Newsletter #1


So, here we go! You should have received this mail either because:

  1. You e-mailed me directly and expressed an interest in response to myrequest in RSS,
  2. I have noted your address from mail that you yourself have posted to RSSrequesting info on a Man City mailing list or finally,
  3. From third parties.

If for any reason you don’t wish to receive any further mail then please drop me a line.

This initial mailing will be going out to around 12 people but doubtless this will increase as only 2 days have passed since my post. A few of you have already promised to keep me supplied with information as and when you can so hopefully the venture will not be stillborn (fingers crossed). There is an extensive and well-written report on the Everton match (thanks to Mark Varley), a Telegraph report on the Chelsea defeat (thanks to Rob Clarke) together with some transfer news/speculation and a bit of stuff on Uwe Rösler.


MANCHESTER CITY vs EVERTON Saturday 27th August 1994

Attendance: 19,835

Alas I didn’t get to see the match live but I spoke to some City fans on their way back from the match and I also watched the highlights on Match of the Day. From what I could tell City are now starting to play as a team! Well the big news is that City actually managed to beat their 3-0 scoreline from during the week by hammering Everton 4-0; in fact it was almost 5-0 in the end!

The first half was pretty evenly matched, but City had more of the play and always looked more likely to score. McMahon was running the midfield superbly with Garry Flitcroft next to him doing a good support job. Up front were Rösler and Walsh, with City continuing to play two wingers in Beagrie and Summerbee. In my opinion this is the best attacking and midfield line up that we have had for years, include Quinn in the equation and it is a formidable force. City did have a few good efforts, but none of which caused Southall much difficulty.

The second half on the other hand was all City! The first good chance came when McMahon ran onto a ball 30 yards out and hit a first time drive that Southall could only watch as it just went wide by inches. Finally City made a breakthrough when Paul Walsh made a darting run down the left and crossed an inch perfect cross to the head of Uwe Rösler who left Southall grasping at air with a powerful header from 8 yards out. Just minutes later City made it 2-0 when McMahon won the ball and released it to Flitcroft who slipped a ball into the box for Paul Walsh to run onto and he then rounded Southall to slot the ball neatly into the net. Next came the 3rd goal in an 8 minute spell. McMahon this time slotted a ball through to Walsh he drove it first time into the bottom right hand corner to claim his 2nd goal of the game. This was probably the goal of the game too. The final goal of the game was a cracker too. Rösler received a pass from Walsh that set him free of the Everton defence and despite the sight of Southall charging towards him, Rösler neatly chipped it over the keeper to make it 4-0. Late on in the game, Nicky Summerbee almost claimed his first goal for the club when his powerful drive aimed at the bottom left hand corner was diverted away after a good save by Southall. All in all it was impressive performance, even though it was against a rather lacklustre Everton side.

Mark Varley

CHELSEA v MANCHESTER CITY Wed 31 August 1994

This was Chelsea’s third win out of three although the scoreline was flattering. For Manchester City, following the luxury of home fixtures against Everton and West Ham which yielded seven goals and six points, it was a return to the real world similar to their opening day 3-nil defeat away at Arsenal.

City were tactically adventurous to the point of recklessness in pushing Ian Brightwell into midfield to mark Dennis Wise playing therefore without a right back. The first goal duly arrived from a undefended cross from that area from David Rocastle for Gavin Peacock to head home. With left back Steve Lomas also pressing forward, the centre backs were often left with no cover. Within five minutes of falling behind, Uwe Rostler and Gary Flitcroft both sent headers just over the bar, Kharine saved from Paul Walsh and Peter Beagrie. Wise curled a shot from 20 yards which appeared to be going over before dipping wickedly into the City net for 2-0. City rubbed salt into their wounds when Michel Vonk turned another cross from the right back position into his own net 10 minutes from the end. City manager Brian Horton vowed to continue playing with the attacking line up so successful against Everton and West Ham.

City: Coton; Curle, Vonk, Lomas, I Brightwell; Summerbee, McMahon (Quinn 57), Flitcroft, Beagrie: Walsh, Rösler
Subs: D Brightwell, Dibble (gk)
Booked: Rösler, Vonk, Quinn

Rob Clarke

RÖSLER

I was interested in finding out a little bit about Uwe Rösler and his background in Germany. Compiled with help from Stefan Drexler (Munich).

Last club: Dynamo Dresden.
Previous clubs: 1.FC Nuremberg (loan I believe), Dynamo Dresden, 1.FC Magdeburg, Chemie Leipzig, Lok Leipzig, Traktor Starken.

I particularly like the last one which translates to something like Tractor Strength; my guess would be that it was originally the club of the workers at a tractor factory. As everyone knows there is a tractor factory in every eastern block village!

Date of birth: 15.11.68.
Height: 1,83m, Weight: 74 kg (too lazy to convert these)

5 x full caps DDR (East Germany).
Scored a mere 4 goals in 61 appearances in the Bundesliga.

Taken from ‘Kicker-Sonderheft 93/94 (Basically a yearbook for the German football season)

Ashley

AN IMPARTIAL VIEW OF RÖSLER

I saw Rösler play on Saturday vs Everton. He’s quite tall (not Quinn sized mind) and fairly quick, good in the air (scored his first on Sat [Everton] with his head) but can dribble well. Plays out and out striker rôle, does a Mark Hughes like job of holding the ball when on his own. He can finish in style (lovely lob of the goalie for his second on Sat).

Recently he has been playing well enough to keep Quinn out of the side, though I don’t think Quinn is match fit yet; he has come on for 15 mins or so the last 2 games. The city fans LOVE Rösler, he could do no wrong on Saturday, though a 4-0 scoreline must have helped. As for the suspension (sent off in the first game of the season) he will miss a game or 2, but you know British beaurocracy; the FA have to meet and discuss the incident etc before deciding the punishment, set up a sub-commitee etc etc so I don’t know when he’ll start missing games. I wouldn’t worry too much about City missing him, because Quinn does virtually the same job as Rösler. I don’t think Horton could replace Walsh or McMahon though; they both had great games on Sat. especially Walsh who was a live wire all game.

Thanks to David Cook, a Red!

NEWS (Saturday 27th August)

Yesterday, (Friday, 26.8) Manchester City striker Mike Sheron was sold for 800,000 pounds to Norwich City. This was probably a good piece of business for City as Sheron was not even able to get on the subs bench for the first couple of matches after losing his place late last season to the new arrivals such as Beagrie, Walsh and Rösler. With the return of Niall Quinn to the squad after injury it was obvious that Sheron’s chances were few and far between this season. He was top scorer for City last season with 6 goals (surely a record low!). In his career at Maine Road he played 100 times scoring 24 goals.

Also likely to be on his way out soon is central defender Alan Kernaghan. The big Irish international cost City 1.6 million from Middlesborough last season, but made a poor start to his City career and has been hounded by the fans ever since. He is currently out on loan at 1st Division Bolton, but West Ham look set to snap him up at a bargain 800,000 in the next few days. I personally wouldn’t let him go, but I guess we need to cut down on a pretty large squad.

Mark

LATEST NEWS (Friday 9th September)

Today City manager Brian Horton made a scathing attack on Jack Charlton, telling him to keep away from the affairs of Manchester City. This was after Charlton sung Niall Quinn’s praises after his part in the Republic’s 3-0 victory over Latvia. Charlton said that he “Couldn’t understand why Niall hadn’t had a full game so far this season”. This rather annoyed Horton for some reason and in my opinion his reaction was rather excessive. Terry Phelan wasn’t in the starting line up for the Republic, but Steve Lomas did play the full game for Northern Ireland in their 2-1 defeat against Portugal.

Also today, chairman Francis Lee made a ‘hands off’ statement to Arsenal about 2 million pound rated City fullback Richard Edghill. The 19 year old has been at the centre of speculation that Arsenal were likely to bid for him. It makes a change for City to actually hold on to a player, and a good one at that!

Team news for Saturday’s match against Crystal Palace is that Uwe Rösler will serve his one game suspension this week, so Niall Quinn is going to get his first full match of the season in his place. Adie Mike will be on the subs bench as striking cover. Terry Phelan may also figure after making good progress with a thigh strain.

Mark

ASHLEY

This is my first effort at editing a few things together so excuse any mistakes etc. As things begin to move, hopefully more people will send stuff on a regular basis and with luck we’ll keep getting good reports like those above. Please keep sending reports! Should the need arise, I can coordinate things a little so that people’s time isn’t wasted writing a report which arrives from several sources. We could also use this as a discussion group, if people wanted to send me their views on anything from team selection to burgers at Maine Rd then I’ll be happy to paste them together so that others can answer. Talking of food at UK football grounds, there was a discussion of this in RSS last week with some absolutely hilarious posts!

Well, let me know what you think and keep things coming. To sign off, I’d just like to thank all those people who responded and particularly those who have sent or promised to send things in.

Have a nice weekend and let’s hope we can turn it on against Palace.

Ashley

Ashley Birch, birchaw@oci.unizh.ch

Newsletter #1

1994/09/09

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