I think we've always had good support..but it was mainly local..and in a big City like Manchester we were the only alternative to across the road
I'd say in the dark days 80-90% of blues were from the North-West at least
I grew up in North Wales..when I wore a city shirt as a kid..I used to get some strange looks..It was a strong Liverpool area in the 80s..there was only about 5 of us in a town of 35k who supported City
We used to come up to the games with an older lad in our teens in the back of his Rentakill van
It takes some getting used to seeing fans from Africa..South America etc..but I'm not bitter about it..anyone who supports CIty is welcome
im from south wales and i had the very same looks and constant piss taking, ...... but i really, really loved wearing my city shirts (not so much now as im 42 fat and balding) but I was THE only city supporter around, and i loved it. I kept saying/hoping that "maybe one day our time would come and i would see City win a trophy" ......never in my wildest dreams did i think we would be where we are today. Never. After 20 odd years of utter contempt from united and liverpool fans to me, im going to enjoy every single minute of us being successful and them lot winning next to nothing.