Gordon Nisbet

Why Blue?

My reason,like many others, is one of pure chance. I’m from Chesterfield, my old man is a jock, so his infatuation with Greenock Morton wasn’t passed on. It so happened that the guy next door but one was born and bred in Rusholme and a die-hard Blue. It also happened that his son was the same age as me and was my best friend. It was decreed that on my friend’s 5th birthday we would make our inaugural visit to Maine Road. The auspicious occasion was City vs. Southampton in November or December 77. As Junior Blues we somehow managed to wangle a pre-match behind the scenes tour. The sight of Joe Corrigan naked has lived with me all these years (what they say about big hands is definitely true).

Over the years many more visits ensued, interspersed with many trips to see Chesterfield play.I even moved to Manchester for my student days and managed to live 2 streets away from Maine Road. Now I live in Tokyo, I’ve adopted a J-League side, Bellmare, who are really sh*t and are currently in a relegation dogfight (sounds familiar?). If you watch the Toyota cup in November, I’m the guy in the City shirt amongst the Brazilian contingent.

First printed in: MCIVTA Newsletter #539 on