Many players played both sports for the church and, alternated as the seasonal weather dictated. The land had also been the frequent site of many illicit late-night wrestling and boxing matches, which, according to football historian Gary James, would have synergised with the church leaders who sought to harness the energy and boredom of the local men and turn them away from violent pastimes, offering the opportunity to re-appropriate the very land on which the travesties were being committed and re-sanctifying it with more wholesome and holy pursuits. A further eight (known) games were played during the season, with the St Mark's men failing to score their first win until their final game, though this came against Stalybridge Clarence, who could only field eight men and had to recruit from the spectators. The loose organisation of the early incarnation of the club means records of Manchester City's first ground are patchy, uncertain and in some places contradictory. The exact location of the pitch is unknown. Gary James notes that, the new team being a church initiative and a local social group, the first pitch was surely picked for its proximity to the St Mark's church in West Gorton, though the first documented match report claimed it was held in Longsight – presumably since that was the location of the rectory for the church. "The Book of Football" (1905) mentions the pitch used for the club's first ever game, but going only so far as to say that by 1905 the pitch had been built upon by the Brooks and Doxey's Union Ironworks – still enough information to narrow down its location to somewhere roughly north of St Mark's church along what is now Wenlock Way. Repeated attempts at identifying the precise location have been unsuccessful. Having achieved a successful end to their first season, the decision was made in mid-1881 that a more suitable base of operations was required than the simple open ground of the previous year, where one match report had highlighted the unevenness of the surface had caused repeated trips and accidents. The location then chosen was Kirkmanshulme CC pitch near the Belle Vue Zoological Gardens, and St Mark's would have benefited further from the cricket club's facilities, even if minimal. The first match played at the new ground was against Hurst Clarence (Ashton-under-Lyne), and although the final score was 3–0 in favour of the Ashton team, it would prove to be St Mark's' first and only recorded defeat in their new home. The new ground was not notable for much during the season although it was here that the first home meeting would occur between the clubs which would go on to become vitriolic rivals Manchester City and Manchester United.