MAY 5 MANCHESTER CITY - LIVERPOOL 2-2 (0-2)

Report by: Ashley Birch

This game just about summed up the salient features of our season: a bagful of chances missed; some woeful defending; and two bad refereeing decisions, one of them appalling.

After a few jars in the Old Abbey with a few other MCIVTAers, we approached the ground in somewhat apprehensive mood and were amazed by the noise emanating from the stadium. The atmosphere was without doubt the best that I've heard at Maine Rd for a very long time, though some of you may just like to point out that I haven't exactly been everpresent in the last decade!

The apprehensive part of this occasion was the thought of a minute's silence for Peter Swales, would it be kept or would some drunken dickhead give the press a good headline. In the event, the only noise came from people outside the ground still trying to get in and one single drunken idiot who thought they should shut up! It lasted 40 secs which seems to be just about the going rate for a minute's silence these days!

City started off attacking Liverpool who immediately slotted into 'end of season' lethargy mode. They only looked animated when defending and seemed content to pass it around without ever really looking like they were interested. The whole match went badly wrong after 7 mins when McManaman (I think) was allowed to cut inside and dribble a week cross through the box, no one seemed interested except the unfortunate Lomas who managed to steer the ball past Immel! 'Just our luck' I thought but we can still do it; we attacked and made several chances, Niall had two excellent efforts thwarted, one a strong header off the bar and the other when he chipped James only for it to just catch the goalie's body and scrape the bar. We certainly made some chances but were guilty of letting James come for too many floated crosses, though he did drop three in the game!

Our big break came when Summerbee was clearly fouled 2 yards inside the area, the ref blew, 'penalty' we thought. Amazingly, he pointed to a spot one yard outside the area, an utterly atrocious decision. Half the City team remonstrated with the linesman who steadfastly refused to intervene. I was right above this and it was not just inside the area but unequivocally inside. The linesman later showed us what a consistent performer he was by giving several curious offside decisions, one when Keith Curle asked him to, and the other when Fowler and Rush were 5 yards adrift and he only started waving after the referee had blown up!

City tried hard with Quinn in particular being given a lot of stick by Wright and Ruddock, both of whom escaped punishment. The nightmare was complete just before halftime when the inevitable happened; with City pushing up so much, Liverpool broke and just when it seemed they had lost their chance, Rush blasted home from the edge of the box.

The second half opened with City dominating and after one minute James pulled off another excellent save when Rösler cut inside and blasted the ball towards the top corner. The Liverpool defence was frequently in disarray but the ball just didn't seem to fall for us, there were numerous occasions when it seemed to bounce up anywhere but to a blue shirt.

A second incident which might have turned the match occurred when Fowler and Symons were tussling for the ball; there was some shoving and exchange of words when suddenly Fowler smacked Kit squarely in the mouth! This was clearly seen by all and sundry but apparently not by the ref or the linesman!

We definitely needed a change but not the one which was made, off came Big Niall for a wing man, Phillips. This was met by a chorus of boos followed by a chorus of the Niall Quinn song. The game was kept alive by that man Kinkladze when he decided to do it himself, he ran past 4 Liverpool defenders before being body-checked by a fifth. In my opinion it was a bit of a soft decision. Thankfully, Curle stayed away and Uwe rifled it into the net.

Five minutes later we were level when the ball was crossed through a ruck of players who all seemed to miss except for Symons who volleyed home at the far post. Another penalty decision was turned down when Wright looked to have handballed a cross. He later went right through the back of Gio; people nearer this incident than me claimed it was a truly awful foul, needless to say the referee didn't even blow his whistle!

We had another good few chances but it just wasn't going our way; the final whistle seemed to go almost without us noticing it. We all stayed behind hoping but really knowing that the other results had gone against us. Unbelievably, a few hundred scousers had stayed behind and when the news of our relegation came through, they clapped and cheered! What induces these so-called fans to go to an away ground and laugh when the home team is relegated; it was certainly an incitement to riot and they were lucky that nothing more happened then a few bottles thrown at their coaches (I think!).

The lads came out onto the pitch and we gave them our thanks, they've battled hard from an almost impossible start and almost brought it off. It was good to see the MEN today with a poignant (and yet hopeful for us) picture of Kinky, head in heads, crying as he came off the pitch. If this is how he feels about losing in a Blue shirt than I don't think he'll be leaving the club.

Performances:

Immel        8 Made a couple of excellent saves though Liverpool should
               really have scored again but for woeful finishing.
Summerbee    4 Dismal performance, he looked totally incapable of beating
               his man.
Brown        7 Ran hard and was completely knackered with 20 mins to go,
               left wingback is not his position though and he's wasted there.
Brightwell   7 Ran his heart out but does not have sufficient quality to
               make it count.
Symons       9 Excellent game, Fowler looked totally average, took his
               fist on the chin like a man, no retaliation!
Curle        6 Very possibly his last game for City, some awful distribution
               as usual.
Lomas        8 Guess who's going to be captain next year? He directed our
               midfield and led from the front. Got booked for a crunching
               tackle which was, let's face it, what was needed to let the
               scousers know that they were not going to get away with an
               exhibition match.
Gio          7 A couple of good runs which just needed a goal, he was
               gutted at the end.
Clough       4 Totally anonymous, should have been substituted earlier.
Rösler       7 A couple of good efforts but doesn't look comfortable the
               way we now play.
Quinn        7 Was fouled constantly on the pitch and was undesrvedley
               substituted.
Phillips     6 Looked skillful but hardly ever beat his man.
Kavelashvili 7 Looked sharp and had a good effort just wide.

Ref          5 Two very bad decisions, compounded by a linesman who
               appeared to miss both despite being only 20 yards away!