MANCHESTER DERBY AND A BIT MORE

On November 12th 1881: St. Mark’s (West Gorton) lost 3–0 at home to Newton Heath in a friendly match, marking the very first Manchester Derby (the early roots of the Manchester Derby.  

Nowadays local derbies between Manchester City and Manchester United are fixtures which receive national attention but that wasn’t the case when the clubs played each other for the first time back in 1881. Back then they were just two ‘ordinary’ Manchester clubs and in that first meeting – a friendly played on Saturday November 12th 1881 – St Mark’s (West Gorton) lost 0-3 at home to Newton Heath. In modern language that would be Manchester City 0 Manchester United 3, a match which a local paper, The Ashton Reporter, described as being ‘a pleasant game’. The two clubs progressed and both joined the Football League in 1892/93 although Newton Heath – they didn’t become Man U until 1902 -  joined the First Division and Manchester City (St Mark’s had become Ardwick and then Man City) started out in Division 2. It wasn’t until Newton Heath were relegated to Division 2 after two seasons that the clubs met for the first time in the Football League. That match was played on Saturday November 3rd 1894 with another sound victory for Manchester-United-to-be – Manchester City 2 Newton Heath 5.

On this date, 1921: Billy Walker became the first player to score a hat-trick of penalties in an English League match during Aston Villa's 7–1 win  over Bradford City.