First game....

Zabbasbeard

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 Nov 2011
Messages
2,639
Team supported
Manchester City
Forty years ago today, on 1st November 1980, was my first visit to Maine Road. My parents were newly separated and Dad was looking for something to do on a Saturday afternoon. I liked football but had been more into cricket so didn't have a team of my own as such, even at 15. City were bottom of the old First Division but the team played with great spirit. What grabbed me most was the fans, chanting "We love you City we do" to a team that was rock bottom in the league. Paul Power, Dave Bennett, Nicky Reid, Joe Corrigan and one Gerry Gow, making his debut, stood out to me. Particularly Gerry Gow. Dave Bennett missed a good chance but Paul Power scored the winner and everyone went home happy. The fans, the players, the ground, the aroma of soup, pies, beer and tobacco were a heady mix that I will never forget. I was bitten by the big that day. I wanted more. I wanted to be one of those fans. Despite the mostly thin and thinner of the first 28 years, 5 relegations, 5 promotions and the latent success of the last 10 years, I've never regretted a moment. The lows, as painful as they were, have made the highs that bit better. Thanks Dad even if you're no longer with us. Here's to a few years more...

What was your first game? What grabbed you!? Maybe you were already a Blue.
 
I've been meaning to write about this at greater length, which I maybe will do at some point in the future, but here's the quick version.

My first match was 26 years ago in a couple of weeks - the 12th December 1994, when I was 8 years old. I'd been a City fan for a couple of years, though I became one in slightly unusual circumstances. Unlike most kids, I was never given a team to support by my dad or another family member. My dad grew up in a country where football wasn't especially popular, and he never developed an attachment to any English team when he moved to the UK in his late 20s. I enjoyed playing football on the street as a little kid, but I was completely clueless as to what the professional sport was like. In fact I remember once my older cousin giving me a football card (those old school ones, maybe they came in cigarette packets or something?) and being really confused because it said the player played for Liverpool and England, and I didn't understand because what if they played against each other? Anyway, one day in infant school, when I was about 6, some of the other boys were talking about football and who we all supported. Cliches aside, despite the fact this was in Manchester nearly everyone was a United fan. I remember some of the United fans talking about how City are rubbish, no one likes City, etc, and I remember thinking to myself that this wasn't fair, so I decided on a point of principle to support City there and then. So from then on if anyone asked me who I supported I said I was a City fan, without knowing who played for them or really anything about them.

When I started junior school there was a kid in my class who was a big City fan (I used to still see him a lot when I was still living in Manchester actually, he goes on Whizz's bus from Didsbury) and he was like, 'who's your favourite player?' I didn't have a clue so I just copied his, which was Gary Flitcroft. Over the next year or so I started to nag my dad to take us to a game, which he eventually agreed to do. It was City - Arsenal at Maine Road, and we sat in the corner between the North Stand and the Main Stand. I don't remember a lot about the game, just a few scattered details. The kids 'minding' dad's car; Dibble's name getting booed when they read out the teamsheet; Arsenal's right winger (I assume it was Ray Parlour) having a lot of the ball; City looking pretty crap and the crowd being lethargic. It's a cliche that seems to feature in every story of going to a night match as a kid but I was struck by how massive the ground was, how bright the lights and how green the pitch. I also remember the fact that people were shouting and singing stuff on the street outside the ground - I was amazed that football was apparently this thing that meant the normal rules and habits of behaviour didn't apply. After the game, by chance we bumped into someone my dad had been to university with, thousands of miles away in their home country, who had also moved to Manchester and was also a City fan.

We lost 2-1 and apparently I cried, and asked my dad when we could go again.
 
I've been meaning to write about this at greater length, which I maybe will do at some point in the future, but here's the quick version.

My first match was 26 years ago in a couple of weeks - the 12th December 1994, when I was 8 years old. I'd been a City fan for a couple of years, though I became one in slightly unusual circumstances. Unlike most kids, I was never given a team to support by my dad or another family member. My dad grew up in a country where football wasn't especially popular, and he never developed an attachment to any English team when he moved to the UK in his late 20s. I enjoyed playing football on the street as a little kid, but I was completely clueless as to what the professional sport was like. In fact I remember once my older cousin giving me a football card (those old school ones, maybe they came in cigarette packets or something?) and being really confused because it said the player played for Liverpool and England, and I didn't understand because what if they played against each other? Anyway, one day in infant school, when I was about 6, some of the other boys were talking about football and who we all supported. Cliches aside, despite the fact this was in Manchester nearly everyone was a United fan. I remember some of the United fans talking about how City are rubbish, no one likes City, etc, and I remember thinking to myself that this wasn't fair, so I decided on a point of principle to support City there and then. So from then on if anyone asked me who I supported I said I was a City fan, without knowing who played for them or really anything about them.

When I started junior school there was a kid in my class who was a big City fan (I used to still see him a lot when I was still living in Manchester actually, he goes on Whizz's bus from Didsbury) and he was like, 'who's your favourite player?' I didn't have a clue so I just copied his, which was Gary Flitcroft. Over the next year or so I started to nag my dad to take us to a game, which he eventually agreed to do. It was City - Arsenal at Maine Road, and we sat in the corner between the North Stand and the Main Stand. I don't remember a lot about the game, just a few scattered details. The kids 'minding' dad's car; Dibble's name getting booed when they read out the teamsheet; Arsenal's right winger (I assume it was Ray Parlour) having a lot of the ball; City looking pretty crap and the crowd being lethargic. It's a cliche that seems to feature in every story of going to a night match as a kid but I was struck by how massive the ground was, how bright the lights and how green the pitch. I also remember the fact that people were shouting and singing stuff on the street outside the ground - I was amazed that football was apparently this thing that meant the normal rules and habits of behaviour didn't apply. After the game, by chance we bumped into someone my dad had been to university with, thousands of miles away in their home country, who had also moved to Manchester and was also a City fan.

We lost 2-1 and apparently I cried, and asked my dad when we could go again.
Good post mate.
 
3-2 loss to Port Vale in '97. Similar to the post above, the main thing I remember was the size of the place and the floodlights. It rained all game and I fell asleep before the second half. Dad was pissed off. I've still got the programme and newspaper clippings on the bookshelf in my living room.
 
Mine was City v Coventry in 1969 my dad reckons he took me to a few games with my granddad before that but I remember going and being aware of what was going on at that game ... City won 3-1 and here I am :-)
 
First game v Birmingham April 62 lost 4-1,Glynn Pardoe also made his debut I was stood over the tunnel in the corner between the old scoreboard end and Kippax.
 
24 Sept 1955 v Blackpool. Won 2-0 with goals from Don Revie and the fifties incarnation of David Silva, Bobby Johnstone. And the crowd was nigh on 64000, the highest of the season and more than either the home and away fixtures against Stretford Sewage FC. Wonder if they'd come to see Sir Stan. I can't remember if he played or not, but I can still see the Blackpool players running out of the tunnel in their tangerine shirts! I knew then that I was destined for a lifetime of footy watching. And I've not been disappointed!
 
Linfield away 1970, cup winners' cup - lost 2-1


1st league game was Everton away - 1974 - lost 2-0


Wasn't a great start TBH.
 

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.