FRIENDLIES 1995/96

JUL 19 ATHLONE - MANCHESTER CITY 1-3 (0-1)

Report by: Paul Hince of the Manchester Evening News

Alan Ball is going to find it difficult to maintain his policy of keeping Martin Phillips wrapped up in cotton wool. For the overriding message from Manchester City's opening pre-season friendly in Athlone last night was that the West Country whiz-kid is now ready for regular first team soccer at Maine Road. Before exposing Phillips to the rigours of sustained senior soccer following his £500,000 transfer from Plymouth (sic) earlier last season, the Blues' boss has been waiting for the pencil-slim winger to fill out. After almost 12 months at Maine Road, Martin's shirt and shorts may still look a couple of sizes too big but his potential is immense. Even the standard of the opposition shouldn't obscure the fact that in Ball's team of stars on duty in Athlone, none twinkled brighter than "Buster" Phillips, who even outshone Georgi Kinkladze. He had already teased and tormented the Athlone defence half a dozen times before he inevitably laid on City's opening goal after a one-sided opening 15 minutes. His inch-perfect cross from the left found Uwe Rösler who left 'keeper Anthony Keenan helpless with a header into the top corner.

Despite City's total dominance it took two goals late in the second half to emphasise their superiority. Second half substitute Niall Quinn may not feature prominently in Ball's future first team plans but he showed he is still a force to be reckoned with in the penalty box as he soared at the far post 17 minutes from time to expertly glance home a glorious cross from Gerry Creaney. And, seven minutes later, he ambled on to Nick Summerbee's centre to sweep home a brilliant half volley. The Irish League part-timers battled on gamely and at least had the satisfaction of pulling a goal back, although even that came courtesy of the Blues with Keith Curle slicing an attempted clearance into his own net eight minutes from time.

Final Score: Athlone 1 City 3

JUL 20 CORK CITY - MANCHESTER CITY 1-3 (1-2)

Report by: Paul Hince of the Manchester Evening News

After only two pre-season friendlies you have to be the jumpiest manager in the Football League to be reaching for the panic button. But, on the evidence of Manchester City's mini-tour to the Irish Republic, Maine Road boss Alan Ball is going to have to exercise his powers of motivation over the next few weeks. He will be directing those powers at Georgi Kinkladze to convince the little Georgian maestro that what he puts into his club's warm-up matches will be money in the bank when hostilities are resumed in earnest next month.

Whatever Kinkladze is - and soccer genius fits the bill nicely - he definitely isn't a practice match player. Against Athlone on Friday and Cork City on Saturday, Gio gave a first-rate impression of a player whose body was in the Irish Republic but whose mind was still back with his family and friends in Georgia. After only a couple of days of pre-season training after the summer break it would be grossly unfair to have expected Kinkladze, or any of his team-mates, to have been firing on all cylinders in the two matches against the Irish League part-timers. But hundreds of loyal fans spent a great deal of their hard-earned cash to follow City to the Republic.

City took the lead after 15 minutes at the Temple Hill Stadium. Defender Alan Kernaghan, of all people, strode on to a clever nod- back from Niall Quinn to hook an unstoppable shot into the far top corner. Cork were level two minutes later from a penalty coolly converted by Bryan Barry-Murphy after Keith Curle had been harshly judged to have pushed giant striker Damien O'Connell. What a forgettable summer Curle is having so far. Stripped of the captaincy, transfer-listed, an own goal against Athlone and a penalty against Cork. Never mind Curley, things can only get better - can they?

Quinn restored City's advantage with a beautifully judged, dipping volley into the top corner only seconds before the interval for his third goal in two outings back on native soil. City's other Georgian, Mikhail Kavelashvili, sent a superb glancing header into the bottom corner from Michael Frontzeck's left-wing cross six minutes from time.

Final Score: Cork 1 City 3

JUL 27 SANGSING - MANCHESTER CITY 1-1 (1-0)

Report by: The Mole

City drew 1-1 with Sangsing (in Tienjin) in what is to be the only game of the tour of China following flash floods in the region which has been declared a "disaster area". City went behind in the first half after a horrible defensive mistake (don't know who the culprit was) and equalised in the second period through Gerry Creaney, who followed up a powerful effort by Mikhail Kavelashvili which the goalkeeper could only parry. All 19 players on the tour were used, including Damien Mori, the Aussie international who was having a trial with City. Mori is apparently in the record books as scorer of the fastest ever goal about 18 months ago (the ball was touched to him from the kick-off and he whacked it over the opposing 'keeper) and has a reputation for scoring spectacular goals.

AUG 3 SCARBOROUGH - MANCHESTER CITY 2-2 (0-0)

Report by: Paul Howarth

This was the only pre-season game I expect to be able to get to this season, so the numerous hold-ups due to traffic congestion that were experienced en route through the Yorkshire countryside were particularly unwelcome. Thankfully we arrived at the McCain Stadium with half an hour to spare and were able to experience the public address announcer's rather comical attempts at pronouncing the names of some of our players. I'm sure he'll not be the only one to struggle this coming season though. Since my last visit to the ground about three years ago the away end (which used to be an open terrace with only one toilet to serve the needs of everybody on it) has been completely replaced with a comfortable, tidy stand featuring a cantilever roof, good views and decent refreshment and toilet facilities. It was clear that most of the seats in this stand hadn't been used for some time judging by the dust and cobwebs on them.

Many of the City fans present (there were several hundred there, but less than a thousand) were wearing the new away shirt, so it looks like it's going to be popular despite the criticism aimed at the design by many of us. Before the game many of the City players had a spot of finishing practice, trying to score from crosses floated in by Tony Book, with Martyn Margetson in goal. As was the case last season, some very poor finishing was evident and this was to continue into the game itself. The pick of the bunch in this warm-up session were Chris Greenacre and Alan Kernaghan!

Eventually the teams came out and the game started. City lined up with Immel in goal, three at the back (Brightwell on the right, Frontzeck on the left and Symons in the middle), Clough just in front of the back three, Phillips wide on the left, Summerbee wide on the right, Lomas and Kinkladze in the middle and Rösler and Kavelashvili up front. The opening 15 minutes were quiet, as were the City fans who clearly couldn't be bothered to rouse themselves for this pre- season friendly. The most impressive player during this period was Martin Phillips, who has now "filled out" a little. He was beating players and getting crosses in, usually to the far post where Niall Quinn would have gobbled them up if he'd been in the starting line up. Gio has lost a bit of weight since the Irish games but still couldn't be bothered to get involved in the game, invariably preferring to pass the ball, short or long, instead of going on one of trademark runs. Indeed, many of his passes were wayward and I was worried that this would continue into the season proper.

The first real chance of the game came Scarborough's way, former Blue Ian Thompstone beating Brightwell at the far corner of the goal area and crashing a powerful header against the underside of the bar. This roused City out of their slumbers for a while and Uwe hit the foot of the post a couple of minutes later. City were now playing pretty well and had a couple of efforts cleared off the line during a long spell of pressure on the Scarborough goal. After about half an hour the home side got back into the game and nearly took the lead when another former Blue Gary Bennett had a free header from a corner but sent it just over the bar. I felt that City's defence looked shaky but it will take time for the other players to get used to playing without Curle at the back I think.

There were further chances for both sides before half time but City had the best two. First of all an all-too-rare run by Gio set Uwe up with plenty of time and only the goalkeeper to beat but he hit his first-time shot over the bar. Then, on the stroke of half time, Phillips hit a powerful shot from the edge of the area which was brilliantly tipped over the bar by the Scarborough `keeper. And so the half-time score was 0-0.

City replaced Mikhail Kavelashvili (who had been one of our better players, looking sharp and skilful) at half time, bring on Niall Quinn. However, it was Scarborough who took the lead 5 minutes into the second half following a mistake on the right hand side of our defence. Andy Ritchie broke clear and finished expertly. As somebody behind me said, this was just what the game needed. After all, it was only a friendly. City pressed forward with a little more urgency but still there were chances at both ends. In the 60th minute there was a scramble in the Scarborough goalmouth and Nigel Clough hooked the ball over his head and against the crossbar. It was to be his last involvement in the game as he was replaced by Michael Brown seconds later.

At around this time it became clear that the referee was on first name terms with the Scarborough goalkeeper, yelling out "Ian!" to attract his attention. The City fans behind his goal picked up on this and several chants in Ian's honour later in the game. Gio also took a slight (accidental) knock which seemed to irritate him somewhat. This seemed to spark some life into him and he started to look more like the Gio we all know and love. Thank goodness. On 70 minutes Chris Greenacre came on in place of Uwe Rösler and within a minute City were level. Michael Brown dribbled along the edge of the area and was brought down. The referee awarded City a penalty! Niall Quinn put the ball on the spot but turned round as if expecting someone else to take the spot kick. Up stepped Gio to stroke the ball low and just inside the post for a deserved equaliser.

Whilst we were celebrating Gerry Creaney was brought on to replace Nicky Summerbee. City were well on top now and looked like scoring quite a few goals. Greenacre nearly gave City the lead with a deft flick from 12 yards but it was superbly palmed away by the `keeper, leading to much applause and chants of "Ian! Ian!" from the City fans. Gerry Creaney forced another good save with a 20-yard curling effort. Clearly Creaney's wayward efforts during his warm-up at half time were just a ploy to lull Scarborough into a false sense of security. City look the lead on 81 minutes when a Lomas cross was met by Quinn at the near post. Quinn nodded the ball down into the same spot that Kinkladze had put the penalty. Two-One. It now looked like a case of "how many will we get?" but Scarborough had other ideas. Within three minutes they were level again after being awarded a penalty of their own for a foul by Symons. Ian Thompstone confidently struck the ball home, sending Immel the wrong way.

The Ian at the other end, Ian Ironside, was shortly afterwards named the Man of the Match, an award which nobody could dispute. He looks like a player who could do a useful job at a higher level than this. As for City, it's hard to pick out anyone that really stood out. Phillips did little in the second half after his encouraging first half performance. He's going to have to do some more practice on corners too. On numerous occasions he committed the cardinal sin of failing to get the ball past the first defender guarding the near post area. Gio is still far from being the player we knew from last season, though I hope and expect this to change when we start playing competitive matches again. The best performances probably came from the substitutes. Niall Quinn scored again and has really showed his worth to the side in this pre-season. If you discount the goals he's scored or set up, there's very little left. Chris Greenacre showed good touch and a good awareness of where the goals are. Still small in stature, he reminds me a little of Paul Moulden. For me though, Michael Brown was the most impressive. He played is if it really mattered how the result went, battled well and showed his skill to good effect. Michael is, I think, a player with a very bright future.

AUG 8 EXETER - MANCHESTER CITY 1-3 (0-1)

Report by: Alex Hurst

Well this will be my first and last attempt, at least for a while, at writing a match report as I have to leave for Norway on Monday until the end of March. The day did not start well for me as I had to replace the alternator on the car before I could get to St James' Park and Murphy's Law immediately took over which meant that I didn't leave Salisbury until six o'clock leaving me just an hour and forty five minutes to make the journey to Exeter and find the ground before kick off. I actually made it to the ground by half seven, presumeably picking up photographs of myself speeding in four counties, but parking the car took me half an hour. I arrived at the ground fifteen minutes late, paid my six quid and was informed by the Exeter steward that nothing had happened yet. I must be getting paranoid but he seemed quite smug about it.

The ground was reasonably full and a lot of City fans made the effort to travel down from Manchester, and wherever else we are exiled to, to give the blues some support. I couldn't possibly give an exact figure but I reckon in the region of 400 - 500 City fans had made the trip, although the Exeter fans weren't impressed as virtually the first chorus from them was "is this all you bring away?".

It was obvious as I looked out to the pitch and watched for a few minutes why the steward appeared to be so smug. City had obviously decided that the season was only just over a week away and so were more or less strolling around the pitch and passing the ball square or backwards. However, as if my arrival had sparked some form of urgency in the City ranks, they began to press forward mainly through Martin "Buster" Phillips who obviously wanted to impress his former team mates. He looks a useful player and seems to be able to beat players at will, but sometimes his crosses were a bit wayward. The new back three experiment seemed to be working well, although I'm still not sure of Frontzeck who appears to commit himself too early into tackles. Kit Symons looked very assured at the centre of the defence and seemed quite comfortable on the ball and was prepared to advance over the half way line and take players on. The midfield five were working quite well together passing the ball between them. Clough was playing as the pivot and more often than not it would be him spreading the ball left or right, with Lomas playing either behind him or alongside him. Unfortunately apart from Phillips and on the odd occasion Summerbee and Kinkladze nobody wanted to make forward runs to take defenders away from the forwards. Is this going to be the norm, especially if we play with three at the back? Quinn and Rösler looked out of touch and although Quinn was at the centre of things, mainly because a kick upfield makes it look as if he's working hard, again no incisive runs were being made. Twenty minutes before the break City upped a gear and forced a succession of corners, of which two ended up with Steve Lomas' specials, one going so high that it went out of the ground and the other not too far wide. Another corner was met with a Symons header I think, it was fairly crowded in there, which bounced up and hit the bar and Uwe's header as it came back was cleared off the line. It came as no surprise to me when City scored that Phillips would supply the cross and even though it was initially too long Quinn with his back to goal on the far edge of the six yard box, set himself up, turned and curled a shot around a defender and the keeper into the net, 1-0.

The match seemed to carry on in this manner with City doing most of the attacking until the break. Exeter did have a few good moments, most of them coming from long balls out of defence and allowing forwards to run on to them and certainly the three defenders made some good tackles in defence. I think Eicke had about 3 or 4 shots to save all half.

All in all not a bad half, especially for a pre-season friendly so close to the season but there appeared to be a definite lack of urgency especially in the midfield. Half time Exeter 0 City 1

I was expecting better things in the second half especially as AB had sent the team out a fair bit before the kick off, Margetson coming on as substitute for Immel, but for the first ten minutes of the half it was all Exeter. This wasn't helped by the City substitution as Margetson seemed as if he hadn't warmed up properly and consequently a fair few mix ups were happening in the City defence which Exeter almost pounced on. Eventually Exeter equalised and it can be fair to say that it was certainly the best goal of the game. The Exeter No 7, Barry McConnell, received the ball in midfield and then made a forward run towards the City box. The City players backed off him and he hit a shot from about 20 -25 yards which flew into the roof of the net leaving Margetson no chance. 1-1.

This appeared to wake City up and within 5 minutes and almost for the first time in the half, Gio made a forward run and took on about 3 Exeter players on the edge of the box, threaded the ball through to Uwe, who passed the ball back to the edge of the box onto the foot of the oncoming Lomas who hit the ball low and hard into the bottom corner of the net. 2-1.

This was the point at which the mass substitutions were made and off went Quinn, Rösler, Summerbee, Phillips and Kinkladze to be replaced with Kavelashvili, Creaney, Brown, Hiley and a young player I haven't seen before, No 18, can anybody help who was there? Exeter then made a mass of substitutions and the game settled in to the same pattern as the first twenty minutes of the first half. Clough was substituted with about 10 minutes left and it appeared to me that Frontzeck was unhappy about having to play the full match! It was also good to see Hiley play again and hopefully he's regained match fitness but it was hard to tell as in true AB style he was playing in the outside right position. Creaney worked hard for the ball although Kavelashvili still looks as if he hasn't quite tuned into the players around him yet.

With almost the last kick of the game, Kavelashvili ran onto a Creaney pass and stroked the ball past the Exeter keeper. 3-1.

All in all the match was a typical pre-season friendly without much fire and passion although there were some good signs there, typically Phillips, Symons, Brown and Hiley making a comeback. The rest of the squad appeared to be taking it easy and seemed determined not to get injured before the season.

IMHO the Quinn/Rösler partnership is not right, and this game contained even more proof if it were needed. I believe City should take whatever money they can get for Quinn and run because it seems that no matter how long it takes, Quinn and Rösler just won't gel. Of course Quinn provides City with the hoof it up the park route but that's not particularly how I want to see them play, and Quinn's close control with the ball at his feet, on the evidence of last night, is as bad as it always was. In fact, I think he trod on the ball more times than he trapped it, but then this is just my opinion of the game, other correspondents may think differently and I may have been a bit harsh on him.

Anyway I hope that this effort is OK, and any Norwegian MCIVTAers or similar exiles like myself in Norway, drop me a line and if you want we can possibly meet up for a few drinks I'm out there(I'll bring my own whisky).

Stay Blue

AUG 10 PLYMOUTH - MANCHESTER CITY 1-0 (1-0)

Report by: S Al-Hamdani

This match was at Plymouth's Home Park, possibly as far from MAine Road as any English ground, and this may have led to the somewhat sparse numbers of City fans at the ground, perhaps several hundred at most, certainly not at usual levels. With train tickets to Plymouth costing upwards of sixty pounds I cant say I blame people for staying at home.

Before the match the pre-match talk was mainly bout Bruce Grobelaar making his debut for the Pilgrims, although perhaps more interesting was the fact that the club spent a good while asking the crowd over the tannoy if anyone knew where their mascot - which later turned out to be a man in a sort of leprachaun outfit - was. How do you misplace a human mascot? Where on earth had he been? Who knows.

Although their had been showers just before kick-off it was sunny as it started, an important consideration for the City fans as we were standing, yes standing, on uncovered terrraces. This sunny attitude did not however bring a bright and breezy approach from either side, City knocked the ball around a bit and Plymouth bit into the challenges, relying on the speed of Adrian Littlejohn their top scorer last season, for inspiration up front.

City were continuing with their 3-5-2 formation, this week the personnel being

                        Immel
           Brightwell, Symons, Frontzeck,
     Summerbee, Lomas, Kinkladze, Clough, Brown,
                Quinn, Kavelashvili

The play was not particularly noteworthy, there was little width from City, especially down the left hand side. Despite this though Summerbee played quite well, this perhaps due to the fact that he did not stay on the line, thereby cutting out the usual problem he has of the defender standing on his right foot.

It was in fact Summerbee who had what was probably City's best chance of the half a nice interchange of quick sharp passing just inside the area left him one on one with Grobbelaar, but the keeper saved when he shouldn't have been given much of a chance. Apart from that there was littlle that was noteworthy from either side, the play being quite lacking from both sets of players.

The second half began with two City substitutions, Kernaghan on for Brightwell, who had played reasonably though nothing more, and Phillips for Clough, who had been dire. His passing is his strength, and this was very poor, leaving little else for him to contribute.

Phillips immediately looked good, and showed that he should be picked regularly throughout the season, causing the Plymouth side problems down the left and giving the side a width that had not been seen at all in the first half. However the action was first in the City goalmouth. Kernaghan tracked back at the sideline and flew into the tackle ateempting to clear both the ball and the player into touch. However the ball bounced off the player leaving him free with Kernaghan lying on the floor. This allowed the winger to cut in, pass to Littlejohn, who set up the Plymouth No. 7 who's name I failed to hear to hammer the ball past Eike.

City's defence continued to look flimsy in the second half probably due to a lack of genuine pace, and Kernaghan saved a second goal only by making an atrocious foul on Littlejohn from behind when he was clear through on goal. Had it not been a friendly he would undoubtedly have been sent off, and probably banned for about five games.

City looked a bit more as if they wanted to score although not too much. It was noticeable that there best chance came when the ball failed to come through either defence or midfield, Kavelashvili tracked back, tackled his man and hit a fifty yard pass to Gio who raced goalwards and took on most of the Plymouth defence, probably more than he actually needed to before shooting over.

City then made a number of substitutions, Rösler and Creaney for Quinn and Kavelashvili, Jeff (Ball Skills) Whitely for Gio, and most welcome of all the return from injury of Scott Hiley who came on for Summerbee. Although he looked short of full fitness it was nice to see him back.

This did mean that City's play was even more disrupted and they looked more likely to concede than score, and although they threatened to equalise a couple of times it was as much due to Plymouth being inept at the back, as City inventive up front, and it would have been undeserved. The game finished at 1-0 Plymouth, and this managed to prompt about twenty fans to invade the pitch!! I know they haven't won anything for even longer than us, but really.