Newsletter #1111

Pearce’s first win in charge, our first home win against Liverpool since April ’95, and Musampa’s first goal. Not the best of games, but a second half showing that certainly lifted the spirits, as did Pearce’s touchline antics.

Tonight we have stats and views on the game, player and manager views and another good Why Blue.

Finally, the reserves are in action again tomorrow night vs. Newcastle at MiniCoMS.

MATCH STATS: MCFC 1 LFC 0

FA PREMIERSHIP – MANCHESTER CITY 1 LIVERPOOL 0
City of Manchester Stadium – Sat April 9th 2005 – Kick-off 15:00
Attendance: 47,203

Team Changes: Bosvelt replaces Macken in the starting line up.
Line-up: James, Onuoha (Mills, 67), Dunne, Distin, Jordan, Barton, Reyna, Bosvelt (Croft, 73), Musampa, Sibierski (B. Wright-Phillips 83), Fowler.
Unused subs: Weaver, Negouai.
Goal time: (90) Musampa.

Bookings: Barton (45).
Sent off: None.
Referee: Mike “Weasel” Riley – 12th game refereeing City. First was 0-0 on Boxing Day 2000 at home to Derby. Last season he was in charge for five games, and City lost four and drew the other. Today was only his second match this season, and City have won both, the other being Aston Villa at home (won 2-0). Record in charge of City: W5 D2 L5.

Comment: Stuart Pearce was finally blessed with his first win as City Manager, and what a way to seal it, with Kiki Musampa scoring in the last minute of normal time. The “Sold Out” signs were on display on the Ticket Store windows for the first time this season as SP made his home bow in a game played in wintry conditions. Pearce showed today that he is prepared to include youth, with Onuoha, Jordan, Barton, Croft and Bradley Wright-Phillips all involved at some stage, with the latter two involved in the build up play that led to Kiki’s sweet strike.

The general chat around the stadium before, during and after the game was that Stuart Pearce should be left in charge for the long term, to give him the chance to prove himself. He is likely to be more prudent with any transfer funds that come his way next season, which would suit the Board fine.

The back cover of today’s programme had a picture of my two flags, which were on display at the recent Spurs away match. The comment says “Spotted next to a heavily autographed Union Flag among the City fans at White Hart Lane were the Stars and Stripes of Claudio Reyna’s home nation”. My autographed MAN CITY flag contains well over 100 player autographs from the past and present, which represents about 10% of all the players that have ever played for City. The only ones I think are missing from the last seven years are Ostenstad, Robins, de Vlieger, D’Laryea, Croft and Musampa.

MATCH VIEW: FROM THE OTHER SIDE

I picked up this match report from the Liverpool Echo website, there are one or two compliments to City contained within it.

The wives and girlfriends of Liverpool’s players are the most relaxed in the country at weekends. They know there’s little prospect of their men playing away from home.

A ninth Premiership defeat on the road revealed the depth of the Reds’ identity crisis.

Benitez is analysing it again today, asking himself as much as the players why they can defeat one of the finest teams in Italy, but can’t hold onto a scruffy draw with the fifth best side in the North West four days later.

Only Jamie Carragher and Steve Finnan can argue they’ve been as impressive away from Anfield as they have on home ground, but for all their often heroic defending, they need a lead to protect at least once in what Manchester City call a blue moon.

It was the same infuriating tale on Saturday, although Finnan and Carragher were ably assisted by Scott Carson, who provided the first glimpse of his potential following a patchy start to his Liverpool career.

City boss Stuart Pearce suggested a draw would have been a fair result.

That was a generous assessment. Carson was needed to deny Sylvain Distin, Antoine Sibierski and, most impressively, Kiki Musampa with close range saves. Musampa’s second effort on the stroke of full time was a cruel climax, but only one team looked like winning.

Liverpool created openings for Anthony Le Tallec in the first half, and Gerrard missed the clearest chance of all nine minutes from time. But the flow and style so encouraging in Europe was absent. The visitors clearly settled for a point long before it disappeared.

Pellegrino was turned too easily in the build-up to the winning goal, although criticising a rare defensive error in a 1-0 defeat aims the spotlight at the wrong area when assessing such results.

Liverpool’s flimsy attack and regular failure to score is the main cause of the away woe. They have scored one goal in their nine away defeats. This is where the ongoing injury or banned list really tells. Facing a defence containing Richard Dunne without any pace in attack is plain unlucky.

For City, Robbie Fowler was the most menacing striker on the pitch – doubling the pain for the away fans who still can’t get used to Fowler in anything but red – while former target Joey Barton gave the kind of tidy, aggressive midfield display that leaves more than a tinge of regret he was never signed.

Both could have been wearing a red shirt on Saturday. If they had, Liverpool wouldn’t have lost.

Buoyed by another defeat, another dire result and another Saturday night trying to avoid Match of the Day, the message from the Liverpool camp couldn’t be clearer. Bring on Juve.

OPINION: CITY’S GOAL

Not a match report but just a comment on the goal City scored against Liverpool.

It was great to see BW-P and Croft combine to defeat Liverpool’s tired legs and the cross from Croft looked like a deliberate chip into the path of Musampa for a controlled volley.

Well done the youngsters for one of the better worked goals of the week.

OPINION: PEARCE STEPS CLOSER

Stuart Pearce became closer to being the manager of Manchester City after the 1-0 win over Liverpool. Several fans have expressed they would like to see Psycho given a contract, but the Board of Directors maintain that they will stick to their plan, to review the situation at the end of this season.

Sticking to their plan because after all time is on their side: Stuart Pearce wants the job and is not leaving to go to another team, it also makes Psycho keep working hard to get the results and impress.

Psycho has certainly brought new life and hope to Manchester City FC, his passion and attitude are catching, he has got to have “blue blood” in his veins.

I can’t see why any other manager’s name should come up any more, I think that MCFC have the manager for the future in Stuart Pearce; it would be folly to go for anyone else, my reasons being that Psycho knows the players, he has motivated them all to give their best for him, he shows a commitment for the cause, and knows the club, and players at the Academy.

If a new man came in, how could he ever motivate the players who will basically be next season’s team better than Psycho? A new man will have little cash to spend on players, so what better could he really do?

If Psycho can get City further up the EPL for extra prize money, he will then have a bit more cash to get his players to strengthen his team for next season. He will of course also have his option to bring in his own coaching staff; Nigel Clough has already been mentioned, he being a close friend of Psycho, and someone he can trust.

Stuart Pearce is still in a learning process and will be the first to admit that, after all we all learn something new every day.

Good Luck Psycho! You bring us hope in the club to go forward.

Come on you Blues!

OPINION: MACKEN

I think it’s time somebody actually said something other than “this guy isn’t Premiership class”.

Now I’m not saying that Jon Macken is going to be a world class player or anything like that, but I would ask you to have a think about how many chances he has had to actually play himself into this team, let’s not forget that he was always the 3rd striker on the bench who came on for the last 15 minutes.

When Robbie got tired or the crowd were starting to get on his back, then there was the long injury and the recovery from that. I may be wrong, but this is about the first time since he’s been with us that he has been able to, or be given the chance to actually start games and be considered one of our main strikers; surely he has to be given the chance to show what he can do before he is condemned to be one of City’s famous “misfits”?

I thought that against Charlton Jon’s link up play with Robbie was excellent, and he does work hard, and the desire is there. Yes, we all know he fluffed 2 one-on-ones, and we all know that Nico would have scored both of those (wouldn’t he?). But he was there to get in those positions.

As I said earlier, I don’t know whether Jon Macken will be a Rolls Royce or a Reliant Robin, but surely we have to let him get out of the garage before we judge him?

WHY BLUE

I’ve considered writing this for a time, and was finally moved to do so by both Bill Jensen’s and Jon Pickstone’s accounts of how they became City fans.

I grew up in Wolverhampton, England. My dad wasn’t much into football, and consequently I never really supported any particular team.

In truth, I was much more into American sports. I enjoyed watching and playing basketball, but my real passion was for American Football. I was (and still am) an avid Chicago Bears fan. As a lad I played for the Wrekin Giants Junior team and more recently for the Manchester Titans. I just loved the mixture of tactics, athleticism and outright violence.

Consequently, I never really got that much into football at all, let alone supporting anyone. At school I’d always be pulling for my mates’ teams (mostly Liverpool and Villa), but never really settled on one of my own.

Then six years ago, my best mate took me to a Villa game. I sat through a dreadful goalless draw with Southampton. Nothing inspiring happened and I wasn’t entertained, but my best mate was a Villain, and I’d been to see them so that was that. I was a Villa fan, wasn’t I?

A few months later I moved to Manchester, and thought I’d take my wife (a local lass) along to see City (we didn’t live far from the ground and like the vast majority of non-Reds I hated United). I watched us beat West Ham 1-0 in a relegation dogfight. And there it was. The passion. The atmosphere. The spirit. The inspiration and the entertainment. It was an ugly game but I had seen City (particularly Carlo Nash) fight for their lives. I knew that this game actually meant something to the players and to the fans.

Since then I’ve managed to get to about half of our home games (with Kathy in tow) and live and die by those results. It finally means something.

Kathy and I are planning a family. I hope that our kids are Blues – but if they are not, it won’t be a problem. As long as they support a team for the right reason. I honestly believe there’s a moment when the team chooses you. It might be because they win everything in sight. It might be because you’ve heard the jibes of those who’ve won everything and you didn’t like the arrogance. It might be that you saw 11 men and 40,000 fans all giving their all for something that wasn’t glorious, but that meant the world to them. And it doesn’t matter who that team is, as long as you allow yourself to hear the call.

As an epilogue, I actually made the pilgrimage to Soldier Field in Chicago last October. I was that moved (I had waited 17 years to get there), that both my wife and I had tears in our eyes as we walked in through the gate. It was spectacular, despite the fact that we lost the game, scoring only once on a spectacular interception returned for a touchdown – which I missed because I was in the queue for the toilet. I guess there are times when it’s not always good to get ‘the call’…

REQUEST: MCFCSTATS UPDATE

The names, seasons and “calendar years played” screens have been updated/refreshed for players’ surnames C to F.

RESULTS

10 April 2005

Aston Villa           1 - 1  West Bromwich Albion  39,402
Everton               4 - 0  Crystal Palace        36,519
Tottenham Hotspur     1 - 0  Newcastle United      35,885

9 April 2005

Blackburn Rovers      3 - 0  Southampton           20,726
Bolton Wanderers      3 - 1  Fulham                25,493
Chelsea               1 - 1  Birmingham City       42,031
Manchester City       1 - 0  Liverpool             47,203
Middlesbrough         0 - 1  Arsenal               33,874
Portsmouth            4 - 2  Charlton Athletic     20,108
Norwich City          2 - 0  Manchester United     25,522

League table to 10 April 2005 inclusive

                             HOME          AWAY        OVERALL
                    P  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F   A   GD Pts
 1 Chelsea         32 12  4  0 31  5 13  2  1 31  7 25  6  1  62  12  50  81
 2 Arsenal         32 10  5  1 43 18 11  2  3 30 15 21  7  4  73  33  40  70
 3 Manchester Utd  32 11  5  0 27  7  8  5  3 21 12 19 10  3  48  19  29  67
 4 Everton         32 10  1  5 20 14  6  5  5 19 19 16  6 10  39  33   6  54
 5 Liverpool       32 11  2  3 26 11  4  3  9 18 21 15  5 12  44  32  12  50
 6 Bolton Wndrs    32  8  4  4 21 13  6  3  7 20 23 14  7 11  41  36   5  49
 7 Tottenham H.    32  8  3  5 30 20  5  4  7  9 15 13  7 12  39  35   4  46
 8 Middlesbrough   32  7  5  4 23 18  5  4  7 22 25 12  9 11  45  43   2  45
 9 Charlton Ath.   32  8  3  5 26 21  4  5  7 13 27 12  8 12  39  48  -9  44
10 Aston Villa     32  8  4  4 24 14  3  5  8 14 26 11  9 12  38  40  -2  42
11 Manchester City 32  6  5  5 18 13  4  5  7 20 23 10 10 12  38  36   2  40
12 Newcastle Utd   31  7  4  5 24 24  2  7  6 17 25  9 11 11  41  49  -8  38
13 Birmingham City 32  6  5  5 20 13  3  5  8 15 26  9 10 13  35  39  -4  37
14 Blackburn R.    32  4  7  5 19 19  4  5  7  9 18  8 12 12  28  37  -9  36
15 Portsmouth      32  7  3  6 24 22  2  4 10 13 29  9  7 16  37  51 -14  34
16 Fulham          31  6  3  6 19 22  3  3 10 18 29  9  6 16  37  51 -14  33
17 West Brom A.    32  4  7  5 14 21  1  6  9 17 31  5 13 14  31  52 -21  28
18 Southampton     32  4  9  3 23 22  1  3 12 11 29  5 12 15  34  51 -17  27
19 Crystal Palace  32  5  3  8 15 14  1  5 10 18 40  6  8 18  33  54 -21  26
20 Norwich City    32  4  5  7 25 31  0  6 10  7 32  4 11 17  32  63 -31  23

MCIVTA FAQ [v0405.02]

[1] 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

[2] What are MCIVTA’s publishing deadlines?

Deadlines for issues are nominally 6pm, Monday and Thursday evenings bu email. Unfortunately we cannot accept email attachments.

[3] 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.

[4] What is the club’s official web site?

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

[5] 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).

[6] Where can I find out about the fans’ committee?

The Fans’ Committee operates as an interface between supporters and the club. The Fans’ Committee has been relaunched as “Points of Blue”. It has appeared on the club website as a minor entry under “Fans Zone”.

[7] 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/.

[8] 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/.

[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] Where can I find a list of City-related websites?

Try Wookie’s Lair: http://www.wookieslair.com/modules.php?name=Web_Links

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: