It should have been against West Brom towards the end of the 1962-63 season. I was given bum information about the buses to Maine Road from Cheadle Hulme and never made it. Just as well as City lost 5-1.
I tried again the next match and made it there to watch City play Blackpool and lose 3-0 with me standing on the Kippax. Not much to recall about that match other than the atmosphere with a small group of tangerine clad Blackpool supporters making a lot of noise from the Scoreboard End.
I went again to the next match against, the then mighty, Spurs. City won 1-0 with an Alex Harley goal. Spurs had a great team back then with Danny Blanchflower, Cliff Jones, Jimmy Greaves, Terry Dyson, etc and had won the double a year or so earlier.
Les McDowall had made one of his tactical changes and restored George Hannah as a ‘schemer’ and pushed Joe Hayes further forward. It worked a treat. Unfortunately Hannah was injured in that match and had to be replaced for the ‘relegation derby’ against United.
Harley scored against United and it appeared that City might yet survive. United got a late and rather undeserved equaliser.
That goal pretty well ensured relegation for City which was confirmed a week later when City lost 5-1 at West Ham while United won.
I had gone to Oulton Park for a motor-race meeting and only found out when I bought a Pink on the journey back. The headlines were all about United surviving.