Lowest league attendance at Maine Road

remember arthur mann said:
I remember around that time being George Poyser.
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Definitely George Poyser who took over from Les McDowell having been his assistant.
His tenure marked the low point of the gradual decline at City after the cup success in the 1950's.
The football we played was dire under him and the main reason for rock bottom attendances.
It was so bad people talked of taking their football boots to the match on the off chance they might get a game.
Thankfully he was replaced by Mercer and Allison.
 
remember arthur mann said:
I remember around that time being George Poyser. One of the lowest times I recall, there was a bus strike and having to walk to the match. Another time, due to the bad weather, ice and snow, buses being stopped.

One for the old ones around that time.

1965 in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

Edit. I noticed the removal of prescriptions charges in January. Good old Harold Wilson.
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It was a grim old time by the sound of it. The Kinks nailed the time with Dead end street.
 
Just as an aside to this thread, during the 1972 Miners Strike Teams weren’t allowed to switch the floodlights on, I was about 12 at the time and me and my mate l (we’re still mate”s after 54 years and sit together in the CB) went to an afternoon midweek game and wagged school.

I got home about 6pm and eventually the local news came on, they’d had cameras at Maine Road and the story was all about how fans were either missing from work or school to attend. Cue, a little while in and the camera zooms in on me and my pal running to the turnstile, my Dad gave me a right bollocking but in later life he told me he was secretly pissing himself laughing and knew then my dedication to City couldn’t be questioned.

I just can’t remember the game, I wanted to look up the crowd in the History section of BM but I think it was just that one, would have been February/March I’m guessing but seem to recall the crowd was down on usual home games but I maybe wrong, it’s so long time ago, anyone help?
 
Remarkable that the first home attendance for the following season (25,572 v Wolves) eclipsed every game from 64-65

The general air of malaise had obviously lifted in the Summer of 1965,
 
hammocity said:
Just as an aside to this thread, during the 1972 Miners Strike Teams weren’t allowed to switch the floodlights on, I was about 12 at the time and me and my mate l (we’re still mate”s after 54 years and sit together in the CB) went to an afternoon midweek game and wagged school.

I got home about 6pm and eventually the local news came on, they’d had cameras at Maine Road and the story was all about how fans were either missing from work or school to attend. Cue, a little while in and the camera zooms in on me and my pal running to the turnstile, my Dad gave me a right bollocking but in later life he told me he was secretly pissing himself laughing and knew then my dedication to City couldn’t be questioned.

I just can’t remember the game, I wanted to look up the crowd in the History section of BM but I think it was just that one, would have been February/March I’m guessing but seem to recall the crowd was down on usual home games but I maybe wrong, it’s so long time ago, anyone help?
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Was it Coventry or Plymouth in the League Cup?
 
hammocity said:
Just as an aside to this thread, during the 1972 Miners Strike Teams weren’t allowed to switch the floodlights on, I was about 12 at the time and me and my mate l (we’re still mate”s after 54 years and sit together in the CB) went to an afternoon midweek game and wagged school.

I got home about 6pm and eventually the local news came on, they’d had cameras at Maine Road and the story was all about how fans were either missing from work or school to attend. Cue, a little while in and the camera zooms in on me and my pal running to the turnstile, my Dad gave me a right bollocking but in later life he told me he was secretly pissing himself laughing and knew then my dedication to City couldn’t be questioned.

I just can’t remember the game, I wanted to look up the crowd in the History section of BM but I think it was just that one, would have been February/March I’m guessing but seem to recall the crowd was down on usual home games but I maybe wrong, it’s so long time ago, anyone help?
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There were a few midweek kick offs around that time, but the two that always seem to be mentioned were a couple of season later (73-74) and both in the League Cup
4-2 Coventry at Maine Road and the Semi Final First Leg at Plymouth (50th anniversary was yesterday)
 
Scaring Europe to Death said:
There were a few midweek kick offs around that time, but the two that always seem to be mentioned were a couple of season later (73-74) and both in the League Cup
4-2 Coventry at Maine Road and the Semi Final First Leg at Plymouth (50th anniversary was yesterday)
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It was definitely 1972 and I’m pretty sure it was the only one in the 71/72 season, see above, cheers.
 
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JGL07 said:
I was at the Swindon match where Mike Summerbee scored. The 8,015 that attended wasn’t much lower than the match against Middlesbrough the previous season (8,053).

The Middlesbrough match was played on a Tuesday night as opposed to a Saturday.

Gates of less than 10,000 were not unknown at Maine Road before the arrival of Mercer. The final match of the 1964-65 season against Charlton attracted only 8,409.

Many will not appreciate how variable crowds were back then when the number of season tickets sold was very low. Bad weather and other issues could affect attendances.
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I sometimes wonder about our away following that season, especially as Huddersfield recorded their highest attendance of the season (14,405) v City, just a few weeks after the Swindon debacle.

Huddersfield were lower midtable so there's no obvious explanation, apart from City taking a few.
 
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