from five ways Droylsden at around 12:00 on a sunny sat afteroon.We got off at piccadilly Gardens outside Nobles and then boarded a little Gem to Oxford rd.We alighted the bus opposite The Eye Hospital and then cut through the park and over to The Whiworth Pub.WE enjoyed a couple of pints sat on the small wall next to the pub then made our way down to the Ground. I can still Remember the Buzz I felt as we walked down Kippax st and I could here the Maine rd crowd for the 1st time. We paid in the turnstiles at the back of the old Kippax and then made our way up the concrete staircase at the back of the Famous stand.We stood in the cage where the away fans were usually hidden away and I remember it being quite empty in that part of the stand.The Everton fans were in the old platt lane stand If I remember correctly and the sun was shining down on the pitch to cap off a so far fantastic day.City won the game 1 or 2 nil and I went home a very happy and enthusiastic young Blue.’City till I die’