Where to watch the football with a proper pint

The big sports bars have plenty of screens, but you're usually stuck with the same three lagers. These have the match on and a bar worth watching it from. Blue, red or neither, we're not getting into that here.

Every pub picks its own games, so if you're after a particular one, give them a ring first.

In town and just outside

Spinner's Rest on Bengal Street is an old Irish pub Holt's did up and reopened in June 2026, on the Oldham Road side of Ancoats. Six handpulls, a yard and the sport on. Derby Brewery Arms, Holt's own brewery tap a short walk from Victoria, is a big open-plan pub with a beer garden, the football on and the cheapest cask in town.

Round the back of Piccadilly, Pigeon Beer Wanderer has a screen for the football and a list of European beer to go with it. North Taproom on Oxford Road gets busy on match days, with twenty-odd taps of North Brewing beer.

Salford

The New Oxford on Bexley Square has eleven handpumps, twenty-odd keg lines and over fifty Belgian bottles, with the sport on and more CAMRA awards than it's got wall for. The Star Inn up on the Cliff was one of the first community-owned pubs in the country, and The Old Pint Pot by the uni has a terrace over the Irwell for half-time.

South Manchester

The Railway on Lapwing Lane has six or seven handpumps, three of them changing, and Proove pizza. The Victoria in Withington was Stockport and South Manchester CAMRA's Pub of the Year for 2026, with a beer garden and a quiz as well as the football. Over in Whalley Range, the Carlton Club is a members' club that lets anyone in, with four casks that change and a big garden.

Further out

In Altrincham, Cheshire Tap is a long, softly lit bar with the sport on and live music at weekends. The Crown in Heaton Mersey is a four-hundred-year-old cottage pub with five Robinsons casks.