Your First Derby Game

72/73 season, Colin Bell should have been credited with a hat-trick but one was given as a Buchan o.g.
This was my first ever game never mind first derby! Went on coach from Rochdale and parked on the Kippax car park. United fans bricked the coaches even though many of them had rags fans on them!
 
My brother took me to the 1990 derby at Maine Rd, he was 27 at the time, I was 19, we was unplayable for 80 mins, fuckin 3-3 when we should have pissed that game, he now lives in states but misses City like mad..
 
4th May 1976 at OT - lost 2 - 0. This was the last match of the season after the rags had been beaten 1 - 0 by Southampton in the FA Cup Final.
Stood on the Scoreboard End and shit myself when just before the final whistle the Stretford End invaded the pitch and ran towards us. Silk scarf down my sock on the way home.
 
Despite having a season ticket since 94/95 I always sold my derby ticket as I hated them so much I couldn’t bear watching them beat us.

First one was in the Stretford end, Howey equalised at the other end of the pitch with a header, not sure who scored for them but Keane was sent off for a ‘tackle’ on Haaland.

I probably wasn’t far off getting a kicking when somebody I knew pointed out “they’re city” as soon as we got outside. Luckily I know someone who lived on Railway Road and he was in.
 
1980 at Old Trafford. I was in with the United fans keeping very quiet until City scored the second goal! Ended 2-2. And there was loads of empty seats in there end even at a derby game. There was always empty seats alas how I got mine!
 
1976 at home got beat 3 1 to make matters worse i was in the scum standing, as I was only allowed to go with my mate and his mother now that was a shit day
 
1976 at home got beat 3 1 to make matters worse i was in the scum standing, as I was only allowed to go with my mate and his mother now that was a shit day
Wasn't my first derby but remember one from the 60's at the sty. 3 or 4 of us with our united pals all together in the Stretford End. I could check this out but going from memory definitely a City win with an Alex Harley winner at the opposite end. Much celebration by us very young ones! I do remember an older rag fan grabbing my mother knitted bobble hat and then ramming it back down on my head as we continued to celebrate.
More happy days. If a certain City fan is reading this he will remember that episode.
 
Wasn't my first derby but remember one from the 60's at the sty. 3 or 4 of us with our united pals all together in the Stretford End. I could check this out but going from memory definitely a City win with an Alex Harley winner at the opposite end. Much celebration by us very young ones! I do remember an older rag fan grabbing my mother knitted bobble hat and then ramming it back down on my head as we continued to celebrate.
More happy days. If a certain City fan is reading this he will remember that episode.

1962. My first.
 
This was (nearly) my first derby - I'd gone from Reddish on a charabanc from Melba Motors (part of North Western by then) rather than my usual Raleigh Blue Streak bike. By the time we arrived the gates were closing and I couldn't find an entrance - I heard the roar as Alex Harley scored but decided not to stay and caught a bus home - arriving home more or less as Denis Law kicked Harry Dowd in the head to win the penalty.
Still, that made the Denis Law backheel all the more poignant a few years later.

However, I also went to a youth derby, a Youth Cup Semi-Final at Old Trafford, there were a couple of Reddish lads playing - Mike Doyle and Phil Burrows, Phil was a couple of years older than me and lived next door but one. We often had a kick around on North Reddish Park or in our cobbled back entry. We lost but the match was memorable for Mike Doyle "chinning" George Best without the referee seeing! It was an ill tempered game and was probably the start of a chain that led to that awful challenge by George Best on Glynn Pardoe.

Thanks for posting this as it finally jogged my rapidly fading memory. I arrived with a pal also to find the gates closed and heard the roar of Harley, Harley, Harley. We hung around and finally got in when they opened a gate in the Main stand only to see the Law incident which left Dowd out cold for a while.

I think I was also at the earlier game at the swamp as I seem to remember the Alex Dawson "header" that @JGL07 recalled in an earlier post, he had quite a reputation for punching the ball in the net.
 
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