Reach PLC is teaming up with Shelter to support the homeless charity's #NoHomeKit campaign this Christmas.
Since the start of the pandemic, more than 180,000 families have lost their homes.
#NoHomeKit will be supported by a host of EFL and non-league clubs donning their away shirts on Boxing Day and December 27 to raise awareness of the crisis.
On City Is Ours this week, we will be doing our bit to raise awareness of the campaign by highlighting five memorable matches made all the more special by the Blues wearing a much-loved change strip.
Today we're looking back on the glorious first days of Sven-Goran Eriksson at City, when everything was new and - briefly - everything felt possible.
A gentleman's agreement
“I was shattered, we had maybe five minutes left in the game and Craig Bellamy was playing on the left-wing for West Ham,” Nedum Onuoha told City Is Ours , recalling the Blues’ cherished 2-0 win at Upton Park on the opening day of the 2007/08 season.
“He saw me run forward and he didn’t want to have to defend against it. He said to me, ‘If you don’t try and run past me then I’m not going to try and run past you’. I don’t know this fella and I didn’t know if he was winding me up.
“For the next five minutes I was too tired to run forward, he kept his promise and never even ran at me one time. It was a relief because if he did I’d have been on my backside. One stepover would have sent me down into central London.”
Yep, that’s the same snarling, fired-up, take-no-prisoners Craig Bellamy from yesterday’s recollections of Stamford Bridge, 2010. Funny old game.
Just like watching Brazil
The reason for Onuoha’s state of disarray was his run of lung-bursting destruction that led to the game-clinching goal for Geovanni - one of eight debutants in Eriksson’s hastily-assembled matchday squad.
Storming forward from right-back, the City academy product danced past four challenges before poking the ball into the Brazilian’s path to finish.
“If there was space in front of me, I liked to run into it," Nedum explained. "One thing that happened was the defenders did not know how to deal with it because they don’t see defenders attacking that much.
“A few of them didn’t know where to stick their legs. I was holding a couple off, went on a run past three people and did a fake cross that sent someone off the field. Then I toe-poked it to Geovanni who slammed it home.”
It was an emphatic finish in front of an away end that exploded with delight on the back of a turbulent few months for City on and off the field.
Blumin' Marvellous
Thaksin Shinawatra’s ultimately doomed takeover saw former England boss Eriksson installed as Stuart Pearce’s successor and a supermarket sweep of European football followed.
Not all the signings came off but many of them dazzled in east London and for large chunks of the first half of the campaign.
None more so than Brazil midfielder Elano, whose sublime run and assist for Rolando Bianchi’s opener gave the strongest hint to Onuoha - who started the match on the bench - that things were changing.
“When Elano set up Bianchi for the first goal, as it happened I thought he’d had a shot and he’d dragged it,” he recalled. “But I looked back [at the replay] and he’s played a pass to Bianchi at the back post which is designed to look like a shot.
“That’s not something that many people could do. So I was like, hold on a second, this is a bit special. What’s this sort of wizardry?”
Rolando woe
The main illusion that day was the one produced by Bianchi, the £8.8million signing from Reggina who appeared to be more or less the complete centre-forward and ready to take England by storm. Perhaps it was the flowing locks in the sunshine or the classy white shirt with a sky blue shoulder sash and shorts, but everything looked perfect.
Bianchi did not score again in the Premier League until December and returned to Italy in January, joining Lazio on loan.
In some ways, his initial promise and ultimate failure to deliver was emblematic of the brief Shinawatra era, while Eriksson’s tenure crashed to a halt with an 8-1 defeat at Middlesbrough on the final day of the campaign.
Still, City fans remember that Saturday at West Ham and a season where they beat United home and away with great fondness.
Plenty of those involved attained cult hero status and Onuoha believes this is because the club were able to hope and dream of better days once again on the back of a dour and fractious 2006/07 under Pearce.
“It was a special day, a special kit and it felt like the start of something, which we hadn’t had,” he added.
“With all due respect, the year before with Stuart just felt like a bad season. It felt like we had nothing. All of a sudden there was a big energy around us and it felt like we could possibly achieve something, which I hadn’t felt in my first three or four years at City.”
What are your memories of the Sven season? Do you still have that kit? Follow the City Is Ours editor Dom Farrell on Twitter to get involved in the discussion and give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
