Does anyone wish we still played at Maine Road and why?

[GornikDaze]

Maine Road - only had the car broken into once parking near the ground!

 

[levets]

No… we’d never have progressed.

 

[eastmanc]

I had some great memories of Maine Road games, but being homest, from my first game against Rochdale in the league cup (73?), without the nostalgia I can bet there were far more wet cold and miserable days:)

I was at that game. Edit no I wasn't, just looked it up and that was 1972 and City won four nil.

 

[Axel Freed]

Every fucking time I think about it I wish we were back there.

The happy highways where I went and cannot come again :-(

 

[oxopop]

Miss the pre match drinks in the beehive and the robin hood (that was some boozer) but nah.

 

[dickie davies]

Go on I’m listening?

Which you could quite easily have done on far too numerous occasions at Maine Road

 

[pride in battle]

Maine Rd was shit at the end. We all pretended the new Kippax was great but it was shit and we all new it.

I don't think it was, why ? #Kippax

 

[Eaststander1]

Maine Road - only had the car broken into once parking near the ground!

Lol, it never happened to me in all the years i parked the car near Xaverian College for a game at Maine Road ...... yet three months after we moved, someone smashed the car window as it was parked near Ashburys Station ... I got back to it after we'd lost 3-1 to Southampton, it was chuckin' it down with rain, and the f'kin passenger side window had been put through ... lol, just what you needed after a game that had already depressed you, eh???

 

[Gingers Dad]

I miss the fucking pubs.

About the only thing I do miss is the pubs near the ground. Everything else is nostalgic claptrap

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

I don't think it was, why ? #Kippax

Cheap, cheap and cheap. Didn't link at the corners, apart from the temporary stand that was also shit. Just looked out of place as was nothinglike the rest of it. And at that point capacity was only 35k. People forget that it was so limited by the end.

 

[pepguardiola'smoustache]

cracking banter with the away fans top corner of the Kippax

That's where i spent my time too.
Seems such a long time ago and yet i can remember it like yesterday.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

I'd love to go back but, just for one game...the 71/72 version with a standing North stand.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

I agree, the one with the old stands, the proper Kippax, or as my Dad used to say, Kippax Street. Platt Lane with the long wooden forms to sit on, this was before I was old/big enough to go in Kippax. The smell of cigar smoke wafting from Main Stand. I remember during evening kick offs, looking across to the Main Stand and you could see the flicker of lighters or matches when people where lighting their cigarettes or cigars. Funny how you remember things.
I thought the whole ground looked a mess when they created that monstrous seating stand where Kippax was.

One of the smells I remember most about Maine Road, and in particular the Main Stand, was that of cheap cigars.

 

[pepguardiola'smoustache]

Dogshit alley.
Ahhh, the good ol' days, eh.

 

[pride in battle]

Cheap, cheap and cheap. Didn't link at the corners, apart from the temporary stand that was also shit. Just looked out of place as was nothinglike the rest of it. And at that point capacity was only 35k. People forget that it was so limited by the end.

We didnt have the money to finish the corners, but as a stand alone stand it was impressive.

 

[jimharri]

I'm 62 not 16, no way I'd want that now no.

Same, apart from being a year older. It will always be "home", in my mind. I spent my first 10 years on Claremont Road (number 198, near the junction with Broadfield Rd), about 5-10 minutes' walk from Maine Road. It was my neck of the woods, and I loved it. But let's be honest; the ground was a mess, once they redeveloped the Platt Lane and Kippax stands. We couldn't say no, once the opportunity to move into the Commonwealth Games stadium began to emerge. Which would never have been built anyway,without a long term tenant to move into it. There wasn't the space to expand Maine Road (pretty much hemmed in with housing on three sides of the ground, and a school behind the Kippax). So, in answer to the question in the thread title; no. We've moved on immeasurably since those days.

 

[Colin Bells Boots]

Same, apart from being a year older. It will always be "home", in my mind. I spent my first 10 years on Claremont Road (number 198, near the junction with Broadfield Rd), about 5-10 minutes' walk from Maine Road. It was my neck of the woods, and I loved it. But let's be honest; the ground was a mess, once they redeveloped the Platt Lane and Kippax stands. We couldn't say no, once the opportunity to move into the Commonwealth Games stadium began to emerge. Which would never have been built anyway,without a long term tenant to move into it. There wasn't the space to expand Maine Road (pretty much hemmed in with housing on three sides of the ground, and a school behind the Kippax). So, in answer to the question in the thread title; no. We've moved on immeasurably since those days.

Absolutely this, but the memories of the great times at Maine Road are something to cherish and look back on.

My view of games at the Etihad in CB3 has always been fantastic and something which I have always appreciated and a big improvement on my view from the Kippax :)

 

[asahartford1]

It's pissing down today, the puddles in the Kippax car park would be deep enough to drown a dog.

 

[roman totale]

Miss it? Yes
Want to go back? No

Pretty much how feel. Full disclosure, I did move to the US shortly before we moved to the Etihad, so I’ve only ever been there about once a season on average over the intervening years. In fact, I’ve been to more away games in that period, as my business trips to the UK are usually to the Midlands, or that London.
As other have said, it’s the pubs that I miss the most. I used to love the ritual we had of meeting up in the Birch Villa before the game and then walking over. Even though it’s not that much more of a walk from the NQ/ Piccadilly area to the Etihad, and it’s nice to walk down by the canal, it just isn’t the same. The stadium still seems like some monolith stuck on out the fringes. I’ve not been for a couple of years and maybe the Coop Live and stuff makes it feel better nowadays?
I also laugh at some of the hand-wringing on here about the atmosphere. Let’s not pretend that Maine Road was a seething cauldron every match.

 

[Blue Calx]

I miss the atmosphere and the togetherness.