Newsletter #1036

Pre-season is well and truly upon us, the reserves took on Hyde last Saturday (match report thanks to Gav) and the ‘first’ team are at Bury on Wednesday night. Lazio have now been confirmed as our 7th August opponents at CoMS.

Opinion tonight on the Masters tournament, the new season, Reebok’s latest offering, ticketing and Dutch Blues wanted.

Mads has kindly agreed to cover for Thursday night’s edition (1037), so please keep your articles and opinion coming to the regular address (editor@mcivta.city-fan.org).

MATCH REPORT: HYDE UNITED 2 MCFC RESERVES 3

City Tame Tigers

City’s annual pre-season friendly at Hyde’s Ewen Fields ended with City upholding their 100% record against their old reserves landlord. Two goals in the first half by Paul Collins and a penalty from Man of the Match Willo Flood, was added to by a superb 40-yard lob from the ever-improving Bradley Wright-Phillips. Hyde were awarded a dubious penalty in the second half and a free header from a corner gave the home side a more respectable scoreline than they perhaps deserved.

The only action worth telling in the opening minutes was when Hyde’s goalkeeper, Joel Graves, made a fine save from Stephen Jordan’s third minute free kick from 25 yards. City made the first of many substitutions on 25 minutes with Paddy McCarthy going off with what turned out just to be tightness in the thigh, so it was only a precautionary change. Three minutes later City took the lead when a poor cross from Lee Croft somehow made its way to Paul Collins, who duly dispatched his goal at the second attempt.

Just after the half hour mark, Hyde could have levelled things when a speculative 30-yard drive was wickedly deflected, but Kevin Ellegaard in goal saved well. Two minutes before the break, some good work by Flood in the box led to him being tripped and awarded the penalty. He struck his shot hard into the bottom left corner of the net. Bradley nearly made it three-nil in the dying seconds of the half but the ‘keeper saved well at his near post.

Just after the hour mark, Hyde were lucky just to be only two goals behind when Graves just tipped over Croft’s twenty yard strike and Steven Clegg cleared Nedum Onuoha’s header off the line from the resulting corner. Five minutes later saw a stunned Graves watch the ball sail over his head and into the net from an audacious forty yard lob from Bradley.

Then, on 73 minutes, the referee adjudged that Nedum had brought down Hyde’s Carl Barrowclough in the area, and duly awarded a penalty. Hyde’s captain and former Manchester United player, John O’Kane, stepped up to convert the penalty past the fully rehabilitated Kasper Schmeichel, who appears to have grown a couple of inches taller to the obvious benefit of himself and City.

Hyde doubled their score when Clegg’s run into the box was not picked up as he rose to head in a Barrowclough corner on 80 minutes.

MoM: Willo Flood: never stopped running for the entire 90 minutes.

Att: 504.

MATCH VIEW: MASTERS TOURNAMENT

Once again, missing our regular football fix, we went to watch the Masters Football at the MEN Arena. Thankfully this year the organisation was much better, though the on-line ticket booking facility is not particularly easy to follow and I missed the chance to buy a family ticket.

Again we really enjoyed watching a group of former City players (Paul Power, Steve Redmond, Perry Suckling, David Oldfield, Ian Brightwell, Andy May, Nigel Gleghorn, Wayne Biggins, Rick Holden & Niall Quinn) in a fast and furious 6-a-side competition. This year, the organisers had included United and Everton in a group with Bolton and City (replacing Blackburn and Liverpool – who were rearranged into different groups). City were defending champions.

The highs – Niall Quinn (though he obviously isn’t used to playing this style of football); beating United 4-2; watching a really solid defence!

The lows – losing to Everton in the penalty shoot out following the final (though they did have Peter Beagrie and Neville Southall’s reflexes are fantastic!).

For sheer entertainment, Masters is really good fun with lots of chances for audience participation – counting down the last 10 seconds, barracking the referees etc.

Looking forward to the pre-season friendlies and of course the start of the new season.

OPINION: THE WAY FORWARD

We must all look forward to the new season, and put last season behind us. I strongly back Kevin Keegan and the team to have a successful season. Bringing in Ben Thatcher and Danny Mills will make a big difference to our defence, lessons have been learned and corrected in preparation of the exciting new season.

I think that we should see young Joey Barton make his mark; he must keep his aggression going, but cool the temperament. With Shaun Wright-Phillips wanting to prove himself for a place in England’s World Cup team.

Rumours are that KK is trying to get Sylvain Wiltord from Arsenal to partner Anelka up front; this I feel would be a plus, for Wiltord is a very good striker. What might hold up this deal is that we might have to unload one of the other strikers first. Jon Macken, Paulo Wanchope or Robbie Fowler?

I have always felt that we never saw the best of Robbie Fowler simply because the chemistry was not there between himself and Anelka; for whatever reason Fowler only seemed to apply himself more whilst playing without Anelka. Jon Macken loves City, and never really has had that many games to prove himself, for his case or otherwise. Paulo Wanchope played well up front with Anelka in the last couple of games, but the fear most fans have is will he stay fit?

So if it is possible to get Wiltord who would be the favourite to leave City?

Last Friday evening I saw an old City striker Gareth Taylor playing for Nottingham Forest who are on a tour of the USA. I have to say we never lost anything when we let him leave City. Taylor did have one good header hit the cross bar, other than that he did not contribute much at all. The game ended Richmond Strikers 1 Nottingham Forest 1, which must have given Forest some blushes for Richmond don’t even play in the Major USA League, they play in a kind of Conference League. But of course the game was only a warm up game for Forest I know that they can play better, but on this occasion Richmond deserved to have won. Gate was just over 6,000.

Come on you Blues!

OPINION: NEW AWAY KIT

Oh, good grief! What is it with Reebok and purple? When Reebok became the new shirt makers, the pages on the City website began to take on a more purple hue, and now it’s gone over to the new away shirts.

There I was, hoping for something with attitude, but instead we get something that looks like a Spurs cast-off. How much say-so did either the club or the players get in choosing the design? We are City. We’re from one of the most happening cities, and the team has been given these dishcloths to wear. How many Mancunians are really going to buy them?

Had better sign off now before the stuff I’m shouting at the screen (picture of said new away shirt) gets put into this message! Otherwise, can’t wait for the start of the season!

OPINION: ONLINE TICKETING

Has anyone tried to buy a Citycard online? It is a nightmare. You cannot buy a card without registering. You cannot register without a customer number. How do you get a customer number? God only knows. You just go round in circles.

I want a membership as I live in Norfolk and therefore cannot attend matches regularly. It is my intention to travel up for the Charlton match (August 28th) but this looks like being an impossibility thanks to the shambles of our online presentation. The club seemed to ignore their exiled fans (I am from Manchester). Perhaps they want me to support Norwich. They certainly seem to be driving me that way and I must admit Norwich do look after their fans.

OPINION: SKY VIEWING

Fair play, I can see the point in the reasons presented. However, I would still like the chance to see the boys play more often (I’m sure all foreign based fans feel the same). I know there’s always the “If you were a *real* fan you’d move back to Manchester” argument, but for me that just doesn’t hold water. Anyone know when MotD is back on the Beeb?

OPINION: ODDS

Keep up the good work. Always a good read and keeps me up to date with articles that that appear in the M.E.N. etc.

I have a sneaky feeling that we are going to do really well this year. I wonder if there is anyone out there who will be putting a pound on City at 500/1 to win Premiership? If Greece can win Euro 2004…

REQUEST: AMSTERDAM BLUES

I wonder if any Dutch based Blues could please help me? I’ve just got back from Amsterdam and I’m due to go back there in early December when we play Middlesbrough away live on (Die on) Sky, which is the 6th December, 2004.

Are there any Amsterdam Blues who meet up for televised games, or folks who know of any decent places to watch the game?

MCIVTA FAQ [v0304.07]

[0] MCIVTA Addresses

Articles (Heidi Pickup)          : editor@mcivta.city-fan.org
News/rumour (Don Barrie)         : news@mcivta.city-fan.org
Subscriptions (Madeleine Hawkins): subscriptions@mcivta.city-fan.org
Technical problems (Paul)        : paul@city-fan.org
FAQ (David Warburton)            : faq@mcivta.city-fan.org

[1] What are MCIVTA’s publishing deadlines?

Deadlines for issues are nominally 6pm, 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] What is the club’s official web site?

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

[4] What supporters’ clubs are there?

Manchester City FC recognises three supporters’ clubs: The “Official Supporters Club” (http://www.mancity.net/osc/); the “Centenary Supporters’ Association” (http://www.reddishblues.com/CSAWebsite/CSA.htm) and “The International Supporters’ Club” (http://www.mcfc.co.uk/article.asp?article=111845&Title=International+Supporters+Club&lid=Membership).

[5] Where can I find out about the 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] What match day broadcasts are available on the web?

The GMR pre and post match phone-in is available on the web at http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/gmr/sport_intro.shtml.

Live match commentaries and archives of games, reports and interviews can be found at http://www.mcfctv.com/, whilst an alternate live commentary service, hosted by Yahoo, is located at http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/foot/englandprem/cal/index.html.

[7] Where can I find out if City are live on satellite TV?

http://www.satfootball.com/pl.html provides a listing of Premiership games being shown on UK domestic and foreign satellite channels. Useful sites for North American viewers are http://canadatvsoccer.tripod.com/Fixtures.htm, http://www.foxsportsworld.com/named/FSW/Index/Soccer, and http://www.soccertv.com/.

http://www.foxsportsworld.com/content/view?contentId=1288602 also provides a guide to pubs in the USA showing football.

[8] What’s the music the teams run out to?

At the start of the 03/04 season it was actually a mix of two tracks: Starting with “O Verona” (from the film “William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet”) leading in to “Barber’s Adagio for Strings (Ferry Corsten remix)” by William Orbit. The first part is available on the movie soundtrack (volume 2) and the second is included on a variety of CDs such as Kiss House Nation 2000, Galaxy Hit Mix, Cream Live, Ibiza Chill and Dance Nation 4.

Currently we use a selection of different music, which seems to change each game.

[9] Do we have a Usenet newsgroup?

Yes we do: uk.sport.football.clubs.man-city is our home on usenet. If you are not familiar with usenet, a basic explanation is available here: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci213262,00.html

[10] Do any squad members have their own web pages?

There are a number available and direct links can be found at http://www.uit.no/mancity/players/

[11] Can I buy shares in the club?

Yes you can: Shares in Manchester City PLC are traded on OFEX. The latest prices can be on found the OFEX web site http://www.ofex.com/ (registration required) or in the business section of the Manchester Evening News.

[12] Where can I find match statistics?

Statistics for the current season are available from the club site, but for a more in-depth analysis try http://www.mcfcstats.com/.

[13] Acknowledgements

Thanks go to Damian Quinn, Stephen Webb, Roger Haigh, Martin Price, and Adrian Howarth for the Satellite TV info.

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, editor@mcivta.city-fan.org

Editor: