Manchester City History

• 1879 – St. Mark’s church cricket club was formed by Anna Connell, who was a daughter of the rector of St. Mark’s church in West Gorton. She wanted to provide activities for local men. But unfortunately her idea about cricket club wasn’t appropriate for the winter season.
• 1880 – that’s why she with the help of William Beastow and Thomas Goodbehere created a church football team, St Mark’s (West Gorton) (sometimes written as West Gorton (St Mark’s) ).
• November 13, 1880 - held the first game against a church team from Macclesfield.
• 1884 – the club joined to the another, Gorton Athletic. After several months the club was divided on Gorton A.F.C. and Gorton Athletic reforming as West Gorton Athletic.
• 1887 - the team renamed Ardwick AFC. It turned professional and moved to Hyde Road.
• 1891 – Ardwick won the Manchester cup defeating Newton Heath in the final.
• 1891 – 1892 – Alliance League decided to accept Ardwick as a member for this season.
• 1892 – the Citizens won the Manchester Cup for a second time beating Bolton Wanderers. This victory resulted in getting a membership in the Second Division of the Football League.
• 1894 – because of the some financial troubles Ardwick club reformers as Manchester City Football Club.
• April 16, 1894 – Manchester City Football Club became a registered company.
• 1899 – Manchester City won the Second Division. This led to the first honors and promotion to highest level in English football, the First Division .
• 1902 – the club became Champions of Division Two.
• April 23, 1904 -This year was the FA Cup triumph. City beat Bolton Wanders 1-0 at Crystal Palace winning the FA Cup and finishing runners-up in the League.
• 1905 – a match with Aston Villa results in investigations into Manchester City Club’s finances. Eventually seventeen players, manager, two directors were suspended. Unfortunately, most of the players who were suspended went to Manchester United and formed the basis of United’s first successful side.
• 1910 – nevertheless the club was champion of Division Two.
• 1920 – After the Hyde Road ground had became the first provincial ground King George V’s visited the Main Stand. Later a fire at Hyde Road destroyed the Main stand.
• 1923 – the Citizents changed its location. Maine Road in Moss Side , Manchester became a new home.
• 1924 – Billy Meredith at the age of 49 played his last match. It was a game against Newcastle United, FA Cup semi-final.
• 1928 – City became the best supported Club in the entire League.
• 1930 – Manchester City reached FA Cup finals
• 1933 – the Citizents lost to Everton.
• 1934 – Man City won FA Cup final, beating Portsmouth. Also this year was prominent for recording crowd of 84,569 at Maine Road where took place a match against Stoke City.
• 1937 – The Blues won the First Division title for the first time.
• 1938 – the club was relegated in spite of scoring more goals than any other team in the division.
• 1947 – The Blues became Division Two champions.
• 1955 – City change a tactic. The new system named the Revie Plan. The team reached FA Cup finals but lose to Newcastle.
• 1956 – Man City beat Birmingham City 3-1 in FA Cup final. It was the most famous finals of all-time due to the heroics of goalkeeper Bert Trautmann who was continuing to play after breaking his neck.
• 1958 – goalkeeper Frank Swift died at Munich Air Disaster.
• 1963 – Manchester City relegated to Division Two because of loss of form and a poor winter.
• 1965 – took place some reorganization: Joe Mercer became a manager and Malcolm Allison was appointed coach.
• 1966 – under Mercer-Allison’s guidance the team won the Division Two championship. Also were made some important signings in Mike Summerbee and Colin Bell.
• 1968 – The Blues beat Newcastle United 4-3 and claimed the League Championship for the second time. Also the club defeated Tottenham Hotspur 4-1. This match called The Ballet on Ice because of the snow that covered pitch. Manchester became first English city to have two sides competing in the European Cup (City as Champions, United as European Cup holders).
• 1969 – City won the FA Cup beating Leicester 1-0 at Wembley.
• 1970 – Double success within the same season. The record of the club – victory in the European Cup Winners’ Cup and League Cup beating Górnik Zabrze 2-1 in Vienna.
• 1971 – Joe Mercer took the title of General Manager. Malcolm Allison became a Team Manager.
• 1972 – 1974 – Peter Swales took a control over the club and Johnny Hart and Ron Saunders came to the place of managers.
• 1974 – despite of the changes Man City were defeated by Wolves in League Cup final.
• 1976 – Eventually the team won the League Cup beating Newcastle United 2-1 in the final.
• 1977 – Manchester City finished runners-up in the League.
• 1979 – Malcolm Allison became the club’s manager for the second time.
• 1981 – Under John Bond , the club reached the 1981 FA Cup final but lost in a replay to Tottenham Hotspur.
• 1983 – the club lost to Luton Town and crashed out of the First Division.
• 1985 – Billy McNeill became a new manager and guided Man City to promotion with 5-1 victory over Charlton on last day of season.
• 1986 – McNeill left the club to become manager of Aston Villa. City won the FA Youth Cup, beating Manchester United in the two-legged final.
• 1987 – Best league win: 10 – 1 vs Huddersfield Town.
• 1989 – the Citizens won promotion back to the First Division after finishing runners-up in the Second Division under the management of Mel Machin.
• 1990 – Howard Kendall accepted a post of manager.
• 1996 – The Blues were excluded from Premier League.
• 1998 – For the first time in the history of Manchester City, the team relegated to third level of English football.
• 2000 – Man City returned to the Premier League.
• 2001 – 2002 - City won Division One championship. This year they also broke club records for the number of points gained.
• 2002 – 2003 – it was the last season at Maine Road. The club moved to the City of Manchester Stadium.The capacity of this stadium was 48,000 seats. The first match at the new place was against Welsh side TNS in the UEFA Cup.
• March, 2005 – Kevin Keegan was replaced by Stuart Pearce at the position of manager.
• 2007 – Manchester City had a success in their bid to host the UEFA Cup Final in 2008.
• 2007 – Stuart Pearce left his position of manager.