20 years ago today - last game at Maine Road

For those that missed out on Farewell To Maine Road when it was published in 2003 I’m going to be posting the entire 320 page fully illustrated book on my website over the next few weeks. Details:

gjfootballarchive.com

Farewell To Maine Road – The Book Re-Appears

Today marks the 20th anniversary of Maine Road's final day. I had hoped to update and republish my book Farewell To Maine Road: The Official History of Manchester City's Grounds, published in 2003 this year but sadly that is not possible. However, subscribers to my website will all be able to...
gjfootballarchive.com gjfootballarchive.com
 
Only a timely downpour prevented a full scale riot on Wilmslow Road afterwards.

Things were livening up rapidly outside The Clarence.
 
Ric said:
I loved Maine Road, and miss it in many ways, but the final game was a bit of a strange day. It was obviously pretty emotional, but it pissed down and we played terribly. Seem to remember Doves and Badly Drawn Boy performing in the centre circle after the match.
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Bernard Halford was petrified fans would try and take things and so orders were sent out to take things down. He decided the mosaics had to be taken down before the last day - at a pace that meant some of the pieces got damaged - and he wanted the post match stuff to drag on so that fans would leave over time, not en masse. He thought if we all left at the same time we’d trash everything. He talked of fans ransacking Springfield Park’s offices after the play off game in 1999 (the ground’s last match) and said it would happen at City. That paranoid Level of thinking directed a lot of what ultimately happened. Hence those notices about spanners too!
 
ok after Maine Road bought blue seats of 3 in the days thinking they would last forever. Either it was Gumtree Manchester or some ebay-like website. There were hundreds of the seats available. Was it £100 or less than? Good fun for a year or two and then stashed away after.

Remember the time when going to the new stadium we called them COMS? I did.
 
Ric said:
I loved Maine Road, and miss it in many ways, but the final game was a bit of a strange day. It was obviously pretty emotional, but it pissed down and we played terribly. Seem to remember Doves and Badly Drawn Boy performing in the centre circle after the match.
Click to expand...
Southampton..Do one!! :)
 
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Gary James said:
Bernard Halford was petrified fans would try and take things and so orders were sent out to take things down. He decided the mosaics had to be taken down before the last day - at a pace that meant some of the pieces got damaged - and he wanted the post match stuff to drag on so that fans would leave over time, not en masse. He thought if we all left at the same time we’d trash everything. He talked of fans ransacking Springfield Park’s offices after the play off game in 1999 (the ground’s last match) and said it would happen at City. That paranoid Level of thinking directed a lot of what ultimately happened. Hence those notices about spanners too!
Click to expand...


I was there the day it was literally being hacked off with a massive drill.... I was mortified. Got given a piece though, no wonder that one useless mock up they made that used to be in the memorial garden was so poor, there just wasn't enough bits! 80 years and the mosaic couldn't see out the final game - it upset me tbh.

Then again I was an emotional wreck that week. And yeah the whole ending was awful, be it players out before the game and crap music after. We were harassed by a BBC camera crew zooming in on my tears as we didn't want to leave our seats.. And then it pissed down.
Such a depressing day we instantly agreed to go back a few days later for the city u20 final, the true last match by a professional official city team. Only the main stand was open, but it gave another chance at goodbye for me.

Plus as great as he was it was a shame Keegan was boss at the time as in every interview he ran the place down and bigged up coms. Someone like Joe Royle would've got it more - what it meant to people.

I remember when I was at demolition 3 times a week in 2004 seeing the original mosaic above the main entrance get uncovered one afternoon, but then work stopped for the day 5pm, and by the time I got off the bus next day 10am it was all trashed and gone, it should've been saved!
 
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