Newsletter #797

Oh well. A point gained is better than 3 points lost, as we drew 1-1 with Rotherham on Saturday. Tonight sees match reports thanks to Paul and James, and some disturbing news on the treatment meted out by South Yorkshire’s finest.

We also have opinion, and plenty of requests for tickets, viewing and meetings of Blues.

MATCH REPORT: ROTHERHAM UNITED 1 MCFC 1

‘A day out in the 1970’s’

I’ll do the match bit first so those not interested in the rest of the days antics don’t have to bother, but please excuse the shortness; frankly there wasn’t much to write about from a football point of view.

A Rotherham side that were hell bent on one thing from the start, and they achieved it within 10 minutes. It’s hard to call them dirty but the challenges were at best “robust” and City didn’t fancy it. Eyal took an early knock as he tried to avoid a challenge, appearing to twist his ankle on landing; a second near the touchline left him out of play. Not sure he was that bad, but he certainly didn’t fancy it and was replaced by Sun Jihai, whose first contact was as robust as anything Rotherham could dish out.

City were giving the ball away far too often and Rotherham were first to anything loose (legally or illegally, it didn’t matter). We tried to play but were never going to be allowed. Ronnie Moore on the Rotherham bench whinged at every opportunity at the linesman, and at one point got him to pull his flag down for an offside. The 4th official spent most of the first half keeping Ronnie in his technical area.

Having seemed to weather the worst of it and get on top, there was a flap or two from Nash and they ended up in the lead; on what had gone on before it was probably just deserved. City had had a couple of half chances but had created little.

The second half saw us have more possession but frequently give it away up front. Why we seem to have gone to tactics that involve “lumping the ball” up the middle or to Sun out wide right to head into an empty box I don’t know, but it’s not pretty. Ali tried the flicks and dummies but frankly they were well short of good enough. SWP moved into the middle, worked his socks off but he’s just not a midfielder in this sort of game. Howey at the back was woeful with several clearances and was lucky on several occasions.

Pearce, whilst on top of the physical bits, couldn’t distribute leaflets in a crowd. Dunne was improved on recent games. Kevin Horlock showed glimpses of last season, his passing ability gone to pot in the midfield battle. Goater and Huckerby up front, Goater needing 3 touches to get it under control when under pressure from three defenders, and Huckerby doing another Forest Gump impression, run run run then a p**s poor pass. Nash, making Nicky Weaver look good on crosses. Jensen was probably the lone star amongst much mediocrity, whilst Sun showed some good touches but a rawness that looks worrying. The equaliser was about as scruffy as their opener, but probably just deserved; there was a scramble and someone scored is about all I can say from my vantage point. SWP could and should have won it when through on the ‘keeper but passed it to him.

Nash 5, SWP 6, Jensen 8, Pearce 6, Howey 4, Dunne 6, Horlock 5, Ali 6, Eyal (not on long enough), Goater 5, Huckerby 5, Sun 6.

Right, now for the rest of what went on.

This really is the 1970’s revisited, the ground is a s**t-hole, we sat on Barnsley’s seats so I’m told, and the approach to the ground down and alleyway with smashed up trains, walls with broken glass, really is an eye-opener.

However, that’s not the issue I have with Rotherham. We arrived about 1:15 and went in search of a pub, as you do. The first one we went in was to say the least sinister looking, we didn’t bother ordering a drink, it looked like a miners/steelworkers social club and less than welcoming, so we moved on quickly (without buying a drink). We went to go in another pub but were told it was “home only”.

Eventually, we were sent to a pub in town by a steward. Away fans only we were told; “great that’ll be fine”. On arrival though it wasn’t away fans only, as it was surrounded by about 20 (at this point) riot police. We made our way in anyway, and for a while all seemed normal(ish), but as we stood near the window, we could see more and more police arriving all in “the gear”, several horses and vans by 1:30. It was all friendly, no bother, no real singing, in fact for a pub full of City pretty quiet.

By 1:45 pm there were riot police (only lacking shields) about 2 deep outside the pub, about 8 horses, and 10-12 police vans, and probably about 500 Blues in and around the pub. The police then came into the pub and instructed the bar staff to ring a bell (presumably to signify last orders). They then asked if those with tickets could make their way outside, where we were held for 10 minutes; one of our members was an OAP, and when we asked if he could go with his son (bus driver) we were told no, everyone was going together. When the bus driver inquired if they could stand away from the crush, they were allowed out to stand against the wall. Eventually Mr Jobsworth went inside and they were allowed to leave for the ground by one of the other policemen (without the rest of us).

We were then asked to show our tickets before being allowed out of the pub (when did this become a law?), and instructed to make our way along the pavement, between the pub and the police vans, lined up bumper to bumper, and when we got to the end of the pavement, there were 2 police horses, and about another 10 police in riot gear (no shields). We were held there for 40 minutes, with the City fans becoming increasingly restless as many wanted a pee, and most just wanted to go to the ground.

The rowdier element then started to come to the fore, one lad letting the tyres down on a police van briefly, and another group trying to escape over a van. Eventually about 2:40 there was a surge from the back of less patient Blues (by this time most were getting pretty impatient), and it forced the horses and police into the road, and there was some panic in the police ranks as they realised they weren’t going to be able to control things much longer.

At this point I was getting away from the potential flashpoint but was talking to one of the lads who was driving one of the police vans. I said to him that whoever was in charge of this cock-up needed stringing up. He agreed saying that it seemed complete overkill to him. The two on the horses at the front were struggling badly to keep real order, and shortly after we were taken under escort towards the ground.

I didn’t count how many police were with us but I would reckon around 100 mostly in helmets and padded up, and quite a few dogs in attendance. We had gone about half way when we were stopped again (2:50) as several Blues ran to a wall out of the cordon (for a p**s!). Apparently you now need a match ticket to leave a pub, as well as have a pee, I wonder how our Euro cretins would feel about this? We then set off again to the ground and on arrival we are herded down a narrow alley (Wimpey homes have bigger hallways), 6 foot walls either side topped with broken glass, it’s at best a scrap yard on either side, but broken up trains etc are obviously part of the South Yorkshire landscape. When we arrive there are 3 open turnstiles; thankfully the dogs have left us by this time, or else there would have been injuries. The process of actually getting in was surprisingly simple apart from the crush in the stupid alleyway, and I finally (having been split up from the rest of my group) get to my seat about 3:05. Why bring several hundred at once into such a small space, did they learn nothing at Hillsborough?

This was a ridiculous situation as not only did I not see any bother, I didn’t even see a Rotherham supporter until I got in the ground, but apparently we were being protected! There was one woman crying with her husband or boyfriend, and there were kids (thankfully not mine) in this crowd. However, we now look like the a**eholes of the earth to the non-footballing public of Rotherham. Our crime? being ordinary football supporters, that wanted a pre-match pint (I had one).

Now South Yorkshire Police have something a reputation, and have been involved in some unsavoury incidents in football (one especially springs to mind at Hillsborough) but they seem to have learned nothing from these events. But for the good grace of several hundred Blues, and the fact that many acted very sensibly, and also to the credit of some of those escorting us, there was neither any bother, nor any injuries. I feel that is more down to luck than any good judgement, but to the person on charge of this débâcle I would like to ask personally what the f**k were you doing (sir)? I’d wager that the person in charge was about 25, straight out of Uni and f**king clueless in how to control people; strangely enough many of those under his/her charge would agree with me and thanks to them there were no serious incidents.

Long rant over, but I only went to watch my team play football. And guess who the next visitors to Millmoor are? Millwall So what the f**k will happen then?

For a view of the day’s events, you can visit http://pub76.ezboard.com/fbluemoon34548frm1.showMessage?topicID=3773.top

MATCH REPORT: ROTHERHAM UNITED 1 MCFC 1

‘Scrapheap Challenge’

This was my first visit to Rotherham and, unless their team and ground improve, I hope it is my last for a while. The game was almost a re-run of the Wimbledon away game except the Millinimininyiers, or whatever they are called, were worse than the Dons and a full house was present. There was a graveyard for train engines outside the Railway End of Millmoor; I’m sure there’s a good analogy hidden in there somewhere.

We soon saw that Rotherham had a simple plan – kick the City midfield out of the game – and this they followed to the letter. The referee obliged by giving us zero protection and, sure enough, Berko hobbled off the pitch with his ankle injury recurring and was then forced to hobble all the way around the pitch, past jeering green-eyed Rotherham fans. I just hope Eyal’s injury is not as bad as it looked and I hope Rotherham are happy with their depressingly negative tactics, which are irresponsible on an unrolled pitch.

About that ref, a certain Mr. Dermot Gallagher, he had a shocker and that is the kind way of putting it. He was positively biased against City in the first half, where the damage was done in the setting of the pattern of the game. Incompetence I can live with but this really took the biscuit.

There were at least two Rotherham tackles worthy of straight red cards, maybe three. I think only one of them drew a booking and that was the tackle on SWP, which was an utter disgrace and could have ended his career if he hadn’t seen it coming. Added to that, the amount of shirt tugging, pushing, sly knocks and general cheating that Rotherham were allowed to get away with was disgraceful. Gallagher bucked up his ideas in the second half but it was far too late. The one bad tackle City made all game got us a booking. Surprising, that.

The large object huffing and puffing up and down the sideline at the City end of the ground made Richard Dunne look like Kate Moss after a crash diet. I was incensed with this so-called assistant referee at half-time; he had given everything against us.

However, by full-time, it was obvious that he was just incompetent and absolutely amazingly incompetent at that. I think he gave every possible offside in the entire game and a few that were impossible! I refuse to speculate on whether he didn’t fancy running around too much to keep up with the play because of his portly frame. That could never be true of a Nationwide official.

Rotherham’s manager Ronnie Moore was a disgrace and should be brought up before the FA disciplinary committee for inciting the home fans. He spent most of the game acting the fool, often straying onto the pitch and applauding to the crowd when Gallagher made bad decisions in their favour. He made Gordon Strachan look like a mellow-moded mister on mogadon.

When you take Moore’s idiotic behaviour on board, it was no surprise to see (what looked like) a few City fans being attacked by Rotherham fans (or vice versa), straight after Ali B’s equaliser. Regardless of who was at fault, thankfully it stayed localised. It did go on for two or three minutes. I couldn’t quite see if the stewards were in there trying to cool things down and the police only took an interest another couple of minutes later.

Now, City have more than our fair share of loons who follow the team only to look for trouble; however, the policing for this game was as oppressive as I have seen for a while. The South Yorkshire Constabulary must either have had some good intelligence about planned trouble or they just wanted to give us a big welcome.

As an example, my friends were on the first train back to Sheffield and someone, who got left behind, held their Sheff-London train ticket. Therefore, at Sheffield, they could not prove to the police that they were going to London and almost got shoved on the Manchester train. They were forced into saying their name, address and date of birth into camera to be allowed to go home!

I was videoed myself as I went back into Botherham (ho, ho) station and then got some hassle at Sheffield as well. Took me back to my student days and the original (and peaceful) anti-poll tax rally in Glasgow. Hey ho, police state, here we come. As Larry Ellison, CEO of computer giants Oracle, said a couple of years back: “You have no privacy. Get used to it.”

Actually the police normally do a very good job in protecting genuine football fans under difficult circumstances and I have been more than thankful for their presence a few times but this felt way over the top, as bad as the West Midlands crew. Most officers were in riot gear and looked well hyped up. In their defence, there were two or three games going on in the general area so the potential for trouble was there. I wonder if they had some arrest quotas to fill?

On Saturday, Robert’s Finest would have been better off getting a safety officer to condemn the exit design of the stadium, which provided a proper crush, something I thought was a thing of the past. It didn’t help that huge rusty nails were pointing out from some of the gates’ wooden supports; I almost put my hand straight on (through?!) one of those by mistake.

Inside the stadium was quite friendly. I saw no trouble from stewards or police although there were a few rows between City fans about supporters who’d had their seat nicked and were stood in the aisles, blocking views. Millmoor does have the worst containers for coffee I have ever seen; there was no way you could hold one without burning yourself.

Back to the football (hurrah) and there wasn’t much good to report from the City perspective (boo). We were bad and the defence was very bad. The distribution of both Howey and Pearce was terrible. Howey almost scored a comedy own goal and was exposed many times for lack of pace and, in this game at least, slow thinking. Dunne was distinctly average but looked good by comparison.

Wright-Phillips appeared to move into central midfield after Eyal went off injured. I remain to be convinced about that one, KK. Lack of height becomes a real problem, unless he’s as good as Maradona. We missed Tiatto.

The Goat gave a nightmare performance that was almost painful to watch at times. Admittedly the service he got was dire but he was just making up the numbers. He is not fit, check how wiped out he looked at the final whistle. Cue the Goat’s third hat-trick of the season next game and some sauce for my hat, I hope!

I don’t normally give marks but feel like it this time. There was a fun story on Radio 5 the other week, when a City fan told of how he gave one of the Chuckle brothers his copy of the Manchester Evening News, having seen a MUEN seller refuse him a look at the match report because he had no money on him. Turns out that this Neville just wanted to see what rating he had got! Doesn’t he know that journos pluck these figures out of thin air? Not something that MCIVTA contributors do, I hasten to add.

Anyway, here we go:

Nash 5 – flapped a few times in the first half, improved in second half, saved at least one goal; Pearce 6 – average but he made some great saving tackles and gets +1 for handing over his shirt to a City fan in a wheelchair at the end (and, when he stepped on a Rotherham forward’s face at one point, it really was accidental, seriously!); Howey 3 – painfully slow and must have had a big Friday night out by the looks of him towards the end; Dunne 5 – nothing to say; Huckerby 4 – constant threat but loses points for being way too greedy; Goat 2 – needs a rest; SWP 5 – industrious again but missed three almost identical (and good) chances badly and should have scored a winner; Horlock 5 – got stuck in, had too much donkey work to do to impress; Bernabia 4 – normally excellent but lack of protection from ref subdued him and he’s making a nasty habit of trying to dribble out of the penalty area; Berkovic 5 – probably should not have been risked; Ji-hai Sun (sub for Eyal) 6.5 – I’m not a huge fan of what I’ve seen so far but he was the only one who really seemed to want to win; Jensen 4 – hardly noticed him. City overall: 4 – a bad team performance, with some poor individual contributions.

Referee 0 – is that rumour about his tattoo true?; Fat Linesman 1 – the worst linesman in the world ever (+1 for providing humour); Thin Linesman 4 – was making random decisions as far as I could tell (also quite amusing).

The game was quite enjoyable, in an old fashioned sort of way, and it didn’t spoil a great day out, which has so often been the case with City over the years. Considering the result from Moulinex (sic) and the fact that City’s performance on Saturday was woeful – we were worse than Rotherham on the day and would have been put to the sword by a better side – this was a point gained.

Rotherham deserved their goal and missed some good chances in the second half to wrap it up both before and after we equalised. I had been happy to settle for a point before the game and on reflection, we were a tad lucky to get that. I’m told that Stockport was an even worse performance than this one so thank goodness I didn’t go to that.

Despite dropping five points from the last six, I’m still 100% confident that we will be promoted – and as champions. Our record in the last eight games stands as W6 D1 L1, promotion form in anyone’s book. To be honest, City haven’t really played well since the Brum game – injuries certainly have not helped – so that form is doubly impressive.

We cannot get the 100 points now and the 100 goals is looking less of a sure thing. Attention turns to the next game when a bad Forest side, which we should beat, comes to town. That will be our eighth game in March and is a must-not-lose, or the alarm bells may sound for real. Easter Monday sees our ninth game in twenty-nine days!

If we beat Forest whilst Wolves lose at home to Rotherham and City beat Wolves on the Monday, we’re up (this is known as the WBA-free theorem). An unlikely scenario I admit, so maybe Barnsley at home is party time, with the championship trophy (?) paraded at the last home game.

The basic issue for both us fans and the team is that we need to keep our nerve, especially in the first half next Saturday. We have to accept that our team will play badly sometimes, especially against roughhouse teams in this division or when Dermot is refereeing. Just keep it cool for the moment.

I don’t boo any City players at games, in case you think I’m being hypocritical over you-know-who. I may groan or make snide comments to a neighbour, or in a forum such as this – but I disagree with shouting insults at players at a game, as quite a few our brethren were doing on Saturday.

We are sometimes our own worst enemy, being the lead item on that little-known cable TV programme ‘When Fans Panic!’ I don’t want any more last day shenanigans so, at the risk of invoking the spirit of Corporal Jones, “don’t panic!”

OPINION: NO COLE TODAY

The headline in (I think) yesterday’s Daily Express was cheesy enough – something to the tune of “Keegan to mine Cole”. The headline made me smile, but the story made me wince; it seems that Keegan has more than a passing interest in signing Andy Cole.

Now I hope this is nothing more than press speculation. I mean, do we really need another striker who can’t finish? Or, to put it more accurately another striker who should score more than he actually does. Given that there’s been talk about Robbie Keane coming to City, I’d far rather we went for him rather than Mr Cole.

If we do land Andrew, I can imagine the forward line becoming somewhat zoo-like. We’ll be able to choose between the Stoat, the Goat and the Pratincole (it’s a bird, honest).

OPINION: CHINESE WHISPERS I

Traditionally, Chinese surnames come first. Thus, in the case of Sun Ji-Hai, his surname is Sun and his “Christian”/”First”/Given name is Ji-Hai. What sometimes adds to the confusion is that in an effort to avoid confusion (!), it is not uncommon for these names to be “redesigned” as has been the case in the Man City official website calling him Ji-Hai Sun instead of Sun Ji-Hai.

OPINION: CHINESE WHISPERS II

In response to the request for the correct name of our new Chinese signing, he should be called Sun Jihai. In China, the surname comes first followed by the given name. Our boy’s surname is Sun (same as revolutionary leader Sun Yat-Sen for all you amateur sinologists), with the given name being Jihai (ji means continue, hai means sea). Thus, in the programme squad list, he should come under S, for Sun, rather than J. Time to get my anorak cleaned, I think.

OPINION: STREET NAMES

I only just got around to reading the last couple of McV’s and was interested in the article on the origins of street names. The author couldn’t shed much light on the origins of a couple of names around our beloved stadium but on two certainly I can help.

Platt Lane is named after William Platt. Platt was an industrialist and owner of Platt Hall located in Platt Fields. He was big in the cotton industry and one of the founding fathers of the modern city of Manchester.

Kippax Street so far as I’m aware is named after the place in Yorkshire as are several of the other streets in that vicinity.

As for Maine Road. Not a clue unless it’s after the state in the US.

OPINION: ROTHERHAM SONG

Writing my Rotherham match report provided the seed of this. The following “song” is based closely on “Panic!” by The Smiths, more commonly known as the “Hang the DJ!” song. My version is called “Up the City!”

I hope I haven’t swiped the idea off anyone, one can never be sure with such things. It’s probably too high pitched for a mainly male audience and you need to know the original quite well. Anyway, with sincere apologies to Morrissey, here goes giving Ernie a run for his money:

Panic on the coaches of Finglands
Panic in the aisles of Rotherham
I wonder to myself
Could we be top of the league again?
On the unrolled pitches we fight on
I wonder to myself

Hopes may rise on the Pennines
Eyal Berkovic, you’re not safe here
So you troop off
To the safety of the bench

But there’s panic on the streets of Portsmouth
Forest, Wolves and Gillingham
I wonder to myself

Get lost United! (*)
We’re Manchester City!
Because the football that we constantly play
Is everything to me about my life

We’re Manchester City!
Because the football that we constantly play
On the clapped-out teams that will go down
On the unrolled pitches we fight on

Up the City! Up the City! Up the City!
Up the City! Up the City! Up the City!
Up the City! Up the City!
Up the City! Up the City!
(repeat ad nauseam)

(*) I couldn’t quite think of a better line than “Get lost United!”, I was really trying for something stronger than that.

REQUEST: WOLVES IN LONDON?

Having resigned myself to the fact that I won’t be getting tickets for the Wolves game and unprepared to pay £117 for a corporate hospitality ticket, I wondered where London based Blues will be congregating for said match? I don’t really want to watch it at home as I’ve got a feeling that it could be one of those special City moments if results go our way on Saturday and Easter Monday (assuming that ITV Digital haven’t pulled the plug by then).

REQUEST: BARNSLEY IN NORFOLK?

Now that the pub locator has gone for ITV Digital, I am trying to find out if there is a pub anywhere in Norfolk, preferable near to Hunstanton or even along the coast to Wells, Sherringham (did not really want to mention that one) and Cromer that would be showing the Barnsley match?

Prepared to travel to see the lads.

REQUEST: CHORLTON BLUES’ MEETING

This month’s Chorlton Blues’ meeting takes place on Wednesday 27th March at South West Manchester Cricket club at 8.00 pm. Guests include James H Reeve, Stan Horne, Bobby Owen and Tony Book. There will be a raffle where you have the chance to win a 69 Cup Final shirt signed by Lee, Bell, Summerbee and Young and a free buffet is provided.

All Blues welcome.

REQUEST: SYDNEY BLUES’ MEETING

Just to let all City Fans in Sydney know that there will be a meeting at The Fox & Lion Pub at Fox Studios from 5pm Sat April 13th (this is next to the Sydney Cricket Ground).

REQUEST: MILTON KEYNES BLUES’ MEETING

Another reminder for all City supporters in the Milton Keynes area. The next meeting of Milton Keynes OSC will be on March 28th at Great Brickhill Cricket Club, starting at 8pm. We will have a start-studded guest list comprising:

• Dennis Tueart
• Fellow MCFC director Alastair Mackintosh
• Branch President and Radio 5 Live presenter Susan Bookbinder

If you would like more details please get in touch with me at the address below.

REQUEST: MORECAMBE BLUES’ MEETING

The Morecambe Bay Supporters’ branch will be having a meeting on Thursday 28th March 2002 at JB’s Bar, Morecambe Football Club. I’m delighted to announce that the special guest at the meeting will be 1999 play-off final referee Mark Halsey, now on the FIFA list, along with David Allison, Referees co-ordinator for the Football League and himself a former Premiership referee. Mr. Halsey will be available to answer all your questions about the play-off final, the infamous session afterwards, his sending off of Chelsea’s Hasselbaink instead of Melchiot, his 13 second sending off of Kevin Pressman (the fastest red card in history) and much more.

All Blues are, of course, welcome. If you need directions or need any further info contact me.

REQUEST: FOREST TICKET

I know it’s a long shot but I am looking for a couple of tickets for Saturday. Can anyone help?

REQUEST: WOLVES TICKET

I need one City ticket for the Wolves game. Will even drive you from Manchester to Molineux (and back if you like!). Can you help?

REQUEST: POMPEY TICKET

I’m hopefully asking for two tickets for the home Portsmouth game. They were sold out when I got to the ticket office on Monday morning. Can anyone help?

RESULTS

Recent results from 21 March 2002 to 24 March 2002 inclusive.

24 March 2002

Coventry City         1 - 1  Birmingham City       17,945
Gillingham            1 - 0  Millwall               8,082

23 March 2002

Barnsley              2 - 0  Watford               12,449
Bradford City         2 - 0  Crewe Alexandra       12,846
Crystal Palace        2 - 0  Walsall               21,038
Grimsby Town          6 - 2  Wimbledon              6,473
Portsmouth            0 - 0  Sheffield Wednesday   14,819
Rotherham United      1 - 1  Manchester City       11,426
Sheffield United      3 - 0  Burnley               19,003
Stockport County      0 - 2  Preston North End      6,139
Wolverhampton Wndrs   0 - 0  Norwich City          26,280

22 March 2002

Nottingham Forest     0 - 1  West Bromwich Albion  24,788

League table to 24 March 2002 inclusive.

                             HOME          AWAY        OVERALL
                    P  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F  A  GD Pts
 1 Manchester City 41 16  3  1 52 17 10  3  8 40 32 26  6  9 92 49  43  84
 2 Wolves          41 12  4  5 32 16 11  6  3 38 20 23 10  8 70 36  34  79
 3 West Brom A.    40 12  3  4 26  8 10  4  7 23 18 22  7 11 49 26  23  73
 4 Burnley         41  9  7  4 34 26 10  4  7 29 29 19 11 11 63 55   8  68
 5 Coventry City   41 12  4  5 33 17  8  2 10 25 27 20  6 15 58 44  14  66
 6 Millwall        41 12  3  5 36 21  6  7  8 25 26 18 10 13 61 47  14  64
 7 Birmingham City 40 11  3  5 34 18  7  7  7 24 27 18 10 12 58 45  13  64
 8 Preston N.E.    41 10  7  3 37 20  7  5  9 25 34 17 12 12 62 54   8  63
 9 Norwich City    41 13  5  2 31 14  5  3 13 21 35 18  8 15 52 49   3  62
10 Crystal Palace  41 12  2  7 40 22  7  2 11 27 36 19  4 18 67 58   9  61
11 Wimbledon       40  7  8  4 26 19  8  5  8 32 34 15 13 12 58 53   5  58
12 Gillingham      41 11  5  5 36 23  5  4 11 22 36 16  9 16 58 59  -1  57
13 Sheff. United   41  8  8  5 34 28  6  6  8 14 20 14 14 13 48 48   0  56
14 Watford         41 10  4  6 36 24  5  6 10 22 24 15 10 16 58 48  10  55
15 Portsmouth      41  9  5  7 35 29  4  7  9 22 35 13 12 16 57 64  -7  51
16 Nottm Forest    41  7 10  4 22 16  4  7  9 21 25 11 17 13 43 41   2  50
17 Bradford City   41 10  1 10 41 37  4  7  9 24 34 14  8 19 65 71  -6  50
18 Rotherham Utd.  41  7 11  3 30 27  3  5 12 19 33 10 16 15 49 60 -11  46
19 Grimsby Town    41  8  6  7 31 27  3  6 11 14 36 11 12 18 45 63 -18  45
20 Sheff. Wed.     41  5  6  9 24 32  6  6  9 20 31 11 12 18 44 63 -19  45
21 Crewe Alex.     38  7  6  7 19 30  4  4 10 20 32 11 10 17 39 62 -23  43
22 Barnsley        41  8  9  4 35 30  1  6 13 19 45  9 15 17 54 75 -21  42
23 Walsall         41  9  4  7 25 24  1  6 14 18 42 10 10 21 43 66 -23  40
24 Stockport C.    41  3  1 17 14 42  1  7 12 23 52  4  8 29 37 94 -57  20

MCIVTA FAQ [v1.7]

[0] MCIVTA Addresses

 Articles (Heidi Pickup)        : editor@mcivta.city-fan.org

 News/rumour (Don Barrie)       : djb1305@yahoo.co.uk

 Subscriptions (Geoff Donkin)   : subscriptions@mcivta.city-fan.org

 Technical problems (Paul)      : paul@city-fan.org

Comments concerning this FAQ should be sent to David Warburton using the address: mcivtafaq@warburton.org

[1] MCIVTA Deadlines

Deadlines for issues are nominally Monday and Thursday evenings.

[2] MCIVTA Back Issues and Manchester City Supporters’ home page

http://www.uit.no/mancity/ is the unofficial Manchester City Supporters’ home page. Created in 1994, it is the longest running of the Manchester City related web sites. Back issues of MCIVTA are also hosted on the site.

[3] Club Web Site

The official club web site can be found at http://www.mcfc.co.uk/

[4] Supporters’ Clubs

Manchester City FC recognises three supporters’ clubs: The “Official Supporters Club” (http://www.mancity.net/osc/index.html); the “Centenary Supporters’ Association” (http://www.callnetuk.com/home/sef/) and “The International Supporters’ Club” (http://www.mcfc.co.uk/extra/fanzone/isc.asp)

[5] Fans’ Committee

The Fans’ Committee operates as an interface between supporters and the club. It has its own website, http://www.mcfc-fans.com/ containing info about forthcoming meetings as well as minutes from previous gatherings.

[6] City of Manchester Stadium Progress/Web Cam

The latest information regarding the progress of our new home can be found at http://www.commonwealthgames.com/

[7] Match Day Broadcasts

Live match commentaries and archives of games, reports and interviews can be found here: http://www.mcfc.co.uk/comment.asp. An alternate live commentary service, hosted by Yahoo, is located at: http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/foot/audio/live/schedule/index.html. GMR Saturday Sport is also available live online between 1-3pm, and 4.45-6pm at http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/sport/index.shtml

[8] City on TV

City’s games when broadcast on TV are generally carried by ITV Digital; http://www.itv-digital.co.uk/company/home/publocator/locator.html provides a list of pubs that will be showing the games.

Granada television also has the rights to show a small number of games from the North West region. As Sky now carry ITV regional services these matches can be watched outside the intended region by “adding” channels to your Sky Digital receiver. Under “services/system setup” enter the following details: Frequency 10.891 – H – 22.0 – 5/6. Select “find channels” and you will be given a list of the available ITV regions. From here select the regions you want to add. In order to view the channels you have added, you have to make your selection via “services/system setup/other channels”.

[9] Goals on the Net

http://www.citygoals.com/ has available for download, usually within 24-48 hours of a game being played, all the goals from City’s matches.

[10] 01/02 Season Match Day Theme Tune

The music the teams run out to at Maine Road this season is “Nightmare”, by Brainbug, and is available on the Positiva label.

[11] Acknowledgements

Thanks go to John Arnold for providing the information regarding match day music and to Ian Bell for pointing out the alternate live match commentary service.

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.

Heidi Pickup, heidi@mcivta.freeserve.co.uk

Editor: