David WHITE

Manchester-born David White signed as a 16-year-old apprentice for Manchester City in June 1984, and during his time with the club became known as a fast, exciting right-winger who could also operate at centre-forward when the need arose. He was a member of the City team that had won the FA Youth Cup in April 1986 with victory over Manchester United, and only five months later manager Jimmy Frizzell gave him his first-team debut when he was introduced as a substitute in a 1-0 away defeat at Luton Town on September 27th. He soon became a regular in the side and his first goal came in a 3-1 home win over West Ham on December 13th, but relegation was to follow on the last day of a disappointing season and after 24 appearances in the top-flight White would have to ply his trade in the Second Division the following term.

With a new manager in Mel Machin appointed during the close-season there was much cause for optimism before the start of the 1987/88 campaign, with the side a mixture of experienced professionals and the so-called 'Class of 86' youth-cup winning team. Nevertheless, by mid-October, they found themselves closer to the foot of the table than the top, but the jet-heeled White then hit a purple patch of form as he notched nine goals in as many games. After scoring twice in a 4-3 away win at Swindon Town, the following week saw White one of three players to get a hat-trick, along with Tony Adcock and Paul Stewart, in an unforgettable encounter at Maine Road as Huddersfield Town were put to the sword in a 10-1 massacre.

Further goals followed with a brace against Birmingham City (3-0) and one against Bournemouth (2-0) to propel the Blues to sixth spot. They had also advanced in the League Cup with victories over Wolves in a replay (2-0), Nottingham Forest (3-0), and a fourth round home win over Watford (3-1) where White was again on the mark with two of the goals. The good form did not continue, however, and after only win from six league games after the turn of the year the season began to fizzle out, with quarter-final defeats in the League Cup to Everton (0-2) and the FA Cup to Liverpool (0-4), and the result was a disappointing ninth place finish. Despite this White had been an ever-present with 44 league appearances and had weighed in with an impressive 13 goals.

Although the first victory of the 1988/89 campaign did not come until the fifth game, with a 2-1 win over Brighton, the team had recovered sufficiently to be top of the table by mid-December, though David's goal at Luton in the League Cup was not enough to prevent a 3-1 defeat. A similar scoreline at Brentford dumped the Blues out of the FA Cup, but when White scored two in a fine 4-2 away win at Sunderland in March City still topped the table, four points clear of Chelsea. A poor run of form then ensued, with only four wins in eleven games, and in the end a point was needed on the last day of the season at Bradford to guarantee promotion. When Trevor Morley equalised from White's cross with four minutes left to earn a 1-1 draw City were finally back in Division One, David having scored 6 goals and missed only one league game all season as the Blues finished in runners-up spot, a full seventeen points behind winners Chelsea.

Although White had been on target in consecutive games, a 1-1 draw at home to Tottenham Hotspur and a 2-1 defeat at Coventry City, the start of the 1989/90 season had yielded only one win in six games to leave City joint-bottom of the table by late September. The next visitors due at Maine Road were local rivals Manchester United, and the Blues duly put on their best performance for years as they ran out 5-1 winners in a memorable match. The jubilation was not to last. In October David was once again on the mark, scoring in League Cup wins over Brentford (4-1) and Norwich (3-1), but a 1-0 fourth round loss at home to Coventry and a succession of poor league results led to the dismissal of manager Machin in November. The man to take over was Howard Kendall, recently-returned from managing Athletic Bilbao in Spain, and though there was a third round FA Cup exit at the hands of Millwall (1-3) after a second replay, results picked up sufficiently under the new boss for the club to consolidate it's First Division status with a fourteenth-place finish by the end of the season. David had made 37 league appearances and scored 8 goals, once again missing only a single game, and with Niall Quinn having signed from Arsenal in March the pair would form a prolific partnership which was to last the next three years.

The 1990/91 season was eagerly anticipated by City fans as a number of new signings had been made, and despite an opening day 3-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur the team remained unbeaten for the next ten games. White was beginning to build a lethal attacking partnership with Niall Quinn, scoring twice in a 3-3 derby draw with Manchester United. He was then on target in each of the next three games to leave the Blues seventh in the table. But at the start of November manager Howard Kendall decided to leave the club and return to manage Everton for a second time, Peter Reid taking over as player-manager, and despite a 2-1 League Cup loss at Arsenal good progress was still maintained in the league with a string of consistent performances.

After a shock 1-0 FA Cup fifth round setback at Notts County in February there followed in April a run of five wins out of six, including a 5-1 win at Aston Villa where David produced the performance of his career, his four-goal haul being the best return by a City player since Brian Kidd in 1977. Another goal in a 3-2 win over Sunderland in the final game brought his tally for the season to 16 from 38 games as he finished second-top scorer, four behind Quinn, and with a fifth place finish in the league it concluded a more than satisfactory season for the club.

The 1991/92 campaign got off to a great start with victory in the first three games to send City to the top of the table, with White getting both goals in a 2-1 home win over Liverpool and one three days later in a 3-2 defeat of Crystal Palace. Form deteriorated in September with a sequence of one win in five games, after which David was out for six weeks with a broken collar-bone suffered in a 3-1 win at Notts County. He returned in a 0-0 home draw in the Manchester derby and by the beginning of December form had recovered sufficiently for the team to be handily placed in third spot, though within a month they would be out of both major cup competitions with defeats to Middlesbrough.

A 3-1 defeat at Aston Villa in which White scored City's goal then started him on a run which would be his most prolific in his time with the club, scoring in each of the next four games including another double against Liverpool in a 2-2 draw at Anfield. When he again scored against Villa in a 2-0 home win in February it was his eleventh goal in thirteen league games, but the team's one point out of twelve in March put paid to any title hopes. On the last day of the season a 5-2 win at Oldham, where White got a hat-trick, ensured a fifth place finish for the second consecutive year. David had made 39 league appearances and top-scored with 18 goals in a season in which he also appeared twice for the England 'B' side.

In August 1992 David White's season once more got off to a blistering start as he scored City's first-ever goal in the newly-formed Premiership in a 1-1 home draw with QPR. This was followed up by six goals in the next six games, and his efforts were duly rewarded as England manager Graham Taylor gave him his full international debut in a friendly with Spain in Santander. It would be his one and only full England cap, as he was unfairly pilloried by the press for missing a chance in the very first minute and was never picked again. His form then seemed to suffer as he scored only two more goals until the turn of the year as City occupied a mid-table position, and for the second consecutive season the team were dumped out of the League Cup (0-1) and the FA Cup (2-4) by the same team, this time Tottenham Hotspur.

By the end of the campaign a respectable ninth in the table looked a decent enough effort, but a poor run-in meant the fans were not happy with the brand of football being served up along with growing boardroom unrest at the club. Once again White had finished as top-scorer with his 16 league goals coming from an ever-present record of 42 appearances.

The 1993/94 season would prove to be David's last at the club. The opening games continued in much the same vein as the end to the season before, and when the first four produced only one point it led to the departure of manager Reid, to be replaced by Brian Horton. It was around this time that White began to be troubled by a persistent ankle injury, which kept him out for five weeks, but he returned in a 1-1 home draw with Liverpool and grabbed City's goal before a late equaliser from Ian Rush. After playing in a 2-0 away defeat at Blackburn in mid-December manager Horton, however, decided that White was surplus to requirements, and in a move that puzzled many City fans he was transferred to Leeds United in a straight swap for David Rocastle in a deal valued at £2 million.

In his time at Maine Road David had managed to appear in 341 league and cup games (including 13 as substitute) and scored a total of 96 goals, his 79 league goals putting him sixteenth in the list of City's all-time top goalscorers. He had also earned six England Under-21 caps to add to his one full cap. From Leeds he went on to play for Sheffield United, but after having four ankle operations in three years he decided to retire from the game at the age of 31 and concentrate his efforts on the family waste disposal business. (David Redshaw)