Manchester City v Atlanta Chiefs 15th June 1968

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dennishasdoneit

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Manchester City.

The newly crowned Champions of England playing the final match of a gruelling 9 match post season tournament in the USA.
Bell Lee and Summberbee all turned out along with Joe Corrigan Glynn Pardoe Tony Coleman and Stan Bowles.

Not quite the equivalent of this summers Club World Cup....but no doubt a demanding pull on the fitness of the champions ..

I imagine we were back in pre season training around 3 weeks after this match and lost the opening day of the season on August 10th 1968 at home to Liverpool ,winning only 1 of our first 9 games of the start of season 1968/69...

We eventually finished 13th in the old division one,but of course won the FA cup at Wembley....
 
True, but if I remember correctly, City (and most of our rivals) always enjoyed (or endured) some kind of close-season tour throughout the 60s and 70s

Also, the gap between seasons was often longer

Coincidentally I've just been looking at the last game of 72-73 and the first time I ever saw City lose when Crystal Palace won 3-2 at Maine Road.

That game was played in April but our next fixture wasn't until late August when we beat Birmingham 3-1
 
From my website -
On their return to England, Joe Mercer said “We shall never again attempt to make such an exhausting trip as this has been. It was too long, there were too many matches involved and everyone of them was like a cup tie. Our troubles really started before we set off because Mike Summerbee, Colin Bell and Mike Doyle had been called up for England and Alan Oakes had been released because he is a bad traveller. Thus our playing strength was cut down to 14 instead of the 18 players we expected to have available.
The injuries hit us hard that at one time we only had seven fit players in America and in one particular match we played with nine men for over an hour after two of the boys had been sent off.”
 
trevorcitytilidie said:
From my website -
On their return to England, Joe Mercer said “We shall never again attempt to make such an exhausting trip as this has been. It was too long, there were too many matches involved and everyone of them was like a cup tie. Our troubles really started before we set off because Mike Summerbee, Colin Bell and Mike Doyle had been called up for England and Alan Oakes had been released because he is a bad traveller. Thus our playing strength was cut down to 14 instead of the 18 players we expected to have available.
The injuries hit us hard that at one time we only had seven fit players in America and in one particular match we played with nine men for over an hour after two of the boys had been sent off.”
Click to expand...
i couldn't believe my eyes when I looked up the post season friendly fixture list..
All that energy expended at White Hart Lane May 1968 then St James Park Newcastle
We also played Bury in a friendly ffs before going to America

The US tour really messed up the start to the new season.
 
Scaring Europe to Death said:
Yeah, City played Hearts 5 times in 57-58, but with a combined 41 goals, it makes you wonder how seriously the games were taken.

Nov 57 Hearts 3 City 5
May 58 Hearts 6 City 5
May 58 Hearts 3 City 5
June 58 Hearts 1 City 7
June 58 Hearts 6 City 0
Click to expand...
They also played 14th October 1953 at Maine Road, 6-3 City. This was a night game to celebrate the opening of City’s “massive” floodlights
 
Scaring Europe to Death said:
Yeah, City played Hearts 5 times in 57-58, but with a combined 41 goals, it makes you wonder how seriously the games were taken.

Nov 57 Hearts 3 City 5
May 58 Hearts 6 City 5
May 58 Hearts 3 City 5
June 58 Hearts 1 City 7
June 58 Hearts 6 City 0
Click to expand...

The Hearts museum put on a special display of Hearts v City memorabilia when Oasis were in town this summer.
The Bluemoon plate is a cracker
 
Scaring Europe to Death said:
Yep
Assassinated June 6th 1968

It gets mentioned in Mike Doyle's original autobiography and also a story about Stan Bowles and Tony Coleman being arrested
Click to expand...
He was shot on the 5th, but died on the 6th.

Apparently, Joe Mercer told Albert Alexander that Bobby Kennedy had been shot, Albert asked, "What was he doing out at this time of night?"
 
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