The mancityfans.net football forum

by **gary james** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 11:23 am

A final reminder to anyone interested that my latest article for an academic journal is free to download until 31/08 - after that the journal start charging again. Get it while you can. This is about 3 pioneering figures in Manchester's footballing story - Jonathan Nall (key figure behind Manchester's first known club Hulme Athenaeum in 1863), Fitzroy Norris (founder of Manchester Association FC and later manager of Bolton Wanderers) and Joshua Parlby (key figure behing Ardwick's transformation into MCFC and without whom City would possibly never have existed).

The article is only free to download until 31/08 from here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10. ... 15.1055727

It really helps identify interest etc. when articles like this are downloaded. Also if anyone wants to tweet a link to the paper then please do. The more people who get chance to read it while it's free the better of course.

The 3 men I've profiled each took Manchester football on to its next level and, in the main, their stories have been ignored. Parlby, as many on here know, has received some credit over the years from City fans, but not beyond Blues, yet he helped strengthen Manchester's position as a footballing city from the moment he arrived in Ardwick.

Norris is a former Nottm Forest player who also managed Bolton, but in between those 2 period he did all he could to establish Manchester football.

Nall was the secretary of the region's first football club, Hulme Athenaeum, and it is his story that links the roots of football in Manchester in the early 1860s with City's (Ardwick's) first trophy success.

All three need to be remembered, promoted and understood for their acheivements, hence my paper.

Have a read and see what you think. Thanks. One of my earlier papers (the one on the emergence of Manchester's culture) is still available for free: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1 ... src=recsys

But another (the one on MCFC's 1904 success) is only free if you have access via a university/further education account: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1 ... src=recsys Hence the reason for me promoting the 'pioneers' paper before charging begins.

Thanks.