MATCH REPORTS 1997/98

APR 4 MANCHESTER CITY - STOCKPORT COUNTY 4-1 (3-1)

Report by: Sharon Bennett

An amazing near-capacity crowd of 31,855 gave the day a party-like feel before the game had even started. Maine Road seemed to be buzzing with the anticipation and hopes of all those inside - City fans hoping to reverse the embarrassingly awful result at Edgeley Park earlier in the season, Stockport fans obviously hoping to see more of the same dire heartless City play that we've seen all too often this season. Yet this is a completely different team from the one that lost so humiliatingly back in November, both in terms of players and attitudes - surely the result would have to be different this time!

We had a variety of optimistic bets being placed around us, most noticeably Colin's £2 bet at 60-1 that City would win 3-1 with Goater to score first. It even looked as if it was going to rain hard and get those nasty Stockport fans wet through. This had better be worth missing the Grand National for...

Symons was dropped to the bench along with Rösler to let Goater and Bradbury start. Horlock also made it to the bench after coming through the reserve game with no problems during the week. We lined up with Margetson in goals, Edghill, Wiekens, Jobson, Vaughan, Jeff Whitley (or Whitely as the TV screens in the Kippax said, typical City can't even spell their own players' names correctly and it isn't as if he's called Tskhadadze or anything), Jim Whitley, Pollock, Bishop, Goater and Bradbury. Hopes were high. Pollock was captain and Bishop got a great welcome back. Stockport had Eric Nixon in net, big git Brett Angell up front and Eddie McGoldrick playing for them against the club which holds his registration. Only City could let that happen. The scene was all set for a stuffing, we just knew that Nixon would have a blinder, McGoldrick would show us why he'd been popular enough with the City fans last year to come joint runner-up in the Player of the Year award and would score a hat trick. I'd feel even more depressed than I did last Saturday, when I was reduced to doing the gardening rather than listen to the inevitable "City take the lead then play like spanners and lose" commentary from Bradford.

Well then, imagine our surprise when with a mere 5 minutes on the clock City had amazingly taken the lead. We had to pinch ourselves to be sure we weren't dreaming. Nixon, in time honoured fashion, could only flap at a shot and Goater ran through to ram the ball under him and into the net. Imagine our lack of surprise with what happened next. Only 85 minutes to hold onto the lead! We were still jumping up and down celebrating when Stockport, straight from the kick off, passed the ball out wide to the left. The cross came into the penalty area, and despite the fact that all three centre halves were standing waiting it still fell to Wilbraham, the 19-year-old Stockport striker who hit a sweet volley into the net, 6 minutes on the clock. This was definitely City we were watching. I was impressed by the straightness of the line that the three "ooh I don't want to clear it I'll let you have a go" centre halves managed to keep, it would have been really impressive had it been intended - or possible - to catch Wilbraham offside. Only City could let this happen.

A few minutes later there was a clash between Nixon, half our attack and half their defence that resulted in him having treatment on the pitch for what seemed like an age. It was obviously something serious, we thought it looked like a head wound from what we could see. Eventually the referee finally summed up the courage to ask him to leave the field for treatment, at which point Megson decided he was going to have a go at both the linesman and the ref. Now everyone else in the ground knew exactly what Megson was doing, that he was holding up play for as long as possible to allow Nixon to get treatment and come back on, so why didn't the ref? Why oh why didn't he say "Oi, Gary, NO" and banish him to the stands to go and whinge out of the way of the game? Ah well, such is life. Eventually Megson decided he'd complained enough, told Angell to go in goals and we restarted facing 10 players.

This should have been the spur for City to shoot on sight, test Angell and his defence to the utmost, capitalise on the fact that the Stockport side is depleted and restore the lead, right? Er, wrong. In the ten minutes Nixon was off the field having his tongue sewn back together after he'd bitten through it (call me squeamish but yuk) we managed one shot on target which Angell gathered comfortably. Well, our supporters' club team goalie could have caught that and he let 12 in a couple of weeks ago (sorry Rob, I couldn't resist a dig). Only City could let that happen.

Finally big Eric came back on, and weren't we glad he did. A speculative ball into the area from Bishop was only parried by Nixon straight into the path of Jobson, who sent a crashing header into the net. I think one of the best bits for us to see - other than the fact we'd scored, obviously - was that Bradbury was right behind him ready to collect the rebound had the defender on the line managed to clear it. Bradbury was having a superb half, he'd been working tirelessly throughout and along with Goater, who can't help having legs like Carlton Palmer, was making a real nuisance of himself. It was therefore wholly deserved when Bradbury latched onto a through pass from Goater and went racing away, slotting the ball under the advancing Nixon and into the far corner of the goal. It was a sign of how out of form he has been that virtually the whole ground thought his shot was going wide and there was a moment of disbelief before we realised it had gone in. Chants of "Eric is a City fan" resounded round the ground. 3-1 at half time, we were all over the moon, especially Colin who could see £120 and several pints appearing in front of his eyes...

We had a penalty shoot out between the under 12s girls teams from City and Stockport - I particularly liked the bit when one of the little Stockport lasses lifted her shirt (don't think such smutty thoughts) in front of the Kippax to show she had a City shirt underneath. Nice one. I think City won but I wasn't really playing much attention - the half times coming in from other grounds meant we had to hold on to this win or we were in dire trouble. We've all seen City lose seemingly unassailable leads before.

The second half started with a great deal more Stockport pressure. Margetson played well to keep some of the shots out but despite good performances from all defenders Stockport still managed to hit the bar. Ooh nervy. We were therefore chuffed to bits when City's first attack of the half fell to Lee Bradbury, with Goater again putting the ball through to him. Time seemed to slow as Bradbury raced round Nixon and slotted the ball into the net. Wallop, 4-1, Colin lost his £120, how we celebrated.

The rest of the half was fairly even but neither side really looked like scoring any more. There was a great comedy moment when Margetson ran across his goal to make sure the ball was going behind and didn't take any nasty bobbles, and ran straight into his left hand post. Who put that there? The Stockport fans started fighting amongst themselves and several of them were escorted out of the ground - for once that wasn't the most exciting part of the day. Bradbury had a great chance for a header for his hat trick but the ball seemed to hang in the air for ages, not surprising with the swirly wind that was starting to make things difficult. When it finally came down there was no pace left on the ball and he could only head it weakly at Nixon. There were only two other incidents of note. The first was when Pollock was booked, yet again, this time seemingly unfairly as he was tripped from behind. Not sure why the ref did book him, maybe he wanted to keep the sequence going? Margetson was also booked when he carried the ball out of his area, giving us all a few nervous moments as if he had been sent off I can't see Bradbury being quite as good in goal as Angell was for them. A Stockport fan was on GMR complaining that he would rather Angell had stayed in net than Nixon came back on; I can't really say I blame him.

All in all a great team performance and a real relief. It's lifted us out of the bottom three for the first time in what seems like decades. Our season's finally started, it's a shame it can't end now so we stay up! Goater looks really dangerous as he makes defences nervous with those long Inspector Gadget legs. Pollock was a superb captain, geeing up both the team and the crowd throughout the game. We will really miss him when the inevitable suspension comes along. Vaughan's distribution was a bit ropey to begin with but improved thoughout the game and Wiekens showed himself to be a really class defender - if a really dodgy midfielder. My man of the match though, without a doubt, was Lee Bradbury. He even discovered a first touch late in the game - I know, his first touch normally has the skill and finesse of a Challenger tank but he was a revelation on Saturday. He and Goater could make a partnership to scare the life out of those ropey defences (containing all our ex-players, most of them) next year. It would be nice if that was in Division 1, as long as they don't go and fluff it completely at Wolves on Saturday of course. Only City could let that happen...

APR 11 WOLVES - MANCHESTER CITY 2-2 (1-1)

Report by: Peter Kewley

Driving up from the south it was interesting to see snow on the countryside around Wolverhampton. It was a raw, wet day with a bitingly cold wind in the stadium. However any fears for the pitch after all the rain proved wrong - it looked and played well throughout - and the sun shone for much of the game.

This was my first visit to the new Molineux and I have to say I was a little disappointed, having heard such good things about the ground. Am I the only one who finds these new, admittedly very functional stadia a bit lacking in charm? The Wolves ground isn't helped by having four very separate stands with the wind whistling in at the corners and the capacity isn't huge. Still... I mustn't carp... when I think we might be playing Gillingham next season... have you seen their ground!

The reason for this not being a full match report was my seat right at pitch level in one of the corners. I obtained very limited idea of the overall patterns and strategies. The team was this:

                   Margetson
        Edghill Wiekens Jobson Vaughan Horlock
          Jim Whitley   Pollock   Bishop
                    Bradbury Goater

but I'm not sure of the exact formation.

Early on City enjoyed a fair bit of possession without creating clear-cut chances but Wolves were coming back into it just as City scored after 13 minutes. I had a good view of this as Pollock, seemingly no threat out on the left wing, prodded the ball down the line and then literally pushed his way past two defenders (on another day the ref. might have blown), took the ball to the dead ball line, cut in and then blasted the ball straight at Segers (who was probably anticipating a centre). The ball ricocheted off the 'keeper's arm into the net for a pretty good goal although some might blame Segers.

After this it was mainly Wolves with the best of the play and they did miss some good chances. Margetson made three good saves. At least City were attack-minded and kept scrapping but just as it looked like we might make half-time with a lead disaster struck again with another bad error. From a corner Margetson let the ball slip out of his hands into the net - it was bad enough for him to be credited with an own-goal.

Half-time 1-1 and I said to my neighbour that we'd do well to come away with a point. Wolves weren't great but they were useful and played as a unit. Their defence, with Curle picking up all the pieces, was handling our strikers with ease, so it was no surprise to see a double substitution soon after the restart with Rösler coming on for Bradbury, Brown for Bishop.

The changes didn't seem to make much impact on the Wolves pressure - they always seemed to have someone wide and Whitley and Edghill on our right were struggling to contain them. However, Uwe got through a couple of times and in about the 70th minute he was brought down by their last defender just outside the box in a central position. Sedgley was sent off and Horlock really powered in the free-kick. For a time we took control but couldn't fashion a real chance and Wolves' ten men began to play well. Sometimes it appeared that they had the extra man! Edghill was having a torrid time and it was him giving away a free-kick that led to their equaliser. It was another great strike from Paul Simpson and I can't blame Margetson but it has to be said that it was from a long way out.

Back to reality just when we looked to have three points. Towards the end Pollock was substituted... not from injury I hope. I can't award player ratings with the view I had but here are some comments: Bradbury and Goater worked hard but made no impression. It was good to see Horlock back, providing us with another goalscorer. Bishop struggled in midfield - I hope he isn't past it. Pollock is the type of player we need to take some of the pressure off the younger ones, of whom Edghill was poor as a defender (by the way, I don't think Jamie was booked in this game. And I've just looked up his and Edghill's ages - they're almost the same!). Finally (as we all know) we desperately need a goalkeeper of some stature and reliability. I think Margetson gives all he's got and he can be a good reflex shot stopper but he's too small. I didn't really notice them but the central defenders must have performed well.

So, the tension continues... the teams we have to play this coming week both have much to play for...

APR 13 MANCHESTER CITY - BIRMINGHAM CITY 0-1 (0-0)

Report by: Ashley Birch

April in't'North means that although the sun is shining brightly, it's bitterly cold and we keep having to put up with the odd snow shower. Unfortunately, that's not all we have to put up with and today showed us that someone somewhere really has it in for us! Had a nice pre-match warm up in Chinatown and arrived at a sunbathed Maine Road to see a rather poor Brummie turnout. Excepting the B'ham fans however, the stadium was almost full.

City played with an unchanged side, which meant that Horlock continued at left wing back, with Rösler, Brown and that man Ged on the bench. There was real purpose about City as they put Birmingham under pressure from the outset. I was somewhat surprised by the lack of coherence in their defence, which looked shaky everytime we came forward. After about 10 minutes, a nice through ball was placed over the back of the B'ham defence by Pollock (I think); Bradbury timed his run perfectly, drew the defender and slotted the ball under the advancing Bennett, only for it to run just the wrong side of the post. Birmingham seemed to be having problems dealing with balls into the box - low or high - with Bruce berating his entire defence, much to the amusement of the Kippax. On about 20 minutes, B'ham made a poor clearance and Wiekens hit a snapshot from the edge of the box which looked to be easily over, but which cannoned off the bar, down and was cleared away. This was the clearest cut chance of the game, apart from the goal that is!

Bruce was up to his old tricks of course, and was yellow-carded when Bradbury broke from the halfway line only to be blatantly bodychecked by the arthritic old cheat. City played some neat football for the last 25 mins of the half, with Goater in particular causing problems whenever the ball found its way to him near the area. All in all, City were very unlucky to be going in all square after having much the better of the play, Birmingham being chanceless up front.

Birmingham obviously got a rocket at half time as they came out much more fired up and took the game to us. However, although they competed much more vigorously in midfield, they really made little impact on the Blues' defence. However, this was to change when Adebola committed a very bad foul on Jobson which saw him stretchered off - as usual, the referee saw no reason to take any action for a challenge which was to have serious consequences for this game, and possibly for our survival in this division. City had just substituted the largely ineffective Bishop for Brown and quickly had to reshuffle as Ged came on for Jobson. Rösler also came on for Bradbury who'd had quite a good game.

It seemed unlikely that any team would summon up enough to score in the last 10 minutes, so a draw looked likely; out of nowhere however, a ball was chipped over Wiekens to Adebola - the man who shouldn't have been on the field - who broke away on goal, he drew Margetson and cooly slotted the ball under him into an empty net. City tried in vain to pull back a goal in the remaining 3 minutes and almost suceeded when Goater rose and powered a header past the goalie only for him to pull of a tremendous save at the foot of his post with the ball almost across the line.

Final score: 0-1

To sum up, City played very well for the first 45 minutes, and although considerably below this level for the second half, they easily equalled a disappointing Birmingham side. To say the result was rough justice is an understatement, we were quite simply robbed. There were various individuals holding forth on GMR after the game about the dire City performance; just which game were they at? IMHO we were streets better than just 4 weeks ago when we'd have been outplayed and well beaten by a team as organised as BCFC.

The saving grace for today was left till after the game; Reading, Stoke and Portsmouth were all beaten! Maybe somebody up there does like us after all!

APR 17 MIDDLESBROUGH - MANCHESTER CITY 1-0 (1-0)

Report by: Steve Maclean

The weather was overcast, cold and drizzly as we filed in to the Cellnet Riverside Stadium, and I have to confess this also matched my mood, as I was fully expecting a fairly heavy defeat. It was my first visit to the Riverside and I found it fairly impressive from an engineering point of view, but lacking real character.

But at least it was full - including a few thousand Blues - and the atmosphere was electric, no doubt the 30,000 baying Teesiders also salivating at the thought of a resounding Boro' win. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the City fans gave as good as they got in the singing stakes, responding to the predictable "Going down, going down, ..." with "F* all, you've never won f* all."

City kicked off in 5-3-2 formation with this team:

                                 Margetson
         Edghill    Jeff Whitley    Symons    Horlock    Vaughan
                        Brown      Pollock    Jim Whitley
                              Bradbury    Goater

Straight away it was obvious that they were 100% fired up. Tackles were hard and every ball was fiercely contested. This continued virtually for the whole 90 minutes - City have rarely shown this much determined commitment all season, in fact for several seasons if we're totally honest, so it was a pleasant surprise.

Branca went off injured early on, a victim of some of the ferocious tackling. Pollock predictably got booked and it all boiled over into several mass brawls. Boro' as expected were piling on the pressure but City did have chances on the break - and here's the biggest problem.

This happened a number of times - Boro' move breaks down just outside our penalty area, City bring the ball away, channel it out to one wing or other, eventually get into the final third, and then ... nothing ever happened. Basically, City didn't seem to have the faintest clue what to do next. Nobody ever got to the by-line, not a single decent cross was ever delivered, no defence splitting passes were made, Bradbury and Goater made no penetrating runs or showed any guile or menace.

In the middle of all this ineptitude, Boro' scored and were also refused what I thought the video replay later proved to be a perfectly clear penalty. Just before half time, another mass brawl followed a tangle between Bradbury and Vickers. They squared up to each other, Vickers pretended to "nut" him, Bradbury went down like a sack of potatoes and Vickers was sent off. I am at a complete loss to understand how we managed to finish the game with all 11 men still on the pitch.

Could City take advantage against Boro's 10 men? We all know the answer but can anyone honestly say they are surprised? Late in the game there were sometimes large gaps appearing in the Boro' defence as players got tired, but somehow it seemed as if City could play till midnight against 8 men and still not score.

The highlight of the whole game: after 88 minutes we got a corner. In a corner of the Boro' "Family Stand" I stood up and raised my arms in mock acclaim, and nearly got a kicking from half a dozen doting Boro' dads, their faces contorted in pure hate.

Final score: 1-0

It was the first I'd seen of Goater and I wasn't too impressed. He seemed to run out of energy early in the second half and had few ideas. When are we going to have a forward who can actually run at defences, unsettle them and get shots in on target? It can't be that difficult a concept to teach them. The stars were mostly in defence. Kit and Martyn both had impressive games. In midfield Pollock and Brown stood out.

In summary, the biggest problems were the old old ones ... chronic lack of pace and no inventiveness in attack. This led to the usual situation where we don't score, the defence plays competently but somebody makes just one mistake and we lose 1-0. How many times has this happened? Defensively we've conceded either 0 or only 1 goal in 28 games this season, which is pretty good for relegation strugglers. I've just checked and even Arsenal have only achieved that 25 times! What we're missing is dead simple - goals, goals, goals!

Anyway as I write this Stoke have won and we are in the bottom 3 with 2 games left. But we must keep hoping so I'll finish with the most positive thing to come out of the Boro' game: the positive attitude and commitment were incredible, and this more than anything kept the scoreline respectable against a rampant top of the table team.

If we show the same commitment against QPR and Stoke then we can't be relegated - can we?

APR 25 MANCHESTER CITY - QUEEN'S PARK RANGERS 2-2 (1-2)

Report by: Sharon Bennett

This, the last home game of the season, summed up City's season perfectly. City were to play a side who were also not yet safe from relegation, although the general naffness of the teams below would suggest that QPR would be safe even if they hadn't got another point all season. The turnout was amazing - even the MFI stand and that bit between the Main Stand and North Stand that you can't see half the pitch from were full. Before the game the team paraded a banner around the middle of the pitch saying "Thanks for all your loyal support". Thanks? Thanks? What about "Sorry"? Were they going to turn the banner over and show the words of apology on the other side? Ha, no chance.

Royle had taken the "gamble" of bringing back Kinky into the starting line up, according to all the radio reports on the way up. I fail to understand why this was a "gamble". Okay, Kinky can (and does) go missing for long periods of the game but which would you prefer? 85 minutes of absenteeism with 5 minutes of absolute genius, or 90 minutes of Ian Bishop? Thanks for the memories Ian, but you're currently taking up a place in a desperate team where Moonchester would do a better job. The rest of the team were Margetson, Edghill, Horlock, Brannan, Symons, Vaughan, Whitley, Pollock, Bradbury and Goater, subs were Bishop, Russell and Dickov. Before the game there was a bit of a scrap in the tunnel, with Vinny Jones, as player-coach, setting his fellow team mates a fine example by picking a fight with Gio, but we knew nothing of that as the teams kicked off in the bright summer sunshine. Steve had obviously been busy chopping his lottery slips up as the shower of them from the upper Kippax seemed to go on for ages.

Well, the game was a mere few seconds old when Jones fouled Gio about 25 yards out. Here we go, we all thought. Dirty git can't cope with genius, going to hack at him all game, hope he gets sent oh my God he's scored. I have to admit, I didn't see Gio kick the ball but I did see it go into the back of the net, past a 'keeper who obviously also didn't see Gio kick the ball and who couldn't get anywhere near it. I stood with tears in my ears. Could the litle genius finally answer all the "tell me how many games he's won for City" detractors and keep us up?

City successfully avoided the next obvious pitfall by not letting QPR go straight down the other end and equalise, raising ever higher hopes. The atmosphere at this point was incredible, the only person in the ground who wasn't on his feet singing and shouting was the bloke in front of us, but then he's whinged constantly for the last three years so I couldn't see him stopping now. It was such a shame it had to end. Vaughan passed the ball back to Margetson, who completely lost his mind and picked it up. Why? Vaughan didn't do anything wrong by passing it to him, he wasn't under immediate pressure and if for some reason he'd thought he was, why didn't he just let it go for a corner? Vaughan would have got a bit of stick, but QPR hadn't looked as if they could score so far so surely we could handle a corner? No, he decided to pick it up. The indirect free kick was given immediately - well, there wasn't any way anyone could argue with it, except Margetson who'd obviously forgotten the rules. The next thing he did was even more stupid. OK, the free kick's been given. Do you (a) hang on to the ball and wait for some of your defence to get into the area in an attempt to make it slightly harder for the opposition to score, or (b) give it straight to Kevin Gallen, who says thanks very much and passes it straight to Mike Sheron (who else?) to calmly put it into the net because you're still standing by your post complaining that the free kick's been taken quickly? Imbecile.

It got worse. A few minutes later, Pollock was afflicted by the same brain-disappearing complaint that had resulted in QPR's first goal. While running towards the City goal, he carefully headed the ball towards where he thought Margetson would be. Unfortunately he hadn't bothered to check where Margetson actually was, so the header was aimed for someone standing about 10 feet further back. The inevitable result of this wonderful bit of defensive play was a lovely, looping header that went well over Margetson and into the empty net. How QPR celebrated. The tears returned to my eyes, for a completely different reason this time. Here you go lads, we'll give you a two goal start because we don't like things to be made easy. Tell you what, as it's nearly the end of the season and we're feeling generous, we'll even score one of them for you.

Poor City. Poor Jamie - apparently this was his first ever own goal and he looked as if he felt personally responsible for our impending relegation. Poor us. We expected a collapse at this point, but City once again surprised us, and for the rest of the half provided some of the best attacking play I've seen this season. Horlock was inspired, running around like Paul Dickov but to infinitely more effect. Pollock hit the bar (why hadn't he done that at the other end eh?), Horlock hit the bar, Whitley missed a good chance, Edghill put one wide, and as for Bradbury... Three misses come immediately to mind. There was one when he'd beaten the 'keeper and sent the ball wide of the right hand post. There was one when he decided to jump and kick the ball, 5 feet in the air, instead of stooping and heading it, so the ball went wide of the left post. There was also one when all he had to do was hit it anywhere but at the 'keeper and it would have gone in - so he hit it at the 'keeper. Oh, for Alan Shearer up front, with the service Bradbury got on Saturday he'd have scored six. The ref was doing his best to help, he gave a couple of free kicks our way which were a bit dubious and didn't give a penalty against Symons when I think we would all have done. He - and the linesman - were a lot closer to it than we were and neither of them saw anything wrong, so I suppose we'll have to give Kit the benefit of the doubt on this occasion - and to be fair to him, he didn't put a foot wrong in the rest of the game. Neither did Brannan, which was more of a surprise.

At the start of the second half Bradbury finally got the ball in the net. Goater did well to win the ball and knock it sideways to Bradbury, who luckily was unmarked and even more luckily didn't have time to think about what he was doing. We'd equalised at last. Phew. The rest of the game seemed to pass in a blur. City pressed and pressed but couldn't score. QPR couldn't do anything. Sheron was pretty ineffectual (having done his bit of damage earlier) and the only QPR player who looked as if he might cause a threat was Gallen. I know it sounds unlikely that the defence played well when we let two goals in, but they did. Edghill's distribution was as appalling as ever, but you can't have everything. Kinkladze was taken off after about an hour because he was knackered, no surprise really as he hadn't played a game for 6 weeks. Dickov came on and ran about as much as ever - he won a header at one point, amazing I know but it's true. Pollock, who did not have a good game, and Brannan were replaced by Bishop and Russell but nothing was going to make any difference. City can be so good yet so awful in the same 90 minutes, what can we do other than despair? Quashie was sent off just before time for flooring Vaughan, but realistically he could have been sent off in the first minute and we wouldn't have won. Is it a record, having people sent off against you in three matches out of four yet failing to win any of them?

Stoke on Sunday, we can win and still go down, just don't let anybody start putting false rumours around that a draw will be good enough 10 minutes from time this year, please. I don't think my emotions can stand being mangled like that all over again. And it one more person tells me that next year we'll have a derby game against Macclesfield then I think I really will pretend I'm Vinny Jones and hit them...

by Svenn A. Hanssen, svenn@hanssen.priv.no