I could have written the same story apart from just one parent who was city daft !
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Does anyone wish we still played at Maine Road and why?
- Thread starter ColinBellsjockstrap
- Start date
Marvin.
Well-Known Member
Maine Rd holds memories, mostly bad for me.
My abiding memory of City will be Joe Hart wheeling round the Etihad, arms outstretched touching glory.
My abiding memory of City will be Joe Hart wheeling round the Etihad, arms outstretched touching glory.
Scaring Europe to Death
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- Joined
- 31 Oct 2014
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- 5,151
I miss being young and the Maine Road of the 1970s was part of my childhood
However, my teenage adolescence coincided with the decline of the club, both on and off the pitch.
The stadium soon deteriorated and aside from the odd cup run (that always seemed to end in tears and violence) our only measure of success was an occasional unexpected victory or spectacular scoreline
However, my teenage adolescence coincided with the decline of the club, both on and off the pitch.
The stadium soon deteriorated and aside from the odd cup run (that always seemed to end in tears and violence) our only measure of success was an occasional unexpected victory or spectacular scoreline
BringBackSwales
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- 3 Jul 2009
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- 37,136
Oh the ironyWith a big standing section definitely go back to Maine Road. The new Kippax killed it for me and we were ready for change, but as amazing a stadium the Etihad is the atmosphere bar a few games a season is terrible, flat as a pancake. As is just about every other premier league stadium as well
Billericay City
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- 28 Jun 2022
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- Team supported
- Manchester City
I sometimes wish we could have redeveloped Maine Road to the Etihad standard.
It was much easier to get to being a Withington lad. A nice walk along Yew Tree Road, stop in The Fallowfield or at the Platt Lane training ground on the way.
I don’t miss the fog shit alleys though!
It was much easier to get to being a Withington lad. A nice walk along Yew Tree Road, stop in The Fallowfield or at the Platt Lane training ground on the way.
I don’t miss the fog shit alleys though!
eastmanc
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- 7 Nov 2010
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- 10,236
- Team supported
- Manchester city
And the club souvenir shop.Believe he also sold off the rights to the club badge.
East Level 2
Well-Known Member
It seems to me the main thing fans miss from Maine Road is the old Kippax terrace, which is irrelevant in a "do you wish we still played there" thread as the all-seater regulation was passed well before we re-built the Kippax so we wouldn't have large scale standing anyway.
I only went to about 20 games at Maine Road - from my first game in 1999 against Norwich (two goals in 60 seconds from Mark Kennedy), until the penultimate game there against Sunderland when Foé scored the last ever City goal there. So, unsurprisingly, I don't miss it as much others do.
That said, I went for a walk around the area the other month. I was on Wilmslow Road picking up some stuff for my wedding when I realised I was at the lights right next to the Toast Rack, so I turned round, parked back up nearby, and took a detour to the centre-spot memorial on the new estate.
I'd not been to the Maine Road site in about 20 years.
It did feel strangely sad. Like Maine Road had a ghost that was still lingering there, like you could hear a crowd chanting from nowhere. Standing on the estate, you realise how small football stadiums are in terms of flat square footage. They're so big and ostensibly so wide but you could walk from touchline to touchline in about 30 seconds, couldn't you? And you realise how the old stadiums really do just rise out of Victorian estates out of nowhere.
It was doubly weird going past Platt Fields and the old training ground. I used to stand there with my dad on his days off, waiting for Nicky Weaver and Shaun Goater to come out and sign autographs. I had memories of it all being massive, surrounded by wide A-roads - like Wilbraham Road or something near Whalley Range School - but it's not, is it? These days it just looks dingy and unused and unloved. The estate nearby is tight and boxy, too, and feels less like an inner-city suburb, which is how it felt to me in the late 1990s, and more like an extension of Stockport, Bolton, Oldham, etc.
I guess what I miss is my childhood, rather than Maine Road. Being small and the world seeming big. Everything feeling exciting and new. Every game at Maine Road feeling like a world-making or world-ending event. City players being reachable, being able to stand outside the training ground waiting for autographs. I don't wish we were still playing there - the Etihad is home now and it has been for as far back as my clear memories go, and we needed to leave Maine Road behind in order to join the 21st century.
But... you look at it in pictures and you realise that, as much as it was ugly and surrounded on all sides by an underfunded and deprived place, it all had identity and character and history and roots that the Etihad won't have until we're all far too old and loopy to remember. All four stands being completely different to one another is the kind of thing we thought was a problem until we all moved to the identikit bowl-shaped stadiums we're in now, and now I wish each stand at the Etihad had its own name, look, feel, and reputation.
But, eh, it is what it is. Time marches on. People come and go.
Here's some home footage my dad shot of City players, Maine Road open days, training sessions etc. between 2002 and 2004.
That said, I went for a walk around the area the other month. I was on Wilmslow Road picking up some stuff for my wedding when I realised I was at the lights right next to the Toast Rack, so I turned round, parked back up nearby, and took a detour to the centre-spot memorial on the new estate.
I'd not been to the Maine Road site in about 20 years.
It did feel strangely sad. Like Maine Road had a ghost that was still lingering there, like you could hear a crowd chanting from nowhere. Standing on the estate, you realise how small football stadiums are in terms of flat square footage. They're so big and ostensibly so wide but you could walk from touchline to touchline in about 30 seconds, couldn't you? And you realise how the old stadiums really do just rise out of Victorian estates out of nowhere.
It was doubly weird going past Platt Fields and the old training ground. I used to stand there with my dad on his days off, waiting for Nicky Weaver and Shaun Goater to come out and sign autographs. I had memories of it all being massive, surrounded by wide A-roads - like Wilbraham Road or something near Whalley Range School - but it's not, is it? These days it just looks dingy and unused and unloved. The estate nearby is tight and boxy, too, and feels less like an inner-city suburb, which is how it felt to me in the late 1990s, and more like an extension of Stockport, Bolton, Oldham, etc.
I guess what I miss is my childhood, rather than Maine Road. Being small and the world seeming big. Everything feeling exciting and new. Every game at Maine Road feeling like a world-making or world-ending event. City players being reachable, being able to stand outside the training ground waiting for autographs. I don't wish we were still playing there - the Etihad is home now and it has been for as far back as my clear memories go, and we needed to leave Maine Road behind in order to join the 21st century.
But... you look at it in pictures and you realise that, as much as it was ugly and surrounded on all sides by an underfunded and deprived place, it all had identity and character and history and roots that the Etihad won't have until we're all far too old and loopy to remember. All four stands being completely different to one another is the kind of thing we thought was a problem until we all moved to the identikit bowl-shaped stadiums we're in now, and now I wish each stand at the Etihad had its own name, look, feel, and reputation.
But, eh, it is what it is. Time marches on. People come and go.
Here's some home footage my dad shot of City players, Maine Road open days, training sessions etc. between 2002 and 2004.