Maine Road memories

I first went to Maine Road with my Dad when I was 9. I don’t remember it very clearly, it’s more the general feeling and a few snippets I recall. The basic facts are that I saw a 1-1 draw and a 4-0 victory; I little realised that it would be downhill results-wise from there. My clearest memory of those two games is of the first time I walked up the steps in the Main Stand and saw the pitch. That sight will stay with me until I die.

We’d just bought a programme and we walked up to the steps. We started up the steps and after a few steps (I was still small at the time) I could see the top of the Kippax stand, and gradually more of it came into view. This was back when the Kippax was standing room only and it was filled with more people than I’d ever seen in one place; an amazing sight. Then as I took more steps the pitch came into view.

It’s hard to describe how that looked. It seemed so enormous and so green. Whether it was the excitement of going to my first game, or the strange setting (to me) of a football pitch surrounded by stands, I don’t know, but that moment when I first saw the pitch is one of the clearest memories I have from childhood.

I have only a vague recollection of either game. I remembered the scores and that one of the games was against Wolves, but I couldn’t remember who the other game was against or the exact dates (although I knew both were in 1984). I thought it might have been Brighton but a quick search has shown it to have been Barnsley on Boxing Day, followed by Wolves 3 days later. I was surprised because I thought that the Wolves games came first, probably wishful thinking!

Anyway, the point of all this? None really. It just came to mind now that City are leaving Maine Road. I’m glad to be going one last time to the ground. The whole family are going, including my Dad, so it’s a fitting end to an era.