Members of the St Marks Church formed the club that would come to be known as Manchester City in 1880, with their first match being a losing effort against a side from Macclesfield. After being kicked out of their home, the club relocated to Ardwick in 1887 and became known as Ardwick Association Football Club. This also coincided with the clubs transition from amateur to professional club, albeit with only one player getting paid (and just five shillings at that). After gaining accepted into the Football Alliance in 1891/92 (which would then become the Football League), Ardwick encountered financial difficulties and would soon make another name change, becoming known as Manchester City in 1894. A year later the club were attracting crowds of over 20,000, which isnt bad for a former church group formed less than 20 years earlier. This also shows the rate at which footballs popularity was expanding at the end of the 19th century.
Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.
