JAN 1 MANCHESTER CITY - WEST HAM 2-1 (1-0)

Action shots: Chip and Goal by Eric Graham.

Movie clips: first and second goal.

Report by: Ken Foster

A Season Ticket in the Family Stand is like a weekly pass to a funeral (only more miserable). After witnessing first hand our brilliant away support at Leeds, and second hand on TV versus Blackburn my sentiments to sections of the crowd can only be 'Stop whingeing and get singing'.

Having got that off my chest, City's performance today was well below par. We started off well (again). Kinkladze was seeing a lot of the ball and Summerbee was getting forward from his nominal full-back position. Niall had a header saved and Uwe blasted one over after Kinkladze put him through. Lomas and Flitcroft (together again at last) gave us a more balanced and ball winning look in midfield. The goal came when the inexperienced keeper underhit a clearance, Rösler nodded down to SuperNiall who was clear. He deftly dinked the ball over the keeper and stroked it into the empty net.

Following the goal, Rösler had a good chance after being put through by Kinky but hit the side netting. Another through ball saw Quinn adjudged offside by the linesman but the ref. didn't see the flag. The ball was cleared to Lomas who hit a screamer into the top corner of the net. Guess What? the ref THEN saw the linesman's flag (still rigid) and instead of consulting him, gave the Hammers a free kick. A swift press on the self destruct button saw us take our foot off the gas and West Ham began to dominate. They scored from a corner but the over fussy ref. (thankfully on this occasion) saw an infringement that nobody else did. We survived until half time.

The second half started with City in 'Ultra lie down and die mode' and to make matters worse Flipper came off with an ankle injury. Moncur looked impressive alongside Bishop (we'll never forgive you Kendall) and another old boy Michael Hughes was peppering our box with crosses. Inevitably they scored when Dowie scored with a tap in from another low cross. The defence could not be blamed as we were letting them walk through us. As I started praying for a point, Rösler indicated that he wanted to come off (he didn't look injured). AB sent on Martin Phillips for his debut. Width on the left at last! He looks quick and skilfull and keen to impress. Paul Power said he looked lightweight on the GMR phone-in, but it isn't a pre-requisite for a winger. Look at Giggs. I was impressed with him and in my opinion he had a big part in our winner. He attacked the defender before squaring to Symons! who hit a low cross into the box. It seemed to come off the post to Quinninho, who knocked it in.

Somehow we hung on for the win but my heart rate was resembling a geiger counter near Chernobyl. I wouldn't say we got away with murder exactly, but 'Buster' helped us steal a haul akin to the Great Train Robbery.

Performances

Immel      6 Kicking is a joke.
Brightwell 6 Much better than Blackburn.
Summerbee  7 Is now consistently good.
Curle      6 OK but tendancy to try out 'Kinky' side steps in his own box.
Symons     7 Usual dependancy
Lomas      6 Too much 'pure genius' last night?
Flitcroft  6 Yes we need him but his tackling will see him redded this
             season.
Kinkladze  7 When he has movement around him, he looks world class.
Brown      5 Hard worker but needs to be more positive when in posession.
Rösler     5 Not sure if he is mentally right at the moment. He needs to
             get himself together or an Equity card.
Quinn      8 Faultless performance.

Subs:
Ekelund    5 Nice touches but too anonymous
Phillips   7 An exciting prospect, please keep him in the side.

JAN 6 (FAC3) LEICESTER - MANCHESTER CITY 0-0 (0-0)

Report by: Paul Howarth

"There's only one Paul Lake..."

The "sold out" signs were out at Filbert Street for the visit of Manchester's "City". Our initial allocation of 2,500 tickets was sold in two hours and a further allocation received later was also fully taken up. Unfortunately for the big crowd, both sides were affected by illness and the big question we were asking ourselves was "how will we manage without Kinkladze?" Not very well as it turned out.

Before the game we got the usual chants from the home fans: "You're s**t and you know you are", "Going down with the Bolton" etc. which sounded a bit strange coming from fans of an Endsleigh League club. I thought a response of "You're staying down, unlike Derby" would be suitable (Leicester having only one club, any other team in the East Midlands counts as a local rival) but I really couldn't be bothered. Neither, it seemed, could most of the other Blues present, who only got going just before kick-off when new Leicester manager Martin O'Neill (this was his first home game in charge of the club) appeared to a chorus of "City Reject!"

From the outset it seemed that the sides were very evenly matched, both trying to play a neat, passing game. However, as the game progressed, City began to reply more on hitting the ball in to Niall Quinn and getting a lay-off. Leicester employed their big man up front, Iwan Roberts, to good effect too; he won virtually every header he went for, and almost without exception the ball seemed to end up at the feet of former United striker (and Junior Blue!) Mark Robins. His sharp turns gave us a lot of worries but by the end of the game neither goalkeeper had had more than two or three decent shots to save.

Without Kinkladze, City offer very little in the way of creativity. Flitcroft seems to be so used to playing with the Georgian that when he wins the ball (which he did regularly to good effect), he just seems happy to give a short pass to the side and never tries to play a more incisive ball through the opposing defence. City's passing in general was shocking, with the Leicester defenders intercepting virtually everything around the edge of their erea. Ekelund still doesn't appear to be fit enough, which is understandable, but that doesn't excuse poor passing. His only significant contribution to this game was to support Nicky Summerbee, who was playing in an old- fashioned wing-half role, a sort of combined full-back and winger. This he did very well, and appeared to be the only person in the side who was likely to create a goalscorong opportunity. It didn't go unnoticed by the fans, who chanted his name during the second half. I couldn't have imagined that happening after his early season form; he now looks the business, the player we knew from his time at Swindon.

Leicester's most creative player was Scott Taylor, the best player on the field, particularly during the first half. He regularly found himself in acres of space and his ability on the ball caused us a lot of problems, particularly down our weak left side. I thought he might have followed former manager Mark "Judas" MvGhee to Wolves actually but he now looks set to stay at Leicester.

Chances were few and far between for both sides. Uwe had our best efforts, notably in the first half with one cleared off the line and another into the side netting. Our best chance of the game was probably his second half header when he got on the end of a Lomas punt but headed over the bar. Chief culprit for Leicester was Iwan Roberts, particularly in the second half during a period near the end where they had City on the rack. Immel saved one point-blank effort (the goalkeeper played well, catching instead of punching and holding everything that came his way - his kicking was poor again though) but there's no excuse for the sitter Roberts missed with 15 minutes to go. The ball came across the edge of the 6-yard box and with the goal yawning open in front of him, he spooned it over the bar.

With City looking less and less likely to win the game, the thoughts of the fans turned elsewhere. A brief chant of "There's only one Paul Lake" will hopefully be heard again when he gets his well-deserved testimonial. A loud cheer greeted the news that Sunderland were leading at Old Trafford and the Alan Ball/Wonderwall song was aired once again. Not the best performance from the travelling fans but still streets ahead of the morgue-like atmosphere at Maine Road for the West Ham match.

My overall impression was that City are fortunate to still be in the competition but I expect us to win the replay, particularly if Geo is back to inspire us. Mind you, I expected us to beat Leicester at Maine Road last season too.

Final Score: 0-0

JAN 13 TOTTENHAM - MANCHESTER CITY 1-0 (0-0)

Report by: Svenn Hanssen

Another television report from me. I promise my next one will be live! Anyway; White Hart Lane has not been a good place for us in the past, so I had some mixed feelings when I understood this was going out to the rest of the world too. I belive we've only had one win in the last 5 tries at this field. The odds were against us, with Tottenham 4th in the table and with twice as many points as City. They had 31 scored goals, just as many as we had conceded. Their top-scorer Sheringham had two more goals than our total so far this season. So I threw in a 1-1 draw in Martin's lottery, just to keep my spirits up throughout the match.

There was no sensational news as the teams entered the stadium. Paul was right when he suggested Ingram would play left-back in Brightwell's absence. Summerbee was at right back, which would leave us without decent winger. Neither Phillips nor Brown were named in the starting line-up. Ekelund and Kinkladze (Geo) were treating the flanks, with Lomas and Flitcroft in the middle. Rösler and Quinn up front, and Symons and Curle at the back. Immel was between the posts, which should leave his position unquestioned, when Coton is moving to Washington - or something.

The game started out in a peculiar way. Neither team looked interested in going forward, but relayed on their strikers to do all the work. It was City who had the first good chance when Quinn chested a ball down in the area and blasted it over. Rösler also managed to stretch Walker with a nice shot from a difficult angle. No real danger, but it could have been if there had been City any players to collect Walkers rebound. Ekelund lost his man after 5 minutes and the cross created a corner from which Sheringham almost scored. Luckily our man covering the near post knew how to kick a ball upfield. Some other half chances fell to both teams with Quinn collecting an offside after beautiful short-passing between him, Ekelund and Rösler. Just inches away, and what an approach play.

After 20 minutes Armstrong took Ingram for his first ride down the right flank. After some turning and twisting, he left the young defender dizzy and crossed in for a great chance. Luckily Symons was there to clear in front of Sheringham, while Immel was stranded on the line. 2 minutes later Rosenthal tested the german goalie without luck. Another long range shot, this time from Edinburgh, shaved the left post for a corner. This was perhaps spurs' best period of the whole match, earning three corners within two minutes. They even got one ball in the net, but the linesman flagged for offside. Their posession lasted out the period and Immel had to pull off a magnificent save from a point blank Sheringham header. No question on who our lifesaver was at that time.

So half time arrived, even play, even score but a lame performance from both teams.

Nothing spectacular arrived with the second half. Ekelund was taken off after an hour, and Brown was given the chance. No flashing performance from the dane this evening, and even Geo seemed kind of worried, even when he danced foxtrot with Sol Campbell. Perhaps he wasn't quite fit after his illness. However it was the little Georgian who created most of the exitement, and sadly there's nobody challenging him for it. After 66 minutes disaster struck: Campbell on the left side seeks Armstrong on the far post. Immel stays put and when Symons doesn't reach the ball, it's easy for Armstrong to dive in for the winner.

This was the cue for City's best spell of the whole match. Suddenly the ball was flying between the players and some good combinations started to emerge. In particular our right flank got busier, were Rösler created a chance of his own. Walker just managed to flick the shot to his right where Quinn collected the ball and set Geo up for the equalizer. Too bad Austin managed to stand in the way of a goalbound shot with Walker stranded. At this moment Quinn showed his ability on the ground. He met the spurs keeper face to face, but shot straight at him. After 77 minutes Rösler was handed the ball on a plate by Quinn, and his shot was out of reach for the goalkeeper, but as luck goes, this wasn't City's day. The ball hit the right post and flew away from the danger area. Somehow I knew this was the final chance, and now we were only a couple of half chances away from calling it a night.

So this was it. Another defeat on foreign ground. Surely nothing to cheer about. Someone will claim that Immel is our best keeper. He sure pulled off one great save in the first half, but often seems unable to get off the line to collect crosses. I know this is what Coton had problems with too, but I'll be sorry to see the back of him without giving him another shot. Our full backs are a laughing stock. Perhaps Edghill and Brightwell are better, but Ingram was by no means a Premiership player this afternoon. All the time he let dangerous crosses go by, and when attacking he looked helpless and clumsy. Summerbee is wasted as a right back. Often we had possession in central midfield, but nobody to play to at the right flank. IMHO Summerbee could (and should) go forward even when he's playing in the back-four. The midfield was non-supportive, and never on the ball when Quinn won in the air. And here's my big question. Why are we playing Quinn when there's no-one there to pick up his work. The guy was simply brilliant. Never lost a ball. Chested and nodded it down all the time, only to find three spurs defenders chasing the ball, and the blue shirts gone fishing. Is it only me who believes that if we push up our midfield more we'll get loads of opportunities. At least Rösler and Geo got their chances from Quinn! He is our best weapon at the moment, no question about that. But when Rösler has to make the cross, and the midfield is sweeping inside the circle, we'll soon end up with a record of 20 matches without scoring goals. This afternoon City didn't play any worse than spurs, it's just what happens when we don't score goals, and they do.

I havn't lost my hopes of staying up. There have to be three teams worse than ours in the Premiership. But forget the cup this season. If we win the FA-cup I'll eat this report with some french-fries and Coke!!

JAN 17 (FAC3) MANCHESTER CITY - LEICESTER 5-0 (2-0)

Report by: Ashley Birch

I was really looking forward to this game yet somehow pessimistic about our performance considering our continuing deep-lying midfield. The team news was that Ekelund was on the bench and Brown was on the field whilst Ball stuck with Ingram.

City started off in fine style with several menacing attacks, the best being a through ball from Kinky which set Flipper up with just the goalie to beat, disappointingly he shot rather weakly and it was no problem for Poole. Summerbee was already getting the measure of Joachim in his customary rightback/rightwing role. A foul out on the right led to a freekick with Buzzer stepping over the ball and Kinky leftfooting a curling cross into the area which was powered home in by Uwe. Leicester were playing a neat passing game but never seemed to get to grips in the last third of the pitch (sound familiar?). Another fine chance was taken by Rösler who's shot was saved brilliantly by Poole. He brought off another stupendous save to deny a Quinn header from pointblank rang a few minutes later. The second goal came courtesy of Kinkladze who got the ball deep in our half, accelerated past two challenges and headed straight for the box (it was a long way!). He had a simple layoff to an unmarked Quinn on the left but chose to shoot, almost tamely past Poole, a really fantastic goal, worth the 14 quid alone!

City never seemed to really fire on all cylinders but even so, Leicester never looked like scoring. The Blues started off the second half with a few more attacks which culminated in a Lomas shot which was turned by Flipper, saved by Poole and put in by Quinn. Number four came shortly afterwards and virtually killed the game dead, after an exhibition of keep-ball/dribbling, Kinky laid off to an unmarked Lomas who changed feet and belted the ball (left peg) from 20 yards beyond the goalie. Flipper was substituted by Ekelund and an injured-looking Quinn by Creaney. What could the new Rösler/Creaney parternship do in the remaining minutes...score was the answer. Creaney ran onto a through ball again from Kinky (appeals for offside), turned sharply and rifled a shot into the top corner. Leicester didn't give up but failed to trouble Immel until the last 5 minutes.

City switched off after this and Leicester had a couple of good chances which were excellently saved, the first much to the amusement of the Kippax as the guilty party was Robins.

All in all, this was a very encouraging performance, City played with Kinky in behind the front two for several periods in this game and we scored 5 and had another 4 clear chances.

Performances

Immel      7 Two excellent saves but not much to do really.
Buzzer     8 Excellent defending, Joachim was played out of the game and
             attacked menacingly.
Ingram     6 Safety first, kicking into touch and did reasonably well
             covered by Brown considering that Leicester consistently
             attacked down City's left.
Symons     7 Some key intercepts, solid play.
Curle      7 Good all round performance though he still loves to give the
             ball to the opposition after doing all the hard work.
Lomas      7 Hard work and a great shot.
Kinky      9 Wonderful goal, looked imperious at times and entertained the
             crowd in the second half with a nice display of 'keep-it-up'.
Flipper    7 Scrappy at first but came together later with some nice
             passing. Booked for retaliating after a foot left in by a
             Leicester defender.
Brown      7 Great covering and tackling but needs to have the confidence
             to go forward and not sideways.
Rösler     7 Looked sharper, scored one and one disallowed.
Quinn      7 Usual standard!
Ekelund    6 Not really on long enough to make his mark
Creaney    7 On for even less (12 mins) but made his mark alright, a very
             nice finish.

Final Score 5-0

JAN 20 MANCHESTER CITY - COVENTRY 1-1 (0-0)

Action shots: Geo shot, Shirtless and Buster by Eric Graham.

Report by: Ken Foster

I had to work Saturday morning and so left for the match a little later than usual. The GMR phone in started earlier to discuss the Coton/Clough moves and so we were entertained by City talk all the way to the ground. The consensus amongst most of the callers was that Coton had decided to move so that he could keep the Swamp bench warm instead of ours (serious error of judgement, Tony!). I don't think there is much to choose between Immel and Coton but I think if a little patience had been shown it would only have been a matter of time before Immel's kicking gave a goal away and TC would have been back in the team. C'est la vie.

There was no sign of our 'Nige' at the game, so I assume he was sorting out his affairs at Liverpool. AB did say that after himself and Franny had taken 3 hours to persuade him to come to City he eventually signed and it was agreed that he would report for training on Monday. The likely place for Clough to slot in will be behind the front two with Brown stepping down. This may leave us a bit short of bite in a defensive midfield situation.

Phillips was back on the bench after being mysteriously left out for the Tottenham game. Perhaps because of the extreme cold, Gordon Strachan spent the whole match jogging up and down the touchline shouting instructions. Judging by the way his team were playing I can only assume he was shouting things like "Get behind the ball!" and "Stick close to Kinky". City did carve out some chances in the first half but Niall missed two sitters and Flipper's banana shot didn't even reach either dead ball line. At the other end Eike was seldom troubled. Steve Lomas seemed to injure his back just before half time and the interval saw him out on the pitch with Roy Bailey trying to run it off.

Lomas lasted about 5 minutes of the 2nd half before being replaced by Phillips. This gave us a fresh impetus and from the second of his runs he was tackled at the byline. The resulting throw saw Niall juggle with it on the edge of the box before executing an overhead kick for Uwe to head past the impressive Ogrisovic. Uwe's desire to reveal his physique at every opportunity even included the removal of the black T-shirt normally resident after such high spirits. It took him an age to re-apparel himself but the ref. didn't seem to mind. Niall missed a good chance to put us two up and then against the run of play Coventry scored. A cross in from the left saw Brightwell jumping with Dublin. A good header saw Eike leaping to his left and he just failed to get a hand to it. A couple of people near me reckoned Eike should have come out for the cross but I'm not sure. Ashley probably sits in the best vantage point to make an opinion on this. City still came forward and we had some more chances to take all 3 points. Brightwell hit a rasper for Ogrisovic to tip over. Niall had a header saved and Phillips hit one over the bar.

The general feeling leaving the stadium was one of disappointment but although we didn't get the win I thought we created enough chances to have won comfortably. Jimmy Wagg on GMR watched the game on his BBC monitor and thought City were awful. Believe me Jimmy, this was a vast improvement on the West Ham game.

Phillips is a great prospect. My only reservation is that I haven't seen him use his right foot once yet. Once when he drifted into the centre he was given a pass which was asking to be thumped with his right foot. He adjusted to get it on his left and the chance was gone.

Ratings:

Immel      6
Brightwell 6
Summerbee  6
Symons     7
Curle      7
Lomas      6
Kinkladze  6
Flitcroft  6
Brown      6
Quinn      6
Rösler     7
Phillips   7

I think City are ready for a bigger test at home. The players know they are edging nearer to becoming a better side but it will take a win against quality opposition to prove it.

JAN 31 SOUTHAMPTON - MANCHESTER CITY 1-1 (0-0)

Report by: Tim Starns

My gut reaction after the game was that we deserved the draw, even if we didn't look like scoring.

When you have a 6ft4 striker in the team then it makes sense to throw in a few crosses. Our formation had Lomas seemingly playing in right midfield with Sumerbee at right back? Wouldn't it make a touch more sense to swap these players around? Lomas did his best, but he's not really a great crosser.

The best part of our play was when we broke down an attack and played our way out from the back with neat passes, it looked great, enabled us to get men forward, all this when we under pressure. But take the pressure away, say from a short goal kick, it was one or two passes and then a hoof up towards Quinn and Rösler. It used to work well with Quinn and White. Big Niall would flick it on and White would gamble on this and pounce. But these days the strikers try to bring the ball down using their chests and look for a pass. Last night Southampton were playing pretty deep, with Ken Monkou totally outstanding, Uwe and Niall were under real pressure every time a ball came towards them, a few fouls went against Niall a few balls were snapped up by hungry Saints defenders it just didn't seem to be working. In marked contrast everytime Saints won possession they'd hoof the ball up towards the halfway line. There was only Watson there, but amazingly he reached nearly every one of these clearences and brought the ball down with a great first touch.

Clough seemed to slot in well. He was in midfield somewere, everywhere. I'd fancy my chances against him in the air though, he doesn't seem a natural battler, but he did get stuck in and got a yellow card!

Frontzeck played well, I was impressed on how well he jelled in at the back, the off-side trap worked well. He was sporting a Richard Edgehill hair cut. He looked confident on the ball, but didn't try anything fancy, just steady...he was yellow carded too (I think) and Brightwell came bouncing on to replace him.

Outstanding skill. Kinkladze just got a toe to a ball about midway in the City half. Big Ken Monkou, on the top of his form, was waiting. Monkou read each of Geo's moves and blocked him easily, Ken must have thought he was going to rob the Georgian, when literally Kinky danced round him and legged it up the wing!! Amazing, I don't know how the hell he did it. Saints must have been under orders not to dive in on Geo, they stood off him allowing him to pass but not run, but his passes didn't look as dangerous as Le Tissier's. When Phillips came on he launched straight into a Cruyff turn, but the ball squirmed over the line for a Saints throw.

Saints goal was a sickener. A hopefull ball from Le Tis, a good touch by Shipperly and a low shot to Immel's bottom right hand corner, it looked like the bounce beat him. 1-0. A shame really as Immel had been playing very well. I couldn't see how we'd get back into the game, Ball (football Genius) took off Quinn and brought on Phillips, which didn't seem to make much sense at the time. A City corner. No one seemed to want to take. Then Kinkladze reluctantly ran over to the left to take it. Flipper came short and Geo knocked it to him and continued his run to make an angle everyone waited for Flipper to knock a simple ball to the unmarked Gerogian, but instead he turned inside and knocked across the best ball of the game....but no Quinn to nod it home. That was a great corner, it was a shame about the rest!! The City goal was a bit of a scrambled effort. Clough looked to have a good chance but a last-ditched sprawl by a defender blocked his way, the ball rolled across nicely for the unmarked Rösler to stab the ball home with the keeper no where and the defenders just staring at each other. 1-1 with 6 minutes to go.

Uwe Uwe Rösler!! -I thought Rösler had looked sharp all evening and was playing well. He tries so hard-he reminds me of Alan Shearer in that respect. He had the added bonus of responsibility to track back and cover Jason Dodd when he went forward! A sort of left midfield - striker role!!

The final whistle blew. I think we'd have taken them apart at Maine Road, I was disappointed with how deep they played. As for City? Well if we're going to play with Quinn up front then we need to change our formation and play creative wide men. Summerbee and Beagrie? More likely though Quinn will be replaced by a faster striker who can take players on.

Curle was my man of the match, he hustled well and played intellegent short passes. Symons was great too, really fast..even when they tried to spring the offside trap he had the pace to stop them.

Final score 1-1