You're quite right, for the reason I attempted to explain above askew.Myself and Dennis came to the conclusion that it was compulsory that we kicked towards North stand first half and that they didn't bother with the toss anymore. It seemed really rare that we didn't.
Pretty much the same at every ground - both teams complying with the unwritten "gentleman's" rule : "Let the home team kick towards the home "Kop End" in the second half. Essentially it maximized the enjoyment of both sets of supporters in the business end of a game to have their team attacking their own supporters behind the oppositions goalkeeper/defense.
City attacking Bunkers/South stand second half at BP, same at KC.
There was a brief period when English teams started getting into European competitions, and foreign teams didn't know the "gentleman's convention" where some nasty confrontations took place. The neutral foreign refs were obviously unaware of the "unwritten rule", but within a couple of seasons it was sorted out.
It's now essentially a global convention almost always adhered to.