Manchester Corinthians: The final days and connections with City | OneFootball

Continuing our series on the pioneering Manchester Corinthians women’s team, Gary James talks about the team's final days and the years that have followed.

The Manchester Corinthians played into the 1990s, finally calling it a day in 1992.

The football landscape had changed, and by this time City’s own women’s football team was playing in league football. Many Corinthians had joined Manchester City Ladies, as the team was then known, and were playing regularly for the Club in the North West Women’s Regional Football League.

MANCHESTER CORINTHIANS: THE AUTHORISED HISTORY

City achieved their first promotion in 1991, playing in the highest league possible in 1991/92.

Women’s football was regionalised, although there was the national Women’s FA Cup (established with influence from the Corinthians’ Gladys Aikin – an important figure).

City first entered the FA Cup in 1989/90 when they were defeated 7-2 by Wigan, while the Corinthians’ last FA Cup tie was on 15 September 1991 when they lost 6-1 to Runcorn.

Over the years that followed City experienced a similar life to most women’s team. There were some regional successes and some difficult periods before the club was relaunched as Manchester City Women a decade ago.

Significant trophy success has followed of course and today there’s a strong WSL with teams from across the country. For many of the women who played for both City and the Corinthians in the 1970s-2000s that’s great to see, especially as the Corinthians did so much to promote and develop the game throughout the club’s long history.

The influence of the Corinthians remains strong, even if the wider world has struggled to recognise this.

In 2015 I established a self-funded project to research, document and promote the history of women’s football in Manchester.

Back then comments were frequently made about women’s football in Manchester which ignored the rich history – and longevity – of the sport.

Personally, I’d been around women’s football ever since my girlfriend (now wife) Heidi played for FC Redstar and then Manchester City in the 1980s.

MANCHESTER CORINTHIANS: MAKING A MARK IN VENEZUELA

Heidi scored two goals in City’s inaugural match at Boundary Park in November 1988 and I was there watching. My first book was published in April 1989, and it contained a page on the City women’s team.

By 2015, I became frustrated that the history of women’s football in Manchester and its influence was not recognised. I found a supportive figure in Manchester City’s archivist Steph Alder.

She was keen to help document the history of women’s football at City and together we set up a sub-project on the history of City’s women’s team.

This proved to be a wonderful period when dozens of women (and some men) who had been involved with the team were interviewed and detailed research was performed.

Various talks were performed about the City Ladies/Women and then in 2019 I published Manchester City Women: An Oral History – the club’s history.

By that time, I had already started to interview Manchester Corinthians as I knew their stories had to be properly recorded. Since then, over fifty women who played for the Corinthians have been interviewed and their stories appear in articles and books I’ve written.

Alongside this there have been talks, tributes and more to the Corinthians with City often supporting the work in some way.

In 2019, City invited several former Corinthians to a WSL game where they met Karen Bardsley and the then England manager Phil Neville. Further invites and visits have occurred.

On a personal level I’m delighted that the Manchester Corinthians have received this support and interest from the club and, thanks to the support, the Corinthians’ story is now known by many more people than a decade ago when the project started.

MANCHESTER CORINTHIANS: BEATING JUVENTUS

Significantly, we’ve been able to reconnect some of the players and at the reunion in December, held at the Etihad Stadium, there were Corinthians present who had not seen each other for over 70 years!

With several former players in their late 80s and 90s the reunion allowed us to celebrate this remarkable group in a safe and supportive environment.

The full history of the Corinthians has been told for the first time in my book Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History. Obviously, I’m biased but I would urge everyone to read that book and find out why the Corinthians should matter to us all.

Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History is available from all usual book retailers and can be ordered direct from Gary here.