Old Maine Road photos thread

spinney said:
for a kid like me it was magical , then every 'improvement' made it worserer , seats in the north stand, the new platt lane, the new kippax..... all worse than wot they replaced
Click to expand...
I would disagree about the North Stand. I stood there for one season and then got a season ticket there when the seats were put in and I remained until I moved away from Manchester.

The Platt Lane replacement somehow managed to lose a lot of seats with no apparent gain. The Kippax replacement was abysmal. It was massive yet contained very few seats due to poor design. I read that Francis Lee wanted to go for a redesign but had to go ahead with the Swales concept due to the urgency of meeting the all-seater requirements.

The construction of the new Kippax with the reduction of capacity to around 30,000 convinced me that City needed to leave Maine Road. Even after this was pushed up slightly with the open air seating, it was no longer fit for purpose. Only Peter Swales was responsible.
 
JGL07 said:
I would disagree about the North Stand. I stood there for one season and then got a season ticket there when the seats were put in and I remained until I moved away from Manchester.

The Platt Lane replacement somehow managed to lose a lot of seats with no apparent gain. The Kippax replacement was abysmal. It was massive yet contained very few seats due to poor design. I read that Francis Lee wanted to go for a redesign but had to go ahead with the Swales concept due to the urgency of meeting the all-seater requirements.

The construction of the new Kippax with the reduction of capacity to around 30,000 convinced me that City needed to leave Maine Road. Even after this was pushed up slightly with the open air seating, it was no longer fit for purpose. Only Peter Swales was responsible.
Click to expand...
The lack of ambition in reducing our capacity from circa 52,000 to around 34,000 was actually quite staggering.
 
JGL07 said:
I would disagree about the North Stand. I stood there for one season and then got a season ticket there when the seats were put in and I remained until I moved away from Manchester.

The Platt Lane replacement somehow managed to lose a lot of seats with no apparent gain. The Kippax replacement was abysmal. It was massive yet contained very few seats due to poor design. I read that Francis Lee wanted to go for a redesign but had to go ahead with the Swales concept due to the urgency of meeting the all-seater requirements.

The construction of the new Kippax with the reduction of capacity to around 30,000 convinced me that City needed to leave Maine Road. Even after this was pushed up slightly with the open air seating, it was no longer fit for purpose. Only Peter Swales was responsible.
Click to expand...
The drop off in the north stand was from the brief spell as all standing down to when the put seats in

We moved from the Kippax to the new standing north standing and it was awesome for that year
 
I think Maine Road peaked in the mid 70s when the North Stand was new and the there was still a freshness and vibrancy around the other stands

It was also chosen for numerous FA Cup Semi Finals and I've just been reading about Birmingham's heartbreaking last minute defeat to Fulham (50th anniversary on Wednesday) which has left many of their fans still traumatised
 
gordondaviesmoustache said:
Does anyone know if there’s any suggestion or even hard evidence that United playing at Maine Road from 1946-49 massively helped their post war rise, because they were discernibly better than City when they played there. They finished second in the First Division, three years on the spin.

Before WW2 we were definitely top dogs. And by the late ‘50s I’d say they were. Obviously Munich played a big part in that, but I wonder how much it benefitted them playing at Maine Road when they were the better team.

I reckon quite a bit.

I reckon there was a fair bit of drift when they went back to Old Trafford.
Click to expand...
From 1923 to 1939, United spent nine seasons in the Second Division and if they ever did get promoted they struggled in the First Division. Their average attendance across those seventeen seasons at Old Trafford was:
23,242

Their average attendance in their four years at Maine Road after WW2 was:
47,731

And then their average attendances in the four years when they returned to Old Trafford was:
38,738

Difficult to ‘prove’, but easy to surmise; United had lots of City fans watching them at Maine Road and many of them stuck with United on their move back to Old Trafford.

City getting relegated as Champions in 1938 with United getting promoted the same season, starting post-War in the ‘wrong’ divisions, with Busby being an ex-Blue who started to build a good side… it was a situational recipe that changed Manchester football.

We still did well with crowds, ourselves, with the one of the country’s highest attendance of the season in 1947 when we were a Second Division club, we got 67,672 in the game we gained promotion against Burnley.
 
Last edited:
Betterdeedthan red said:
Your either on a wind up or just weird.
Why would you either care what those sad cunts sing about lickle old citeh or have any clue what the sad cunts sing about us..I might be wrong .
But strange behavior.
If your a blue I apologize..if ur a rag..fuck off .4 in a row we all know you'll never do that
Click to expand...
It’s there to prove how sad they are as a set of fans; them at their very best, City in our lowest depths, and they put a banner up about our trophy drought (not the longest in Manchester history though, the Rags hold that with 37 years from 1911-1948) and made up a 600 verse song about us… yet they claimed then and even claim now, that they aren’t bothered us.

It was copy+pasted from a Rag from Leigh posting online about a decade ago. I keep it if ever I need it to prove them wrong from time-to-time.
 
Scaring Europe to Death said:
I think Maine Road peaked in the mid 70s when the North Stand was new and the there was still a freshness and vibrancy around the other stands

It was also chosen for numerous FA Cup Semi Finals and I've just been reading about Birmingham's heartbreaking last minute defeat to Fulham (50th anniversary on Wednesday) which has left many of their fans still traumatised
Click to expand...
Maine Road was magnificent early doors, up until about the late 1950s:

1923

IMG_0581.jpeg


1934 (v SheffWeds)

IMG_0582.webp


1955 (v Chelsea)

IMG_0583.jpeg



But look at the state of the place by the 1970s and into the 80s, what a dump!

IMG_0585.jpeg

IMG_0584.webp

What on Earth had we done to that once splendid football stadium?!
 
Psychedelic Casual said:
Maine Road was magnificent early doors, up until about the late 1950s:

1923

View attachment 152123


1934 (v SheffWeds)

View attachment 152124


1955 (v Chelsea)

View attachment 152125



But look at the state of the place by the 1970s and into the 80s, what a dump!

View attachment 152128

View attachment 152131

What on Earth had we done to that once splendid football stadium?!
Click to expand...
Not disagreeing with your overall point but those later photos aren't from the 70s
 
I have played at Platt Lane a couple of times since we moved to the Etihad but I don't think I have ever been back past since we moved. Seems a really sad thing to say but I just cant bring myself to look at it now as it is. I still envisage the chippy on the corner and the club shop etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

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

SIGN UP
Back
Top