A Pretty Good Question From The Clubs Twitter…

[Son of Fred]

11 hours ago, handsofclay said:

 

Correct it wasn't a ticket game, the capacity (37,000) was exceeded and just under 39,000 announced as the gate. A good couple of thousand were also locked outside. 

I don't know if the exceeding of the capacity by nearly 2,000 had an effect upon the capacity the next season onwards which was reduced to 32,000. 

I remember being in the Open End on that Monday night, where Garland headed the winner against Clemence. I think the first was a diving header near halftime in the East End goal to equalise Johnson's opener for Liverpool. 

Was in crackers corner with my crackers dad & his crackers mates.

An unforgettable evening & a treasured memory

[CyderInACan]

12 hours ago, The Fat Controller said:

The 3-2 win over Rovers just before Christmas 2000 was pretty good. Friday night wasn't it?

That entire day was utterly mental 

[supercidered]

I remember beating West Brom 1:0 when they were one of the favourites to win the old First Division. We were really struggling. Shock. 

They had Cunnigham, Regis and Batson (known as the 3 Degrees at that time) I can't remember the exact season. I was in the open end with my old man. I think the attendance was about 37,000. Absolutely bonkers.

[GrahamC]

3 minutes ago, supercidered said:

I remember beating West Brom 1:0 when they were one of the favourites to win the old First Division. We were really struggling. Shock. 

They had Cunnigham, Regis and Batson (known as the 3 Degrees at that time) I can't remember the exact season. I was in the open end with my old man. I think the attendance was about 37,000. Absolutely bonkers.

Without looking this up I would be absolutely amazed if the crowd was anything like that.

Aside from the games at the end of the first season in the top flight (Man U, Liverpool, Leeds) & a couple of memorable cup games already mentioned we usually struggled to get much over 20,000.

Someone can probably look this up but I would be astonished if we had 37000 for this.

I can definitely recall crowds of 14,000 & 15,000 for top flight games.

[Port Said Red]

28 minutes ago, supercidered said:

I remember beating West Brom 1:0 when they were one of the favourites to win the old First Division. We were really struggling. Shock. 

They had Cunnigham, Regis and Batson (known as the 3 Degrees at that time) I can't remember the exact season. I was in the open end with my old man. I think the attendance was about 37,000. Absolutely bonkers.

I remember being in the enclosure for a different game where I think WBA won 2-0, Cunningham looked like he was from a different planet, the planet Football.

He moved like silk, every touch was measured perfectly and on at least 3 occasions even our fans in the enclosure would give a ripple of applause at a touch or a piece of control.

Injuries robbed us of one the truly great players I think.

Edited February 13 by Port Said Red

[supercidered]

35 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Without looking this up I would be absolutely amazed if the crowd was anything like that.

Aside from the games at the end of the first season in the top flight (Man U, Liverpool, Leeds) & a couple of memorable cup games already mentioned we usually struggled to get much over 20,000.

Someone can probably look this up but I would be astonished if we had 37000 for this.

I can definitely recall crowds of 14,000 & 15,000 for top flight games.

I had to check this because I had only just turned 10 years old. The official attendance was: 29,914. The date was 17/4/79.

Kevin Mabbutt scored: City 1 WBA 0

Edited February 13 by supercidered
spelling

[bredwood]

1 hour ago, Son of Fred said:

Was in crackers corner with my crackers dad & his crackers mates.

An unforgettable evening & a treasured memory

I was in that part of the ground as well. It was scary getting out of the ground, I don't think my feet touched the ground as I was swept along in the crowd.

[handsofclay]

26 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Without looking this up I would be absolutely amazed if the crowd was anything like that.

Aside from the games at the end of the first season in the top flight (Man U, Liverpool, Leeds) & a couple of memorable cup games already mentioned we usually struggled to get much over 20,000.

Someone can probably look this up but I would be astonished if we had 37000 for this.

I can definitely recall crowds of 14,000 & 15,000 for top flight games.

Agree with you, Graham C, I remember being in a crowd of just 16,000 v Norwich when we went 3-0 up in the first 15 minutes and then their keeper Kevin Keelan picked up a nasty hand injury. It was in the days of only one sub and that was never a keeper so he remained in goal saving shots mainly with his legs and feet. But he kept it at 3-0. 

Also recall only 18,000 v Middlesbrough for a Tuesday night game. 

The first season prior to the 38,000 v Liverpool last match we had an average gate of 24,000 so with that bumper crowd it would've taken the average to 25,000. But like you said, it was mainly the big guns we got over 30,000 for. Most crowds that first season against the other slightly less attractive sides ranged between 20,000 to 28,000. That was the best season out of the four in the top flight crowd wise. I believe the final season our average gate was something like 17,000 to 19,000. 

As you say any of the WBA games would not have attracted a crowd of 37,000. The only season that was possible was 1976-77 as the following season the capacity was reduced to 32,000. 

The only time I recall a bumper crowd v WBA in the top flight at home was Boxing Day in either 77 or 78 when City won 3-1. I think Hunter made a mistake to put the Baggies one up but we thundered back and I think Hunter got one of our three.

[Silvio Dante]

21 minutes ago, Port Said Red said:

I remember being in the enclosure for a different game where I think WBA won 2-0, Cunningham looked like he was from a different planet, the planet Football.

 

[supercidered]

26 minutes ago, Port Said Red said:

I remember being in the enclosure for a different game where I think WBA won 2-0, Cunningham looked like he was from a different planet, the planet Football.

He moved like silk, every touch was measured perfectly and on at least 3 occasions even our fans in the enclosure would give a ripple of applause at a touch or a piece of control.

Injuries robbed us of one the truly great players I think.

The game I reference in 1979, I think he left WBA to go to Real Madrid that summer.

[Lorenzos Only Goal]

Midweek, 1997/1998 season vs Plymouth, we hit the woodwork more times than I can remember, and Mickey Bell popped in two almost identical set-piece free kicks. 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=114683169247071

[supercidered]

7 minutes ago, handsofclay said:

Agree with you, Graham C, I remember being in a crowd of just 16,000 v Norwich when we went 3-0 up in the first 15 minutes and then their keeper Kevin Keelan picked up a nasty hand injury. It was in the days of only one sub and that was never a keeper so he remained in goal saving shots mainly with his legs and feet. But he kept it at 3-0. 

Also recall only 18,000 v Middlesbrough for a Tuesday night game. 

The first season prior to the 38,000 v Liverpool last match we had an average gate of 24,000 so with that bumper crowd it would've taken the average to 25,000. But like you said, it was mainly the big guns we got over 30,000 for. Most crowds that first season against the other slightly less attractive sides ranged between 20,000 to 28,000. That was the best season out of the four in the top flight crowd wise. I believe the final season our average gate was something like 17,000 to 19,000. 

As you say any of the WBA games would not have attracted a crowd of 37,000. The only season that was possible was 1976-77 as the following season the capacity was reduced to 32,000. 

The only time I recall a bumper crowd v WBA in the top flight at home was Boxing Day in either 77 or 78 when City won 3-1. I think Hunter made a mistake to put the Baggies one up but we thundered back and I think Hunter got one of our three.

So 29,914 isn't bumper enough then?

[handsofclay]

44 minutes ago, supercidered said:

So 29,914 isn't bumper enough then?

I was replying to your original suggestion that it was 37,000. 

The first 3 seasons in the top flight, and the match you refer to was at the top end of that, the 29,914 would have been a very good crowd indeed, but we had quite a few attendances of 25k to 30k. That was obviously at the top end of that. 

But the only clubs I recall us getting bumper attendances of 30k plus (and in one case nearly 40k) was against the likes of Liverpool, Man United, Leeds etc. 

Edited February 13 by handsofclay

[Sir Geoff]

2 hours ago, Port Said Red said:

I am sorry, I had to look this up for my own sanity (I worry about any memory lapses these days ), not to belittle you. 

The Orient game was a Saturday afternoon, 23/10/1971. I was approaching my 10th birthday. It was a great game, but doesn't quite fit the "great night game" criteria being discussed.

Many thanks. For some reason I always remembered it as a night game. I was 9.

[Sir Geoff]

1 hour ago, Port Said Red said:

I remember being in the enclosure for a different game where I think WBA won 2-0, Cunningham looked like he was from a different planet, the planet Football.

He moved like silk, every touch was measured perfectly and on at least 3 occasions even our fans in the enclosure would give a ripple of applause at a touch or a piece of control.

Injuries robbed us of one the truly great players I think.

A while ago someone on here remarked that Bale was the best British player to play for Real Madrid. I argued that he wasn't good enough to tie Cunninghams boot laces. Got shouted down for my observation.

Injuries didn't do for him. A fatal car crash in Spain did.

[Port Said Red]

50 minutes ago, Sir Geoff said:

A while ago someone on here remarked that Bale was the best British player to play for Real Madrid. I argued that he wasn't good enough to tie Cunninghams boot laces. Got shouted down for my observation.

Injuries didn't do for him. A fatal car crash in Spain did.

Of course, but he had lost some of his skills through the more agricultural defending of that period.

[Henry]

4 hours ago, Red DNA said:

Yawn yourself. 
 

If anyone else had posted that reference you would have ignored it but because it was @Robbored you thought you’d join the gang. 
Childish and tantamount to bullying behaviour by posting replies which were not quite verbatim but were pretty close to it. There is an ignore button you can use if it bothers you that much. 

If you’re that concerned, go look at his posting history.

[SuperDziek]

some great games already mentioned. 

Lee Matthew’s debut v Millwall was a night game I think. 4 players sent off - 2 for us and 2 for them, and Matthews announced himself to the City fans by scoring the winner from the penalty spot in the last minute. Followed by Millwall fans trashing the East End and their players trashing the changing room.

Eventful.