On this Day: City win our first FA Youth Cup

In partnership with

Manchester City F.C.

·29 April 2026

On this Day: City win our first FA Youth Cup

The triumph was made all the sweeter given the opposition – neighbours and rivals, Manchester United.

It was a two-leg affair, staged at both club’s main stadiums, with a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford in the first game in front of 7,602 fans.

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Midfielder Aidan Murphy opened the scoring for the Red Devils on 49 minutes before Paul Lake levelled matters from the spot on 82 minutes.

That set up a tantalising decider at Maine Road on this day 40 years ago as Tony Book’s charges looked to get our hands on silverware.

David Boyd headed us into a lead on two minutes in front of 18,158 supporters before fellow forward, Paul Moulden, guaranteed the trophy following a 3-1 aggregate scoreline.

From the First XI that day, seven of our Boys in Blue would go on to appear in the first team and make a total of 1,397 appearances bet.

They were Andy Hinchcliffe, Ian Brightwell, Steve Redmond, David White, Paul Moulden, Paul Lake and Ian Scott.

Ian Brightwell topped the list with 380 from August 1986 to March 1998.

Paul Lake, talking about his memories of the game this week, told us: I don’t want to believe it’s 40 years ago today since we triumphed over Manchester United in the FA Youth Cup final, but the calendar doesn’t lie!

“Every young player strives to win the youth equivalent of the FA Cup, and I remain very proud to have gained that honour by playing alongside some fabulous team-mates like David White, Ian Brightwell, Paul Moulden and Steve Redmond.

“To have such a tough route to get to the final – winning against Fulham and Arsenal – and then beating your arch rivals over two legs was simply unbelievable. There was nothing sweeter!

“The memory of that fabulous final at Maine Road, played in front of an amazing home crowd, is something that I will always cherish.

We will speaking to several members of the team for a more in-depth feature in the run up to this season’s FA Youth Cup final which, by a quirk of fate, features City and United once again.