Manchester City - The Mercer-AllisonYears

MANCHESTER CITY’S first home game of 1964-65 was a resounding success – a 6-0 win over Leyton Orient. But by the time Swindon Town arrived at Maine Road in January 1965, City’s fortunes had taken an alarming tumble. They had been knocked out of both Cup competitions, each time by a Third Division team, and had lost 11 times in the old Second Division. Not surprisingly attendances had dropped and an all-time low of 8,015, less than 10 per cent of the club’s record gate, bothered to turn up to watch City play Swindon. At Easter, manager George Poyser resigned and the rest of the season City were managerless as they finished 11th. In July 1965, City announced their new man: Joe Mercer, former England, Everton and Arsenal wing-half who had been out of the game for 12 months after suffering a stroke while managing Aston Villa. Mercer needed a younger man to work with the players on the training pitch and he chose Malcolm Allison, the former West Ham defender who had himself suffered bad health, his playing career ended when he lost a lung to TB. This is the remarkable story of the next seven years.