TRUE BLUE STORIES

Philip Lewis

Imagine that it is circa 2020, this could be my son's Why Blue contribution to MCIVTA. City are now playing in the East Lancs Superleague along with footballing giants such as Skelmersdale, Ellesmere Port, Northwich Victoria, Tottenham Hotspur (Who were bought out by Kelloggs following a dispute with Alan Sugar over the use of a Cock logo on the front of Cornflake packages; bought Old Trafford for stlg250,000,000 after the rags moved to the Busby stadium {based on the Gates space station for easy access from visiting aliens for their intergalactic league fixtures}; Spurs achieved East Lancs Superleague status by appointing Horton and Ball as a management duo!) and Brighton (who bought Maine Road for stlg25,000 when City moved into the new Armageddon Stadium). MCIVTA now goes out to about 2 billion (This followed the purchase of an India superhero - Rajin Bharmi - and a China superhero - Ho Wa Ta Miss - and the edict from world emperor Gates that rice could only be purchased with certified proof of ownership of Microsoft Explorer software).

"I guess that I never had a chance, genetically pre-ordained to support City. My great-grandfather had played in goal for City around the time of the first world war, my grandad supported City and told tales of being among 84,000 crammed into Maine Rd for a game against Stoke City, my dad told of being among only 7,000 for a game with Swindon and of going to Wembley to see City win the cup. Being born in Surrey I nearly escaped and up to the age of 15 supported Arsenal but still when other boys were getting Thomas the Tank Engine stories I was told of the historic exploits of Mercer and Allison, Bell, Lee, Law, Barnes, Paul, Trautmann, Swift, Corrigan, Doherty, Johnston, Grey, Shawcross, Summerbee, Ewing, Leivers, Dyson, Kevan, Marsh, Tuert and so on. Still Arsenal were my team even when I moved to Scotland and turned to Ice Hockey rather than football. But now dad kept telling me snippets from MCIVTA and took me to a friendly with Kilmarnock and I saw all those Kappa shirts; people in Ayr started wearing Kappa; even boys at my school. Dad bought a MCIVTA T-shirt but never got to wear it as I got to it first. The real turning point however came at Christmas 97 when along with NHl 98, Sky Sport subscription and Ice Hockey stuff there was a Kappa away shirt! Now everyone knew I was hooked and the rest is history. City relegated in '98 following the deduction of points over transfer dealings, FHL & FC leaving; some stability in Div 2 under Book & Bell but further relegation when Book retired in 2004. The disintegration of the Football League in 2007 following the formation of the Sky World Series League and regional football from then on. City now attracting crowds of 50,000 despite inconsistant performances plus about 2 billion subscribers to City TV (a great 24h City programme showing all live games plus analysis of City games and characters throughout history - a real cult channel). So here we are hoping to avoid relegation to the Denton league - if we change our manager (Symons) we should be OK - its always worked in the past!