Joe CORRIGAN

For a man who would go on to play more than 600 games for the Blues (bettered only by Alan Oakes) and nine times for England, goalkeeper Joe Corrigan's introduction to City's first team could hardly have started on a less auspicious note. On October 11th 1967 (the season of City's Championship success) Corrigan was still a month short of his 20th birthday and was third choice goalkeeper at Maine Road. With Harry Dowd being injured and Ken Mulhearn being cup-tied, Corrigan was given his debut opportunity in a League Cup clash against Blackpool. Disaster was to strike the 6 feet 4 and a half-inch 'keeper when a shot from the visitors' John Craven found itself nestling in the back of the net after passing through the new boy's legs.

Fortunately Corrigan's blushes were spared when Mike Summerbee levelled on the night and the Blues went on to win the replay 2-0 the following week. That game at Bloomfield Road was to be Corrigan's only other senior outing that term but it was by no means the end of his efforts. Working closely with Malcolm Allison, 'Big Joe' embarked on a fierce fitness regime, one that would not only improve his goalkeeping ability, but one that would also curb a weight problem he was having at that time. He played four League games of the 1968/69 campaign, his debut in the League coming in a 2-1 defeat at Ipswich just eleven days before City's FA Cup semi-final triumph over Everton. By that time Dowd was back between the posts, a position he would remain in at Wembley. However all that was to change for the onset of 1969/70.

When City lost at Leeds in the Charity Shield game on August 2nd, Corrigan had by now done enough to convince Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison he was the number one choice. By the time Gornik Zabrze were beaten on April 29th the following year in the European Cup Winners Cup Final in Vienna, Corrigan had taken part in 51 of City's 61 games and had won medals in both the ECWC and the League Cup. From 1971 onwards - apart from a brief spell in the mid 1970s - Joe Corrigan was City's number one choice for fourteen consecutive seasons. During 1973/74 and 1974/75, when he played a combined total of 33 times, it looked as though the £100,000 new signing Keith MacRae might finally displace Corrigan from between the posts.

However the former AEI trainee engineer was made of sterner stuff. He even managed to survive a bizarre goal from the halfway line by West Ham's Ronnie Boyce in a crushing 5-1 defeat at Maine Road in March 1970. With the exception of those two seasons, Corrigan was to average just over 46 games a season during his time at Maine Road, remarkable figures that confirm just how fit a footballer he was. However he was one of many first team players injured during what proved to be an ultimately disappointing 1970/71 season. A combination of elbow and eye problems towards the end of the season saw him miss some crucial games, not least the Cup Winners Cup semi-final second leg with Chelsea at Maine Road. City lost both legs 1-0 and their European silverware as well. (Ian Penney - author of The Legends of Manchester City)

 The 1971/72 season was the year of 'Lee One Pen' and a campaign in which City missed out on the Championship by a single point to Brian Clough's Derby County. Once again injury forced Corrigan to miss the run in: this time a back injury caused him to miss seven of the last eight League games. He was back on duty for the very last game, ironically against the Champions elect and witnessed Rodney Marsh and Francis Lee give the Blues a 2-0 win. The following season season was the last for the time being when Corrigan could almost guarantee himself a regular first team position.

Although youngster Ronnie Healey had begun to press him hard for the number one jersey, Corrigan once again proved his worth even though his 38 appearances in all competitions was one less than 1971/72 and seven less than 1970/71. In October 1973, Keith MacRae arrived from Motherwell, a signing that restricted Corrigan to 17 games and forced him to miss the League Cup Final defeat by Wolves some six months later. After nine games of 1973/74, the injured MacRae was back to full fitness and the ever-dependable Corrigan was again temporarily returned to number two duties. He took part in just 16 games of 1974/75, but as August 1975 loomed into view, Joe, always hugely popular with the fans, was back in his rightful place. City drew 2-2 with Sheffield United at Bramall Lane on November 1st 1975. It was the one and only game of City's 53 that season in which Joe Corrigan was not in goal.

In March 1976 he was once again a Wembley winner as Dennis Tueart's spectacular overhead kick clinched the League Cup against Newcastle. Even though the Blues finished 8th in Division One (the same position as last time out), City's goals against column was bettered by just two teams, Liverpool and Queens Park Rangers, and they finished first and second respectively. In two further FA Cup and nine League Cup matches, Corrigan was beaten just nine times as his team-mates plundered 31 at the other end of the field. By now Corrigan was at the height of his game and his performances had at last come to the attention of then England boss Don Revie. In the US Bicentennial Tournament in May 1976, Revie gave goalkeeping debuts to both Arsenal's Jimmy Rimmer and City's Joe Corrigan in a 3-2 win against Italy in New York.

It was the first of nine caps for City's custodian, a figure that would surely have been bettered had it not been for the impressive figures of Peter Shilton and Ray Clemence waiting in the wings. Of those nine games, Corrigan was to be on the losing side just once, a 0-1 reversal against Scotland at Wembley in May 1981. So City began 1976/77 with a fully-fledged international goalkeeper and embarked on a wonderful season that once again saw them narrowly miss out on the Championship. This time Liverpool were the victorious team: again the margin was a solitary point. Corrigan's contribution was to play in all 42 League and seven cup ties, keeping 24 clean sheets along the way. (Ian Penney - author of The Legends of Manchester City)

 From the beginning of the 1977/78 season until City's relegation by Luton on the last day of the 1982/83 campaign things remained pretty much the same: the Blues' defence was almost always reassured by the imposing frame of Joe Corrigan behind it. City enjoyed a fine start to that 77/78 campaign, winning 5 and drawing 3 of their first 8 games to top the table at the beginning of October. They then slipped down the league before a tremendous 8 match winning streak, during which Joe kept four consecutive clean sheets, catapulted them back up to second position. The Blues finally finished the season in 4th spot to clinch a UEFA Cup place, with Corrigan playing in each and every one of the 42 league games.

The 1978/79 season saw City struggle to a disappointing 15th place in the league but they did enjoy a fine UEFA Cup run to the quarter-final stage before losing to Borussia Moenchengladbach. Joe played in all 8 of those European games, including the splendid 3-0 victory over Italian giants AC Milan at Maine Road which took City through to the last eight. Few could have possibly dreamt that this would be the last European football that City would see for virtually a quarter of a century. The following season was a disappointment for The Blues, but on a personal note Joe did at least stretch his unbroken run of league appearances with another 'full house' of 42 games, the fourth campaign running he had achieved this feat. City made it all the way to Wembley in 1981 and even though they lost the replayed Centenary FA Cup Final of 1981 to Tottenham, the Blues' goalkeeper did enough to still win the Man of the Finals award.

For such a big man he showed remarkable agility and his handling of the ball and positional skill put him right up there with City's best goalkeepers of all time. His 26 appearances against the 'old enemy' from Old Trafford is a record still beaten by no one in more than a hundred years of trying. In March 1983, just a few weeks before the Luton game, Corrigan - as one of the club's few big assets - was sold to Seattle Sounders of the NASL. It was a move Corrigan didn't want to make and later described it as 'the worst moment of my time at Maine Road'. Six months later he was back in England with Brighton, a side he was still playing for in 1986 when a back injury sustained on the plastic pitch at Queens' Park Rangers eventually forced him into retirement.

At the request of Howard Kendall he returned to Maine Road as goalkeeping coach in 1990 only to lose his position two years later when new manager Peter Reid rearranged the backroom staff. One of Maine Road's most loyal servants then had spells coaching Leeds, Barnsley, Bradford and Celtic before taking over the vacant goalkeepers job at Anfield in 1994. He played a total of 604/1 times for City, a figure that puts him second in the overall appearances table behind only Alan Oakes, and one that seems will never be beaten by anyone currently wearing a sky-blue shirt. (Ian Penney - author of The Legends of Manchester City)