City early 90s

[Dirty Harry]

Loved Beagrie. Dunno if its supposed to be a secret ballot but I had him in my Bluemoon top 20.

Shit man, you’ve just ruined it for everyone, should have put a “spoiler alert “ in mate ;-)

 

[Dirty Harry]

We were never really that close but I concur with what Quinny said a prolific striker would have made a huge difference.

Unfortunately Peter Reid was desperate to waste the money we had on Curle (who I rated) and Phelan when other positions were a real priority.

When you consider he sold Colin Hendry for 750k and spent 2.5 million on Keith Curle to replace him, similarly 900k on Rick Holden and sold Michael Hughes for 450k and history tells you who got the better of the deals. I mentioned it on another thread but he similarly pursued the likes of Paul Stewart every summer who clearly was overweight and injury prone at this time.

It was exciting to be up there though (even though the football was horrible) but for a generation of fans like me, mid 40s nowit was the first glimpse of a half decent City side.

I remember going up to Sheff Utd when we were riding high and lost 4-2 with Paul Lakes brother (Michael) scoring a stunner. There was thousands there that day, loads in the Sheff Utd end and many locked out.

Funnily enough we played our best football away and there was a video (equalling the record) as we won 4 away matches on the bounce. Seems small beer now but winning at the likes of Spurs seemed very exciting.

The longer Reid was there, the worse it got and we were well on the slide when he got sacked.

Always thought Hendry and Curle would have made a decent centre back pairing myself , but oddly enough, given the players we had , signing Holden made total sense to me at the time, he’d had an excellent season (iirc) with Oldham the previous season, had a bit of a deja vu Rodders the way things have gone with Mahrez , that made sense to me at the time too .

 

[the-ecstacy-of-eight]

Hindsight's ace innit but it's hard to believe how successful we were in the early 90s compared to the following 15-odd years.

There were some hugely frustrating games, thought, particularly early in the Kendall era - Wayne Clarke and Adrian Heath in tandem was no way to go. I remember going to Everton for Kendall's first game back there and it was a terrible 0-0 (I think) on telly when there was only one game a week live.

As one of the earlier posters said, finishing above the scum was brilliant. I think we drew at Palace with two late goals to get the crucial point. On the pitch at the end - great away day. Of course that may be a horrible misremembering!

Funnily enough, I enjoyed some of the football from a couple of years later a bit more, even though we didn't finish as high. Walsh, Gaudino, Rocastle under Horton. Although I may have misremembered all that as well!

Seem to remember us getting beat off Everton (if I'm remembering the right match) only because I remember watching it on TV and the commentators moaning that Coton didn't stretch enough when he'd dived and that he'd be unhappy with his efforts at saving it (?) My memory is that it was a sort of lobbed shot from the left edge of the penalty area, Kevin Sheedy? Pat Nevin? one of their silky skilled wingers and that Coton did well to get anywhere near it.

1991?

 

[Bluearmy]

Kendall leaving us knocked us back for sure, an injury free paul lake would’ve gone on to be a world superstar, obv not at city swales would’ve seen to that!!, we were decent under reid but always the lack of money was looming in the background, i enjoyed them times at maine road to be honest!!!

Talked about this before. Kendall Selling Hinchcliffe was unfortunate and then Reid somehow sold Colin Hendry (player of the year at the time), didnt play Clive Allen (despite scoring every time he got a few minutes) and we lost Michael Hughes too. Lake’s injury was very unfortunate, although we screwed up his rehabilitation too. McMahon was finished when we bought him. Good player in his day but past it when he came to us.

Coton, Hendry, Curle, Hinchcliffe, Brighwell Flitcroft, white, Hughes, Quinn, Allen, Lomas, with a few quality editions should of seen us at the higher end of the league. Instead we bought Vonk, Kernsghan, mcmahon, Holden, etc and slipped back. A missed opportunity for sure at the very worst time with premier league dominance on its way!!

 

[the-ecstacy-of-eight]

Just found the video of the Everton game, Kendall's first whilst back at "his wife's gaff". We lost 2-0 and the goal wasn't quite how I remembered it, even though it was Sheedy who scored it. Joe Royle was the guy in the studio slating Coton.

 

[Silvercloud]

That QPR awayday in the cup was one of my favourites of that era, brilliant atmosphere that day

Remember it as my first away day without my Dad. Went with my uncle & his mates (who I still go with now) and what a day it was. Travelling down in the back of a transit, beer for breakfast, beer for dinner & beer for tea.
I seem to remember sitting outside a parade of shops when the team bus went past & the then, merry crowd of blues, taking the piss out of Michel Vonks salmon pink suit.
A cracking away day, that is still in my top 5.

 

[jamesha]

I think if Quinn had a strike partner similar to Kevin Phillips who he played with a Sunderland then City could have competed for the title. I never really understood the love some fans had for Clive Allen - he scored a few good goals (Chelsea away) but was hardly prolific (16 goals in 53 league games).

The football itself was not great - turgid long ball stuff - and it seemed that Sam Ellis, the assistant manager, set most of the tactics.

I also was shocked by what we paid for Curle (worth it) and Phelan (not so much) and the way that Hendry was got rid of because of a personality clash with Reid.

To be honest I don't think we really would have been successful with Reid and Ellis in charge. If Kendall had stayed things might have been different - his Everton teams played great passing football (first time around).

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

I met a sunderland fan holiday in gran canaria in 1997 he was at maine road that day & said they brought 17,000!!! told him i was on the game as well & he needed to behave himself!! Amazing away support that day from them that day dont get me wrong but platt lane held 8,000? didnt see 9,000 others in our end i told him!!

The other 9,000 were in the open Kippax corner adjoining the Platt Lane stand.

Never seen anything like it outside the ground before kick off, everywhere was littered with beer cans all over the place. I believe they took the Parkside over arriving at opening time in their hundreds.

 

[Bluesince1979]

we had that potential 25 goals a year guy in Clive Allen. I think that it was Reid who ditched him. Kendall should have stayed, he was on to something and his return to Everton was never going to work.

I asked peter reid once, mightve been at chester/haydock races, why he didnt play/rate clive allen. He just bashed his heart with his fist and said, “none of that”, and walked off.

 

[Sky Blue Thinking]

I think if Quinn had a strike partner similar to Kevin Phillips who he played with a Sunderland then City could have competed for the title. I never really understood the love some fans had for Clive Allen - he scored a few good goals (Chelsea away) but was hardly prolific (16 goals in 53 league games).

The football itself was not great - turgid long ball stuff - and it seemed that Sam Ellis, the assistant manager, set most of the tactics.

I also was shocked by what we paid for Curle (worth it) and Phelan (not so much) and the way that Hendry was got rid of because of a personality clash with Reid.

To be honest I don't think we really would have been successful with Reid and Ellis in charge. If Kendall had stayed things might have been different - his Everton teams played great passing football (first time around).

Think Ellis definetely had a lot of influence behind the scenes, maybe too much. Reid was in his first managerial job and also still playing so needed some kind of guidance, not sure Ellis had the credentials for that role at the top level. To give credit, Id imagine Ellis was involved in the signing of Andy Hill from his old club Bury and he was one of Reid's few decent signings.
At this time teams were still mainly made up of players from the British Isles but clubs were looking to Europe for signings hoping to find a gem, some clubs did, we ended up with the likes of Ingebrigsten (apart from hat trick in a cup game did nothing else) and Groenendijk (did anyone ever see him open a can of peas with his left foot?). We still had decent youth coming through in the likes of Hughes, Sheron, Flitcroft, Edghill and Lomas but dried up after them.