DEFINITELY MAYBE THE BEST CITY VIDEO EVER

TITLE		Definitely Maybe the Best City Video Ever
PUBLISHER       Paul Doherty Television
NUMBER          PDTV MCV1
DATE            1997
RUNNING TIME    Approximately 75 minutes
PRICE           £9.99

This video is the best City video ever made, yet. It contains most of the best of City from the past 25 years. We are taken on a trip down memory lane from the days of Lee, Bell and Summerbee, right through to today's bunch of Kinkladze, Horlock and Rösler. During the trip we stop off at such memories as Tueart's overhead, Law's backheel, the '81 Cup Final, promotion against Charlton, the 10-1, the 5-1, right up to the 6-0 vs. Swindon. Despite this, it is not the best City video that could be made as there are a few gaps.

The action is shown in two forms, great games and great goals. Each section runs in roughly chronological order and we finish with a rundown of the top ten City goals of the past twenty years. The video jumps between the two sections, giving the viewer convenient moments to stop watching if you haven't time to watch it all (otherwise we'd just sit there and watch the lot!). This format keeps the action moving and means it doesn't seem to stop - there's always another bit of classic action coming.

For the great games bit, the producers have selected what they consider our six best games. For that read six best/biggest victories. The games covered are:

1. 4-0 vs. Middlesbrough (21/1/76)
2. 6-0 vs. Norwich City (24/1/81)
3. 5-1 vs. Charlton Athletic (11/5/85)
4. 10-1 vs. Huddersfield Town (7/11/87)
5. 5-1 vs. Manchester United (23/9/89)
6. 6-0 vs. Swindon Town (27/9/97)

For these there is about 10 minutes of highlights (although for the 10-1 there isn't time for anything but the goals!). These are great to see again (or, personally, for the first time in the case of the Middlesbrough game). However, I would have preferred it if they had included less one-sided games and put in one or two of the classics we've been involved in. The 5-2 vs. Spurs springs to mind. Also, if it's to be great victories, what about the 4-0 win over Leeds in their Championship year?

The great goals section is just that - great goals. It is a rundown of the best 100(ish) goals we've scored in the last 25 years. However, there are gaps in there. Until the mid 80's, a lot of games were not filmed. As it was mainly the big games filmed, we appeared to score a lot of our best goals against United. Which was nice. Another gap is that they appear to have had problems getting permission to include some footage. The late 80's are virtually ignored. I know it wasn't our greatest era but the video suddenly jumps from mid 80's to the early 90's and I found myself thinking that there must have been some goals worth showing then.

The final great goals section runs down the top ten City goals. The top three are:

1. Gio vs. Southampton (16/3/96)
2. Young vs. Leicester City (26/4/69)
3. Tueart vs. Newcastle United (28/2/76)

Although I don't entirely agree with the choice and order (e.g. is Young's goal better than Power's in the F.A. Cup Semi?), this does make for a great end to the video, building up to the obvious best goal.

Overall the video is superb and well worth forking out for. As I noted earlier, this video is not the best that could possibly have been made and I'm sure other people will have other ideas about what should have been included (e.g. Quinn's penalty save). However, it is as near as we are going to get to the perfect City video. A word of warning though; the side of the video says that this is video #1. So be prepared for more of these videos. Despite this, my advice would be - buy, sit back and enjoy.