MAN CITY INFO VIA THE ALPS #17

DATE Tuesday 1st November '94

We have three reports of the game, all 'live'. It seems City are back up to their old tricks! There's more transfer speculation and a 'Why Blue' from Bob Kelley (anyone fancy having a go, you also get onto the WWW page by default so fame and fortune await!).

Next match is Southampton at home, Saturday 5th November '94

MATCH REPORT 'LIVE'

COVENTRY vs MANCHESTER CITY (29th October 1994)

Unbelievable - I arrived at a hole known as Highfield Road at about 2:30pm to witness 5 over-weight girls wobble their hips and wave their hands in a vain attempt to create some atmosphere. The "Sky Blue Belles", as they are officially known, then proceeded to embarrass everybody with their uncoordinated skips and jumps. I realise that there is a need to create some sort of buzz at Coventry but I hope there are no plans to introduce such pre-match "entertainment" at Maine Road - our football speaks for itself!

As for the stadium, well it has to be seen to be believed. If you thought the Umbro Stand was an eye-sore, well Coventry have built the mother of all cow sheds - I didn't realise that Meccano had gone into the construction business. I don't know how much it cost them but if it was more than a couple of million, they have been ripped off big time.

The travelling army of City support filled a complete side of the "stadium" so it was no surprise that all the atmosphere was coming from our side. Indeed, the Coventry fans had to resort to banging a rather large drum in an attempt to wake their sleeping supporters - I blame it on the "Sky Blue Belles".

Enough about cow sheds, drummer boys and dancing girls - what about the match! Well, how we managed to lose a match that we had completely dominated will remain a mystery to me. The majority of the match was played in the Coventry half and we should have been at least three up by half time. Coventry rarely threatened our goal and when they did hoof the ball forward, Tracey dealt with everything nicely.

Walsh had another excellent game as did Lomas. However, Quinn looked more than rusty and quite a few attacks broke down when the ball was played to his feet. Beagrie was once again the source of many good attacking movements with Summerbee only contributing periodically. However, it came as no real surprise when Dublin stumbled forward to snatch the lead five minutes from time. How we could lose a match which we had controlled and dominated for such long periods will remain one of the world's unsolved mysteries.

I wasn't alone in thinking we had been mugged since even some of the Coventry fans admitted they had witnessed a crime. I suppose these things all even themselves out over the season, but it still leaves a very sour taste in the mouth.

Final Score: 1-0

MATCH REPORT 'LIVE'

COVENTRY vs MANCHESTER CITY (29th October 1994)

A few thoughts from Highfield Road:

This was the first time I've seen City live this season. The first thing that struck me was the attitude of the City fans. In the past they'd be on the players backs right from the start but at Coventry it was different - they were right behind them all (except, perhaps, Andy Hill).

Things started off quite well, Flitcroft and Lomas seemed comfortable in midfield, Summerbee and Beagrie got in some good crosses but more often than not the move broke down with Quinn; as the bloke behind me put it "Quinn's deceptively slow in the first yard". Walsh ran for everything and was the real inspiration of the team. He was running rings round the Coventry defence and it was only some fine saves from Ogrizovic that kept them in the game.

The second half started much the same as the first with almost constant City pressure, surely a goal must come soon? But no. As the second half went on Walsh began to tire, Flitcroft and Lomas lost their spark and then the inevitable; as the fans started to turn against the players (we were no longer "walking in a Beagrie wonderland"), we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. How many times have we seen precious points lost at the death?

One observation: I remember when Phelan used to pick the ball up deep in his own half and charge down the touchline terrorising the opposition defence. Nowadays he picks the ball up, moves forward ten yards and runs straight into Beagrie. You can see the frustration on his face as he lays the ball off to Beagrie and then hangs around the halfway line twiddling his thumbs whilst Beagrie does the terrorising. It seems such a waste of a big part of Phelan's game - any comments?

Finally I must mention the lousy (and potentially dangerous ) toilet situation at Highfield Road. I left my seat as the half-time whistle blew and was still in an enormous queue in for the loo when the players came out for the second half. I was refused entry into the main toilet by the police because there were too many people in there and the second one was big enough for about 8 people at a time. Hardly Premiership standard as a few vociferous City fans pointed out to any policeman or steward that would listen.

Cheers

MATCH REPORT 'LIVE'

COVENTRY vs MANCHESTER CITY (29th October 1994)

I suppose the bubble had to burst and the winning streak come to an end, but in this sort of manner?

Most reports I've read basically said City were unlucky to lose and should have won, because they dominated the game. I would agree that they did dominate the game, but they didn't really create enough clear cut chances to score. The closest City came to scoring in the first half was a Beagrie effort that went wide and a Lomas shot, which although not particularly hard was destined for the bottom corner until a foot kicked it away. Coventry for their part always looked dangerous on the break, with Ndlovu and Wegerle creating the dangers and Dublin the main focus of attack. They didn't really do anything to seriously threaten the City goal and gave Tracey a relatively easy time.

Even after the half-time break, City didn't start to really get on top until the last 15/20 minutes of the game. Beagrie and Summerbee came more into the game, but once again they couldn't supply a decent cross. In fact it was left to Walsh to get the one decent cross in for Quinn. Quinn was unmarked at the back post, but his header was somehow saved by Ogrizovic. Beagrie had a stinging shot that was pushed over the bar but you could sense it wasn't going to be City's day. That's exactly how it turned out, with 5 minutes left Ndlovu went on a run and got in to the box and managed to get a cross in for Dublin to slide home. That was the winning goal.

Even with all the domination, City have only themselves to blame for the defeat. You can't expect the opposition to roll over and die, just because you'd been on a goal scoring spree. City didn't do themselves any credit with the appalling supply of final passes and crosses. Any other day Quinn's missed header wouldn't have mattered because other chances would have been created, but today it was the only real chance.

Coventry soaked up the pressure and beat City with the sucker punch. With Ndlovu, Wegerle and Dublin the Coventry attack is pretty good, but the rest of the team has it's limitations. They're bound to struggle unless they can get some more decent players in.

IMHO a fair result would have been a draw. Even some Coventry fans outside the ground thought that, but with Dublin's late goal they got all the points whereas all City got was another away defeat.

Cheers

NEWS

The Sunday People was full of the potential moves from Maine Road.

The Steve McMahon saga could soon be reaching a climax. After Sunderland showed initial interest in signing him for 200k, it now appears as though Wolves would like to sign him and are willing to offer 400k. The other players mentioned as available are Vonk (400k). Kernaghan (500k) & Griffiths (300k).

Graham Talyor (Wolves manger) is also interested in Vonk, Griffiths is interesting Burnley and Pompey but who's after Kernaghan? The clear out might be used to help finance the bid for Figo, the Sporting Lisbon midfielder, for 1.4M Once again this is paper talk, so let's see how much comes true.

Also on another note, Lee and Barlow have placed a 'substantial' bet on City to win the CC Cup, at odds of 40-1. At least if City win that then the board will have some money to play with ;-)

Cheers

NEWS

In an interview on Saturday, Brian Horton said that he'd been watching Simon Tracey over the summer with a view to buying him if Andy Dibble decided not to stay at City.

Simon didn't have much to do on Saturday but when he was called upon to deal with a cross etc. he dealt with it competently, showing no signs of the back injury which caused him to lose his place with the Blades.

I feel a bit better about going into the derby without either of our first-choice keepers now!

Cheers,

WHY BLUE?

Perhaps no one who is as big a fan of the club as I has less of a real connection than I do. I was born, and spent every day of the first 28 years of my life, in the US. My father was a sportscaster, so sport was all around me growing up. From the very first time I saw the English league (I was probably 8), I was just spellbound by it. The first match I ever saw was Leicester vs. West Ham in the early 1970s. I can still remember what Filbert Street looked like that day. From then on, I watched whatever I could (not easy then, or now, in the US). I checked a book out of my local library called "The Glory Game" - about Spurs more or less, and from that day on, made regular trips on the bus downtown to check on results in the English papers. While I was home cleaning my mother's house recently, I found a letter from MCFC postmarked 1977 - that would have made me 12. I still, though, was not totally Blue, as I had also written to Arsenal, Leeds and Chelsea. You have to know that I grew up right outside of Philadelphia (America's version of Moss Side). When I was young, Philadelphia had perhaps the worst baseball team in the country, perhaps the worst football (gridiron) team in the country, and the worst basketball team in American history (9-73 in 1972)! I hated my friends who lived nowhere near places like Dallas, but were big Cowboy "fans," or nowhere near Cincinnati, but were big Reds "fans," just because they were good when I was little. As a big (for an American) soccer player, I similarly hated the bastards who had all sorts of MUFC gear or Liverpool gear, but couldn't have told you squat about those clubs. Somewhere in there - in the late 1980s (when, by the way, all the Philadelphia teams were enjoying great success), I adopted Man City as my club.

I was lucky in that just before English footy disappeared from American TV, ESPN gave us the best coverage of the FA Cup season that we have ever gotten - before or since. It happened to be the year that Paul Power's glorious winner against Ipswich at Villa Park put City in the final against some Argentine side from London. After that, I went away to college, and tried to keep up as best I could, as City struggled mightily either to stay up or to get back up. I wished them well, but the passion was gone.

Then, two things happened - the FA returned (once a week) to American TV, and the Internet gave me up to date access to results and the like. I was hooked again; and with American professional sport becoming lamer by the day, this time it was deeper than ever. I wrote to City, asking for a fixture list and the gift catalogue last year. They sent me a nice letter and a few match programs, so I wrote back a Christmas card of thanks. They printed that in some program, I guess, because before I knew it, I had been adopted by some postman from Heywood, named Arthur Gardiner, who sends me papers, scarves, mugs, "King of the Kippax" fanzines (I think these are my favorite things of all), and all sorts of other wonderful crap. In fact, I just got a "Last Stand of the Kippax" poster from him yesterday - very nice.

If all goes well, I will be making my first trip to an actual English game (I've been to Stamford Bridge and Loftus Road, but there was nothing going on in them) on Boxing Day night against Blackburn Rovers. The club has a ticket set aside for me, and all I have to do is get from London to Manchester that day, which probably won't be easy. I suppose if I get there, I'll hook up with Arthur and take some sort of armed transport over to the ground. Anyone who wants to hook up for a pint or six, please let me know. Sorry for the length of this, but it was a rather odd road that I took to wind up at Maine Road.

[[ If anyone can spare the time to meet up with Bob for a few jars before or after the game then contact either me or him directly (UK63@sysm.acs.virginia.edu). Ashley]]

US VIEW

Stateside (Lakewood, OH) news: Oh joy, oh rapture!! At long last a chance to view City on the tube and not just read and listen about them!!! We saw the Spurs match here on Thursday evening the 27th. We here are indeed grateful for whatever we get I suppose as we did need to contend with what seemed like unending commercial (oops, I mean advert) interruptions. As part of the great unwashed here in the "colonies" we are used to being sold items on a regular basis!!!! After having been fortunate enough to being "briefed" via this list we were quite prepared for all the action and excitement. As I think you all know TC's brother in law is a house guest of ours until 11/11/94 and it was a joy sharing this game with him. His narrative as to skills, abilities and individual's style of play certainly enhanced the viewing. (taping the game so we could fast- forward through the advert's will help too.!!)

Cheers

REQUEST

I forgot to note Simon Tracey's squad number - if anybody remembers could they let me know so that the FAQ can be updated?

Cheers,

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