Michael Whittaker

Why Blue?

I first started to support the club in the late sixties – no coincidence that this was the most successful period over the last 40 years. My dad was a mancunian (though not an avid football fan) who had moved down south. My grandmother still lived in Fallowfield within the sound of Maine Road.

I can remember going with my dad to see City play Sunderland in 1968 in what must have been the championship season. I think the score was one-nil to City but I can’t remember the scorer – it may have been a “Lee 1 pen”. The next season I was the only person at my school who supported City in the FA Cup final – the others all wanted Leicester to win. They didn’t want to talk about it much the next Monday.

And then of course in 1970 it was: “Hi ho, hi ho, we’re off to Mexico, with Bell and Lee and Summerbee, hi ho, hi ho, hi ho”. I didn’t really see that many matches until I went to university in Manchester in the late 70’s, early 80’s. Malcolm Allison was in charge at first and had just bought Steve Daley from Wolves for some staggering sum. Unfortunately Steve never managed to live up to his price tag.

In the early 80’s City’s fortunes looked up for a while with the arrival of John Bond. He quickly assembled a side that looked as though it might beat anyone on its day, with Tommy Hutchison enjoying a second lease of life. By the time they reached the FA Cup final in 1981 it seemed as if they had peaked too early and never quite produced their best football.

The rest is history. There was a brief period the next season (?) when City were top of the league at Christmas (am I dreaming this?) but reality soon set in in the New Year. Every time Trevor Francis played City would win, but it only seemed like he could play for 2 or 3 matches without getting injured. Probably the most depressing aspect of this era was seeing City play Liverpool at home – I think I saw them beaten 3-0, 4-0, 4-1 and 5-0 in successive seasons though I haven’t checked the record books to verify this. What is probably less well remembered is that City narrowly lost to Liverpool in the League Cup semi-final in the Cup Final year, partly due to a diabolical decision by the referee in disallowing a goal by Kevin Reeves at Maine Road.

Still – let’s remember better times: Paul Power’s brilliant curled free kick to beat Ipswich in the FA Cup semi final in 1981 (David Beckham eat your heart out) and his equally brilliant lob over the Everton ‘keeper to equalise (2-2) and earn a replay at Maine Road in the previous round.

Most of my friends at Manchester unfortunately seemed to be Reds although funnily enough I gained 2 City converts while up there – one ex-Spurs and one ex-Chelsea – proof of the remarkable drawing power of the club. In spite of all the troubles over the last 2 decades I am sure better times are now around the corner…

Still keeping the faith, forever Blue

First printed in: MCIVTA Newsletter #776 on