City on Youtube

Whilst perusing Youtube earlier trying to cheer myself up with reruns of a couple of derby spankings i came across an extraordinary collection of City videos. I expect i've been quite slow on the uptake and most of you know about them already, but the viewing figures on the clips, some in the low hundreds, surprised me.

Lots of the clips i'd seen before, but some i hadn't. I recognise a few from a couple of old BBC VHS's i had years ago, and others i suspect might be from the Match of the Seventies series, as that decade is covered quite extensively. It's a real treasure trove of stuff, fair play to whoever has taken the time to upload it. I've picked out a few that might be of particular interest...

Firstly, a humorous profile of the team from the 1930's. Brilliant to see the likes of Eric Brook, Fred Tilson, Matt Busby, Frank Swift and Sam Cowan so close up, as well as moving pictures of Maine Road in its earlier days. There are also some brief but disappointing highlights of the 1934 Cup Final victory against Portsmouth. Sadly the footage of our goals isn't great, but still well worth a watch. There are also some, more extensive this time, of the '56 Cup Final win.

A game i'm sure you'll have all seen numerous times, but that i never get bored of watching, is the 'Ballet On Ice' against Spurs in 1967/68. Both halves of the 4-3 final day title-clinching win have also been uploaded, here and here, i'd only previously saw a short video of the goals. An especially good clip, from Ken Loach's docudrama 'The Golden Vision', sees City play out a draw at Goodison Park. Also from that period, an impressive Cup Winners Cup victory over Athletic Bilbao, both legs of the League Cup semi against United (home, away), as well as the thumping of Schalke in 1970.

A Francis Lee perfect hat-trick from the December derby of 70/71 is a particular delight, as are seven minutes of footage from that of the following year, a highly-entertaining 3-3 draw, a similar scoreline from Bramall Lane, and excellent wins at Everton and Tottenham. A League Cup win over Coventry (73/74), played on a midweek afternoon due to the three-day week, and a spanking of Leicester, Barney Daniels scoring his only goals in a City shirt, are other highlights.

Also thoroughly enjoyable, our last win at Arsenal (embarrassingly 1975!), another big win against the Foxes featuring four goals from Brian Kidd, and five past Spurs at Maine Road in '77 in a result that would see us looking on course for the title, ultimately finishing behind Liverpool despite them not winning any of their last four, a fine win against them the following October proving at least a small consolation. Other great games include a commanding display at Chelsea in '78 during which Ron Futcher grabs a treble, and the UEFA Cup performances against Milan (home, away) and Standard Liege.

Perhaps the most interesting, if slightly upsetting, though i do think i've seen it once before on an old VHS, is a short news item on Colin Bell's attempted return from injury featuring an interview with him at his home, footage of him training in a rickety gym, and then jogging through Moss Side. Strange seeing him in off-the-pitch surroundings.

There's also all the others you might expect to see; cup finals, the play-off win (parts 1, 2 & 3), the 5-1, the comeback at Spurs, the promotion deciders against Charlton, Bradford and Blackburn, and many, many more. If you've not come across it already, or haven't got most of this stuff on video or DVD, it could well prove a valuable source of entertainment.

http://www.youtube.com/user/mcfcvideos

http://www.youtube.com/user/mcfcvideos2