1968 Manchester centre of English Football .......... another story from Tony Goulding

First Division 1967-68

Tony is now a regular contributor to the blog and here he writes of a time when Chorlton could boast plenty of top footballers.

1968 like 2012 saw both Manchester clubs at the very pinnacle of English football.

A big difference is that whilst today the football stars all live in £1,000,000 mansions in north Cheshire's stockbroker belt in the late 1960's they still lived much more modestly.

Indeed if it could be said at that time Manchester was akin to an earthquake shaking up the English game then Chorlton-cum-Hardy must be considered to have been its epicentre.

Joe Mercer & Matt Busby

Both clubs' managers were residents, in fact they lived so close together, City's Joe Mercer at  71, St Werburgh's Road  and his United opposite number (Sir) Matt Busby just round the corner on King's Road (no.214) so that they appear on the same page of that year's electoral roll.


A triumvirate of United forwards also lived in the area for a time in the late 1960's two of the heroes of their European Cup win over Benfica of Portugal at Wembley in 1968 had lodged together with Mrs. Fullaway at 9, Aycliffe Avenue.

These were David Sadler and the celebrated "fifth beetle" George Best.

Denis Law on the other hand had, by then, been able to move into a nice house (no.80) on the portion of Claude Road.

Denis Law & George Best

Chorltonville

My memories of this time further emphasise the degree to which the sport has changed.

As a young teenager I would quite often see United's manager in our local church, St. John's on Sunday.
(Coincidentally, in 2011- 2, City’s premier league winning manager Roberto Mancini also attended masses there.)

Young fans certainly felt closer to their heroes, as both clubs used to distribute free tickets for reserve games to local primary schools.

A letter to Mr Mercer

Often these matches would feature one or more of the 1st team for one reason or another.

I recall as City fans we used to hold our breath if we had occasion to walk past Denis Law's house whilst we felt it quite ok for  us to write to Mr. Mercer re: team selection .

I still have copy of our letter to which I must admit we received no reply.

© Tony Goulding, 2015

Pictures; from the collection of Tony Goulding