From Francis, Tueart and Hutchison to Chris Jones, Bodak and Terry Park 81-83

[Stiff Little Wingers]

I thought this might be a good follow up to the excellent 78-79 implosion thread. In 1981, as a 16 year old I was enjoying life, City had just played in 2 of the most memorable cup finals ever, I had been to France and eaten horse for dinner, had sunbathed on a topless beach there and had started taking the occasional excursion to the as yet undiscovered territory called girls.
I rocked up at Maine Rd at the start of the 81-82 season as a Kippax regular and looked upon a squad that included Trevor Francis (after game 2), Tommy Hutch, Reeves, a rejuvenated King Tueart, Gow, Power, O'Neill, Reid, Caton, Bobby Mac, big Joe, Asa came back etc. It was a pretty useful and exciting squad - minus unfortunately Steve MacKenzie and Dave Bennett. we were top of the league for a time in that season before slumping badly in the second half losing 5-zip at home to the scousers, I remember going to watch Bury one day and hearing we were 4-0 down I think it was to Swansea at half time.
We had some terrible injuries that season, Power out for ages, Gerry Gow pretty much finished, Francis often injured, Tueart on a brilliant scoring run then injured for months and then Bond developed a knack of buying useful players like John Ryan and Oggie Hareide so we ended up mid table.

Season 82-83 turned out completely shot starting badly with selling Francis and replacing him with an ageing David Cross and I remember seeing the worst pair of back to back performances I have ever seen, 0-1 home to Notts County followed by 0-4 away to Coventry. Bond had walked by then. I went to Sunderland in the cup to see a boring 0-0 and to see my erstwhile long distance romance called Michaela. That's where the romance ended as I was sitting next to her in the Sunderland main stand and got gobbed on by a Sunderland fan calling me a fat Manchester shite to which Michaela promptly agreed and she then pissed off. Still, I was able to get over that by watching us get as obliterated as if a chemical weapon had been drooped on the team...at Brighton in the next round.

Seriously though, how had we gone from that 81-82 squad to going down. This is surely the time when Swales disasters came home to roost or was it all Kevin Bond's fault? I really couldn't take to him after he ousted Nicky Reid from that great Reid-Caton partnership.

 

[bluegaz13]

I went to the first game of that relegation season to Norwich away (on my way back from Great Yarmouth on holiday)

Think Graham Baker and David Cross made their debuts

We beat them 2-1 and played really well .......unbelievable that although there had been a reduction in talent from the previous season that we got relegated.

We were still better than probably half the teams in the top division but can't help thinking that politics plus John Bond (and Benson) contributed to the downturn in form and mood towards the end of the season.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I went to most home games in that era with my Dad. I was 11-13 and City daft. I was young and naive but after the cup final defeat I genuinely expected us to win the league in 81-82.

This was the era that the financial stupidity of the previous few years really came home to roost. Didn't we spend hundreds of thousands on a new Main Stand roof to house corporate boxes (on that structure which hung off it) but ran out of money and never built the boxes, thereby renderering the new roof a waste of time and money?

 

[trevorriley]

I thought this might be a good follow up to the excellent 78-79 implosion thread. In 1981, as a 16 year old I was enjoying life, City had just played in 2 of the most memorable cup finals ever, I had been to France and eaten horse for dinner, had sunbathed on a topless beach there and had started taking the occasional excursion to the as yet undiscovered territory called girls.
I rocked up at Maine Rd at the start of the 81-82 season as a Kippax regular and looked upon a squad that included Trevor Francis (after game 2), Tommy Hutch, Reeves, a rejuvenated King Tueart, Gow, Power, O'Neill, Reid, Caton, Bobby Mac, big Joe, Asa came back etc. It was a pretty useful and exciting squad - minus unfortunately Steve MacKenzie and Dave Bennett. we were top of the league for a time in that season before slumping badly in the second half losing 5-zip at home to the scousers, I remember going to watch Bury one day and hearing we were 4-0 down I think it was to Swansea at half time.
We had some terrible injuries that season, Power out for ages, Gerry Gow pretty much finished, Francis often injured, Tueart on a brilliant scoring run then injured for months and then Bond developed a knack of buying useful players like John Ryan and Oggie Hareide so we ended up mid table.

Season 82-83 turned out completely shot starting badly with selling Francis and replacing him with an ageing David Cross and I remember seeing the worst pair of back to back performances I have ever seen, 0-1 home to Notts County followed by 0-4 away to Coventry. Bond had walked by then. I went to Sunderland in the cup to see a boring 0-0 and to see my erstwhile long distance romance called Michaela. That's where the romance ended as I was sitting next to her in the Sunderland main stand and got gobbed on by a Sunderland fan calling me a fat Manchester shite to which Michaela promptly agreed and she then pissed off. Still, I was able to get over that by watching us get as obliterated as if a chemical weapon had been drooped on the team...at Brighton in the next round.

Seriously though, how had we gone from that 81-82 squad to going down. This is surely the time when Swales disasters came home to roost or was it all Kevin Bond's fault? I really couldn't take to him after he ousted Nicky Reid from that great Reid-Caton partnership.

of the same era mate, i was 16 and went to spurs final that year. 1981

 

[LongsightM13]

We were heavily linked with Southampton’s star midfielder Steve Williams for about two years. But we were skint and couldn’t afford him so instead signed his teammate Graham Baker, who was decent but not in the same class as Williams, who ended up going to Arsenal for big money and played for England

 

[Winchester]

Same time for me too
Didnt we get beat 0-5 in a pre season match too? (At MR)
Cant remember the opposition
It was a nightmare 82/83 Season

 

[Cityfan]

. we were top of the league for a time in that season before slumping badly in the second half losing 5-zip at home to the scousers,

A match I rememder well because I brought a Liverpool supporting mate from Uni along to see it. Last match I'd seen against Liverpool was when we went top on Boxing day at Anfield.

 

[LongsightM13]

A match I rememder well because I brought a Liverpool supporting mate from Uni along to see it. Last match I'd seen against Liverpool was when we went top on Boxing day at Anfield.

We won four of the first five games

MCFC Matches By Season - Manchester City, Man City History - Bluemoon-MCFC

bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk

A click on the ‘appearances’ tab of that page throws up some lost names. Chris Jones and Ian Davies were among our summer signings and barely featured before being binned.

 

[Bluearmy]

I went to most home games in that era with my Dad. I was 11-13 and City daft. I was young and naive but after the cup final defeat I genuinely expected us to win the league in 81-82.

This was the era that the financial stupidity of the previous few years really came home to roost. Didn't we spend hundreds of thousands on a new Main Stand roof to house corporate boxes (on that structure which hung off it) but ran out of money and never built the boxes, thereby renderering the new roof a waste of time and money?

Not sure if true (was only 6) but would it surprise anyone if it was!! Piss up in a brewery comes to mind

 

[LongsightM13]

I went to most home games in that era with my Dad. I was 11-13 and City daft. I was young and naive but after the cup final defeat I genuinely expected us to win the league in 81-82.

This was the era that the financial stupidity of the previous few years really came home to roost. Didn't we spend hundreds of thousands on a new Main Stand roof to house corporate boxes (on that structure which hung off it) but ran out of money and never built the boxes, thereby renderering the new roof a waste of time and money?

That roof is now being used as pig sheds on a farm in Cheshire