Matchday Memories: On This Pre Season Day 1995 – Late Marcus Finish Floors Finn Harps

Ron salutes the Sky Blue faithful

On this day (26th July) in 1995 Sky Blues ‘gaffer’ (and now CCFPA member) Ron Atkinson was preparing for his first full season in charge at Highfield Road with an initial pre-season warm up game in Ireland.

Manchester City, Southampton, Norwich City and Tranmere Rovers had also all travelled over the Irish Sea with the same intent and were playing Cork City, Waterford United, Glentoran and St. Pat’s Athletic respectively at roughly the same time.

The Sky Blues had travelled to Finn Park, Ballybofey, County Donegal for their evening match (ko. 7pm) and their opponents today were the county’s senior club Finn Harps. In a surprisingly tight game, the Irish First Division club, under new manager Ollie Horgan, only conceded victory in the last two minutes of the game.

Sky Blues wide player (now a longstanding Association member) Marcus Hall broke the deadlock with a close range header in the 88th minute (see the brief report above from the Irish Independent). NB Another source gives the goal to City’s Julian Darby! One new man making his debut today was a promising young Portuguese U21 named Carlita who ended up never getting a first team outing apart from seven of this year’s pre-season friendlies. Apparently his full name is Carlos Alberto Maior Silva Batista and he is Angolan born (in 1970).

According to match reports: ‘he impressed with his workrate and control’. He was a regular in the reserves during the first half of the season but sometime before the end of the season he returned to Portugal and played a handful of games for Boavista. After that he appeared to sink without trace!

Some action from the game

Marcus in Sky Blue action

We have very few other details of the teams and the game but clearly the Irish club gave the City a good contest and went on in to take their First Division title at the end of the 1995-96 season. The Sky Blues pre-season proceeded with a couple of games back in England producing a defeat at the end of July by the only goal of the game at Cambridge United and then, in early August, a 1-1 draw against Birmingham City at Highfield Road as the testimonial game for Sky Blues’ stalwart defender (and CCFPA member) Brian Borrows.

In their last pre-season game on August 12th, back in Scotland, the Sky Blues managed an excellent 5-1 demolition of top club Aberdeen (which we will tell you more about on that anniversary date – so check back on this site).

As far as the Sky Blues’ own 1995-96 Premier League season is concerned the City needed a late four game unbeaten run in their last four games to ensure top flight survival in sixteenth place two places above the drop. It was another tight squeeze as only goal average separated the Sky Blues, seventeenth placed Southampton and Manchester City who went down in eighteenth place along with Queens Park Rangers and Bolton Wanderers.