MATCH REPORTS 1999/2000

SEP 11 MANCHESTER CITY - CRYSTAL PALACE 2-1 (1-1)

Report by: Phil Hartley

Joe Royle said that this fixture was potentially the most dangerous game so far, coming as it did after 3 successive league wins and also because of added spice of the return of Coppell and Bradbury. And so it proved... There were a few 'stand up if you hate Coppell' chants, but nothing particularly vitriolic. If as seems to be the opinion nowadays, that he left due to quickly finding that Franny's promises about support and funding were er, shall we say 'exaggerated', he did the right thing in leaving before trying to do an impossible (in his mind) task, failing and making our situation worse. Bradbury got an OK reception during the kick about before kick-off. It was obvious that he desperatly wanted to receive a good reaction as he clapped the Kippax immediatly after his name was annouinced and after receiving probably a smidgen more applause than boos! I still feel sorry for Bradbury, even in this day and age £3.5 million was at least £3 million more than he was worth. He desperately wanted to do well for us, but simply could not live up to the price tag and in retrospect, from his own viewpoint, he should have spent a few more years at Portsmouth, gaining experience and finding his level before possibly moving on. This game for Bradbury was quite similar to many of his games for us. He certainly worked hard, showed one or two flashes of quality and indeed made their goal. But he never looked like scoring.

City retained the same starting lineup as against Forest. However whether it was the international break or Palace's pressing, although dominating we never scaled the heights of the first half against Forest. Dickov in particular was disappointing, spending more time moaning about not being given decisions than playing. In fact, on at least two occasions he was so busy complaining that he missed opportunities to get involved in an attacking move. I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt on this occasion (he was subbed minutes into the second half, obviously having been carrying an injury), but this is not the Paul Dickov we want to see. Less moaning, more scoring please Paul!

Kennedy was again instrumental in most of our good moves, making several excellent crosses. Jobson, Goater and Cooke probably had our best chances in the early stages. Although not a chance as such, Goater showed an amazing change of direction and pace and was blocked off by a Palace defender who was rightly booked. Goater would have been clear on goal and would surely have scored. Shaun's confidence seems to be growing with every game and is looking to be a decent striker in this Division, long may it continue.

Palace were suprisingly quite attack minded, with Simon Rodger (remember him?) regularly joining Bradbury and Morrison in going forward. Although they didn't cause us any real problems in open play, they certainly put us under more pressure than we have experienced in any other game at home this season. Palace's set pieces were dangerous and if they were to score, this was their best option. And score they did on the 39th minute with 2 Palace players completely unmarked at the far post following a corner which Bradbury hooked on. Weaver was absolutely livid with his defence, the 'successive clean sheet' record now having gone for at least another 7 games!

Someone will know how many times in the last couple of seasons (Wembley apart of course) we have come back to win from being a goal down, it's certainly not often. Today we bounced back 3 minutes later when Jobson planted a superb bullet header past Digby form a Kennedy corner. It was noticable that Weaver sprinted to the centre circle to congratulate the scorer. Was it Jobson who Weaver blamed for the Palace goal?! Taylor came on for Dickov very early in the second half, with Bishop replacing a disappointed looking Tiatto shortly thereafter. Taylor scored with a neat turn and shot, following a terrific header from Horlock which crashed against then post. Taylor takes a lot of stick , but that's now 3 goals from the bench which 'ain't a bad return. If he does nothing except score the winner in every game, he'll do for me! We had a return to the 'last 5 minutes City' days gone by, where we sat back and invited Palace to attack us. Crooks replaced Cooke in an obvious 'we hold what we have' move. Palace did hit the post and Bishop cleared off the line. We didn't look as assured as we have become accustomed but we held on and gained 3 very valuable points. Royle is right, this game did indeed have all the hallmarks of a 'typical' City loss. Three straight wins, struggling team, playing at home in front of a bumper and expectant crowd, concede a crap goal. But we stuck at it and came through, hopefully banishing yet another ghost from the Maine Road closet. We didn't play well, but we won. And as all the pundits say that's the sign of a good team. The table doesn't lie, its early days but currently at least, we certainly ARE a good team.

SEP 15 (WLC2/L1) MANCHESTER CITY - SOUTHAMPTON 0-0 (0-0)

Report by: Euan Bayliss

This game promised to be interesting - City playing a real Premier League team for the first time this season, and a chance to see for real how we have improved, and perhaps an early chance to see how we would cope in the Premier with the current side.

A couple of changes were forced, and the side started thus:

                Weaver
Edghill     Jobson Morrison    Tiatto
Cooke      Whitley Horlock    Kennedy
            Taylor Goater

Subs: McKinney, Crooks, Bishop, Allsopp, Wright-Phillips

The game started off worryingly, with Southampton having much of the play. It seemed like City would have a torrid time, and Marian Pahars was looking very threatening...

He had a chance early on, which saw the ball dip and hit the corner of the goalposts. In general, though, the defence was coping admirably, although we were definitely having problems at the other end.

The first big blow was losing Andy Morrison with what could be a hamstring injury. In his place came Lee Crooks, with Richard Edghill moving into central defence.

Just before half time another change was made, with Taylor coming off to be replaced by Danny Allsopp. Shortly into the second half, Ian Bishop came on to replace Terry Cooke, in what looked like a tactical switch to try to control midfield better. This seemed to spur City on, who were able to push forward much more and Kennedy, in particular, started to cause the Southampton defence lots of trouble. He got a couple of excellent crosses in, sadly no-one was there to take advantage.

At the other end, Nicky Weaver made a couple of excellent saves, although one attempt too many to dribble the ball round an opposition attacker led to a yellow card as he was judged to have fouled a forward. I didn't see this incident so can't really comment, but I hope he has learnt something from it!

Towards the end of the second half, we could quite easily have snatched a win - Shaun Goater missed a couple of good chances, Kennedy also came close on a couple of occasions.

All in all, the result was probably fair. City really do need a proven goalscorer while Allsopp etc. learns the ropes. Shaun Goater tries very hard, but we can't rely on him to take us up.

By the way, I got a look at the Sun's review. Did the Sun reporter spent the second half in the bar? I can only guess that he did given his description of City as 'lucky' and as having been saved by Nicky Weaver!

Performances:

Weaver     7  Made three excellent saves, only failing was
              the incident that led to his booking.

Edghill    7  Would have been 8 if his distribution had been
              better. An excellent defending display, some
              superb tackling.
Jobson     6  Not as accomplished as against Crystal Palace,
              but competent nevertheless.
Morrison   7  Solid and commanding, some great passes, but why
              always down the left towards Kennedy? I believe
              we have a half decent right winger called Terry
              Cooke!
Tiatto     6  Some excellent runs, still some misunderstanding
              with Mark Kennedy, the odd wayward pass.
Cooke      7  Is getting back into form. Some good running,
              but why does Morrison not put the ball his way?
Whitley    7  Ran like mad. Some great tackling, distribution
              needs a little work.
Horlock    5  Largely anonymous. I would consider bringing in
              Michael Brown for a game or two...
Kennedy    6  Quiet start, came more and more into the game
              later on. A couple of shots - is he getting a bit
              impatient with the rest missing chances?
Taylor     2  Pick any aspect of the game, passing, control,
              striking, and you'd be pushed to find anything
              good to say. Apparently has a back injury.
              If anyone needs to be sent on loan to a lower
              division side, it's Gareth Taylor.
Goater     6  Worked hard, some good flashes of control.
              Needs to take a higher proportion of chances
              to make it in the 1st division, let along the
              Premier league.

Subs:
Crooks     5  Anonymous. Lost his way a bit when Cooke went
              off, as all the play seemed to go down the left.
Allsopp    6  Has some way to go, shows a desire to do well,
              and moves well off the ball.
Bishop     6  Not as accomplished as of late. Brought a balance
              to midfield though.

SEP 18 WALSALL - MANCHESTER CITY 0-1 (0-1)

Report by: Walter Smith

Oh yes, top of the league, and loving every minute of it. I was reading in a newspaper that makes it now 15 games on the run away from home that we have not lost, stretching back to last December. Well I missed the first 10 minutes of this game, for one reason and another, so what happened then, you will have to read elsewhere. From the 10 minute mark until the final whistle we dominated. We dominated the game, the way we did against Sheffield United, but we only won 1-0. My theory of my lucky yellow iluminous hat bit the dust, as I forgot it, but we still won. Oh well, I'll carry on wearing it now, as I've become rather attached to it.

Goater had a chance before his goal but struck the ball too near the keeper, Tiatto for me had another nightmare, maybe I'm just looking for faults when I see him play, but he really is dreadful, I can't wait for Granville to get back in the team, he looks so much better, he doesn't get caught out of position and looks comfortable on the ball. Anyway that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. City had the better of the first half; we looked good throughout the team (except you know who & Dickov). He goes to ground too easily and reminds me of a spoilt child (or a United player) in the extraordinary amount of whinging to referees he does.

Walsall's best effort of the first half came because our friend Danny Tiatto got caught on the ball, and let their man through on goal, it lead to Wiekins having to wrestle the Walsall man to the ground, luckily Jobson had made his way back to cover the man, meaning that Wiekins only saw yellow, instead of red.

Edghill had a decent shot which went very close, leaving their keeper with no chance. Man of the match Bishop, hit the post with a decent shot and also had an effort on goal after beating 3 Walsall players in the space of couple of feet. He looks the absolute business, and how I wish he was a few years younger.

The second half kicked off and how City didn't score I will never know, we had 3 or 4 scrambles in their six-yard box, the ball was flying around like a bee on drugs, going everywhere except the back of the Walsall onion bag. Their goalkeeper must have made a satanic pact with Lucifer himself at half time, while we all munched on our pies. The ball was just refusing to go in, the space between the posts may as well have been double-glazed.

Dickov made a decent run into the penalty area, and found himself with only the goalkeeper to beat, but not a word of a lie he looked scared (maybe it was the red of the goalies eyes). Dickov had a very poor game, I feel he maybe not up to the task of first division football, so far this season I can't recall a good game he's had. I would like to see Allsopp give an extended run in the team. Goater seems to be improving as a player, his heading and shielding of the ball, has in my opinion improved greatly. (Dickov take note).

With so much domination, you just had the feeling, that Walsall may sneak one. Fortunately their one chance shaved the cross bar, and we are top of the league. We do need to ask ourselves why after dominating for so long of this game, did it only end up one-nil, the answers are there if you look for them.

On a completely different note, why was their a group of Rangers fans in the City end singing songs about sectarian matters, whilst holding a Rangers flag aloft? I find them very offensive and may buy a Partick Thistle or Celtic top, to wear to away games. I wonder how Kennedy feels seeing this, I know that if I never see them again, I for one won't miss them. City are nothing to do with bigotry, I for one don't like seeing UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) tops at games, (Everton pre-season friendly). Am I being out of order for feeling this way?

SEP 21 (WLC2/L2) SOUTHAMPTON - MANCHESTER CITY 4-3 (2-1) AET

Report by: Chris Jones

I went down from Reading for this thanks to a Southampton friend who had got a ticket for me. We were in the Southampton end (diagonally opposite the blue corner), and my hopes were high given our newly found top-of-the-table status.

City started brightly. We were the better team during the first ten minutes. Bishop cut out a loose ball from Sparky, played a good pass up to Dickov who controlled well and hit a good shot, well stopped by Jones. Shortly after Kennedy put in a good cross and Dickov had so much space he was lonely. 1-0 after 8 minutes. He certainly looked lively to start with and deserved his goal.

Chants of "1-0 in your cup final" from the other end of the ground drowned "When the Saints go marching in", and things were looking up. Maybe a cup upset was on the cards.

It didn't last long. Southampton started to get a few attacks and were awarded a penalty on 15 minutes. Weaver went the right way, but it was right in the corner. After this it swung against us for a while. Faced with a one-on-one, Weaver made a good reflex save, and the follow up was cleared off the line. Shortly after this another 6-yard box frenzy resulted in lots of Southampton cheering at our end as everyone assumed the ball had gone in, although we really couldn't tell from that far away. Anyway it got cleared and no goal was given, but Sparky was upset enough to get booked for dissent.

The City attacks were still coming, with Bishop looking OK in the middle and almost always looking for Kennedy down the left. Goater held the ball up well a few times but never really had a look at goal. Dickov was working hard, but got little change from Dean who was almost twice his size and looked like a quality defender (but got completely lost when he tried to take the ball past the half way line). Then a shot from just outside the area from Oakley caught the City defence by surprise and we were 2-1 down.

After half time we were still on the back foot for a while. We had a fair amount of possession, but never threatened the goal. We also looked a bit shaky at the back, and I really wasn't surprised when Oakley sneaked in again for Southampton's third.

Coming into the last twenty minutes and we picked up the pace. Southampton sat back to defend their lead. 9 out of 10 Premiership teams could defend a two goal lead against non-premiership opposition, but Southampton are not 9 out of 10 Premiership teams. City streamed forward with almost all the pressure coming from Tiatto linking well with Kennedy down the left, or Bishop in the middle. We forced a couple of good saves from Jones: one from a long range effort which he saw late and did well to parry, and another when Goater was clean through and really should have finished better.

Eventually the pressure paid off. A loose, bouncing, ball on the edge of the area was fired in. I didn't see who by, but he did well to keep it low and on target. Jones again saved well, but Goater was on hand to follow in and give us a lifeline. All the while I could hear the blues singing in the opposite corner, prompting my Southampton friend to say (of the City fans) "My God, don't they ever stop singing?"

Shortly after this another goal-mouth scramble and Goater picked up his second and extra time loomed. But the Saints had other ideas. After being asleep for twenty minutes they decided to finish strongly. Boa Morte and Le Tissier came on, one of whom was up for it and looked dangerous, and one of whom was Matt Le Tissier. He really is a fat waster - at 3 all in a cup tie he didn't look the slightest bit interested and did nothing for the rest of the game.

A couple of major incidents marked the final minutes. First we got caught in possession trying to play the ball out from the back, and Weaver was called on to produce a fine save. Then Mark Hughes was judged to have fouled Edghill. After consulting the linesman, the ref was told that Hughes had used his elbow and so out came the card. This was Sparky's second, and so off he went. He certainly was not happy. Having seen a replay this morning I reckon that there was no intent in the foul, but tough! If you lead with your elbow, you can expect to get into trouble. Especially if you've already been booked. Almost straight away, Southampton scored and the fans went mad, but the same linesman was there with his flag for off side. I breathed a sigh of relief, and 10,000 Southampton fans vented their anger on that one man.

Then the whistle went and we were into extra time. I saw Edghill stretchered off, but couldn't tell what was wrong. Presumably he was concussed from Mark Hughes's elbow? He'd finished full time OK, but maybe had a delayed reaction. Almost immediately Southampton scored. With 29 minutes to go I was still quietly confident that the game was far from over.

Allsopp came on for Dickov (who took a slight knock I think), and then Cooke for Tiatto. To start with Cooke got very little of the ball, despite putting in a decent cross with almost his first touch. Bishop seemed much more keen to play down the left to Kennedy than to give Cooke a go. Have the team lost confidence in him? If so then he went quite a way to restoring it. He was certainly our best player for the final 15 minutes. With a mixture of crosses and runs at the defence he looked quite a handful. Once he slipped between two defenders on the edge of the area, but could only fire just wide. If only he'd been a yard slower then he might have been brought down.

Anyway, sometimes things just aren't meant to be, and 10:30 came and we were out of the cup. However, a few sloppy defensive moments aside, we looked like we were competing on a fairly even basis with Southampton who looked better to me than in previous years. We showed quite a lot of spark to come back from 3-1 and overall were not disgraced.

Here's hoping for better in the FA Cup,

SEP 26 IPSWICH - MANCHESTER CITY 2-1 (1-0)

Report by: Sharon Hargreaves

This game always promised to be a tough one.Ipswich were unlucky not to be promoted last year, going out in the play-offs to an inferior Bolton team on the away goals, and had started extremely well this year. Our record at Portman Road is also frankly awful so I wasn't expecting too much - had gone for 1-1 in the predictions league as I couldn't see our defence of Wiekens and Morrison letting many in. Hmm, there was the first problem then, as contrary to our expectations the Mighty Mozza wasn't playing so Grandad Jobson was in his place. The rest of the team was pretty much as expected, with Weaver, Crooks, Tiatto, Wiekens, the youthfully-challenged Jobson, Horlock (who was captain for the day in the absence of Mozza and Edghill), Whitley (will opposing team announcers EVER pronounce his name correctly?), the equally youthfully-challenged but sporting a fine head of hair Bishop, Kennedy, Dickov and Goater. Granville and Cooke were amongst the subs - I didn't hear who the others were apart from McKinney the goalie as I was concentrating on finishing off my cornish pastie at the time. Very nice it was too. Ipswich had David Johnson up front, complete with the magic scoring boots that he'd mislaid the previous season, and had Gary Croft making his debut. I sat there musing on the number of players who score on their debut - Mighty Mozza of course included - so you can blame the subsequent events on me as it was obviously my fault.

The game started at an absolutely furious pace as neither side were conceding anything in midfield. Ipswich did look more dangerous though, and assisted by some interesting refereeing decisions had the better chances. It reminded me for long stretches of the Sunday park football games when there are no linesmen - you know the sort, when the ref tells everyone at the start of the game that he isn't going to play offside today? Most refs would give a free kick when the linesman (approximate distance from event 30cm) flags, but from 30 yards away his vision must have been better. The best possible explanation I can come up with is that he was trying to get the record for the longest consecutive time played in a game without blowing his whistle. It wasn't just that he was biased, but he was missing blatant shoves from both sides and waved play on after a lovely little trip by Wiekens on Johnson as if he'd seen nothing.

There was a fascinating battle going on between Wiekens and Johnson throughout the first half and for most of it Wiekens won. The man is a class player, Johnson's extremely dangerous with the ball and when running off the ball but Wiekens covered him extremely well. Ipswich were more or less restricted to shots from outside the area, but don't let that fool anyone - Johnson can kick the ball considerably harder than Goater or Dickov and Weaver had to produce a storming save to push one looping shot around the post. Still, although they had the better chances we had more of the possession and didn't look like conceding a goal. Bishop had a good chance from long range that almost hit the scoreboard on top of the stand (oops), then Goater shot just wide with Richard Wright beaten. Speaking of Richard Wright, he may be an extremely good 'keeper and all that, but on the looks front he's no match for our young Nicky... Kennedy didn't look too interested in what was going on for most of the half - for some reason he was playing on the right so every time he got the ball he had to stop and swap it onto his other foot which was probably as frustrating to him as it was to us. As we hadn't really looked like conceding all half it was only typical when we did. Our defence almost seemed to stand and watch as Johnson headed the ball goalwards, and the strength of the shot was such that although Weaver got his fingertips to it he couldn't keep it out. How come Johnson can head the ball with more strength than half our team can kick it? Ah, I'm only jealous - and he's not as good a header of the ball as the Mighty Mozza anyway. No-one is. And even if anyone was they wouldn't disagree with him. There you go Andy, you head that one away 'cos I don't want you to knock me out.

So half time, City were undeservedly 1-0 down and the ref was booed off the pitch. He was booed back on the pitch too, which was nice - it's always good to see a bit of consistency, as Frank Clark always used to mumble.

Kennedy moved back over the left wing in the second half which was a relief, and immediately looked more dangerous. Croft had a torrid time down that side as Kennedy beat him time and time again. Although Ipswich started the second half at as fast a pace as the first one, it wasn't long before the equaliser came, and what a goal it was too. Kennedy played a lovely ball who Dickov who sprinted down the left then provided a perfect cross into the area. Goater (who had another good game and I don't care what his detractors say, try noticing when he does something good as opposed to just slagging him off when something doesn't quite come off) met the cross perfectly and BANG it was 1-1. Could we defend for 35 minutes? Er, well, nearly. Kennedy was making some excellent runs down the left, and with Bishop's superb measured passing from midfield we were looking the better team. It was therefore even crueller than the first goal when Ipswich scored their second. A weak shot by Croft from the edge of area took a wicked deflection off Grandad, oops sorry Jobson, and Weaver had no chance.

Tiatto was struggling by this time, having pulled something when making a (very good) tackle. Everyone else in the ground could see it, so why did it take so long for Joe to notice? We all assumed he'd bring Granville on for Tiatto for the last 20 minutes, but instead he dawdled around for ages before swapping Bishop for Cooke instead. After that we lost control of the midfield, the only chances we were getting were hopeful long punts upfield for Goater and Dickov to chase. Eventually Tiatto was taken off for Granville, who promptly gave the ball away in dangerous positions three times on the trot. Still, fear not, Wiekens the superhero and Crooks the vastly under-rated were there with their superhero powers to instantly mop up any danger. That was about it really, Granville (once he started passing to the right team) and Kennedy linked up well down the left for the last ten minutes and Cooke put a couple of crosses in from the right but we didn't really look like scoring. Goater had a goal disallowed for a foul on Wright which was probably fair enough, refs do take exception to gangly forwards clumsily knocking goalies over then kicking the ball in the net.

So, OK, we lost this but I think we should get things in perspective. On the corresponding weekend last year we drew away at Northampton courtesy of a very late, very lucky equaliser, in one of the worst performances I've ever seen from a City side. In the last two games we've played extremely well against a Premiership side (and OK they may have been "only Southampton" but the same time got a point at the Swamp on Saturday) and we've more than matched the promotion favourites. In fact, I'd hazard to say that the result would have been different if the Mighty Mozza had been playing as his aerial presence was about all we missed in defence on Sunday. Ipswich are the best team in that division, they play good attractive football and should be a certainty for automatic promotion this year. If we carry on playing like we are at the moment we'll be going up with them. It's more important that we win at Carrow Road on Tuesday, if for no other reason that I've been there seven times now and I still haven't seen a goal so it's about time!

SEP 28 NORWICH - MANCHESTER CITY 1-0 (1-0)

Report by: Peter Carey

Bugg*ry, bugg*ry, boll*cks

I spent the match as a cuckoo in the Canaries "nest" and got some interesting insights on what they thought of City (without them knowing that I was a "blue"). Friendly anoraks provided me with useful information at half-time after seeing the goal in the bar (more of that later). The best quote was "classy side but they need too much time on the ball - not sharp enough" in broad Naarich of course. This summed it up. City were hassled and hussled off the ball by the Canaries who even the fans thought were in for a stuffing.

Watching the warm up I thought City only needed to aim at the goal to score - Marshall looking completely inept.

City started with:

                   Weaver
Crooks       Morrison Jobson      Granville
Horlock        Bishop Jeff Whitley  Kennedy 
               Dickov Goater

Norwich went for it from the start. Weaver making a fine diving stop after about thirty seconds. After that City had a good run for quarter of an hour. Morrison was imperious. City then scored. A fine cross from Kennedy and headed in by the unmarked Whitley on the far post. Much celebrating from the crowd at the other end. I was four rows up behind the goal level with the left edge of the 6-yard box at the other end so I can't say why it was disallowed. Presumably someone from the away section can let you all know. None of us in our end knew why.

Norwich always looked dangerous coming in from wide and crossing in but the goal was ridiculous. A cross in from a free kick or corner that Weaver foolishly decided to punch. He was not under pressure and catching it would have been easier. The ball was then played back into the box onto Iwan Robert's head. Weaver sort of ducked/shut his eyes (Roberts is kind of scary) and it lobbed over him into the goal. The Norwich bloke next to me scuttled off to the bar at half-time and told me when he came back that the replay showed that Roberts was miles offside. They didn't show replays of the two City goals that were disallowed. The second of these came a little while after the Norwich goal and occurred after a shot, from Horlock (I think), hit the post and Goater smacked it in off the rebound - offside again? I couldn't tell.

City started the second half brightly. Then lost it again after about ten minutes - tired or fed up with the ref?. The next controversy was Bishop being upended in the penalty area from behind. Me and the Norwich bloke thought it was a penalty but the ref booked Bishop for diving or complaining I'm not sure which. There were then several incidents down our end that I could see. Goater was given offside when the ball was crossed from six inches inside the goalline by Kennedy. Correct me if I am wrong but I thought you could not be offside if the ball was passed back to you from nearer the goal. The linesman obviously hadn't grasped this particular rule. He was level with the defender anyway! Sean was getting a bit cross by this stage - can't think why. Then the linesman gave City the ball twice when it was blatantly City players who had headed the ball off the pitch. Unfortunately we made nothing of these offerings. Dickov went off, Taylor came on. Bishop went off, Cooke came on. This did nothing but give Norwich more time to attack City. Taylor went off (he'd only been on two minutes) after being head butted by Flemming . Flemming got up and carried on. Goater got head butted in the first half and that drew blood from both the Norwich player and Goater. Perhaps Norwich have adapted to the elbow rule by "nutting" people instead. Perhaps they have special training sessions running into goal posts or something else hard and inanimate - Marshall?

Anyway City didn't deserve to win but did not deserve to lose by the goal they did lose by. Man of the match was Shaun Carey (no relation) but the Norwich fans were most impressed with the three men in black. The Norwich fans were joking about which of them had slipped which official fivers before the game - I jest not.

Weaver pulled off some excellent saves - one diving to his left in the second half was a stunner - but he knows it was his mistake that caused the goal. Morrison was easily City's man of the match. The rest only managed anything in short spurts and looked knackered. Granville did well on his first whole game back. Cooke was still disappointing when he came on.

Norwich were not a good team and we should have beaten them.

One day I will see City win again.

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