1965–66 Manchester City F.C. season

Manchester City F.C.

1965–66 season
Manager	Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison
Football League Second Division	1st0000000000000000
FA Cup	Sixth round
League Cup	Third round
Top goalscorer	League: Neil Young (14 goals) All: Neil Young (17 goals)
Highest home attendance	63,034 vs Everton (26 March 1966)
Lowest home attendance	13,235 vs Norwich City (8 September 1965)

The 1965–66 season was Manchester City F.C.'s seventy-fourth season of league football, and second consecutive season back in the Football League Second Division.

This season is widely believed to have been the start of Manchester City's golden era, a period largely concurrent with the reign of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison as managers at the club, and then of the aftermath of the break-up of the partnership. This season began City's highest concentration of silverware to seasons played - winning the Second Division for a record sixth time in this season, the club would claim the Football League First Division title, the FA Cup, the Football League Cup twice, the Charity Shield twice, and in European competition the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup all within the space of the ten seasons following.

This season also saw the club sign several players who would become iconic figures in Manchester City's history - Mike Summerbee, George Heslop, and Colin Bell were all signed near the start of the season. Not coincidentally, the season and the seasons following also saw the presence of some of the club's longest-serving players. Four of the club's ten players with the most appearances for the club played during this season - Bell, Summerbee, Alan Oakes, and Mike Doyle - and a further three of those ten - Joe Corrigan, Tommy Booth and Willie Donachie - would join within the following three seasons.

Team Kit

Football League Second Division

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GAv	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Manchester City (C, P)	42	22	15	5	76	44	1.727	59	Promotion to the First Division
2	Southampton (P)	42	22	10	10	85	56	1.518	54
3	Coventry City	42	20	13	9	73	53	1.377	53
4	Huddersfield Town	42	19	13	10	62	36	1.722	51
5	Bristol City	42	17	17	8	63	48	1.313	51
6	Wolverhampton Wanderers	42	20	10	12	87	61	1.426	50
7	Rotherham United	42	16	14	12	75	74	1.014	46
8	Derby County	42	16	11	15	71	68	1.044	43
9	Bolton Wanderers	42	16	9	17	62	59	1.051	41
10	Birmingham City	42	16	9	17	70	75	0.933	41
11	Crystal Palace	42	14	13	15	47	52	0.904	41
12	Portsmouth	42	16	8	18	74	78	0.949	40
13	Norwich City	42	12	15	15	52	52	1.000	39
14	Carlisle United	42	17	5	20	60	63	0.952	39
15	Ipswich Town	42	15	9	18	58	66	0.879	39
16	Charlton Athletic	42	12	14	16	61	70	0.871	38
17	Preston North End	42	11	15	16	62	70	0.886	37
18	Plymouth Argyle	42	12	13	17	54	63	0.857	37
19	Bury	42	14	7	21	62	76	0.816	35
20	Cardiff City	42	12	10	20	71	91	0.780	34
21	Middlesbrough (R)	42	10	13	19	58	86	0.674	33	Relegation to the Third Division
22	Leyton Orient (R)	42	5	13	24	38	80	0.475	23

Source:
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal average; 3) Goals scored
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated

Results summary

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GAv	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
42	22	15	5	76	44	1.727	59	14	7	0	40	14	35	8	8	5	36	30	24

Source: rsssf.com

Reports

Date	Opponents	H / A	Venue	Result F – A	Scorers	Attendance
21 August 1965	Middlesbrough	A	Ayresome Park	1 – 1	Murray	17,982
25 August 1965	Wolverhampton Wanderers	H	Maine Road	2 – 1	? (o.g.) (2)	25,572
28 August 1965	Bristol City	H	Maine Road	2 – 2	Brand, ? (o.g.)	19,349
30 August 1965	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	Molineux	4 – 2	Doyle, Crossan, Murray, ? (o.g.)	22,799
4 September 1965	Coventry City	A	Highfield Road	3 – 3	Young (2), Murray	29,403
8 September 1965	Norwich City	H	Maine Road	Abandoned at half-time due to flooding 1 – 1	Young	13,235
11 September 1965	Carlisle United	H	Maine Road	2 – 1	Pardoe (2)	22,891
15 September 1965	Norwich City	A	Carrow Road	3 – 3	Pardoe (2), Crossan	16,381
18 September 1965	Cardiff City	A	Ninian Park	3 – 4	Murray, Pardoe, Gray	11,520
25 September 1965	Derby County	H	Maine Road	1 – 0	Murray	20,834
2 October 1965	Southampton	A	The Dell	1 – 0	Young	21,504
9 October 1965	Huddersfield Town	A	Leeds Road	0 – 0		31,876
16 October 1965	Crystal Palace	H	Maine Road	3 – 1	Pardoe (2), Young	24,765
23 October 1965	Preston North End	A	Deepdale	3 – 0	Young (2), Brand	25,117
27 October 1965	Norwich City	H	Maine Road	0 – 0		34,091
30 October 1965	Charlton Athletic	H	Maine Road	0 – 0		23,102
6 November 1965	Plymouth Argyle	A	Home Park	0 – 1		15,954
13 November 1965	Portsmouth	H	Maine Road	3 – 1	Murray (2), Pardoe	22,106
20 November 1965	Bolton Wanderers	A	Burnden Park	0 – 1		22,968
27 November 1965	Ipswich Town	H	Maine Road	2 – 1	Crossan (2)	19,416
4 December 1965	Birmingham City	A	St Andrews	1 – 3	Summerbee	10,442
11 December 1965	Leyton Orient	H	Maine Road	5 – 0	Young (3), Summerbee, Crossan	16,202
18 December 1965	Crystal Palace	A	Selhurst Park	2 – 0	Doyle (2)	12,847
1 January 1966	Huddersfield Town	H	Maine Road	2 – 0	Doyle, Crossan	47,171
8 January 1966	Portsmouth	A	Fratton Park	2 – 2	Doyle, Summerbee	17,352
12 January 1966	Rotherham United	H	Maine Road	3 – 1	Doyle (2), Crossan	25,526
15 January 1966	Preston North End	H	Maine Road	0 – 0		26,668
29 January 1966	Middlesbrough	H	Maine Road	3 – 1	Summerbee (2), Young	25,278
5 February 1966	Bristol City	A	Ashton Gate	1 – 1	Young	25,273
19 February 1966	Coventry City	H	Maine Road	1 – 0	Crossan	40,190
26 February 1966	Carlisle United	A	Brunton Park	2 – 1	Summerbee, Pardoe	9,000
12 March 1966	Cardiff City	H	Maine Road	2 – 2	Connor, Young	29,642
19 March 1966	Derby County	A	Baseball Ground	2 – 1	Bell, Young	22,533
2 April 1966	Plymouth Argyle	H	Maine Road	1 – 1	Crossan	24,087
8 April 1966	Bury	H	Maine Road	1 – 0	Summerbee	43,104
12 April 1966	Bury	A	Gigg Lane	1 – 2	Summerbee	21,437
16 April 1966	Bolton Wanderers	H	Maine Road	4 – 1	Kennedy, Sear, Crossan, Connor	29,459
23 April 1966	Ipswich Town	A	Portman Road	1 – 1	Crossan	15,995
30 April 1966	Birmingham City	H	Maine Road	3 – 1	Bell, Young, Crossan	28,409
4 May 1966	Rotherham United	A	Millmoor	1 – 0	Bell	11,376
7 May 1966	Leyton Orient	A	Brisbane Road	2 – 2	Bell, ? (o.g.)	6,109
13 May 1966	Charlton Athletic	A	The Valley	3 – 2	Oakes, Crossan, Connor	13,687
18 May 1966	Southampton	H	Maine Road	0 – 0		34,653

FA Cup

Date	Round	Opponents	H / A	Venue	Result F – A	Scorers	Attendance
22 January 1966	Third round	Blackpool	A	Bloomfield Road	1 – 1	Crossan	23,937
24 January 1966	Third round replay	Blackpool	H	Maine Road	3 – 1	Summerbee, Doyle, Crossan	52,661
12 February 1966	Fourth round	Grimsby Town	H	Maine Road	2 – 0	Summerbee, ? (o.g.)	37,918
5 March 1966	Fifth round	Leicester City	H	Maine Road	2 – 2	Young (2)	56,787
9 March 1966	Fifth round replay	Leicester City	A	Filbert Street	1 – 0	Young	41,872
26 March 1966	Sixth round	Everton	H	Maine Road	0 – 0		63,034
29 March 1966	Sixth round replay	Everton	A	Goodison Park	0 – 0		60,349
4 April 1966	Sixth round second replay	Everton	N	Molineux	0 – 2		27,948

League Cup

Date	Round	Opponents	H / A	Venue	Result F – A	Scorers	Attendance
22 September 1965	Second round	Leicester City	H	Maine Road	3 – 1	Murray, Pardoe, ? (o.g.)	13,246
13 October 1965	Third round	Coventry City	H	Maine Road	2 – 3	Crossan, Pardoe	18,213

Squad statistics

Squad

Appearances for competitive matches only

Pos.	Name	League		FA Cup		League Cup		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
GK	Harry Dowd	38 (0)	0	8	0	1	0	47 (0)	0
GK	Alan Ogley	04 (0)	0	0	0	1	0	05 (0)	0
DF	Dave Bacuzzi	15 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	15 (1)	0
DF	David Connor	29 (1)	4	8	0	0	0	37 (1)	4
DF	Mike Doyle	19 (1)	7	7	1	0	0	26 (1)	8
DF	George Heslop	34 (0)	0	8	0	1	0	43 (0)	0
DF	Glyn Pardoe	41 (1)	9	8	0	2	2	51 (1)	11
DF	Cliff Sear	19 (0)	1	3	0	2	0	24 (0)	1
MF	Colin Bell	11 (0)	4	0	0	0	0	11 (0)	4
MF	Roy Cheetham	12 (3)	0	2	0	1	0	15 (3)	0
MF	Stan Horne	15 (0)	0	5	0	1	0	21 (0)	0
MF	Bobby Kennedy	35 (0)	1	8	0	2	0	45 (0)	1
MF	Alan Oakes	41 (0)	1	8	0	2	0	51 (0)	1
FW	Ralph Brand	17 (0)	2	0	0	1	0	18 (0)	2
FW	Johnny Crossan	40 (0)	12	8	2	1	1	49 (0)	15
FW	Matt Gray	03 (3)	1	0	0	1	0	04 (3)	1
FW	Jimmy Murray	11 (0)	7	0	0	1	1	12 (0)	8
FW	Mike Summerbee	42 (0)	8	8	2	2	0	52 (0)	10
FW	Alf Wood	01 (1)	0	0	0	1	0	02 (1)	0
FW	Neil Young	35 (0)	14	7	3	2	0	44 (0)	17
--	Vic Gomersall	01 (0)	0	0	0	0	0	01 (0)	0

Scorers

All

Scorer	Goals
Neil Young	17
Johnny Crossan	15
Glyn Pardoe	11
Mike Summerbee	10
Mike Doyle	8
Jimmy Murray
Colin Bell	4
David Connor
Ralph Brand	2
Matt Gray	1
Bobby Kennedy
Alan Oakes
Cliff Sear

League

Scorer	Goals
Neil Young	14
Johnny Crossan	12
Glyn Pardoe	9
Mike Summerbee	8
Mike Doyle	7
Jimmy Murray
Colin Bell	4
David Connor
Ralph Brand	2
Matt Gray	1
Bobby Kennedy
Alan Oakes
Cliff Sear

FA Cup

Scorer	Goals
Neil Young	3
Johnny Crossan	2
Mike Summerbee
Mike Doyle	1

League Cup

Scorer	Goals
Glyn Pardoe	2
Johnny Crossan	1
Jimmy Murray

Transfers

In

Date	Pos.	Name	From	Fee
August 1965	FW	Ralph Brand	Rangers	£20,000
August 1965	FW	Mike Summerbee	Swindon Town	£35,000
September 1965	DF	George Heslop	Everton	£25,000
March 1966	MF	Colin Bell	Bury	£42,500

Out

Date	Pos.	Name	From	Fee
August 1965	FW	Derek Kevan	Crystal Palace	£22,000

See also

• Manchester City F.C. seasons

External links

• Extensive Manchester City statistics site