Newsletter #125

There’s plenty of discussion in this issue, much of it ‘no holds barred’! There’s also a good Why Blue and some more transfer rumours. It appears that the ‘Fan on the Board’ arrangement has been terminated, does anyone know anything further on this? Finally, I’m off home today so this will be my last MCIVTA until the week beginning 25th September. Articles for MCIVTA should be sent (from today) to Svenn at: svenn@hanssen.priv.no

I plan to take over again after Svenn sends out MCIVTA 127 or 128 (Friday 22nd Sept.) and details of my new email address will hopefully be included in that issue. Articles can be sent to my new address as soon as it appears in MCIVTA. My email account here will be closed later today so any mail sent to this address will be irretrievably lost. Meanwhile, hopefully Paul and I will meet a couple of you at the Old Abbey before the Middlesbrough match.

Next game, Newcastle United away, Saturday September 16th.

NEWS – RÖSLER QUOTE

Uwe Rösler is quoted in today’s (Weds) Daily Mirror as being very unhappy about the Walsh transfer. He says that they had a good understanding going and he liked playing with him in the team. He goes on to say that he doesn’t think Gerry Creaney is as good as Walshie but he will do his best to get something going.

I always have to wonder about newspaper articles like this one. How can Uwe know anything about Creaney as he’s almost certainly never seen him play before? What Uwe probably said was that he was sad to see Walshie go as they had a good understanding and he would try to get a similar understanding going with Creaney. In newspaper-speak this translates to ‘Ball is a tosser for selling Walsh and replacing him with Creaney who’s useless’!

NEWS – SWAP DEAL?

GMR reports that City may be interested in a swap deal involving Terry Phelan going to Sunderland and either captain Kevin Ball or striker Martin Smith joining the Blues in exchange. Alan Ball has been talking to Phelan’s agent apparently.

MATCH VIEW

This was another match where I went to the game with more pessimism that optimism. Upon seeing the team it didn’t improve; I mean, was it really necessary to start the game with a 5 man midfield, which appeared to be more reliant on trying to stifle Arsenal attacks than creating their own chances? Were the management happy to try to get one point rather then three, settling for something rather than nothing? A lone striker seemed a poor option, especially against an Arsenal side who are known to be pretty secure at the back. In the team making their comebacks from injuries were Curle, Beagrie and Brightwell, three of the four injured players that everyone at the club have been wanting back.

So the game itself. Well City at least managed to cope with the Arsenal attacks and seemed to play reasonably well, but unfortunately they didn’t really create anything going forward. The ploy of a 5 man midfield didn’t appear to nullify the 4 man Arsenal midfield, and defender turned midfielder Keown had a reasonable game. There were flashes of inspiration from Kinky, but the most disappointing thing was the lack of movement off the ball by his fellow players. One outstanding moment was when he beat a couple of Arsenal players and after doing so stood there with his hands wide open as if pleading for someone to pass to; how much longer will he have to accept what’s going on around him?

Although City were pretty strong at the back, it was Arsenal who were creating chances and causing problems. Wright came the closest to scoring when a 25 yard volley was tipped over by Immel. City never really created a good clear-cut chance.

The second half started with City giving a bit more bite and three names quickly followed each other into the book. Still Arsenal looked pretty resilient to what City could throw at them, whilst they always looked dangerous on the break. Bergkamp tested Immel a couple of times. As the half wore on, both Beagrie and Ian B started to fade from lack of match fitness, but it came as a surprise that Kinky made way for Quinn. Of all the players on the pitch Kinky seemed to be making a few decent runs. With Quinn on City started to win a few more battles against the Arsenal defence; at last someone to challenge the aerial dominance of Bould and Adams. Quinn created one of City’s best chances when he flicked a ball on for Rösler, but just as Uwe was about to shoot he was tackle by Adams.

Just when the game seemed to be heading for a 0-0 draw, the crucial decision came. Quinn was alledged to have fouled Dixon when competing for a high-ball. Dixon took a quick free kick and passed to an unmarked Bergkamp, whose low cross was met by Wright with a diving header and the ball squirmed through Immel. City managed to get a free kick from the restart, but Beagrie’s shot was smothered on the line by Seaman. So City fell to there fourth successive defeat and we’re still bottom.

There was a lot of debate over the validity of the free kick that was awarded and led to the match-winner. Some have blamed the referee and are adamant that it wasn’t a free kick. I’ve always been told to play to the whistle; there is no point arguing with the ref., he isn’t going to change his mind. Unfortunately City just didn’t close down quickly enough and left themsleves open to the quick attack; that one piece of naïve defending cost us the game after such a good performance! However, in saying that, Arsenal had created more chances and if this is the style we can expect at further home games, i.e. a five man midfield leaving a lone striker, it’s going to be hard to win games unless the midfield can get support up front quickly. If not it’ll just be a holding pattern trying to get a point! Is that what AB is happy with, just a point at the moment?

PRESIDENT DISMISSED

The Today newspaper’s had a little article about the strife at City. It gives the name of the president sacked by FHL, Bill Adams. It also says that the fan on the board decision has been reversed. Dave Wallace was not re-elected but was beaten by a candidate from Stoke(?). Apparently, shortly after this, Frannie terminated the ‘fan on the board’ arrangement!

So since FH Lee came to power he’s:

• Ousted PJS with the help of the supporters
• Promised the good times will return
• Promised a fan on the board
• Sacked BH
• Employed AB
• Sacked the club President
• Reversed the fan on the board decision
• We’re now bottom and where’s the promised millions for investment (it must have gone somewhere, but where?)?

Strange thing about this election of the fans’ rep, I didn’t even know it was happening, so just who did vote? I would have thought that season ticket holders might just have a say in the proceedings? Wouldn’t take much to put a voting slip in with the new season ticket, then it’s upto us to reply.

It would be interesting to hear DW’s side of the story. I think KK is already out so has anybody read anything about the election? The funny thing is that in a fit of madness I bought the review of last season on video; Dave Wallace even gets an interview on this, so was he still under the impression that he’d be in the boardroom come the new season? (I might do a review of the video sometime).

RÖSLER IN PREMATURE AGING SHOCKER

What about this from the Celtic mailing list? Anybody know anything about this or am I going to panic unnecessarily?

> According to yesterday's Daily Mail (I never bought it, I read someone
> elses - honest) Celtic are after Thom's old striking partner at club
> and international level, Uwe Kant_remember_his_second_name. (Rossler?).
> 
> This guy is 30 years old, a former East German international and current
> German international (he scored for Germany last week against Georgia).
> The price quoted was 3.5 million, which makes the story seem a bit ridiculous
> as I can't see Celtic forking out that kind of dosh just now, especially for
> a guy who is 30.

It was actually Ulf Kirsten!

Quick note on the City game live on Sky versus Arsenal – I thought Flitcroft was excellent – really committed and sprayed the ball about pretty well. Kinky looked pretty good but a bit lost, Summerbee was appalling – why keep coming infield? I reckon he is ball shy and is hiding – he has to go before any potential buyers realise this. I was impressed with Curle and Symons at the back.

Overall pretty much down in the dumps about it all though.

Sob Sob

SIMILARITIES?

I noticed an article by Joe Mercer in the 1967 supporters’ magazine which has much relevance to today’s situation. He is reflecting on the day he was appointed manager and the questions he was asked. The papers had described it as the toughest job in soccer and it was Mercer’s task to get us back into Div. 1. It reads:

“The only success is success on the field. The fans want it straight away; I want it,too… but we must build. We must make haste slowly, in the right direction”

He then reflects on the period:

“Money wasn’t exactly growing on trees. The directors – and I make no apology for saying this – gave me the facts, but assured me that if the need arose, and I had a case, they would find the cash to buy.”

He returns to the present situation:

“Emerging is a City team – a method team, if you like – which is abreast of the times. I want all my team to be attackers, when occasion demands; I want them all going into the tackle, when defence is the order of the day.”

Sentiments not too dissimilar to AB’s and Franny’s today. Let’s hope the next two seasons are as good as City’s were in ’68 and ’69.

OPINION – POST-ARSENAL RAMBLINGS

There appears to be a contradiction between viewing the Arsenal game as both awful and yet also encouraging. However, I think that is a suitable description of the performance.

The quality of creative football from both sides was generally poor, with the exception of Kinky, Parlour and Wright. There was little invention. We certainly looked extremely unlikely to score, but in the second half I also felt that Arsenal looked incapable of winning. This is not usually the case; normally whenever an attack (especially if it contains such a class player as Ian Wright) gets within ten yards of our defence, I start having major palpitations. The reason this was not the case was the excellent performances of the back 4, and particularly Symons and Curle. Their first game together, only Symons’ fifth for the Blues, and Curle’s first with Immel. Despite this they looked a defensive pairing, not just two central defenders operating in the same area of the pitch. Apparently Ian Wright said afterwards that up until the 90th minute he’d hardly had a chance, and that we defended very well!

When a team is bottom of the league, without a win, then you have to start from the back, and the performance in defence was top quality, apart from the last second nightmare.

The lack of quality in midfield was not totally surprising, Beagrie is certainly not match fit. Kinky has not yet developed any understanding with Rösler; this was a big problem because most of our breaks involved these two running at the defence, and they nearly always ended up in:

• Kinky plays through ball just as Uwe has changed direction ormoved away, or
• Uwe has ball and simply refuses to pass to Kinky, and so getsdispossessed.

Nicky Summerbee had his best game for a while, but was still nowhere near good enough. He did get two crosses in which must double his total this year. The first was a good far post cross in the first half. The second was infuriating because he had got past his man, was going towards goal, and needed to pull the ball back towards the penalty spot (as Amokachi did for Parkinson’s Everton goal against us), but instead chipped the kind of innocuous ball that Adams and Bould dream of.

There were therefore encouraging signs from the defence; I thought Flitcroft played better then in recent times, and Beagrie showed signs of what he can do when fit. If we’d got the nil-nil we deserved, then we might be talking slightly less pessimistically. The performance was not that of a team which is a relegation certainty, but the luck was definitely relegation material.

There seems little point in criticising Ball for having to buy and re-jig the team now, rather than in pre-season, because the timing of his appointment was out of his hands. Anyone watching the Blues training will see the massive difference between Ball and Horton. Ball commands the respect of the players, will bollock them if they muck up and will also praise them when they do what he wants. Horton was a joke on the training round, and the players never respected him.

Current form is poor, but with five games gone the question is surely whether you feel the manager has the vision and the ability to change things for the better. Obviously I think AB has that, but there is little point in demanding that Lee states that he will sack Ball should we go down.

Yours,
Glum yes, but not yet contemplating Elton Welsby introducing the Blues on Endsleigh Round-Up.

OPINION – DON’T PANIC!

I have just read MCIVTA 124 and am writing to agree with Mark Kennedy’s excellent observations.

For God’s sake let’s not panic, the team that has started the season cannot be expected to suddenly start playing championship winning football. As Mark mentions, Kinky and Immel probably don’t even know all the players’ names yet and we have only just had Curle and Beagrie return to the team.

I attended the Arsenal game and thought City were very unlucky to lose. Symons and Curle looked very good at the back, and for the majority of the second half City were the better team.

I am not saying we are going to win anything this season, but it takes time; City are not the worst team in the Premiership by some way. I find it hard to believe Bob Jacobs’ comments about getting rid of Francis Lee given the financial turn around he has performed at the club in the last 18 months, I know he is no ‘Jack Walker’ sugar-daddy but at least he has us heading in the right direction.

The only reservations I do have are about AB’s priorities buying players: why has he bought Creaney? We need to sell Summerbee and buy a wide right player (which we could have had from Paul Walsh). Niall Quinn is probably a better partner for Rösler than Creaney and it would also stop his value dropping should they decide to sell him.

Christmas is the time to start panicing.

OPINION – FRANNIE KNOCKING

Let’s consider what spending there’s been since Frannie took over:

£11   million - Kippax
 £6   million - written-off debts
 £2.5 million - Beagrie Walsh, Rösler             1993/94
 £1.7 million - Summerbee, Gaudino                1994/95
 £5.2 million - Kinkladze, Symons, Immel, Creaney 1995/96

Total: £26.4 million plus of course wages and other operational costs.

Now for the money coming in:

 £2.3 million - Groenendijk, Rocastle, Sheron, McMahon 1994/95
 £1.6 million - Mike, Hill, Walsh, Simpson, Griffiths  1995/96

Total: £3.9 million plus gate receipts and income from commercial activities.

If we count the unknown amounts as being about equal (not a bad guess IMHO), this represents an investment of over £22 million into the club since the takeover. How people can say “where’s the money we were promised?” I really don’t know.

If there’s anybody out there willing to put more money into the club, why don’t they make themselves known?

Another gripe of mine is the constant moaning about having to buy “top-class” players. What’s Kinky? Buying a “top-class” player doesn’t guarantee anything – he has to fit into the side and work well with what’s already there. There’s no simple recipe for success, as Man Utd found out for many, many years before they finally achieved it.

And another thing – some correspondents have implied that MCFC have a divine right to be in the Premiership! This sounds rather like some other club I might mention and I don’t expect to hear this from City fans. Yes relegation would be disastrous for the club but the same applies to all the other clubs and they’re fighting to avoid it too. Somebody’s going to go down and if it’s us then so be it, we have to carry on and try to get back.

I agree that AB was appointed far too late in the day but that wasn’t Franny’s fault either as Brian Kidd (clearly his number 1 choice) let him down. There wasn’t a stream of top-notch managers beating a path to Franny’s door and I doubt that we could have done much better than AB really. There’s no point bleating about past mistakes, we have to look forward and find a way out of our predicament rather than looking at how we got into it (which is clear to see anyway).

OPINION – POST ARSENAL

The radio review of City vs. Arsenal from John Robinson I feel is not very accurate after seeing the game live on Sky. In defence I thought we looked pretty good. Curle was brilliant, gaining Andy Gray’s man of the match award (although that doesn’t always mean very much). He and Symons looked as though they had already played several games together. Bergkamp, and Wright to a lesser extent were given very little opportunity to play which is just what you would want from your central defenders.

The full backs played fairly well, particularly Phelan and Summerbee was pretty awful except on the two occasions I think he took defenders on and beat them. I find it hard to slag Edghill off too much with Sumnerbee not exactly making himself available much of the time.

Immel I though looked pretty good. Very good one handed save from an excellent, powerful volley by Wright. He also looked comfortable in dealing with backpasses – Dibble is the worst in the Premier if not the Endsleigh too. Immel had little chance with the goal – an almost point-blank header.

Flitcroft and Brightwell I thought were also reasonable, making some good challenges in front of Curle and Symons. Kinky showed some good touches particularly in the first half but certainly faded quite a bit in the second.

Beagrie wasn’t too bad particularly coming back after injury. He did little going forward but the thing I like about him is that if you give him the ball he very rarely gives it away. This is what City need. We need to face the fact that the defence at times will be under a great deal of pressure. When your midfield doesn’t give the ball away and holds it up, it gives defenders the chance to regroup and it makes them feel that the rest of the team is trying to take a responsibility for defence.

Going forward we looked very poor. I put this down to the fact that Rösler was on his own. He was certainly trying and you must remember that there are no better centre-halves than Adams and Bould. Their full-backs are not bad either! Summerbee gave no support to Rösler. There is little point in Rösler making runs to drag defenders out of position if there is no supporting run into space. On several occasions if Summerbee had made a run between the Arsenal left-back and centre-half Kinky, Flitcroft or Brightwell could have made a decent enough pass. Summerbee needs to realise if he wants the ball at his feet he needs to move to a postion feasible to receive it.

A word about Quinn and Creaney:

I feel that Quinn is not good enough to play in the Premier. He is very slow and not up to the speed required of the game. Of course, if a cross gets onto his head he has a good chance of scoring but that’s all – you need to have two pacy forwards who can find space quickly – defenders are too good these days.

I lived in Scotland for four years and got to see a bit of Creaney when he played for Celtic. I always thought he looked a good player and was very surprised when Celtic sold him. He was certainly in the Scotland Under 21s and on the verge of the full team. He looked strong, quick and a good finisher. I’m sure AB will have given this signing much thought and he probably knows his capabilities well. Time will tell of course.

What about the future? Well I feel Summerbee needs a big kick up the backside. Everyone else on Sunday did genuinely give it a real go. With Creaney and Uwe up front, Brightwell and Flitcroft centre midfield and Beagrie on the left, where does that leave Kinky, Summerbee and the right-side midfield? Kinky is a left sided player isn’t he? What do we do? My suggestion is try Kinky on the right for a bit and drop Summerbee for a couple of games (i.e. not on the bench). A bit of extra shock treatment for him perhaps.

To conclude I’m not too worried yet. Newcastle next week will be our biggest test in 1995. Middlesbrough very important too on 23rd Sept. At the moment I live in Middlesbrough and supporters I’ve spoken too aren’t too confident about how well they’re doing – feeling of Honeymoon over.

I’m off to see the Boro’ against Southampton tonight – relegation candidates.

A final word about Sunday – there seemed to be boos followed by applause at the end of the game. The goal was a defensive error – 4 or 5 players studying grass decomposition and not a single one marking Wright.

There is some hope there everyone – honest! and Arsenal knew they didn’t deserve a win.

OPINION – REDS UNDER THE BED?

While it’s heartening to see that we’ve recently won a lot of supporters from the Stretford Lepers, I’d just like to say that if they’re going to spend the whole season whingeing then they can ***k off back to the Sty!

What is it with everyone? At the moment City have played just five games of the new season and they stand just three points behind the champions. Why have so many fans already doomed us to relegation? Mark Kennedy is absolutely right when he points to the problems we’ve had re our late start to the season – we’re still in the close season, let’s face it. The late appointment of Ball was the main problem but this does not mean that the current chairman is incompetent and, god help us, should resign. It was important for him not to rush into it, and that has meant merely a bad start to the season (one with a very tricky run-in, or hasn’t anyone noticed that?).

I believe that Ball will pull through and that City won’t be staring relegation in the face come next Easter, but that really depends on the fans. Are we going to get behind the team or are we going to get on top of them? Yes, they’ve not responded before to some of the best support I’ve ever witnessed (I’ll never forget how a few thousand Blues sang their hearts out a few seasons ago at Forest in the cup and were rewarded with 90 tedious, goalless minutes) but there have been times when the crowd have really lifted them and they’ve done the business (last season at Ewood Park).

We call the Rags moaners and whingers, but I have to say I’m beginning to wonder. What other club manages to destroy the confidence of its players like City? I’ve stood on the old Kippax, down the front and listened to David Brightwell suffer a shower of abuse every time he touched the ball – from his own fans. We don’t need to let away fans in at Maine Road, they’re already sitting all around the ground! I know that David Brightwell is pretty crap, but how can he get better when no one in the ground will give him a chance? The same applies for Nicky Summerbee. He will probably go to another club where the support is not so hyper-critical and, like all those others, he’ll come back to haunt us.

So, could everyone please stop whining. It’s really becoming depressing.

OPINION – ARSENAL GAME

Like many people on the list, I wasted my Sunday afternoon watching the Arsenal vs. City match at my local pub. Having read the various match reports from the previous 4 games, I was prepared for the worst, but boy was it bad?! We struggled to make any attacking chances, and we had real problems keeping possession. Why did AB play Rösler as a lone striker? This system hardly ever works, and even the great Shearer struggles to score in such circumstances. The only positive aspect of the game was the defence. I thought we looked a lot better at the back – compared with last season – and the Symons/Curle partnership looked solid. As for Kinky, I wasn’t that impressed with him. Maybe he was having a bad day, but he didn’t strike me as being the genius that everyone else seems to think he is. Also someone on the list mentioned his inability to speak English could lead to problems when passing to his fellow players. I don’t really see why, as Kanchelskis can’t speak English, and he seems to do okay.

On a rather worrying note, I hear that Rösler is not happy about Walsh’s departure. I heard Rösler said Walsh was a very good friend, and he is a better player than Creaney. I hope Lee and Ball realise that we are really knackered if Rösler decides to leave us. They could do with placating the German, in a bid to keep him with us.

WHY BLUE?

To set the scene a little:

1966 is the year and I have just watched us win the World Cup. I’m six years old at the time and hooked on footy. My dad has two season tickets for Maine Road but my elder brother is the one who gets to go to the matches.

At that age biding my time was the only option but I did get taken to the odd game. One of my first recollections must have been the 66/67 season when I was taken to a match while my brother was off playing for his school or something. The only thing I remember about the day was hoping I would grow up to play for City and be as good as Johnny Crossan. I also remember my dad pointing out Albert Alexander on the way to our seats because he gave me a wink. The only other thing I remember was thinking that Dave Bacuzzi was a strange name. Oh! and I think we won as well (then again we always did in those days).

I used to relish the prospect of going to see us play. Dad would load the car up with several mates and for the whole hour’s journey to Maine Road the talk would be of football and our chances in the impending game. Several views were put forward and I agreed with them all, even if they were totally at loggerheads with one another (too young to form an opinion at that age you see).

We used to park in Albemarle St. about 10 minutes walk from the ground in the days when there was no chance of having your windows put through, and the ‘Mind your car sir’ boys really did wait by your car until the end of the match for their half crown.

I remember a bloke who used to sit behind us in the Main Stand. Every time the other team hoofed a clearance upfield (à la Wimbledon) he would shout “Windeeey” at the top of his voice. This caused acute mayhem and jollity all around but left me none the wiser as to what exactly it meant. Undeterred I waited for my chance and a couple of matches later I duly let rip with my (albeit higher pitched) version of this same insult? joke?. I was similarly rewarded by contagious mirth all around. Chuffed with my new found stardom I tried it out in the school playground but was met with contorted expressions of silent disbelief. Anyway, maybe someone will one day explain to me the intricacies of this Meteorological type expression and its relevance to football.

The smell of pipe tobacco and sight of the ‘god squad sandwich board’ man as we turned into Maine Road was probably the best thing about the day because you knew you were about to watch City win. Actually I still get the same feeling now and nothing ever dampens my (puddled?) optimism about our chances.

As far as individual matches go, too many to go on about here but a few notable ones included the Tottenham (snow) match (Colin Bell being the only player who could stand up properly) and a quarter final match against Coventry (I think?) when I got to wag off school to go. Power cuts due to the Miners’ strike meant that midweek games had to be played in the afternoons. My dad and brother went to the Newcastle championship clinching game at the end of the 67/8 season but to make up for the fact that I was too young to go we got the 8mm Cine film version of the game which is still viewed regularly now (albeit transferred to video).

As someone else said in a Why Blue? my favourite match of all was the semi-final victory against Everton at Villa Park in ’69. Big Mal came and shook hands with us before the match (we were there very early and the teams were only just inspecting the pitch). It wasn’t a classic by any means but the sheer exhilaration I felt when Tommy (Mr. Reliable) Booth’s goal went in was a high I had not experienced before or since. We had 2 Final tickets guaranteed because of the season tickets but my place was dependant on programme vouchers. We were 1 short with only 1 reserve match to go before the application deadline. Needless to say we went to the Central League game but so did about 15,000 others (can anybody corroborate this?). The programme sellers were swamped and after a frantic 5 minutes worthy of Frank Bruno my dad emerged with a scraggy piece of A5 paper with my treasured voucher delightfully intact. The rest is history. Wembley was all Rattles and Rosettes (not Beer and Belching) in those days and I feel privileged to have witnessed it all. Seeing us send the Rags down to Div.2 was ecstacy and every time I see Colin Bell trying to slap a smile out of Denis’ face after he scored it makes me laugh. We didn’t waste too much time evacuating Old Trafford after the fans invaded though.

Player wise, Doyle and Oakes were the unsung heroes and who can forget Sloppy George’s Charltonesque haircut. Tony Coleman with his mazy dribbles wasn’t the weak link so many thought. Finally, he came…, he shot hard…, he left… Barney Daniels where are you now?

AND ANOTHER THING

moan moan moan … we’re going down … moan moan moan … Franny’s not spending money … moan moan whinge … that Summerbee’s crap, isn’t he … whinge moan whinge … we’re gonna lose … moan … all our new signings are gonna be crap … moan moan moan … new shirt’s crap … moan Dibble moan … David Brightwell … moan … even Rösler’s crap now … whinge … we’re going down … whining whingeing moaning Moan City …. even Flitcroft’s crap … whinge … don’t like Beagrie any more … whine … Man City – What A Pity … moan moan moan … Bally’s crap … whinge moan whinge … why did we sell Sparky and Incey … WHOOPS!!!!!!!!!!!

REQUEST – TV DOCUMENTARY

This is a call for anyone who knows about a TV documentary on City that was shown in the early 80’s. I vividly remember seeing it and I wouldn’t mind seeing it again.

I think that there were two documentarys and I think one of them was made by Granada TV and the other from the Nationwide Team on BBC (this was the forerunner to the 6 O Clock news).

Basically both of them covered the rise (??) and fall of City under the Book/Allison managership, and one of them covered the ’81 Cup Final. They were very much ‘fly on the wall’ documentaries. I think that the Granada TV doc was entitled “City” (imaginative !).

If anyone can enhance my failing memory then I would appreciate it.

RESULTS

Sep 12, 1995   Middlesbrough   - Southampton      0 - 0

Total Sep 12, 1995

 1. Newcastle        5     4   0   1     9  -   2    12
 2. Manchester_U     5     4   0   1    11  -   8    12
 3. Wimbledon        5     3   1   1    10  -   7    10
 4. Leeds            5     3   1   1     7  -   4    10
 5. Aston_Villa      5     3   1   1     6  -   4    10
 6. Arsenal          5     2   3   0     5  -   2     9
 7. Liverpool        5     3   0   2     5  -   3     9
 8. Sheffield_W      5     2   1   2     7  -   6     7
 8. Nottingham       5     1   4   0     7  -   6     7
10. Everton          5     2   1   2     6  -   5     7
11. Middlesbrough    5     1   3   1     4  -   3     6
12. Chelsea          5     1   3   1     5  -   5     6
13. Coventry         5     1   3   1     5  -   7     6
14. Tottenham        5     1   2   2     5  -   7     5
14. Southampton      5     1   2   2     5  -   7     5
16. Blackburn        5     1   1   3     5  -   7     4
17. Bolton           5     1   1   3     6  -   9     4
-------------------------------------------------------
18. Queen's_PR       5     1   0   4     1  -   8     3
19. West_Ham         5     0   2   3     5  -   9     2
20. Manchester_C     5     0   1   4     2  -   7     1

WWW MANCHESTER CITY SUPPORTERS’ HOME PAGE:
http://www.uit.no/mancity/

Thanks to Ken, Dan, David, Tom, Martin (x2), Andrew, Paul, Nick, Charles & The Mole.

DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in MCIVTA are entirely those of the subscribersand there is no intention to represent these opinions as being thoseof Manchester City Football Club, nor of any of the companies anduniversities by whom the subscribers are employed. It is not inany way whatsoever connected to the club or any other relatedorganisation and is simply a group of supporters using this mediumas a means of disseminating news and exchanging opinions.

Editor: