Memories of Maine Road from the Man City fans who were there

Let’s take a nostalgic look back on memories of Maine Road from the people who were there.

Concealed within the heart of a housing estate in Moss Side, sat the former home of Manchester City Football Club, Maine Road — named so after the road that ran past its western boundary.

Manchester City lived there for 80 years, from 1923 – though the club was founded in 1880 and was originally based in Gorton and Ardwick. The final game before the closure of the stadium took place on May 11th 2003, with a Premiership match against Southampton Football Club. 

These days the site that once held many great games — and plenty of shit ones too — with goals to remember, many great footballing legends, and heard the echoing chants from home and away fans, has now been completely bulldozed and replaced with a modern housing estate.

Before a number of infamous rough years, City were a huge and successful club, as Dr Gary James a football historian and City fan recalls: “I was born when City last won the league title, and they won all sorts of trophies in the late sixties and start of the seventies. 

“And so, my very early years were: Manchester City was a giant club. I remember the 1976 league cup final. It felt as if this was always going to be this major, prominent club. 

“And then, we had to wait from 1976 to 2011. There were relegations, there were struggles, things fell apart.”

For long-standing City supporters, it’s been one hell of a rollercoaster ride to be on, as he continued: “When City was first relegated in 1983, I was devastated. But it made me want to support my club even more. 

“There was always a thing about City; it was peaks and troughs. City represented life; we have great moments in our lives and we have some pretty awful ones.”  

Now City reside in the Etihad Stadium, just east of the city — but we’ll get to how they got here later. As Dr Gary James says: “The history of football is important so that we know where we are today and how we got here, and perhaps learn from the past and so on.”

Growing up in Manchester, you have to pick a side and stick with it. Are you a Red or are you a Blue? From then on it’s ingrained into your very being and you remain loyal to your side no matter what.

On the geographical boundaries of Manchester and how it adds to the rivalry between City and United, Dr Gary James said: “I feel sorry for those cities that don’t have two prominent clubs, it’s like they’re missing something. If you’re from Manchester, you know where the border is. 

“Visitors to Manchester just don’t understand it but if you’re from Manchester you absolutely understand it.” In club rivalry, even the finer details matter.

During the Maine Road days, supporters would find a place to park on the streets of the residential area that surrounded the ground — lined with rows and rows of Victorian terraced houses — as legions of fans on foot and donning blue scarfs would be cutting through entryways and up streets.

As Blues pulled up in their cars filled with friends and family members excited and nervous but ready to watch a live game, young lads on bicycles would approach drivers and ask for a quid to ‘mind your car’.

It was a fair exchange, after all, this was the housing estate they had to live on and it must’ve been frustrating having hundreds of fans parking their cars outside your house and filling your streets every week. It was also a great way to earn a bit of pocket money for local kids in a working class area.

Dr Gary James remembers: “My dad used to work for Coca-Cola, and when you parked up anywhere on one of the side streets and, ‘Can I mind your car mister?’ — it always happened.

“He had a van from Coca-Cola, with logos all on the side. We got out of the van and inevitably loads of kids were waiting, ‘can I mind your car mister?’. So my dad actually said, ‘If you’re here when I come back, you can have some Coke’.

“So, we went to the game and normally, when my dad said something like that then nobody would be there when we got back. You know what it’s like, you get the money at the start and you’re not going to hang around.

“When we got to the car, this lad — he was only about four or five — he just stood there, ‘I minded your car mister.’ So my dad got a bottle of Coke out and gave it to him.”

Inside the ground, Maine Road was made up of four different-sized stands built over a number of eras. There was the Main Stand, the North Stand, the Umbro stand and the Kippax. Each stand attracted a different kind of supporter looking for a certain match day experience. 

“When I was a kid we used to sit in the Platt Lane stand, it was behind the goal and it was wooden benches that had been put onto the original terracing,” Dr Gary James said. He described it as having very shallow terracing so it was difficult to see anything, but ‘there was a weird excitement about the place’.

About the Kippax Stand, Dr Gary James said: “It sort of became the place where you had to be if you wanted to make some noise. There was a particular area of the Kippax which was known as Chanter’s Corner.

“I remember the first time I experienced that mass of people and it was passionate, it was noisy, it was incredible.”

Anthony — known by many as ‘The Ginger Wig’ — started going to games from 1991. When he was 12, he was classed as an ‘adult’ and so was able to finally sit in the Kippax Stand with his friend.

He described some funny memories in the stand, saying: “There was a famous chicken guy. I think he was a chef. He would pull a raw chicken out and start whirling it around and putting it on his head.”

Speaking about how he earned his nickname, he said: “Last match of the season was always fancy dress. I wore my hat and would go like Braveheart with a painted face and kilt.”

He bought the hat while on holiday to Scotland in 1998, a season in which City didn’t win very often, he continued: “But first game of the ‘98/99 season I wore it and we won 3-0. All the season ticket holders around me said, ‘you’re going to have to wear that again’. I’ve worn it for every match for 24 years.”

As well as fond memories, there were some dark days too. Dr Gary James continued: “For many years, we were demonstrating against the chairman, Peter Swales, because to be frank, when Peter Swales took over, all plans to invest in the stadium… went.

“As time went on the club was put into debt, the opportunity to win trophies vanished, the stadium started to fall apart and managers were just sacked, or walked out. From 1983 onwards, for me, demonstrations became a key part of going to Maine Road. 

“So, you’d be watching the game, City would lose, and then you’d leg it off the Kippax Stand, round the stadium to the forecourt in front of the North Stand, for a demonstration — not every game, but a lot of games.” 

After much disillusionment with Swales, City legend Francis Lee, who was also a successful businessman, came in and took over the club. He made some positive changes for the club, but many fans believed that his big error was sacking Brian Horton and bringing in his friend, Alan Ball. Dr Gary James said: “None of us were encouraged by that.”

The Ginger Wig recalled some dark but funny memories from those times, saying: “The season we got relegated from the Premier League — that was my first relegation. Steve Lomas took it [the ball] to the corner because everyone had heard that we only needed a draw.

“Niall Quinn had been taken off. He was 6ft 4in and gangly. You saw him galloping up the touchline saying, ‘No! We need to get a goal!'”

On weekends, players could be seen training at Platt Lane. Fans would go down to watch their idols participating in a session, kicking a ball around with other teammates. Paul Walsh’s long hair blew behind him as he ran for the ball. Niall Quinn was easy to spot, being so tall.

I remember my mum laughing as she overheard Michel Vonk saying ‘I have nothing to lean on’ in his Dutch accent, while signing autographs, and so a fan offered their back for him to scribble on. Before players left to enjoy the rest of their weekend, Georgi ‘Kinky’ Kinkladze could be spotted getting into his sports car to drive off — like a total superstar. 

City stars from years gone by could be seen training the next generations of City players including the likes of Asa Hartford — who was assistant manager during the Franny Lee and Alan Ball era in ‘95. 

John Burridge aka ‘Budgie’ was a well-loved goalie who only had a short stint at the club (1994-95). I remember my dad took my brother and me to Maine Road to pick up some match tickets and then over to watch the players train at Platt Lane — something we would sometimes do.

One particular day it was raining heavily and on the way after collecting the tickets, dad spotted John Burridge carrying a huge bag filled with footballs — the rain was bouncing off him.

He pulled over, in the black Seat Ibiza we had at the time, and shouted: “Budgie! You going to Platt Lane? D’you want a lift?” Budgie stopped and looked over: “Oh, yeah mate. I wouldn’t mind,” he said, relieved. I couldn’t believe we had a City goalie in our car.

City moved into the then-named City of Manchester Stadium in August 2003 and Maine Road was no more — after plans of its expansion were abandoned in favour of the move to the new site. The Ginger Wig said: “I remember the man in front of me took his cigarette lighter out and burnt his seat off, and took it with him.”

My mum and dad described how while fans were leaving the ground after the last ever game, they would stop to look back at it for one last time. “It was just a weird feeling,” my dad said.

In 2007, the former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra announced his take-over of the club from John Wardle, and brought in Sven-Goran Eriksson to manage the team. Many fans were hopeful that things could be looking up, though there were mixed feelings.

Then, in a bigger shock, on September 1st 2008 Manchester City were taken over by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG).

Dr Gary James recalled: “I got a phone call from Gary Cook to come down to the stadium because he wanted me to talk to someone about the history of the club. He wouldn’t tell me who it was.

“I went down there and after ages, Gary Cook arrived. He said, ‘I’m gonna take you to meet someone. This guy is called Khaldoon Al Muburak and he’s going to be the new chairman of Manchester City, and he wants to ask you some questions. Tell him the absolute truth. Tell him how bad things are’.

“Khaldoon got a notepad out and a pen and he said, ‘I want to ask you some questions’. He said, ‘the first question is how and why was this football club created?’ I thought, ‘wow’.”

The Ginger Wig said: “It was crazy. On Sky Sports News it said we were in for getting all these players. I was thinking, ‘where’s all this money coming from?’ I was glued to Sky Sports News that day. We went from having no money, to being like the richest club in the world. It was just amazing.”

Since the the Abu Dhabi takeover, City have morphed into the ‘super club’ everyone knows today, under manager Pep Guardiola. They’ve won a number of trophies including the Premier League (six times in recent years and twice in the old league). Just recently, the club submitted a planning application for a £300m expansion of Etihad Stadium, to increase the current capacity from 53,400 to 60,000.

It’s great to see the Blues taking home silverware after years of not winning anything at all. To see life-long supporters, including your parents, finally get to witness glory years for the club is just amazing.

But looking back through the years, even when things were bad, it was still a great feeling to be a City supporter. I guess we had something to fight for, never really knowing we’d some day finally get there.

Asked if he’d still support City if we went back to having no money, The Ginger Wig said: “Yes. The fact that they’re rich and have the best players in the world is just an added bonus. If they were playing in the park across the road, I’d still watch them. It’s just ingrained in you.”

Asked who his favourite all-time player is, Dr Gary James said: “Pablo Zabaleta. A legendary figure in my eyes. Before Pablo Zabaleta it was Dave Watson.” The Ginger Wig agreed, saying: “Pablo Zabaleta. He was just hard as nails, and just the stories of him coming in and learning English by watching Coronation Street.”

For my dad, it’s Dennis Tueart: “He was fiery and he scored goals. He could turn a game.”

For my mum it’s Shaun Wright-Phillips, because, she says: “He was the one skilful pass, goal-scoring player. He was like a ray of hope and he came from the youth, and he hung on to us for a long time.” — Shauny Wright is mine also.

You can follow Dr Gary James on Twitter @GaryJamesWriter. He has written numerous books about the history of football. You can also follow Anthony @thegingerwig on Twitter. He sells City memorabilia and gifts — look out for him wearing his ginger wig to the game on match days!