1970's MCFC

Went to secondary school in Victoria Park, St Pius. Used to pass a barbers on Wilbraham Road with a picture of Kenny Clements in the window.
 
mancityvstoke said:
My fondest memories of following home and away were the 70's.

The old Kippax, the kit/scarf colours, transit vans and specials. Dog shit alley, windy corner, stinking bogs, infiltrating the away section and escorts, waiting at Piccadilly or the Brunswick.
All the old characters.

As I get older I find myself thinking about them a lot (blue tinted specs) Big fat football hooligan, Trumans for steel, Freddie Pye, all the boozers.

Loads of youtube vids of matches I'm watching from then.

Click to expand...

Shirts tucked in your shorts and a firm manly handshake after scoring a goal. Proper football..
 
Spurs quarter 69 said:
Never forget League cup semi in 76 the atmosphere on the Kippax was the best I can ever remember. One down from the first , two up at half time, just got back in with a couple of pints after half time when we scored again, beer went everywhere whole place going f**king mental. Whatever we achieve now don't think we'll ever top the feeling of that four nil win over Boro. Mind you then I was young and crazy now I am old and dull, think my generation had the best of it.
Click to expand...
Didn’t we have a few important first teamers missing for that game?
 
Last edited:
mancityvstoke said:
Burnage, Ardwick, Hattersley, West Didsbury, Withington, Levenshulme, Gorton

so all over the shop....we knew loads .....
Click to expand...
We're the lads who live in Burnage
We will always have a go
If you think you'd take the Albion,
Come along and have a go
Burnage, Burnage, Burnage...

At this point, the Langley and Wythenshawe lads usually gave us a cheery wave of respect, involving two fingers.

Late 60s, early 70s were great days - the atmosphere was 1000 times better than nowadays at every match. The coaches to away games were absolutely mental sometimes. Things picked up again in the 80s.

A few of us used to pay to go in the home end at every away game (except all-ticket matches and West Ham obviously). If it got a bit too hairy - which it usually did at shitty places like Derby or Stoke - we'd plead ignorance, say we'd gone into the wrong end by accident and get the coppers to escort us along the side of the pitch to the City section.

You'd always see the same faces around. Never knew many of the names, just passing nods and such, but if there was ever any bother, you knew that they would be right with you (and vice versa) if you needed help.

All-seaters and having to have tickets killed everything that made going to the match special, particularly away days. If we could transport our 70s selves to the current day, 90% of us would try (and probably manage) to get in without paying - We certainly wouldn't take this new NFC shit lying down.

When I hear anyone at City talking about the matchday 'experience' nowadays, a little piece of me dies inside. The 'fan experience' is sterile and boring compared to pre-1990s, and that's no doubt the same at every club.

Kids today don't know what they missed - Imagine what they'd be like now if they were faced with a huge pile of 'temporarily confiscated' bovver boots piled up outside the away exits at Highfield Road with hundreds of Coventry City fans running towards us! Ha ha ha... Happy days.
 
Spurs quarter 69 said:
Never forget League cup semi in 76 the atmosphere on the Kippax was the best I can ever remember. One down from the first , two up at half time, just got back in with a couple of pints after half time when we scored again, beer went everywhere whole place going f**king mental. Whatever we achieve now don't think we'll ever top the feeling of that four nil win over Boro. Mind you then I was young and crazy now I am old and dull, think my generation had the bhe
Click to expand...

Spurs quarter 69 said:
Never forget League cup semi in 76 the atmosphere on the Kippax was the best I can ever remember. One down from the first , two up at half time, just got back in with a couple of pints after half time when we scored again, beer went everywhere whole place going f**king mental. Whatever we achieve now don't think we'll ever top the feeling of that four nil win over Boro. Mind you then I was young and crazy now I am old and dull, think my generation had the best of it.
Click to expand...
The crowd that night was given at 44,000 . Yeah right ! The Kippax that evening was absolutely rammed .
 
Mike N said:
My first ever away game was Leeds 77, December, with my brother and his mate Bob. I was 12 and really excited but a bit nervous.

We lost 2-0 and I was really disappointed by the time we got back to the Finglands coach. Halfway back to Manchester they did the 3rd round draw on BBC radio. Leeds away!
Click to expand...
I remember that league game well . Couple of us went on the service train early morning . On arrival the old bill were waiting for us and held us there till the special turned up a few hours later . Mayhem getting back to the station that frost evening . Couldn`t have been more than a couple of hundred city fans at the very most being escorted back by about 10 coppers . We were surrounded by that many of Leeds finest that it was like a scene from Zulu ! Remember the motorway that runs past Elland Rd was just being built at the time and the rest of the surrounding area was just fields back in those days . When we finally managed to get to the station and on the train it was time for everyone to take cover as we prepared for the usual bricking all the way back as far as Hebden Bridge . Getting home that evening i remember my father saying we`d drawn Leeds in the cup f`Christ`s sake !
 
skivitheblue9320 said:
Even with all the success and amazing football we are able to witness today, there is absolutely nothing like reminiscing and being able to look back on harder times and in particular what we have gone through as custodians and supporters of this great club.

My memories of city especially growing up as a teen through the 70’s is just so so special. Many on here may know me dad Vinny in his blue inva noddy three wheeler car going into the Platt Lane via the sliding door entrance on a match day with me and about another 3 kids or adults hidden under a blanket or coat, whom he had taken to the game in a vehicle only allowed to have the driver in!

In the late 60’s early 70’s he could park the noddy on pitch side and we used to sit in the noddy watching the match, with the ball occasionally hitting the invacar. Me dad took many kids off the streets to the game and they became lifelong blues, imagine him doing that now he’d be nicked for kidnapping! So many memories of me and me dad going to games, he passed in 2002, but he was with me at 93.20 in spirit and we all lived for that moment especially, but our making as blues had been kindled in us years before through those times mentioned here. Check out the photo below that shows the noddys next to the pitch!View attachment 25518
Click to expand...
Great photo I knew your Dad and actually played a few games for him ....proper character with a fantastic sense of humour and a lovely man
 
Spurs quarter 69 said:
Never forget League cup semi in 76 the atmosphere on the Kippax was the best I can ever remember. One down from the first , two up at half time, just got back in with a couple of pints after half time when we scored again, beer went everywhere whole place going f**king mental. Whatever we achieve now don't think we'll ever top the feeling of that four nil win over Boro. Mind you then I was young and crazy now I am old and dull, think my generation had the best of it.
Click to expand...
That semi final sticks in my mind as one of the best atmospheres at maine road, I was in the north stand with my dad but wished i was in the kippax, it looked like a huge sea of madness!
 
paulchapo said:
Yes my best times too. The huge difference back then is we were young. Loads of good mates, life on the edge, could party all day and night, you weren't too old or young to chat up the ladies and thought we had a chance, ha! On the whole we were shit a lot of the time but we were proud to be blues and would fight for the cause anywhere we were challenged. Great days.
Click to expand...
Shit, in the 70s?

We won the European Cup Winners Cup (+another SemiFinal), 2 x League Cups (+1 runner-up), the Charity Shield (+1 runner-up), and got to the QuarterFinal of the UEFA Cup (losing to the eventual winners, Gladbach). We finished 2nd in the league, plus 4th twice, 8th twice and were never anywhere near a relegation fight. We beat Juventus and AC Milan in Europe. Our highest ever average attendances (up to moving to the CoMS in 2003) were in the 70s.

It was probably our second best decade ever as a club, and we were easily seen as one of the big four or five clubs of that decade.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Lavinda Past said:
We're the lads who live in Burnage
We will always have a go
If you think you'd take the Albion,
Come along and have a go
Burnage, Burnage, Burnage...

At this point, the Langley and Wythenshawe lads usually gave us a cheery wave of respect, involving two fingers.

Late 60s, early 70s were great days - the atmosphere was 1000 times better than nowadays at every match. The coaches to away games were absolutely mental sometimes. Things picked up again in the 80s.

A few of us used to pay to go in the home end at every away game (except all-ticket matches and West Ham obviously). If it got a bit too hairy - which it usually did at shitty places like Derby or Stoke - we'd plead ignorance, say we'd gone into the wrong end by accident and get the coppers to escort us along the side of the pitch to the City section.

You'd always see the same faces around. Never knew many of the names, just passing nods and such, but if there was ever any bother, you knew that they would be right with you (and vice versa) if you needed help.

All-seaters and having to have tickets killed everything that made going to the match special, particularly away days. If we could transport our 70s selves to the current day, 90% of us would try (and probably manage) to get in without paying - We certainly wouldn't take this new NFC shit lying down.

When I hear anyone at City talking about the matchday 'experience' nowadays, a little piece of me dies inside. The 'fan experience' is sterile and boring compared to pre-1990s, and that's no doubt the same at every club.

Kids today don't know what they missed - Imagine what they'd be like now if they were faced with a huge pile of 'temporarily confiscated' bovver boots piled up outside the away exits at Highfield Road with hundreds of Coventry City fans running towards us! Ha ha ha... Happy days.
Click to expand...
The Albion on Burnage Lane was where I had my wedding reception in 1981.
The wife lived just over the road in Cranwell Drive when I first met her.
We got married in St. Nicholas on Kingsway and got driven around the corner in a Mercedes wedding car.
I once went in with my older brother-in-law,who at the time was a sergeant in The Royal Marines and hard as fuck.
I asked him what he wanted to drink. He said I would love a gin and tonic,but he didn't want to get his head kicked in for having a poncy drink,so had a pint of Joey Holts best bitter instead!!!
 
manclad said:
The Albion on Burnage Lane was where I had my wedding reception in 1981.
The wife lived just over the road in Cranwell Drive when I first met her.
We got married in St. Nicholas on Kingsway and got driven around the corner in a Mercedes wedding car.
I once went in with my older brother-in-law,who at the time was a sergeant in The Royal Marines and hard as fuck.
I asked him what he wanted to drink. He said I would love a gin and tonic,but he didn't want to get his head kicked in for having a poncy drink,so had a pint of Joey Holts best bitter instead!!!
Click to expand...
We drove past the Albion a couple of months ago and it was closed and all the windows were boarded up.
A bit sad, but it looks like it is going the way of alot of the old style boozers.
Give it another 3/4 years and there will be new houses built there.
 
Its ingrained in me
started around 3 years old in 1968
in the platt lane with me dad and grandad and sister,even my mam sometimes
always remember my grandad lifting me up when he paid to get in,lifted me up and said " future supporter ",it always worked
Mind yer car mister anywhere you parked near MR,me grandad always gave them 10p,one time,it was v newcastle and he give 1 kid 10 p and we were walking away and this other kid said " mind yer car sir",my grandad said," iv just paid him "
we came back and the windscreen was smashed in !

i remember a derby mid 70's,stuart pearson had been mouthing all week what utd were gonna do to us,we shit on them 3-1 and my difining memory of being in the kippax was a deathening song of " pearson is a wanker ".i remember that game too,cos 2 rags climbed on the top of the north stand and came to the edge and pulled down the city flag ,it was mayhem outside as usual

remember another derby seeing a rag come into the kippax with a scarf on,iv never ever seen anyone beat up as much in my life,god knows why he came in our end,i was about 10 years old,1975,it sickened me,i still think what happened to him

remember my dad coming back from leeds away and he said never again,bricks raining down on city coaches,scrapping everywhere

my dad and grandad went to ot when Denis scored,they both knew ot from going from the 1950's,they said when we scored they decided to make an exit,went out with a utd fan who said to them," look at this ",he pointed to his hand,one of the ends of his fingers was hanging off,he told my dad ,a utd kid ran passed me and did that,even though he knew i was a utd fan too

mad times.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top