Gareth Thomas

Why Blue?

I can’t remember the exact date I started supporting City. When I was seven years old my only interest in football was joining in the kickabout at playtimes in primary school and watching the results come in on Saturday afternoon Grandstand. I used to pick a couple of teams to follow, to see if my taking an interest in their fortunes would affect their results favourably, and uncannily it worked! One of these teams when I was about nine years old was Manchester City.

I made a very important decision around this time, the decision that City were to be my club, one of the main reasons being that I could enter into playground arguments with the kids who were supporting the successful Liverpool and the Man United. I think it’s important to note here that I live in Builth Wells, a small market town in Mid Wales, a town dominated by rugby union and a town miles from any football league ground, Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham and Hereford are all a long way away and for a boy of nine could have been just about anywhere.

Anyway the season of 84/85 culminated in City’s promotion back to Division 1. I remember the day of the 5-1 victory over Charlton that sealed promotion well. This time it wasn’t a team that I had taken an interest in that had won promotion, they were my team. It was also the time of the Bradford fire disaster and I must admit that if City hadn’t gained promotion that day I could well have become a Bradford fan in sympathy, but since that day I have never wavered in my support of City. However, life went on, I followed City on grandstand and was an ‘armchair’ fan. I wasn’t really that interested in football for many years; City not winning anything may indeed have had something to do with it, but I followed their ‘progress’ in the newspapers. Eventually I went to London to become a student and really had no funds for an expensive trip to Manchester, and instead went to watch local side Enfield on a Saturday.

My first City match arrived when I got my first paycheque. It was the draw against Portsmouth on the opening day of the 97/98 season! Then the next week I found myself in the car, stuck on the M6 near Birmingham on a bank holiday weekend going up to the second match of the season for the visit of Tranmere and I haven’t looked back since. I now regularly make the trip up to Maine Road to see the Super Blues, and my biggest regret being not having saved up the money earlier so I could have stood on the old Kippax.

First printed in: MCIVTA Newsletter #439 on