CITY DNA #125: Our series ends here...

Twelve months ago we began our City DNA series, celebrating the Club’s 125-year history by looking into the very fabric of Manchester City.

We’ve covered everything from thrilling successes in recent times, to spectacular failures from the past and focused on the players and people that make this football club what it is.

One thing that has always stood out is our ability to smile when the chips are down and even make light of desperate situations.

Some our DNA stories highlighted this and in particular, ‘Are you watching Macclesfield?’ – the chant thousands of travelling City fans sang as relegation to the third tier was confirmed away to Stoke in 1998 – despite a 5-2 win.

In another, we focused on the incredible campaign that saw City score 104 goals – but conceded 100 as well – the only time that’s ever happened, but where City are concerned, there are many instances ‘the only time it’s ever happened.

In ‘Relegated as Champions’ we looked at the bizarre 1937/38 top flight campaign, where City, fresh from celebrating a first ever Division One title, were relegated as champions. You couldn’t make it up.

But it wasn’t all about highlighting some of the more incredible Club feats – far from it. To delve into City’s DNA was to place the Club under the microscope and find out what makes it tick.

That meant uncovering stories about games, managers, players and people – and in ‘Stray Dogs’, even our four-legged friends who occasionally nipped into Maine Road while matches were being played got a look in.

We began our journey with the story of our first super-fan – Helen Turner – and how she and the cow bell she used to ring during matches became a cherished part of matchdays at Maine Road.

Helen’s story was one of the most popular of our DNA tales and, for some reason, proved a huge hit in South Korea!

City DNA #1: Helen the Bell

But by far and away our most successful story was that of former City striker Paul Moulden, with fans fascinated by his unbelievable goal-scoring record that saw him bag 289 goals in just 40 matches while playing for Bolton Schoolboys.

City DNA #37: The Paul Moulden Story

And in our Top 10 most read, Denis Law features twice – one for ‘Denis has done it!’ – the story of his famous back-heel goal that rubber stamped his old club Manchester United’s relegation, and the other being the ‘Six Goals in One Game - and Still Lost’.

One of the more surprising successes was the revealing interview with Sheila Hancock, wife of John Thaw who starred in The Sweeney and Inspector Morse and the story of how her late husband followed both City and United.

City DNA #34: John Thaw

City DNA #118 is, sadly, now out of date. Entitled ‘Our Longest Season’, the 1946/47 campaign from that ran from August to md-June has been comfortably surpassed by the 2019/20 campaign and may need a rewrite!

Some of the features might have seemed alien to our younger fans, such as the ‘It’s a Goal!’ DNA that focused on what it was like following City’s games on local station Piccadilly Radio and waiting for goal alerts.

This was long before the Internet and Sky Sports and fans had to be creative if they couldn’t attend the matches – and the ‘Football Pink’ entry will have brought back a lot of happy memories for dads, mums and grandparents across Manchester.

It’s not a bad thing to look back and see how things were, you know.

We also took a look at celebrity fan Eddie Large’s unique role within the Club during the late 1970s and early 80s when he was allowed to watch games from the substitutes bench at Maine Road – I know Eddie got to read that story and loved the fact that he was still warmly thought of by the Club and supporters.

When Eddie died earlier this year, we resurfaced his DNA feature and it felt like the perfect tribute.

The unique stories behind some of our greatest players also proved extremely popular.

Mike Doyle, Colin Bell, Franny Lee, Mike Summerbee, Glyn Pardoe, Joe Corrigan… the stories behind the legends proved fascinating reads.

And it wasn’t just the superstars that you wanted to hear about.

Some our cult heroes such as Andy Morrison, Rodney Marsh Uwe Rosler, Georgi Kinkladze, Paul Lake, and others proved equally popular – as did ‘The Ballad of Billy Telford’ – the take of a striker who played handful of games before disappearing into the ether.

Billy has recently made contact and we’ll be running a follow-up on his tale and what happened next in the coming weeks.

Our women’s editor Caroline Oatway looked at some of the pioneers of City’s women’s team in the form of Neil Mather, Nick Cushing, Steph Houghton and Jill Scott and their role in making the Club what is today.

Maine Road Head Groundsman Stan Gibson deservedly got a look in and where else would you find a series that celebrated LS Lowry and Red Bull Salzburg’s Alan with equal reverence?

Then there was some more of the ‘only City’ stuff – ‘Chipgate’ and ‘Balloongate’ spring to mind…

And our talented musician supporters were celebrated, too.

Ian Curtis, Noel and Liam, Doves and Mark E Smith all made an appearance as did the stories behind ‘Blue Moon’ and ‘The Boys in Blue’ – though one chant in particular stands out and to steal the immortal line from John Edwards’ story – we are, of course, talking about Niall Quinn’s disco pants.

City DNA #89: Niall Quinn's Disco Pants

Then there were the obscure competitions such as the Anglo-Italian Cup, the Texaco Cup, and the Anglo-Scottish Cup.

And no self-respecting City DNA series would be complete without the story of The Poznan, would it?

City DNA #29: The Poznan

The City Social Club, our eccentric North Stand Scoreboard and yes, even the Maine Road floodlights were lovingly recalled and many of our supporters’ legendary tales were regaled such as ‘The Hill at Ewood Park’, ‘Planes, Trains and Fishing Trawlers’ and the infamous ‘Gene Kelly Stand’.

Throw in ‘Beanie the Horse’, ‘Mary D’s’, ‘The Peter Barnes Trainer’, ‘Wimblydon the Cat’ and you’ll probably understand what City DNA was all about and, if possible, perhaps even love this wonderful football club a little bit more.