Manchester City on this day: Debut for Alan Oakes

Recently Sergio Aguero, finally, scored the goal which took him to the top of the Manchester City scoring charts. We are always told that players don’t tend to stay at clubs as long as they used to. Back on this day, 48 years ago, Manchester City gave a debut to our current record appearance holder, one record which may never go.

Getting the nod as Manchester City welcomed Chelsea to Maine Road. Both sides back then were struggling in the bottom half of the table, Wolverhampton were trying to retain their title, battling Burnley! Tottenham were still third, so some things are similar today as they were back then.

His first season would be the season Bert Trautmann would make his 400th appearance for the club. It would be the German who would, eventually, take the record from Eric Brook a few seasons later.

As an amateur, it would be Oakes who had to clean Bert Trautmanns boots in the early part of his career. In that first season, Oakes would play 18 times, including an away day at Old Trafford, one of the lowest tally’s in his seventeen season stay with City.

He was there for the latter part of the 13 year Les McDowall reign at City. After McDowall came George Poyser, who departed after two seasons of failing to return to the top flight. All through this, Oakes was putting up numbers.

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So when Mercer arrived, Oakes flourished. Playing with legends such as Colin Bell, Francis Lee, Neil Young and Mike ‘Buzzer’ Summerbee he sometimes gets forgotten. Yes those guys scored the goals and took the plaudits while Alan did a workmanlike job at the back, missing only one game as City won the League.

He was the most successful Manchester City player winning two League cups, two community shields, an FA Cup along with the League title and European Cup Winners Cup. That record could certainly be erased by any number of players over the next few seasons but the appearance record? Not so easy to catch.

Next: On This Day: Last Maine Road Derby

And that’s a good thing. His contribution to Manchester City, along with his cousin Glyn Pardoe, should be remembered as remains somewhat of an unsung hero. His 564 League appearances and 680 total in al competitions will remain. At the moment, the top League appearance record holder currently on our books is Joe Hart, on loan at West Ham, with 266. David Silva is next with 231, that from 2010! At that rate, he’d need to stay another ten seasons! Yaya Toure makes the top trio, but may not add any more before his move to New York (222).