Paul POWER

Born in Manchester on October 30th 1953, Paul Power was a versatile left-hand sided player who went on to become one of the most popular players ever to play for Manchester City. He had been a City fan since he was a boy and originally signed for the club as an amateur in August 1973 when he was studying law at Leeds Polytechnic. After completing his studies Power signed professional forms in July 1975, being give his full debut by manager Tony Book only a month later in a 1-0 away defeat at Aston Villa on August 27th. He made a further 18 league appearances that season, opening his goalscoring account for the club in a 4-3 home victory over Derby County on April 10th, and although he had appeared in the earlier rounds of the League Cup against Mansfield and Middlesbrough he just missed out on selection for Wembley as City lifted the trophy in a 2-1 win over Newcastle United with goals from Peter Barnes and Dennis Tueart.

It wasn't until the following 1976/77 season that Paul really established himself in the side. The league season had got off to a great start with a six-game unbeaten run until a 3-1 derby defeat at home to Manchester United at the end of September, although the defence of the League Cup came unstuck at the first hurdle with a 3-0 defeat at Aston Villa. UEFA Cup aspirations were also dashed with a 2-1 aggregate defeat to Juventus in the opening round, Power coming on as a substitute in the first leg at Maine Road for his first taste of European action. Despite this only one more league match was lost until February 19th, Paul weighing in with goals in 2-2 draws at both Everton and Tottenham Hotspur. A 1-0 fifth round defeat at Leeds United in the FA Cup soon followed and although the Blues remained in the top three for most of the season they narrowly missed out on the Championship by a single point to Liverpool.

An eight-game unbeaten start to the 1977/78 campaign had City at the top of the table in September with Power on the mark in a 4-0 demolition of Norwich City, the only setback being a 2-2 aggregate away goals defeat at the hands of Polish side Widzew Lodz in the UEFA Cup. After that the wheels seemed to come off and a period of inconsistency saw them drop to as low as ninth in the table. Although progress had been made in the League Cup they were knocked out in a 1-0 fifth round defeat at Arsenal, swiftly followed seven days later with a 2-1 FA Cup exit at Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest, and in spite of some decent results towards the end of the season they could only climb to fifth spot, twelve points behind surprise Champions Forest. Paul had made 29 appearances and scored 3 goals, operating on the left-hand side of midfield for most of the time, but over the course of the season he was also asked by manager Book to play on the left-wing and even filled in at full-back on a couple of occasions. This was to be a feature of his time at Maine Road and was a precursor to the role in the modern game which would become known as 'wing-back'. (David Redshaw)

The City faithful had high hopes for the 1978/79 season but had to wait until the fifth league game to taste victory in a 3-0 home win over Leeds United. In the UEFA Cup, however, it was a different story. Having played in the disposal of FC Twente (4-3 on aggregate) Paul had missed both legs of the second round 4-2 aggregate win over Standard Liege with an injury he had picked up in a League Cup tie at Blackpool in early October. His first game back was a third round tie away to the mighty AC Milan in the San Siro stadium on November 23rd, where they had never lost to British opposition, and when Power scored to make it 2-0 it seemed that City were about to make history. It was not to be as two late goals from Bigon forced a 2-2 draw, though it was not enough for the Italians as they were beaten 3-0 in the second leg at Maine Road two weeks later.

A thirteen match winless run in the league until mid-January ensued, during which time City were knocked out of the League Cup at Southampton (1-2), and this was followed up by being on the receiving end of an FA Cup giant-killing act in a 2-0 defeat at Third Division Shrewsbury Town. Though league form improved they suffered a 4-2 aggregate defeat by Borussia Monchengladbach in the next round of the UEFA Cup (it would be 24 years before their next European tie) and the season ended with a disappointing fifteenth place finish, the lowest for twelve years. Power had made 32 league appearances and scored 3 goals.

The advent of the 1979/80 season saw manager Tony Book move upstairs and control of first-team affairs was handed to Malcolm Allison, whose attempted overhaul of the side proved to be disastrous. By mid-October the club were in the bottom half of the table and had been knocked out of the League Cup in a 1-0 replay defeat at Sunderland, and in a bid to arrest the slide Allison duly appointed Power team captain, a role he was to fill for almost all his entire time with the club. Results did improve up until Christmas but after Paul had scored City's goal in a 1-1 draw at home to Stoke on Boxing Day the team then went on a seventeen game run without a win, including a 1-0 embarrassment at lowly Halifax Town in round three of the FA Cup, the second time in two seasons they would be victims of lower-league opposition. Three wins from the last four games of the season ultimately saved City from relegation with a seventeenth place finish, Power's crucial 7 goal haul from his 41 league appearances being only one goal behind leading scorer Michael Robinson. (David Redshaw)

The 1980/81 season would eventually turn out to be the pinnacle of Paul's time at Maine Road, but after a 1-0 defeat at Leeds on October 8th things looked far from rosy with only a meagre four points taken from a possible thirty. Chairman Peter Swales decided enough was enough and manager Malcolm Allison was sacked to be replaced by ex-Norwich City boss John Bond. The transformation was almost instant and over the next four months only three league games were lost.

Meanwhile in the knockout competitions a great run in the League Cup was only brought to a halt at the semi-final stage with a 2-1 aggregate loss to Liverpool in February, and in the FA Cup the Blues went one better and reached the Centenary final at Wembley. Paul had scored in wins over Crystal Palace (4-0) and Norwich City (6-0), a 2-2 draw with Everton before a 3-1 replay victory, and had also got the winner in a 1-0 extra-time semi-final defeat of Ipswich Town at Villa Park, a goal for which he will always be remembered by City fans as his most important one for the club. With a commendable twelfth position in the league having been achieved Power led his team out at Wembley to face Tottenham Hotspur on May 14th. The game finished in a 1-1 draw, Tommy Hutchison scoring for City before deflecting a Glenn Hoddle free-kick into his own net, and the stage was set for a first-ever Wembley FA Cup final replay. In the end goals by Steve McKenzie and Kevin Reeves were not enough to prevent City going down to a 3-2 defeat in a game best remembered for Ricky Villa's wonder goal. It had nonetheless been a fantastic season for Paul, and with an ever-present record of 57 league and cup games and a career-best 9 goals he was rightly named the club's Player of the Year.

With the excitement of the previous term's exploits still fresh in the memory there were great expectations for the new season. Despite a run of five games without a league win in September and October, and a 1-0 fourth round League Cup defeat at Barnsley in early December, goals from Trevor Francis and Asa Hartford in a 2-1 home win over Wolves at Christmas briefly moved City to the top of the table. Even so it had been a stop-start season as far as Power was concerned, and a niggling injury sustained in a 3-2 win over Middlesbrough in early November put him out until the end of January. By the time he returned to the team they had been knocked out of the FA Cup with a 3-1 fourth round loss at home to Coventry City, and coupled with a dramatic slide down the league table the season ended with a disappointing tenth place finish. Paul had only managed 25 starts and his solitary goal came in a 1-0 end-of-season home win over Notts County in May. (David Redshaw)