Manchester City Football Club

 

 

I was born in Manchester in 1972. I grew up in Letchworth Street in Rusholme. It was a great street to grow up in and especially so if you happen to be a Man City fan. When I stepped out of my front door I only had to glance to the right and there it was Man City's ground, the Kippax stand in full view.

It was really exciting on match days. Supporters used to park their cars in our street and the surrounding streets and when we got a little bit older we used to wait for them to pull up and as many kids did in those days used to ask the driver 'can we mind your car please Sir'? We were often given 10p to 'watch their car' but as soon as they were out of view we would approach the next driver pulling up and ask the same question. We made a decent amount of pocket money on match days................and never once watched someones car!!!

During the match the streets were all quiet but the crowd from inside the ground was loud. Even sat indoors we lived so close to the ground that we instantly knew when there had been a goal from the loud roar that would go up.

I wasn't allowed out in the street after the game as it was so busy and it seemed that every single fan made their way past our front door when heading home. Sometimes I used to watch the fans walking past. Other times if I was doing something else all you could hear was the thud of a thousand footsteps pounding the pavement past our front door as they made their way back to their cars or to the big lines of buses parked waiting for them at the opposite end of our street. I can still remember quite vividly those match days from 30 years ago!!!

Some days if we were lucky we would spot the City players out and about around our streets as they would leave Maine Road and run to the training ground that was located nearby in Platt Fields park. As I got older I would spend hours at the training ground. The players were all so very accessable and it was easy to collect autographs and have your photo taken with them after a training session. Watching the training session was brilliant too as you could stand right at the edge of the pitch as close as possible to the action. Ahhh the good old days!!!

 

 

Manchester City V's Stoke City

FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, 14 May 2011

I was lucky enough to get a ticket for the FA Cup Final and watch Manchester City beat Stoke City 1-0 to lift the famous cup which also ended a 35 year wait for some silverware!

The atmosphere in Wembley Stadium was electric. Every fan had been given a team flag and all around me was just a sea of blue as we cheered our team onto victory. Losing the final just wasn't an option!