The below is an extract about the 1934 F.A. Cup from Frank Swift – Manchester City and England Legend, a new biography by Mark Metcalf. Mark is happy to talk at Supporters Club meetings, and can be contacted on 07952 801783. The book can be purchased via Amazon by clicking here, or directly from the club shop.

The City side that captured the FA Cup for the first time at Wembley in 1934 contained arguably the club’s finest ‘keeper. Frank Swift was just twenty and had made only 27 first team appearances when he ran out to shake hands with King George V before taking his place in goal for the match against Portsmouth. What happened next was to send him on the road to stardom.

City had snapped up the Blackpool youngster from Fleetwood Reserves at a cost of £10.50 in 1932 and he made his debut in a 4-1 defeat at Derby County on Christmas Day 1933. Knocked out in a heavy challenge, Swift recovered to play the final minutes of the game and a few weeks later he made his FA Cup debut in a third round tie at home to Blackburn Rovers.

With seat tickets costing three and four shillings [15p -20p], around 4-6% of the average wage of £4 a week at the time, a crowd of 54,336 assembled at Maine Road. Most hoped to see City make it back to Wembley, where the previous season they had lost 3-0 to Everton in the Cup Final.

Swift had been at Wembley for the match, journeying down as a sidecar passenger on his work-mate, Harry Murrow’s, motorbike. Harry only had one eye and an hour into the trip at 4.00am he hit the kerb at half-light throwing the fast asleep passenger out onto the grass. Fortunately no lasting damage to either men resulted and the pair travelled on to see the match with Everton.

Armed with 2s 6d standing tickets [12.5p] the gasworks workers had been thrilled at their first glimpse of Wembley Stadium, the beautiful green pitch and the sight of the Duke and Duchess of Kent.

Standing behind the goal Swift had told his good friend only half jokingly that he would be between the posts the next time City were at Wembley.

The away side were accompanied by 5,000 of their own fans. The match was to be won by City’s wingers, Toseland and Eric Brook, whose penetrative raiding and deadly shooting saw the home side through 3-1. Rovers’ full-backs Bill Gorman and Crawford Whyte were unable to stop the pair from wreacking havoc and they scored all three of the City goals.

Things might have been different if early in the game the City keeper had not enjoyed a touch of fortune, when at 0-0 ‘Ted Harper broke through the light blue line in front of me. In my nervousness I anticipated too soon and dived before he kicked the ball. To my amazement and delight, the ball hit my right hand – and stuck. The roar of the crowd, as much as the save, helped give me confidence.’

Armed with this, Swift then played a fine game and afterwards complimented his Blackburn counterpart Binns saying: ‘No one could have kept a better goal.’ This praise of an opponent – especially goalkeepers – was typical of Swift during his long career. It was one of many aspects of his character that helped make him so popular amongst players and supporters of all clubs. As he developed as a professional he was also happy to pass on his experiences and skills to up and coming young players.

When the fourth round draw was made Manchester City were pitched against another Second Division side, Hull City. With many having travelled from Manchester to Boothferry Park there was a great atmosphere for players of both sides to enjoy.

Both teams were quickly on the attack with Herd shooting just over before Bill McNaughton, scorer of 42 goals for the Tigers the previous season, did the same for the home side. On fifteen minutes Hull enjoyed a touch of good fortune when Melville headed against his own bar but on 29 minutes ‘Swift distinguished himself by making a glorious one-handed save from Duncan’s header’. (MEN 27-01-34)

Then from ‘yet another corner Melville headed well, but Swift made a neat save and cleared in the face of a concerted rush’ (MEN) and after which City profited from the keeper’s heroics by scoring twice before half time. First some wonderful passing saw the ball fed out to Brook who crashed home a beautiful shot from a tight angle.

Then on 42 minutes Toseland fastened on to a loose ball before beating three or four defenders and finding Herd for a simple finish.

Hull were back in the match with an early second half goal when Jack Hill, capped eleven times for England, headed a fine goal. Soon after an equaliser seemed certain only for ‘Swift to play a hero’s part, especially when he gathered a shot which was almost diverted past him by a defender.’

Hull equalised on 70 minutes when Billy Dale beat his own keeper with a back header. The home side should then have won the match but after bursting through Duncan hit his shot high and wide as City survived to take the tie to a second match. This proved much easier than the first game and City progressed with a 4-1 victory.

With Sheffield Wednesday having beaten Oldham Athletic 6-1 in their replayed tie it meant Manchester City would be back in Yorkshire for the fifth round of the FA Cup. It was going to be tough as Wednesday were on a long unbeaten run.

Death at the football

The largest crowd that has ever watched a football match in Sheffield –72,841 – packed out Hillsborough for the City game.

Many years later the ground was the scene of great carnage when 96 Liverpool fans lost their lives on the Leppings Lane terraces, that with fences at the front offered no escape from the overcrowded, badly stewarded terraces. In 1934 the large crowd was more fortunate, but ambulance men tending groaning casualties who had been crushed on the Spion Kop blocked the players from running down the entrance tunnel.

Swift later recalled that ‘after forcing my way through with other players, I had to stand aside to let pass a stretcher bearing a man crushed to death against the Spion Kop railings.’ This being the 1930s the game continued.

At the start it was clear that events off the pitch had affected those on it, especially amongst the City players and following a Sam Cowan miss kick the Owls Neil Dewar nipped in to find England international winger Ellis Rimmer to make it 1-0.

It took the away side till the thirtieth minute to draw level with a goal of stunning quality. Receiving the ball from a free-kick, Herd threw off the nearest players, Ted Catlin and Tommy Walker, feinted to send the ball out wide before driving towards goal and then unleashing a twenty-five yard rocket that smashed home.

City fell behind at the start of the second period when Dewar scored but again Herd came to their rescue; equalising in a scramble following a Toseland corner. A replay would be needed to decide the tie. ‘This I think was our toughest match of all on the path to Wembley’ wrote Swift later.

66,614 people were at the replay. They saw City give a glorious performance that suggested that their skill, courage and determination would return them to Wembley at the season’s end. Wednesday lost 2-0, but in general the away side were outplayed and the scoreline would have been considerably higher if not for some remarkable heroic saves by England international keeper Jack Brown.

Record crowd

City’s quarterfinal opponents were Stoke City. The Potters had won promotion the previous season and had beaten Bradford Park Avenue, Blackpool and First Division Chelsea 3-1 to make it to the last eight. Nineteen year-old winger Stanley Matthews had scored two of his side’s goals against the Londoners and was clearly set for a fine career.

An estimated 25,000 Stoke fans were packed inside Maine Road at kick-off time, with many more locked out when the gates were closed with a record attendance for any game in England outside of London at 84,568.

The match was played in glorious weather and despite the away fans enthusiasm there was little doubt that the City fans expected their side to win. With McLuckie injured, Jackie Bray was at right-half.

It was Stoke who started quickest and Matthews should possibly have beaten Swift after just two minutes. The only goal came after just fifteen minutes. Brook floated over a cross that the wind took high into the air and when Stoke keeper Roy John moved to grab it the ball slipped from his grasp and bounced over the line. There was a delay as the crowd realised a goal had been scored and then the City fans let rip a roar that could be heard miles away.

Fans of both sides were divided as to whether the scorer had aimed to score, some rating it as the finest they ever witnessed and others viewing it as a bit of a fluke. No one seems to have asked Brook his intentions and so we shall never know.

Three minutes later Stoke might have equalised but Matthews was just too slow to a loose ball and his half-hit shot allowed Swift time to make a vital save. With Busby in fine form that appeared to have ended the away sides chances but in the last minute they forced a corner. Coming up from defence Arthur Turner rose to powerfully head the ball ‘and with me standing helpless – and with 84,000 hearts in similar number of mouths, the ball curled slowly over the bar’ wrote Swift.

Seconds later the referee’s final whistle meant Manchester City were in their third consecutive semi-final of the FA Cup – Arsenal having beaten them in 1932.

Their opponents were Aston Villa, who had last won the FA Cup in 1920 when they had beaten Huddersfield Town in the Final played at Stamford Bridge.

The game was played at Leeds Road, Huddersfield. Ten days beforehand the sides drew 0-0 at Villa Park, a match in which Swift made some outstanding saves. Despite the pre-match predictions of a tight affair it was to be as one-sided a semi-final as there has been in the FA Cup. Villa’s Dai Astley had scored seven times in the earlier rounds but his eighth was to be mere consolation as the victors scored six including four from Fred Tilson.

With Portsmouth having thumped Leicester City 4-1 in the other semi then it was going to be a case of North versus South in the Cup Final.

Travelling down the night before the 1934 Cup Final, City stayed in a hotel on the edge of Epping Forest and Swift, set to become the youngest keeper to play in a Wembley final, was paired off with skipper Sam Cowan.

This was clearly an attempt to calm the keeper’s nerves. With, unknowing to the management, Cowan nursing blood poisoning of the right big toe, it meant that as the centre-half sat with his throbbing foot in a bowl of scalding hot water the pair chatted away till 3.00am before both men went to sleep exhausted.

They woke at 11.00am. It meant Swift had little time to get anxious as, suitably refreshed, he dashed downstairs to get breakfast, before going for a walk and then jumping on the bus to Wembley. He promptly dozed off, only to be rudely awakened and ordered off the bus to buy the rest of the players some chewing gum, a regular City ritual that meant the youngest team member paid for the rest.

Approaching Wembley, Swift observed the ‘hustling, hurrying excited masses’ who ‘suddenly burst into cheering as some of the more observant recognised us’ and ‘then the giant sweep up to the imposing stadium, surely the greatest sight in the world to a young footballer.’

City’s opponents had never won the FA Cup. The nearest Pompey had come was in 1929 when they lost to Bolton Wanderers 2-0 in the final. City had seven of their 1933 losing side on display at the 1934 FA Cup Final, with just four playing in their first final – Swift, Laurie Barnett, Billy Dale and Fred Tilson.

Manchester City: Swift, Barnett, Dale, Busby, Cowan, Bray, Toseland, Marshall, Tilson, Herd, Brook
Portsmouth: John Gilfillan, Alex Mackie, Billy Smith, Jimmy Nichol, Jim Allen – captain, David Thackeray, Fred Worrall, Jack Smith, Jack Weddle, Jim Easson, Sep Rutherford

Sitting in the dressing room Swift could hear the faint hum of an expectant crowd. Then the team were allowed to examine the surface of the pitch, but not practise on it, with some players expressing their disappointment at it being ‘rough.’

Having done his best to settle his nerves, Swift was then thrown into confusion when one of his teammates, too nervous to do so himself, asked the unfortunate McLuckie (who was injured) to tie his boots.

Trainer Alec Bell swiftly came to the rescue, hauling the big keeper into the washroom, slapping his face and giving him a tot of whisky. If Swift was in a state of confusion that was certainly not something Alec Herd could have been excused of. Sitting quietly reading a book he even managed to miss his teammates filing out of the dressing room to make their way on to the pitch for the game to start. Bell scurried back to remind him there was a game on and he was playing in it!

As City’s players steadied themselves just along the corridor the team from the South coast were being entertained by the famous comedy duo, Bud Flanagan and George Doonan.

Maintaining a tradition started in 1926 City players maroon strips carried a badge of the City of Manchester, a symbol of pride in representing the northern city at a major event.

Portsmouth in white shirts and black shorts were pinning their hopes on a tight defence that had conceded just three goals in their earlier Cup games with Manchester United, Grimsby Town, Swansea Town, Bolton Wanderers and Leicester City. In comparison City would attack. The game was set to be a keen tussle that some pundits believed would need a replay to decide who took home the most famous Trophy in the world.

Marching out at Wembley the sides were greeted with a huge roar and this intensified when King George V appeared to meet all the officials and players, starting with Portsmouth’s. Swift was delighted to shake the King’s hand before the teams broke to get a chance for a quick pre-match kick about.

For the referee Stanley Rous this was his penultimate game in charge and he was to use it as an experiment for what he was certain would revolutionise football. A diagonal system of scientific positioning refereeing had yet to win FA approval. After seeing Belgium referees use it in late 20s and 30s the man who was set to get the post of FA secretary wasn’t going to pass up this opportunity to shows it’s worth. It was destined to become the blueprint for all refereeing.

After the match, Rous submitted a Memorandum for discussion with the Association, and after the pros and cons had been carefully considered, the FA approved the use of the ‘Diagonal System’.’ The Football League followed suit and in 1948 foreign delegates at the International Conference of Referees in London approved the adoption of the system; which has since been used throughout the footballing World.

With Cowan and Portsmouth skipper Jimmy Allen quickly getting the toss of the coin out of the way then the scene was set for the kick-off. Keen to give his young keeper a comforting confidence boosting first-touch of the ball, Matt Busby slipped the ball back to him in the first few minutes.

Busby had spotted Swift’s talent within days of his arrival at Maine Road in 1932 and had encouraged the keeper to eat and train properly. His tips on keeping goal were a big help and the pair would regularly continue their ball training after the rest of the players had departed. Busby constantly had Swift trying to save his penalties, something that was to count against the Scot at Hampden Park many years later.

With the 1934 Cup Final being played in a downpour, Swift had been unsure whether to use gloves. As Jock Gilfillan wasn’t doing so, the City keeper chose to keep his in the corner of the net. This was to prove a mistake.

Because after an uneventful first thirty minutes, in which the only winner was the heavy ground, ‘Sep ‘Rutherford, the Pompey outside-right, came coasting in and fired a ball across the goal to my right hand. I dived and the ball slithered through into the net off my fingers. I was desolate as I picked the ball out of the net.’ Swift, forever the professional, the keeper who always analysed each goal to see if he could have prevented it may have been a little harsh on himself with the Daily Mirror’s Barry Thomas believing that after tricking Barnett, the Portsmouth outside-left was too close to goal to have his shot saved.

Nevertheless it was Manchester City 0 Portsmouth 1 and it stayed that way to half-time as Portsmouth, managed by Jack Tinn, fell back on their noted defence. City’s anxiety to quickly draw level saw a number of passes go astray.

Sitting in the dressing room at half-time the young keeper was disconsolate. Having missed the previous seasons Final through injury, Fred Tilson was keen to have him forget what had gone before and promised to ‘plonk home two next half.’ The centre-forward, who the previous weekend had scored a hat-trick in a 4-2 defeat of Chelsea, was to prove as good his words, although not initially and with seventeen minutes remaining the Fratton Park side seemed set to pick up the famous Trophy as they continued to lead 1-0.

However when England international Jimmy Allen, from a corner kick, was left injured during a collision with Sam Cowan the loss of their centre-half for a few short minutes was enough to unsettle the Portsmouth defence.

Within a couple of minutes Tilson, soon after Herd had smacked a shot against the crossbar, took the ball off Brook ‘coasted over the penalty line, moved the ball to his left foot – and hit it across the goal past Gilfillan inside the far post. We were level!’ (Swift – 1948 autobiography: Football from the Goalmouth)

The match should have been won soon after, but Eric Brook, twice in quick succession failed to beat Jock Gilfillan from only yards out. If Portsmouth felt they had escaped to fight another day they were to have their hopes cruelly dashed.

With Alec Herd, Ernie Toseland and Tilson piling forward and Alec Mackie – who when he signed for Arsenal in 1922 demanded, and got, a pet-monkey as a signing-on fee – and Billy Smith coming to meet them it was Tilson, running away from the desperate defenders, who kept his half-time promise by smashing his side ahead on 86 minutes.

From the kick-off Portsmouth poured forward and when Freddy Worrall, who was the only Portsmouth player still with the club when they won the Cup in 1939, met Rutherford’s cross Swift ‘just managed to go full length and save the shot on the ground.’ (Daily Mirror) In the event it was to prove the last chance for a side that had led for so long during the match. The young keeper though feared there was much more to come and as the seconds began to tick away one or two photographers counting down the minutes roused his excitement even further.

The game was all in the Portsmouth half but he was terrified. ‘Three minutes to go’, ‘only two minutes left, Frank’, ‘one minute to go’, ‘only fifty-seconds, you’re nearly there lad’, ‘forty-seconds, you’ve done them now’, ‘thirty-seconds, it’s your Cup son’ – even writing the words you can feel the tension. Later in his career Swift was to use it to improve his game, but this was then the biggest day in his short life.

‘There’s the whistle, it’s all over’ and as the big keeper grabbed his cap and gloves and moved to shake hands with his captain, Sam Cowan, whose pre-match injury had failed to prevent him playing a great game, nothing.

Swift had fainted and only the intervention of the ambulance men and others ensured he recovered sufficiently to walk to the dais to receive his coveted medal from the King who asked him ‘how are you feeling now, my boy?’

‘Fine sir’

‘That’s good. You played well. Here is your medal, and good luck.’ Having not got one for being a member of the losing Fleetwood reserve side in the final of the West Lancashire Cup in 1932 it was his first senior medal.

Watching on proudly was the youngster’s mother who had got so excited that she had also fainted and had been brought round after receiving a small shot of whisky from the flask of Mrs Bell, the wife of the City trainer.

Back in Manchester on May Day Tuesday the players were welcomed by a huge crowd –reported by British Pathe at over one million – and were cheered to the rafters as sitting with their legs dangling outside the open roof of their coach they moved slowly through the City, displaying the FA Cup en route. A feature of the May Day celebrations had been the number of horses and vehicles lavishly dressed in City colours. The celebrations continued when the Lord Mayor entertained the players in a Civic Reception at the Town Hall, where Swift was delighted to find that via the Lord Lieutenant of the County of Lancashire the King had enquired if he was ‘alright.’

After months of hard work, I’m pleased to finally be able to launch the new MCFC History section of Bluemoon. It’s been a long time in the making, and is a collaboration between myself and Gary James, the prominent City author and historian. I say collaboration, but Gary has obviously done all the hard work in his decades of extensive research on the club, I just brought it together online and did the mind numbing data entry, including the details of every game City have ever played, which is over 5000 games. Anyone who claims we have no history can do one – my arched back and deteriorating eyesight from endless days sat at my computer are testament to that.

So, where to begin?

As already mentioned, we’ve got details of every fixture City have ever played from 1892 to the present day. This includes the date, result, attendance, line-up, goalscorers, substitutions, and video footage where available. These can be searched by season, by opponent and by competition.

There’s also a list of our record attendances, including the 84,569 packed in to Maine Road to see City beat Stoke in the 1934 F.A. Cup. No history, my arse.

Next, there’s a record of every player who has ever played for City’s first team, currently 950 and counting. These can be searched alphabetically, by top goalscorers, and by top appearance makers. There is also a list of City’s greatest 50 players, which is obviously subjective and likely to be the source of some debate. You can blame me, not Gary for that, as it’s based on an article I did for The Times a couple of years ago.

There’s a short biography of every manager the club have ever had, going back to 1889 and a list of chairmen, going back to the club’s inception. There’s also details of all eight home grounds the club have ever played at.

We’ve also gathered all available video footage from a variety of sources (YouTube, British Pathe, the official site) into an extensive video archive, although sadly Premier League licensing restrictions mean little footage from this era is available, but there are some great clips going back to 1924.

Other features include a list of City’s honours, records, a timelime, a bibliography of relevant books published about City, and a history of City’s kits lovingly illustrated by Matt Coleman.

I won’t bore you with any more details, but hopefully you’ll have a look around and find it to be a valuable resource. In many ways it’s an extension of the great work started by the sadly departed Steve Kay with his excellent MCFCStats website, and we’re looking to evolve and grow the database in the coming months (adding further details on players, matches etc). As City begin to attract new fans from all over the globe, it’s important for them to be able to learn about our history whilst at the same time providing an up-to-date, extensive record for existing fans to use for reference puposes. I’m sure there’s one or two errors in there, as a result of typos from me, so please give us a shout if you notice anything glaring (at one point a typo in the database had Mario Balotelli appearing in a line-up from the 60s, not sure what Mike Doyle would’ve made of him).

Hope you like it, as it’s been a mammoth undertaking and it’s a relief to finally be able to launch it.

Gary’s new book, Manchester – the City Years: Tracing the Story of Manchester City from the 1860s to the Modern Day, is available now to pre-order on Amazon.

Going to the Match

Something a bit different on the blog today, blues.

In 1999 the Professional Footballers Association paid £1.9m for a Lowry painting called Going to the Match. Painted in 1953 as an entry for a competition called ‘Football and the Fine Arts’ the picture shows a crowd approaching Burnden Park prior to kick off. Speaking at the time of the purchase, PFA Chairman Gordon Taylor said the picture captured “the heart and soul of the game and the anticipation of fans on their way to a match. It is the football picture, it captures all the atmosphere of the game.” He then added “I would have liked it for a lot less than that.”

Because this, one of Lowry’s most famous paintings, shows Burnden Park, many art critics and commentators have wrongly concluded that Lowry was a Bolton fan. In fact, there is significant evidence which shows him to have been a Blue. In an attempt – probably unsuccessful – to take your minds off Sunday for a brief time, this blog sketches out some features of Lowry’s career which may be of interest to fellow Blues. (Yes, ‘sketches’ out – I’ll get my coat.)

Laurence Steven Lowry – Laurie – was born in 1887 and died in 1976. True to form, City won the league cup that year only six days after Lowry had died in a Glossop hospital founded by one of the ancestors of the current Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Woods. 1976 was the start of a long period of mourning for more than one reason.

Although he painted for almost all of his life, going to art college as a young man and painting as long as his health allowed, a huge number of Lowry’s pictures, whether painted then or at a later date, are images from the inter war years 1918-39. Lowry was once asked why he put so many of his scenes in the depression years: ‘because’ he replied ‘I was happiest then, and because I like the look of ill-fitting clothes, big bowlers, and clumsy bodies. They are comical.’

self portrait

There is credible evidence that like many working men in the inter war years Lowry was a regular at City. Of all the times in our club’s history, that time could justifiably claim to be the most typical of all the ‘Typical City’ periods. The club’s ground at Hyde Road was the first provincial ground to be visited by the King in 1920, the same year that the main stand burned down (prompting the move to Maine Road three years later). In 1926 Lowry would have enjoyed that seminal City experience – a 6-1 thrashing of the rags – only to see City being relegated at the end of the season. A cup final defeat in 1933 was followed by lifting the cup the following season, beating Portsmouth 2-1 in the final. On the way to the final a crowd of 84,569, still the record attendance for any club in England, watched the sixth round home tie against Stoke. Our first league title in 1937 was followed by relegation the following season – still the only reigning champions to be relegated. But Typical City went down in style, scoring more goals than champions Arsenal and also every other Club in the top Division: that season saw City beat Derby 6-1 and 7-1, West Brom 7-1, Leeds 6-2 and Charlton 5-3. Before the final game of the season there were five teams below City in the table but a 1-0 defeat away at Huddersfield coupled with wins for Grimsby, Portsmouth, Birmingham and Stoke meant that the trapdoor opened and City jumped the queue. Lowry himself had something of a black sense of humour and there is little doubt that the champions of England going down the next season would have produced a wry smile on his dour face (our famous gallows humour goes a long way back before York Away). Just to rub salt in, United were promoted to the first division the same season.

Before retiring to Mottram in 1952 (to a house a stone’s throw from the church where Mike Summerbee was later married) Lowry had worked as a rent collector. His job caused him to travel largely on foot from one house to another, one street to another. Before his retirement Lowry did his painting in the evenings and at weekends, painting from memories of what he had seen as he went around Manchester – women nattering on the front step, kids playing in the street, factories and mills turning out. So whilst most artists work by painting what they see in front of them – a bowl of fruit or a portrait in a studio, or a landscape painted in the open air – Lowry’s way of working meant that most of his work from his the pre-retirement period are general impressions of daily life, rather than images capturing specific events.

Many more are composite pictures: a street from Chadderton leading up to a Mill in Stalybridge, with a row of shops in Collyhurst to one side. As Lowry once himself said “Most of my land and townscape is composite. Made up; part real and part imaginary. Bits and pieces of my home locality. I don’t even know I’m putting them in. They just crop up on their own, like things do in dreams.” Another time he said “If I had shown things as they are it would not have looked like a vision. So I had to make up symbols. With my figures also, of course”.

Street Scene, Pendlebury

This is why one of Lowry’s paintings, Manchester City v Sheffield United, is highly unusual. It is quite rare for any Lowry to depict any identifiable event, but this picture reflects a crowd scene at the second division fixture between City and Sheffield United which took place on 22nd October 1938 which City won 3-2 (apply to G. James Esq., c/o bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk for details of City’s scorers). So far as I know this is the only specifically identifiable sporting event known to have been captured by Lowry. In 2008 the picture was sold to a private collector following auction. Speaking at the time of the auction, Christies Art Historian Rachel Hidderley said: “Manchester City Versus Sheffield United is from a small and important group of paintings in which Lowry records an actual event rather than a composite image of different locations or impressions. In the work, he concentrates on the home crowd rather than the team members, using the occasion of the match to concentrate on depicting the personalities of the individuals attending.”

Manchester City v Sheffield United

The date of the painting obviously indicates that the location is Maine Road, the match taking place just a few months after relegation to the second division. There has been some speculation that the scene Lowry shows is a ticket tout, but that seems to me unlikely as the cost of admission to the ground on match day in the Thirties was well within the means of the average working man, and entry was usually just cash on the door. Having mentioned that, it is worth noting tangentally something that a photographer called Ian Hughes said in 2009 of a picture he had taken of Arsenal’s old ground Highbury from an adjacent street during the course of a match there: “I counted five houses with the game being shown on Sky TV in the front rooms. Perhaps this signifies that the local fans that the club was traditionally based on are being priced out of going to top-end football matches. I contrast this with the great L.S. Lowry’s ‘Going to the Match’ painting from 1953, depicting crowds streaming into Bolton’s Burnden Park ground on foot from the surrounding terraced streets.” But I digress.

There is little evidence beyond the image itself of what Lowry was actually capturing in this painting but it seems to me far more likely than not that, as some other art historians have concluded, that the scene shows a bookie plying his trade before kick-off in the manner commonplace at the time. If so, there is some irony given that one of the most prolific collectors of Lowrys in recent years has been Selwyn Demmy, son of the well known bookmaker Gus Demmy (well known if you’re of a certain age) and that – rumour has it – Selwyn Demmy was himself advised to start collecting Lowrys by a footballer called Gary Owen. Now where have I heard that name before?

Whilst the painting may be unique in terms of the event that it captures, the crowd scene shown in the City v Sheffield painting is a typical Lowry image. Crowds were significant in Lowry’s work, and many of Lowry’s admirers pay tribute to his ability to capture the feel of a crowd. In 2011 for instance Sir Ian McKellen – fresh from a stint appearing in Coronation Street, itself a programme named after a Lowry painting – made a film for ITV called ‘My Lifelong Passion for Lowry’. In an article in the Telegraph publicizing the film, he said “Until Lowry painted his crowds, no other artist had recorded how people look and behave en masse. Each individual is on his/her own journey across the canvas yet leaning to form the crowd with its own collective identity. Once you have seen how Lowry saw us, you cannot ever see or be in a football crowd, nor watch kids playing, workers leaving the factory, queuing, or stopping to chat or hear the fairground barker, without saying, ‘Lowry! It’s just like a Lowry painting!’ Going about our business or pleasure, we are all subjects of his vision.”

Mill Scene

Nonetheless the irony of Lowry’s crowd scenes is that Lowry himself suffered terribly from loneliness. He never married or had children. He lived with his mother until her death in 1939, after which Lowry said “I have no family, only my studio. Were it not for my painting, I couldn’t live. It helps me forget that I am alone.” But being part of a huge crowd, at a match or otherwise, often underlined the loneliness. Lowry later said “the loneliest place in the world is in a crowd”. It is for me very sad to think of this great man, standing on the K
Kippax perhaps, surrounded by thousands of fellow blues but still feeling intensely lonely.

Many of the blue persuasion are devoted admirers of Lowry. Gary Owen is noted above, but another obvious example is Noel Gallagher, who said in Sir Ian McKellan’s film that he couldn’t remember a time when he hadn’t known about Lowry, and who wondered out loud why the Tate Gallery in London has 23 Lowrys in its collection but none of them is on display. The video for the Oasis single The Masterplan is not only Lowry-esque in its animation throughout, but it pays homage to a number of Lowrys by reproducing in the video some of his most famous images (like the one below) whilst the animated Gallagher brothers walk past. Towards the end of the video, Going to the Match is reproduced, although Burnden Park has somehow become Maine Road.

Man lying on a wall

There are many non-football related Lowry pictures which will be of interest to Blue Mooners (google them to see the images themselves). In 1953 he sketched St Mary’s church in Beswick. In 1969 he painted Stockport viaduct (and as we all know from Sad Café, we’re all from Stockport really). There is a very famous Lowry showing the Good Friday fair at Daisy Nook park near Droylsden in 1946, which sold for more than £3 million in 2009. Many City fans will find it amazing that the Art World will pay £3 million for a picture of Droylsden, but the Art World is just as amazed that City spent the same money on Lee Bradbury.

Good Friday, Daisy Nook

Some of his more colourful pictures of daily life – such as “Fight” and “Home from the Pub” which features three women staggering home pissed clutching bottles of booze and each other – are images which could be a Friday night today as easily as a street scene from seventy years ago. (Well, he did live near Stalybridge). But it is interesting to think about what Lowry would have made of us now: would he have nodded in recognition at the blues in Shambles square and Mary D’s ahead of the game? He captured Piccadilly Gardens and Piccadilly Circus in London perfectly: what could he have done with City Square? And what of the crowds streaming down the spirals and away from the ground into a cold Manchester evening; would he have recognised the same breed of blues who watched us beat Sheffield United 74 years ago?

Yes, I think he would too.

The recent ceremony organised via the Celtic Graves Society marking the grave of former City manager Tom Maley has brought a few mentions of the great man.

Few City fans today probably know Tom’s story in detail and to be fair some won’t know his name. It is for this reason that I thought I’d share some basic stories and comments about him. He really is a manager all City supporters should be aware of. Without him Manchester’s Blues may never have found success at all.

Tom Maley was, without doubt, the first truly great Manchester manager, not simply City’s first great manager.

He had been a successful player in Scotland during the 1880s and was a member of Celtic at formation in 1888. Nicknamed ‘Handsome Tom’, his time at Celtic was mainly as an administrator and as such he is recorded by Celtic historians as one of the club’s most important early figures. Interestingly, despite being a proud Scotsman, he was born in Portsmouth on 8th November 1864.

He arrived at City’s first proper home, Hyde Road, following the Blues relegation in 1902 and immediately encouraged the Blues to play stylish football. His view was that playing in the Scottish passing style – uncommon in England at the time – would bring the club success and would excite the fans. He was right. At this stage in English football the key tactic seemed to be to run with the ball until it was taken from you or you were able to have a shot, whereas Celtic in particular had perfected a passing style which seemed to bamboozle most sides.

By the time he arrived in Manchester he was known as an excellent football administrator and tactician and, by adopting the passing style, he turned City into a major force. According to a 1920s journalist, Maley built the Blues: “It was when Tom Maley came to Hyde Road that Manchester City may be said to have entered fully into their kingdom. Under his management, he built a team for the club that was comparable with the mightiest sides in the country.

“I never happened a greater enthusiast than Maley, nor yet a better informed man. If Maley had had average luck he would have gone down in history as one of the most successful managers the game has known. It is enough to say that so long as Maley was at the helm, the family at Hyde Road was a particularly happy one.”

At City he managed to attract great players and the club’s popularity increased as a result. City’s average attendance exceeded 20,000 for the first time during his reign as the Blues became Manchester’s premier club, although it’s fair to say Maley’s first few weeks were a particularly difficult time for the Blues. Welsh international and star player Di Jones gashed his knee during the pre-season public practice match and, despite treatment from the club doctor, within a week the wound had turned septic and the played died. Another significant player Jimmy Ross also died that summer. Maley had to lift spirits quickly.

His first League game ended in a 3-1 win and the Blues went on to lift the Second Division championship in Maley’s first season. This was a remarkable achievement but more was to follow in 1903-4 when Maley’s men won the FA Cup for the first time in their history. The Blues were the first Manchester side to win a major trophy and the feat had come a mere ten years after formation as Manchester City F.C.

In addition City narrowly missed out on the double, finishing second to Sheffield Wednesday after fixture congestion forced the Blues to play five League games and the cup final in the space of 16 days! No squad rotation possible back then. Who said fixture congestion was a modern phenomenon?

City’s success wasn’t popular with the footballing establishment – in particular the southern based FA – and FA Officials soon arrived at Hyde Road to check up on the young northern upstarts. They found one or two discrepancies over transfers but nothing major, however the following year Maley’s side were once again bidding for the League title. A controversial match with Aston Villa gave the FA another opportunity to investigate the club’s affairs and this time the FA claimed to have found widespread anomalies including overpayments to players. Tom Maley was questioned at length and admitted that he had followed what seemed like standard English practice. He claimed that if all First Division clubs were investigated, not four would come out ‘scatheless’. He was right but it was City the FA seemed determined to punish and they suspended 17 players and 2 directors. But the harshest sentence fell on the Chairman and on Maley. They were both suspended for life.

The northern based Football League and the footballing press supported the Blues but the FA got their way and Maley’s brief but successful reign was over.

Maley suffered more than most by the unfortunate events of 1905/6, and his role in football history has been tainted forever by the F.A.’s harsh treatment. However, in the eyes of thousands of Mancunians he is remembered as the man who brought exciting football and the F.A. Cup to the city for the first time.

Without his period at Hyde Road, Manchester may never have found real football success. Many of his players were forced to join United after the scandal of 1905, and went on to bring the Reds their first trophy success only a few years later. Had Maley been allowed to develop those players further who knows what success may have come City’s way. I reckon he would have created a dynasty at Hyde Road.

After City he became a headmaster in Glasgow, but in July 1910 the F.A. lifted his suspension and the following February he became Bradford Park Avenue’s manager. The Bradford club gave him full control of team affairs – something unusual at the time – and he remained there until March 1924. During his reign the club achieved its highest position (9th in Division One, 1914-15), and for a period played in his beloved green and white hoops. During the First World War he is said to have acted like an “amateur recruiting sergeant” and was famous for his entertaining lectures.

After Bradford he is said by some to have managed Southport between May and October 1925, and then in 1931 he temporarily took over as Celtic manager from his highly successful brother Willie during a trip to the USA.

On 24th August 1935 he passed away at the age of 70. Had his time at City not ended prematurely, it’s possible he would be remembered today as one of Britain’s most successful managers. As it is, he should always be remembered as one of Manchester’s greatest leaders.

I’ve added a few references/images concerning Tom to my facebook. Take a look at the folder “Research – Maley”: http://www.facebook.com/media/albums/?id=289818652815

Early in 2012 I will be announcing details of my next history book on City via http://www.facebook.com/GaryJames4

Tom Maley’s City Career Details

Secretary/Manager – July 1902 – July 1906

Took Over From: Sam Ormerod following the Club’s first relegation.

Inherited: The legendary Billy Meredith and Billy Gillespie.

Players Brought In Included: Sandy Turnbull & George Livingstone – both major stars.

Nickname: Known as ‘Handsome Tom’ in Glasgow

First Game: City 3 Lincoln City 1 (City scorers Willie McOustra 2 & Fred Bevan), 6 September 1902, attendance 16,000.

High Points: Coming close to the League & Cup double in 1903-04 and developing a quality side that truly represented Manchester for the first time.

Lows: The scandal that rocked City in 1905-07 and caused the Club to be severely punished.

Last Game: Birmingham 3 City 2 (City scorers Herbert Burgess & Irvine Thornley), 28 April 1906, attendance 3,000.

Season By Season Record:

League
1902-03 P 34 W 25 D 4 L 5 GF 95 GA 29 Pts 54
1903-04 P 34 W 19 D 6 L 9 GF 71 GA 45 Pts 44
1904-05 P 34 W 20 D 6 L 8 GF 66 GA 37 Pts 46
1905-06 P 38 W 19 D 5 L 14 GF 73 GA 54 Pts 43
2 points for a win

FA Cup
1902-03 P 1 W 0 D 0 L 1 GF 1 GA 3 Reached 1st round
1903-04 P 6 W 5 D 1 L 0 GF 12 GA 3 FA Cup winners
1904-05 P 2 W 1 D 0 L 1 GF 3 GA 3 Reached 2nd round
1905-06 P 1 W 0 D 0 L 1 GF 1 GA 4 Reached 1st round

TOTAL (League & cup fixtures)
P150 W89 D22 L39 GF 322 GA 178

Trophies Won: FA Cup (1904) & Second Division title (1903). His brother managed Celtic to Scottish Cup success in 1904 to complete an unusual double.

He Said: Talking about City’s 1904 homecoming in which, it was widely reported, the entire population of Manchester turned out to welcome the Cup winners home: “Perhaps the love of sport had something to do with the bringing together of so great a gathering, but love of Manchester had much more to do with it.”

(I love this quote and included it in the Introduction to my book on all of Mancunian football “Manchester A Football History”:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= … permPage=1

They Said: “I never happened on a greater enthusiast than Maley, nor yet a better informed man. If Maley had had average luck he would have gone down in history as one of the most successful managers the game has known” – A 1920s journalist for Athletic News.

Followed By: Harry Newbould.

Eighty years ago, United were struggling, dying in fact, and City were dominant.  Yet City did more than you’d expect to help United survive against a third club that threatened the Reds’ existence. 

Manchester football historian Gary James explains how football history in the north-west could have been very different had Central been given a League chance.  This is an adapted version of a story first revealed in Gary’s excellent “Manchester A Football History.”

In recent years much has been made of the growth of FC United of Manchester and their impact on support, community work and attitudes in Manchester.  However, the United offshoot were not the first Mancunian side created following dissatisfaction among supporters. In fact FC United arrived 80 years after a bigger offshoot had seriously challenged the livelihood of Manchester’s two major sides. The difference being that in the Twenties it was Manchester City’s move to Maine Road that prompted the creation of a new forward-looking club – Manchester Central FC, who joined the semi-professional Lancashire Combination in 1928-29.

One of the main figures behind Central was former City director John Ayrton, who that felt that Maine Road, in the south of Manchester, was too far from City’s old base in the east: “Ever since the City club left the Hyde Road district, I have thought of having a club on this side of Manchester. Our whole object is to develop local talent, and gradually to build up the club so that one day it may take its place in the Third Division of the Football League. Manchester has the biggest sporting community in the provinces. Surely then we have every reason to hope that there is plenty of room for our club.”

Many well known figures in Manchester football were involved in the creation of Central, including the great Billy Meredith, plus Charlie Pringle and Charlie Roberts, former captains of City and United respectively. As with FC United, the side attracted significantly better players than many of their Combination rivals – who included Morecambe, Chorley and Darwen – simply because of who they were. Central was chosen as a name so that the club could use the initials MCFC, which were spelt out on the ironwork above the main entrance of their 40,000-capacity Belle Vue ground on Hyde Road, half a mile from City’s old stadium.

After a couple of failed attempts, Central were on the verge of League football when Wigan Borough withdrew from Division Three (North) during October 1931. Central, now based in the Cheshire League, immediately offered to take over their fixtures. The existing Division Three sides supported Central’s application, including, significantly, Stockport County, who saw Central’s acceptance as being a positive development for local football.

In the Daily Dispatch, journalist ­“Adjutant” commented: “Manchester Central potentially are not merely a Second Division, but a First Division club of the future. There should be room in Manchester for three League clubs.” Second Division United and First Division City did not share the enthusiasm. Working together they complained to the League and, as they were classed as full members of the League while Division Three’s clubs had fewer rights, the League rejected Central.

The local press was appalled, as were many City and United supporters. So why did the two clubs object? At first glance it would seem that Central’s aim to be “the new MCFC” simply upset City. However, the truth is that Central were actually more of a threat to United, who were struggling on and off the pitch. Crowds were small – United’s nearest home gate to Central’s bid was 6,694 (against Notts County) and that was almost double United’s crowd for the opening game of the season at Old Trafford (3,507).  Central attracted several crowds higher than this despite being non-League.

Respected journalist Ivan Sharpe of the Sunday Chronicle argued that Central should have been admitted because United were failing: “A third club in Manchester would not damage the City at all seriously. It would build up football interest. I don’t like the way Manchester is slipping back in football. Where are those 30,000 football followers who used to assemble at Old Trafford? The odd 25,000 are missing. It is time something was done about it.”

Central were hugely disappointed and chairman George Hardman said: “We think there ought to be League football in the Belle Vue area, where there are 440,000 people within two miles, and a million people within four miles. This is surely enough for two League clubs in a place like Manchester. There seems to be a sad lack of enterprise so far as League football is concerned.”

It seems Hardman deliberately ignored United when he talked of “two” clubs as he knew it was the threat to United that was the deciding factor. Ivan Sharpe: “In view of Manchester United’s sorry position I certainly think Manchester Central should have been admitted.” “Nomad”, writing in the Evening Chronicle, held a similar view: “Keen disappointment is expressed that Manchester is not to have a third Football League club, especially as there is a splendid ground available at Belle Vue, and that Manchester United are so signally failing to keep Manchester on the football map.”

Within a year Central folded, feeling the close relationship of City and United would continue to severely restrict their progress. At City the 1930s proved to be a golden era with record crowds and significant success, while United struggled. Post-1945 it all changed, of course, but had Central been accepted into the League during 1931 then football in Manchester today might have been very different.

For more information about Gary’s books have a look at: http://www.facebook.com/GaryJames4

Manchester – A Football History is the definitive record of the development of football in the Manchester region and has significant content of interest to City fans.

To buy “Manchester A Football History” click here.