1934/35 SEASON REVIEW
The City board announced a profit of £6,322, 5s. 3d for the previous year and hoped to boost profits by selling season tickets for The Kippax for the first time. The season started well for the reigning FA Cup winners, they were unlucky to only draw 1-1 at West Brom on the openning day of the season and then at Maine Road they beat Liverpool 3-1 and Sheffield Wednesday 4-1, the early league table showed City in second place in Division 1. Despite a setback at Anfield where Liverpool won 2-1, City then beat Birmingham 3-1 at St Andrews and Stoke 3-1 at Maine Road. A break from the league saw City travel to Scotland for two friendlies, where they were beaten 1-0 by Rangers, and beat Ayr United 4-1. Two further wins in the league, 3-1 at Leicester and 2-1 at Middlesbrough , saw City move to the top of Division 1 after eight games. A return friendly against Glasgow Rangers followed, City winning 4-2 at Maine Road. City couldn’t keep up their early good form and they drew 3-3 with Blackburn ay Maine Road, then lost 3-0 at Arsenal, 1-0 at home to Derby and 4-2 at Aston Villa. November brought mixed results with a 3-1 win at home to Tottenham a 3-2 defeat at Sunderland, a 0-0 draw at Maine Road against Huddersfield and a 2-1 win at Everton. City didn’t really ‘turn up’ for the Charity Shield at Highbury and were well beaten 4-0 by Arsenal. In the league, however City pushed on with a 1-0 win against Grimsby at Maine Road, then Jimmy McLuckie, after playing just 32 games for The Blues moved away from Maine Road, joining Aston Villa City continued their climb up the table with a 4-2 win at Preston and a 2-0 win at Maine Road against Chelsea, before a minor hiccup at Molyneux as Wolves won 5-0. It was to be a very happy Festive period for the Blues, they beat Leeds 2-1 at Elland Road on Christmas Day, then on Boxing Day, at Maine Road, Leeds were beaten again 3-0. Three days later, at Maine Road, City beat West Brom 3-2. They were now second in the league with only goal average keeping them from overtaking leaders Sunderland. City couldn’t take their excellent form into the New Year and they lost 1-0 at Sheffield Wednesday. The defence of the FA Cup failed at the first hurdle as they were beaten 1-0 by a weakened Tottenham Hotspur side at White Hart Lane in the 3rd Round. Despite a 0-0 draw at home to Birmingham and a 2-0 defeat at Stoke, City were still in the mix for the Division 1 title and so to boost their chances they bought outside right, Ron Dellow from third division Mansfield Town. Having failed to score a single goal in January The Blues started February by scoring twelve goals in two games at Maine Road, beating Leicester 6-3 and Middlesbrough 6-2. A Football League record crowd of 77,582 turned up at Maine Road to watch City draw 1-1 against top of the table Arsenal, and then Ron Dellow scored on his debut to help the Blues beat Derby 2-1 at The Baseball Ground. Despite a 1-0 defeat at Blackburn an injury hit City side beat Aston Villa 4-1 at Maine Road which kept them just two points away from the top of the table with ten games to play. A disappointing 0-0 draw at relegation threatened Tottenham saw City in third on 42 points, Sunderland were second on 43 points and Arsenal top on 45 points. City’s home game against Sunderland was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch and with The Gunners dropping a point at Highbury the rearranged game could be of important significance as to which of the three teams take the title. Unfortunately for City they then lost 3-0 at Huddersfield and drew 2-2 against Everton at Maine Road, and although they then beat Sunderland 1-0 in the re-arranged game at Maine Road, it seemed that no-one would catch leaders Arsenal who were now three points clear of Sunderland and four points clear of City with just six games left to play. It would be a disappointing end to the season for City, they drew 1-1 at Grimsby then lost 4-2 to Portsmouth and 2-1 to Preston, both games at Maine Road, they then lost 4-2 at Portsmouth and 4-2 at Chelsea. In the last game of the season, ironically City gained their best win of the season as they beat Wolves 5-0 at Maine Road. The blues finished in fourth place on 48 points, ten points behind champions Arsenal. City travelled to Austria and Switzerland for an end of season tour. They beat Rapid Vienna 5-3, then lost 5-1 against a combined Slavia and Sparta side. they lost again, 4-3 to FK Austria, then beat Zurich 3-2 and Basle 5-1. On the return to England, defender Leo Dunne was transferred to Hull City.