DRINK A DRINK FOR COLIN THE KING THIS BOXING DAY.

[Kinkladze's crazy skills]

Sometimes an anniversary slips by without so much as a nod or a wink, if you are a married man and you have forgotten your wife's special day, you'll know what I mean.

But I doubt if any City supporters privileged to be witnesses will ever forget one football anniversary, which will be 42 years this December, that took place at Maine Road on Boxing Day, December 26th 1977, when City played Newcastle United.

For two frustrating years Colin Bell had refused to bow down to the fact that he was out of the game for life. Bell had hardly played a senior match since he critically damaged his knee playing against Man.Utd on a November night in 1975. The pain and torment of his long and lonely battle for fitness would have put paid to lesser determined characters. Bell's demanding and tedious fight for fitness continued throughout two summers when most players were enjoying there holidays.
But on that Boxing Day 1977 his courage and dedication were rewarded, When City's physio Roy Bailey displayed the number 6 card to call off the injured Paul Power, on trotted City sub, Colin Bell, to a deafening roar from the 45,811 spectators. City were level pegging with Newcastle at 0-0 when, all of a sudden the Maine Road atmosphere was transformed by the appearance of the long-absent idol of all true blue fans at the time, a spontaneous demonstration of warmth and effection for a great player who had fired the imagination, there has rarely been anything quite so stirring as the ovation accorded to Bell that afternoon. Even the normally unemotional old hands in the press box got that pulse-tingling feeling of magic in the air - The King Was Back.

Everyone loves a fighter and it seemed that every supporter at the game was willing Bell to do well. His presence proved to be an inspiration to his team-mates and City coasted to a 4-0 victory. Bell went on to play 20 full games that season, 16 in the league, 2 FA Cup and 2 League Cup games. The following season he had a recurrence of the injury and only played 16 senior games plus one as a sub. Four appearances in his last season for City were in the UEFA Cup, he came on as sub against Dutch side FC Twente and scored in a 3-2 win at Maine Road to help City into the next round on a 4-3 aggregate. He played twice against Standard Liege in the next round, and again, against AC Milan.

On August 21st 1979, he reluctantly announced his retirement from the game after a stern warning that he could be crippled for life if he continued. Whenever football fans in general, and City fans in particular talk about great names who have graced the famous England and City shirt's, Colin Bell's name is spoken with reverence. The final fitting farewell for Bell came on Tuesday September 11th 1979, just three weeks after he had made his retirement known. A combined Manchester team met a similar eleven from merseyside in his testimonial match at Maine Road. On a dismal night, 23,936 admirers turned up to pay tribute to a player whose wide-ranging talent had played a big part in City's successful trophy triumphs of the 60's & 70's.

For the record Bell signed for City from Bury in March 1966 for £45,000, then a record fee for a teenager. Within 48 hours he had made a goalscoring debut in a 2-1 win at Derby County as City stormed towards the Second Division Championship. Bell was capped 48 times for England and with City he won First and Second Divsion championship medals, FA Cup and League Cup winners medals and European Cup Winners' Cup medal. He made 393 League appearances and scored 119 League goals.

Legend

So on December 26th 2019 raise your glasses and 'Drink a Drink a Drink To Colin The King '

Excellent post I'll defo be raising my beer to the king today, it pisses me off when younger fans disrespect our former players by saying the quality of football players is better these days, no it isn't... You only need to watch the Spurs game at Wembley last season to fully understand how bobbley the pitches in the old days were... and how it affected performances. King Colin at his peak on today's pitches would be of the highest quality an absolute joy to watch.

Even though I never seen him play I've watched full games this man is far too overlooked by our younger support he never gets a mention, when he is without doubt the most cultured midfielder we've ever had and would easily cope with the fitness demands of the modern era... Pep would've loved him his dream would be ten Colin Bell's.

other underappreciated legends for other reasons are the likes of Doyle, Book, Lee, Summerbee, Cowan, Trautmann, Paul, Doherty, Corrigan, Watson, Oakes, Young...even players like Johnny Crossan, Kevin Horlock, Ian Bishop, Gerard Wiekens and even more seem to get overlooked for praise despite their importance to us during crucial periods in history for the club.

I was born in 1987 but the ignorance of some of our fans even ten years older than me is disturbing, I take our clubs history very seriously as a kid I loved the stories and dreamed of the day we returned to our former glories in my lifetime, at the end of last season I saw a poll and City fans voted for our best ever XI and it was dominated by the current City team bar Zab and Yaya... That's worrying we should never ever forget the icons of this club whether it's King Colin, Vinny, Doyle, Kun, Lee, D.Silva, Buzzer, Yaya, Trautmann, Young, Zab, Book or Oakes.

 

[Blue Til Death]

Excellent post I'll defo be raising my beer to the king today, it pisses me off when younger fans disrespect our former players by saying the quality of football players is better these days, no it isn't... You only need to watch the Spurs game at Wembley last season to fully understand how bobbley the pitches in the old days were... and how it affected performances. King Colin at his peak on today's pitches would be of the highest quality an absolute joy to watch.

Even though I never seen him play I've watched full games this man is far too overlooked by our younger support he never gets a mention, when he is without doubt the most cultured midfielder we've ever had and would easily cope with the fitness demands of the modern era... Pep would've loved him his dream would be ten Colin Bell's.

other underappreciated legends for other reasons are the likes of Doyle, Book, Lee, Summerbee, Cowan, Trautmann, Paul, Doherty, Corrigan, Watson, Oakes, Young...even players like Johnny Crossan, Kevin Horlock, Ian Bishop, Gerard Wiekens and even more seem to get overlooked for praise despite their importance to us during crucial periods in history for the club.

I was born in 1987 but the ignorance of some of our fans even ten years older than me is disturbing, I take our clubs history very seriously as a kid I loved the stories and dreamed of the day we returned to our former glories in my lifetime, at the end of last season I saw a poll and City fans voted for our best ever XI and it was dominated by the current City team bar Zab and Yaya... That's worrying we should never ever forget the icons of this club whether it's King Colin, Vinny, Doyle, Kun, Lee, D.Silva, Buzzer, Yaya, Trautmann, Young, Zab, Book or Oakes.

Well said mate, couldn't agree more .. !

 

[bladdered]

Yes probably the best atmosphere I ever experienced at Maine Road.

Oh for the days of being at home on Boxing Day with a 3pm kick off!

 

[Taxi for Edghill]

Bingo. I'd never have guessed at Conway even though I probably saw most of his 14 games.

Definitely Jimmy Conway.

Thanks for all the memories of Colin’s comeback. I was a 15 year old sat in the North Stand and all the goal action was at our end .

As for the orange ball game I seem to remember a 1-1 game against Liverpool at home with an orange ball on a frozen pitch .was the year we finished league runners up to Liverpool if memory not playing tricks

 

[stonerblue]

Sometimes an anniversary slips by without so much as a nod or a wink, if you are a married man and you have forgotten your wife's special day, you'll know what I mean.

But I doubt if any City supporters privileged to be witnesses will ever forget one football anniversary, which will be 42 years this December, that took place at Maine Road on Boxing Day, December 26th 1977, when City played Newcastle United.

For two frustrating years Colin Bell had refused to bow down to the fact that he was out of the game for life. Bell had hardly played a senior match since he critically damaged his knee playing against Man.Utd on a November night in 1975. The pain and torment of his long and lonely battle for fitness would have put paid to lesser determined characters. Bell's demanding and tedious fight for fitness continued throughout two summers when most players were enjoying there holidays.
But on that Boxing Day 1977 his courage and dedication were rewarded, When City's physio Roy Bailey displayed the number 6 card to call off the injured Paul Power, on trotted City sub, Colin Bell, to a deafening roar from the 45,811 spectators. City were level pegging with Newcastle at 0-0 when, all of a sudden the Maine Road atmosphere was transformed by the appearance of the long-absent idol of all true blue fans at the time, a spontaneous demonstration of warmth and effection for a great player who had fired the imagination, there has rarely been anything quite so stirring as the ovation accorded to Bell that afternoon. Even the normally unemotional old hands in the press box got that pulse-tingling feeling of magic in the air - The King Was Back.

Everyone loves a fighter and it seemed that every supporter at the game was willing Bell to do well. His presence proved to be an inspiration to his team-mates and City coasted to a 4-0 victory. Bell went on to play 20 full games that season, 16 in the league, 2 FA Cup and 2 League Cup games. The following season he had a recurrence of the injury and only played 16 senior games plus one as a sub. Four appearances in his last season for City were in the UEFA Cup, he came on as sub against Dutch side FC Twente and scored in a 3-2 win at Maine Road to help City into the next round on a 4-3 aggregate. He played twice against Standard Liege in the next round, and again, against AC Milan.

On August 21st 1979, he reluctantly announced his retirement from the game after a stern warning that he could be crippled for life if he continued. Whenever football fans in general, and City fans in particular talk about great names who have graced the famous England and City shirt's, Colin Bell's name is spoken with reverence. The final fitting farewell for Bell came on Tuesday September 11th 1979, just three weeks after he had made his retirement known. A combined Manchester team met a similar eleven from merseyside in his testimonial match at Maine Road. On a dismal night, 23,936 admirers turned up to pay tribute to a player whose wide-ranging talent had played a big part in City's successful trophy triumphs of the 60's & 70's.

For the record Bell signed for City from Bury in March 1966 for £45,000, then a record fee for a teenager. Within 48 hours he had made a goalscoring debut in a 2-1 win at Derby County as City stormed towards the Second Division Championship. Bell was capped 48 times for England and with City he won First and Second Divsion championship medals, FA Cup and League Cup winners medals and European Cup Winners' Cup medal. He made 393 League appearances and scored 119 League goals.

Legend

So on December 26th 2019 raise your glasses and 'Drink a Drink a Drink To Colin The King '

Fantastic post.

 

[blue44]

Just raised and toasted my stella to the King
I was there that day in 1977 as a 11 year old and to be honest dont remember it
Colin as always been my favourite ,well ,him and recently David.
Long live the King.

 

[normskih]

I got goose bumps reading the post. I remember him coming on on, stood in Kippax with my brother Chris. Our Chris' favourite City player of all time and my friend has a son who she named Colin, after Colin Bell. There is a forum on here about who you consider legends, Colin Bell is a true City legend.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

Excellent post I'll defo be raising my beer to the king today, it pisses me off when younger fans disrespect our former players by saying the quality of football players is better these days, no it isn't... You only need to watch the Spurs game at Wembley last season to fully understand how bobbley the pitches in the old days were... and how it affected performances. King Colin at his peak on today's pitches would be of the highest quality an absolute joy to watch.

Even though I never seen him play I've watched full games this man is far too overlooked by our younger support he never gets a mention, when he is without doubt the most cultured midfielder we've ever had and would easily cope with the fitness demands of the modern era... Pep would've loved him his dream would be ten Colin Bell's.

other underappreciated legends for other reasons are the likes of Doyle, Book, Lee, Summerbee, Cowan, Trautmann, Paul, Doherty, Corrigan, Watson, Oakes, Young...even players like Johnny Crossan, Kevin Horlock, Ian Bishop, Gerard Wiekens and even more seem to get overlooked for praise despite their importance to us during crucial periods in history for the club.

I was born in 1987 but the ignorance of some of our fans even ten years older than me is disturbing, I take our clubs history very seriously as a kid I loved the stories and dreamed of the day we returned to our former glories in my lifetime, at the end of last season I saw a poll and City fans voted for our best ever XI and it was dominated by the current City team bar Zab and Yaya... That's worrying we should never ever forget the icons of this club whether it's King Colin, Vinny, Doyle, Kun, Lee, D.Silva, Buzzer, Yaya, Trautmann, Young, Zab, Book or Oakes.

So will you be singing “Kevin the King” or not?

 

[Blue and still suffering]

Fantastic post.

Excellent post, can't remember much about the game other than we didn't play well in the first half; Colin coming on at half time changed the mood and the game completely.

Looking at the programme cover, a 16 man squad for a 42 game season, no rotation in those days!

 

[Kinkladze's crazy skills]

So will you be singing “Kevin the King” or not?

Ah well I've had my boxing day drink with my family and raised a glass to king Colin, and its defo king Colin for now... like my dad said tonight like I've said for the past couple years De Bruyne is the best midfielder in world football bar nobody, if carries on doing what he's doing for another 4-5 years then we can rightly debate calling him the king... But for now he's the right honourable crown prince.

Comparing De Bruyne's first few years as brilliant as they are though to king Colin's legacy for us isn't fair just yet, Nijinsky regularly ran all day got lots of assists, was great at interceptions and scored a goal every 3 games, King Colin Bell at his best was a Gerrard/Lampard/KDB hybrid with the energy of levels of Bernardo last season... As the great Tom Finney said, "Colin Bell was as good as anything I've ever seen." I saw Alan Mullery a player who played with world cup winners call Bell on soccer Saturday, "the most gifted midfielder he ever played or trained with." Bobby Charlton called him hugely talented saying, "Bell was unquestionably a truly great player." I'm not sure you can get much better praise than what Tom Finney gave King Colin.

Kevin although a truly great player in his own right still has some way to knocking King Colin off his perch, genuinely I hope he can do it but they'll be no more talk of De Bruyne being the king just yet, he's got far more to prove over an extended consistent 5 years before we can truly compare... (If anything I'm biased towards De Bruyne) Remember Bell played for anywhere from a bang average to a very good City side most of his career, while banging in a goal every 3 games getting regular assists and busting a gut like prime Cafu. He never played with a truly elite team like KDB truly I hope De Bruyne can eclipse him but in my eyes he's got a bit of a trek yet.

Everything I've learned about Bell tells me he was so so immensely good he would've easily walked into any side while staying at City...he was regularly doing what Kev has been doing for close to a decade in a far weaker team that heavily relied on him, losing him to that dreadful Martin Buchan tackle while he was at the peak of his powers not only cost us a title but possibly England dearly in their quest for honours too...it's no coincidence England failed to qualify after Bell's injury.