Sky Blue players, staff and fans, breathe a huge sigh of relief

By: Lynne
Soccer City FC

26 October 2008

Manchester City 3 Stoke City 0

There are delayed showings of this match and I give it a ‘must see’ rating.

After the big signing of Robinho and the fantastic win over Portsmouth that followed, (seems such a long time ago and now a blurred memory) we’ve been finding ourselves asking yet again “What’s happened?”. Before today’s match against Stoke, Man City we’re in 10th place with 10 points out of 8 matches played. I would like to see City, get to and maintain, a top six spot, so that means we are four points behind Aston Villa who hold that position. After this fabulous result against Stoke, Man City are in 8th position (see how easy it is to jump a couple of positions in the table) with 13 points. Only two other clubs advance up the table, Liverpool (to take top slot – and much deserved) and Aston Villa (5th).The teams to lose positions are Manchester United (now 6th – yeah! But they have a game in hand) and Chelsea (now 2nd). Just as an aside to all things Manchester City , the belles of the ball (pun intended) are Hull City (recent ex Manchester City player, Geovanni scoring three goals in recent matches and winning the hearts of the team and fans) – they’re 3rd in the league having just gained promotion this season. A team for every soccer fan watch – they were fantastic this week-end against West Brom , a master class in soccer.

For Manchester City , there’s been a run of mediocre playing and poor results. We seem to have this trend that can’t be shaken, win some, lose some and the loses are usually to teams that we should be beating. So this season has started like others, a roller coaster ride.

We’re scraping through the UEFA cup competition. Our next match is on the 6th November, against Dutch side, FC Twente (managed by ex England boss, Steve McClaren) at the City of Manchester Stadium . FC Twente has won the first match of their Group A competition. Manchester City and FC Twente have met before, in the 1978/79 competition, with City winning (this in the heady days of Maine Road , Colin Bell, Brian Kidd et al) – but we know history is not a good indicator of results. We need to get through to the next stage, when, by that time, the team will be a well oiled machine and routinely winning matches.

And today, a hat-trick by Robinho, who until now has been relatively quiet in a goal scoring sense. The goals were assisted by: Evans, Sturridge and City home-coming boy Wright-Phillips – all three are from the Manchester City Academy . Talking of the Academy, at least six of the players on the pitch today, are from the Academy and are teaming up with international stars such as Dunne, Elano, Jo, Robino, Kompany and Fernandes), what a start for their bright futures and what stars in the making for Manchester City – well done to the Academy and it’s managers and staff. Have Manchester City found that something that was missing?, or is this another ‘high’ in the roller coaster ride, we wait with baited breathe – away to Middlesbrough on Wednesday 29th October.

Come on City