City's fans prepare to bid farewell to 80 years of history

After 80 years Manchester City prepare for final game at Maine Road before move next season to Commonwealth Stadium

The day Maine Road opened for business as Manchester City's new home, 80 years ago, nearly 57,000 spectators were entertained by a brass band playing "Ours Is A Nice House, Ours Is". Times have changed, City are moving, and, if symmetry had been the priority for Sunday's swansong, Oasis would be belting out "Live Forever" as the final curtain falls.

City's Premiership fixture against Southampton will be the last competitive match on the site of an old brickworks in Moss Side, which they bought for £5,000 in 1922 and which remains surrounded by terraced houses that might have been the inspiration for Coronation Street. Next season they launch a new era in the Commonwealth Stadium, a state-of-the-art citadel barely a mile from the club's original base in West Gorton. Yet the memories of Maine Road will never die.

For the younger generation, the enduring images will be of City's 3-1 win over Manchester United last November, when Kevin Keegan's charges fed "The Goat" and Shaun Goater duly scored. Older fans, for whom the prefix "long-suffering" could have been invented, will stare out at the English game's biggest pitch and try to summon bygone heroes through watery eyes.

Some may picture Colin Bell defining the role of the modern box-to-box midfielder during the late 1960s when Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison were in glorious, United-challenging tandem. Others might see Bert Trautmann fearlessly risking his famous neck by diving at the feet of a Busby Babe.

In front of the Platt Lane stand, Francis Lee tumbles in pursuit of another penalty. At the Scoreboard End, there is Frank Swift, using a shovel of a hand to save a certain goal. Georgi Kinkladze is jinking towards the Main Stand. And the Kippax Street terrace, that soundtrap of true-Blue fervour, is abuzz over the blazing talents of Peter Doherty, Mike Summerbee and Paul Lake.

City's previous home was at Hyde Road, of which the Book of Football had presciently observed as early as 1905: "With such an enormous population to draw upon, Manchester City get exceptionally big 'gates'. They would get larger still did they possess a better constructed and more commodious ground."

In those days, the great Welsh winger Billy Meredith had been the club's one undoubted star. His long career was almost over (although he would play for them once at Maine Road, in his 50th year) when City decided to emulate United's 1910 move to Old Trafford by relocating to within three miles of their neighbours.

Robert McAlpine, the builder that had constructed the recently opened Empire Stadium at Wembley, won the contract. For their £100,000, big money in the period just after the First World war but some £650,000 less than the southern project, City got three open terraces and one stand. If this sounds primitive, especially in a city renowned for rain, Maine Road was widely regarded as a modern venue.

It was certainly a capacious one, with room for over 80,000 spectators. The first visitors were Sheffield United in August 1923, when the Lord Mayor, one Councillor Cundiffe, kicked off and City were captained by Max Woosnam, son of the Canon of Chester and a Cambridge Blue at golf, football and lawn tennis.

Horace Barnes scored the ground's inaugural goal in a 2-1 home win. City being City, however, they marked the occasion in the fashion that became their trademark. Twelve months earlier, Sheffield players had lined the 18-yard line to restrict a City man's run-up to the penalty spot. The "D" arc was instituted to prevent such gamesmanship, but City's Frank Roberts still contrived to to miss a penalty.

By 1927, City's outlay appeared to have been swiftly vindicated – their average attendance of 37,000 was the highest in the Football League – and the ground continued to attract huge crowds. An FA Cup game against Stoke, in 1934, drew 84,569, still a record for any English club match outside a Wembley final.

Apart from the all-time low of 8,015 for Swindon's visit in 1965, the post-war attendance landmarks were established during United's temporary residence following bomb damage to Old Trafford. A gate of 83,260, to this day the biggest League crowd, watched the Reds tackle Arsenal in 1948. Another 81,565 saw United drub Yeovil 8-0 in the FA Cup.

After City acquired floodlights in 1953, United, who had yet to invest in the new technology, returned in 1956 to make Maine Road the first English ground to stage European Cup football. Under the former City favourite Matt Busby, the Reds marked the occasion in style, their 10-0 defeat of Anderlecht posting a record margin for the stadium that Keegan's team have one last opportunity to better.

Features have come and gone – the Kippax was covered in 1956 and had its last stand along with Liverpool's Kop in '94 – with scant concern for architectural unity. Yet in the age of millionaire players, media overkill and boardroom fat cats, to visit Maine Road, even with a reduced capacity of 34,700, is to step back into a "traditional" setting where the bond between club and community remains fierce.

At the old Hyde Road ground, a sign in City's dressing-room read: "Set your teeth and die hard." To this advice, which the faithful would do well to heed on Sunday, might be added the imperative: "And don't forget to bring a handkerchief."