Maine Road brought final day highs and lows for Power - a crushing defeat to Luton which ensured relegation and a thumping victory over Charlton which earned promotion.
Captain Power admits the nadir of his sky blue career was a 1-0 loss to the Hatters on the final day of the 1982/83 campaign as City crashed out of the First Division.
But while that brought angst for him and anger for supporters, it was very different story for the skipper on the final afternoon of the 1984/85 campaign as the Addicks were despatched 5-1 in front of 47,285 elated fans to send Billy McNeill’s men back to the big time.
Power, reminiscing as part of a special roundtable discussion alongside fellow heroes Mike Summerbee, Ian Brightwell and Nicky Weaver, admits those two afternoons couldn’t have been more different.
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And he credit the Kippax with giving the players a welcome boost ahead of kick-off against Charlton.
“I don’t know the exact number of the crowd that day against Charlton but I think it 45,000 plus. The place was absolutely packed.
“When you used to come out of the tunnel at Maine Road, you were actually faced by the Kippax. There weren’t many stadiums that had their bulk of support on the side of the stadium.
“Just think of the Stretford End, the Kop, the Holte End.
“So to come out and receive the roars – inviting us to do well – it felt like we just couldn’t let them down. It was a great incentive. It had the hairs on the back of the neck standing up.”
City needed maximum points on that final day against the Addicks to seal promotion alongside Oxford United and Birmingham City unlike the two seasons previous where Power’s sky blues just had to avoid defeat to ensure survival.
The difference between positive and negative pressure was the key to the two very different outcomes.
“I remember that we had to win that Charlton game. It wasn’t as if we were first or second, we had to win that game to get promotion,” added Power.
“The pressure was on a bit but it was a positive pressure. It wasn’t like the Luton game two seasons before where we fighting against relegation.
“That was a negative pressure. Because the scoreline against Luton was 0-0 up to four minutes before the end, the tension built up and a lot of the players, me included by the way, were really tense and we were knew that one mistake and the game would be lost and we’d be down.
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“But this was different. We were striving for something positive. We knew we had to go out and win the game.
“It helped the fact we scored a couple of goals in the first 15 minutes. That settled everybody’s nerves.
“That game is right up there. It was important we got back in the top stream. The Second Division wasn’t a place for Man City.”
