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Man City 1 Wolves 0 11/12/2001 |
| Match Report | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Report by Jedi Wolf
This was a classic six pointer, we win and it opens up a nice little gap for the automatic places whilst them and we go third. No Kennedy as he failed a late fitness test and so another run around for Camara and a return for Blake instead of donkey Roussel. The wafflers (as my dad calls 'em) started brightly, but the writing was on the wall as city lined up 5 across the middle - the same as the last two games and looked what happened there. It's obviously a game plan that proves effective, so why aren't we playing differently? A Lee Naylor cross on 5 mins showed some city nerves, especially the keeper Nash (who sat on the Wolves bench for a few games last year) who seemed to flap at every cross. In typical Keeganesk style it was end to end stuff. Huckerby was booked for a reckless tackle on Muscat, then on 14 mins a Naylor free kick thundered into the side netting. A nice move by Rae to Blake saw his pull back snuffed out for a corner and in the resulting scramble (yes when have we last scored from a corner) the ball was hooked clear for Huckerby to race up field only for Rae to end up in the book for pulling him down on the edge of the Wafflers area, many refs would have sent him off! However we were duly punished as Horlocks free kick was too powerful for Muscat to stop on the line. 1.0 down and suddenly we were rattled, as almost immediately after Huckerby should have had city's 2nd, but he shot tamely into the side netting. It was all city now as more pressure saw Goater miss one of his many "sitters" of the night. Considering they have scored plenty of goals their forwards performed like the attack of the droids, (stiff, regimented and no clear idea - maybe their batteries needed charging!). A quick throw in on 40 mins saw Rae cross to be sliced out for a corner, when any other time it would have ended up in the back of the net for an own goal. In the resulting scramble the ball fell for (remember the name) Ali Bernarbia, who was clattered, like chewbacka by Lescot, but the city tosser made such a meal of it, rolling about (as Jones later said "if the boardings hadn't been in the way, he would have rolled out to the other side of Moss side") that the ref unfairly sent Lescott off. The ref didn't really see it but was "persuaded" by the crowd and the artistic impressions of some sky blue s*****e. This turned the game as we were putting them under it. Jones immediately subbed Sturridge for Pollet, so as to shore up the defence, and so this ended the game as a proper contest. Half time Them 1 us 0. Wolves started brightly as city sat back and let us come to them, this almost caught us out as Goater got free but missed again.We had seemed to have tightened up the midfield and defence, but leaving Blake as a lone striker was asking a bit too much of him. On 70 mins Camara wasted our best chance of the night, as he hesitated too long, when free on goal - he seemed to be waiting for it to fall sweetly on to his left foot -this gave enough time for one of their defenders to get back and put in a tackle.More attacking saw Rae bundled over on the edge of the area, but Newton's free kick was well wide of the target. On 75 mins as wolves started to wilt, Goater missed another sitter, before Newton was subbed by Proudlock - as it seemed likely that we could possibly score, especially with anxiety creeping into the city fans (this was no wonderwall eh Gallaghers!!). Cameron was subbed for Robinson as he looked tired - lets hope its not another injury. The subs spurred us on with several good crosses coming in, we just don't seem to have anyone to stick it in the back of the net. The game petered out much to the relief of the city players and fans and we dumped out of the automatic promotion spots. We really only have ourselves to blame - 1 point from the last 9 is just plain c**p, overall it was a good performance and losing at Maine Rd for the first time in 17 years was not the disaster it may appear, the points dropped against the scum and Grimsby were more worrying. There again we have been in this bad spell for some time and only just dropped down to third. The top half of the table is so tight that a couple of back to back wins and we will be smiling again. The trouble is the lack of confidence in certain players and the loss of Kennedy needs to be redressed pretty quickly. Man of the match - Paul Butler Keep the Faith Jedi Wolf ps wheres the proof, Fat stat that you don't look like poxey Moxey?? [Not again!! have a look for the link to Fat Stat wedding website - Fat Stat] Attendance:
Goals: Man City:Horlock (21 mins)
Best Player : Butler (3 votes) Rae (1 vote)
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| Average player ratings are taken from a number of newspapers, magazines and web-sites ...more.... |
| 2001 - 2002 |
| Man City away |
