Johnny Crossan

[City_Shirts]

Fantastic to see 85-year old former 1965/66 City skipper Johnny Crossan with his copy of my A101 Manchester City match worn shirts book.

The Northern Irish inside forward would appear 110 times for the club between 1964-1967 and can be found these days at the sports shop he owns in his hometown of Derry.

A fascinating career the talented Irishman had.

 

[shemnel]

to my shame i've never heard of Johnny Crossan so i had a google, and what an odd back story.....

"When [Sunderland] made a substantial offer, Derry City offered Crossan a payment deal which he rejected, offering his own. When the Sunderland negotiations broke down, Derry City dropped Crossan, who signed for Coleraine. Derry City ... reported themselves to the Football League authorities for technical breaches of regulations. In January 1959, a commission of inquiry imposed small fines on Derry and Coleraine, but banned Crossan from all forms of football for life"

seems he went of to the Netherlands and only came back to the UK to City when they lifted his ban. So he was banned for life for wanting to move? is this the whole story? is this really how beholden to clubs players were pre-Bosman?

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

Funnily enough, I was talking to an older City fan at the gym this morning, and he was telling me all about Crossan and how he never got enough credit for his part in the City revival.

Crossan was just before my time, but I never realised that he'd actually been signed by George Poyser and not Joe Mercer.

I've since checked and presumably he joined City just after the infamous Swindon fixture at Maine Road.

 

[laserblue]

I remember him well. A really good player for City for a couple of seasons including the 65-66 promotion season and the season after. He left in the wake of Mercer and Allison joining City.

 

[Northerndave]

Let's all do the Crossan, Let's all do the Crossan, nah nah nah nah oooohh

Once a blue and all that....can we organise a 85h minute round of applause at the next home game...........or alternatively, just rename the 85th minute exodus the Crossan for one game?

 

[xgorton]

Watched him home and away back in the 60s.

 

[Lavinda Past]

Funnily enough, I was talking to an older City fan at the gym this morning, and he was telling me all about Crossan and how he never got enough credit for his part in the City revival.

Crossan was just before my time, but I never realised that he'd actually been signed by George Poyser and not Joe Mercer.

I've since checked and presumably he joined City just after the infamous Swindon fixture at Maine Road.

One of the best players I have ever seen. His skills were unbelievable, touch, control, passing, shooting, Johnny had the lot.
I'll never forget the Moscow Dynamo friendly, when Johnny made Lev Yashin (then the world's best goalkeeper) look like a schoolkid between the sticks.
He was a Poyser signing, but Joe knew that he'd inherited a top player and captain.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

Calling @johnny crossan to the thread.

 

[spider blue]

Watched him home and away back in the 60s.

Same here, one particular game sticks out to me was Preston at Deepdale I think we won 5:0 and Jonny was brilliant

 

[johnevans]

Fabulous player, one of my all-time City heroes. There is a case to be made that he singlehandedly willed us to promotion in 1965-66, such was his importance to that side in Mercer-Allison's first season.

He had an incredibly quick brain, always trying to catch the opposition out at free-kicks and corners. And it's no exaggeration to say that he was as good as David Silva in getting himself out of tightly marked situations to deliver a killer pass behind the defence to set 'Buzzer' Summerbee or Neil Young in on goal.

My favourite memory of Johnny Crossan in action was during the home game with promotion rivals Huddersfield Town on a wintry New Year's Day 1966. We took the lead with Mike Doyle's flying header in the first half. Huddersfield came back at us very strongly and threatened to at least equalise on several occasions. Whenever we did get possession in the second half, it was Crossan who calmed the play, holding on to the ball and allowing us to get into formation.

But his killer moment was when we were awarded a penalty at the Platt Lane end where I was sitting with The Old Man. I think it was Glyn Pardoe who'd been fouled and required treatment* from the trainer (* that's 'treatment' as in he ran onto the pitch with a pail full of freezing water and drenched the injured part of Pardoe's leg with an equally frozen sponge as the snowflakes fell from the even more equally frozen Manchester sky!)

Crossan was our penalty taker and he placed the ball on the spot, seemingly ready. But as the trainer made to run off, Johnny beckoned him over and made him place the bucket on the pitch so he could wash the mud off his left boot. And all of this in front of Huddersfield's goalkeeper, who went back onto his line. Crossan shaped to take the penalty with his left foot but at the last second shifted his balance and scored with his right foot! Absolute genius! We saw the game out at 2-0 for a statement win in the promotion title race and pretty much never looked back for the rest of the season.

Johnny Crossan - a truly glorious footballer who'd be worth quite a few bob nowadays!