Newsletter #1355

First derby of the season, and bragging rights go to the Blues as City beat United in a 1-0 on Sunday thanks to the Brazilian duo and our defensive giants Richards and Dunne. This leaves us top of the league although bad news today in that Bonjovi is out for 5 months with his knee injury.

We have match reports tonight from Phil and Glyn, views on progress thus far, suggestions on the father and son pairings and the usual requests.

MATCH REPORT: MCFC 1 MUFC 0

City won a hard fought derby to go top of the table and seven points clear of United, whose title chances have been dealt a severe blow by the Boys in Blue. Hard to believe? Well, it’s true. It’s true also that in winning the first three matches, City have maintained the promising 100% start to the season and kept three clean sheets. Of course, it’s very early days, and is there a City fan who expects us to be in the shake up for the title at end of the season? This was a backs-to-the-wall performance, and we are still in the early stages of Sven’s and Dr Thaksin’s rebuilding stage, but the early signs are very good, and, yes, it’s very nice indeed to have beaten our not-so-lovable local rivals, go top of the league, and deal them such a blow to their season.

The game started off unpromisingly, though. Bojinov sustained what looked like a serious knee injury judging by the pain he was in, and he was replaced by Emile Mpenza. United started off dominating possession, with Scholes pulling the strings for them and Nani (Nani? Nani? Pity that the Goat wasn’t still in Sky Blue) tormenting Corluka down our right. Indeed our wide midfield players did leave the full backs unprotected early on. Kasper Schmeichel made a double save from the Portuguese, and followed it up with another low save from their winger before Sven astutely had a word with Geovanni to advise him to offer a bit more protection to the twin threat of Evra and Nani down our right. For half an hour, City struggled to keep possession, committing the cardinal sin of gifting the ball back to the opposition with some nervous and untidy passing.

Not that it was easy to keep possession as the Rds were up to their usual snide, dirty tactics. Not content with having the physical advantage, they administered kicks to the back of the legs to Elano and Geovanni when they tried to receive the ball. It surely couldn’t have been a coincidence that they are our more skilful players could it? United’s shameless hypocrisy is boundless. Not for the first time, Ferguson tried his usual mind games on the referee in the media build up to the game with so-called ‘concerns’ about City being over-physical. Not for the first time, it was United who tried to kick City off the pitch. Scholes tried to deadleg Elano who hobbled gingerly for a few minutes thereafter, Hargreaves left his foot in too, Brown twice late-tackled Petrov to send the Bulgarian crashing to the ground after he had tricked his way past him. Referee Mark Clattenburg even waved two fingers at Brown after the second such foul, yet none of these bad challenges earned a caution from the official, who, in the time honoured tradition, allowed the thuggish tactics of Manchester United to go unpunished. Only Clattenburg knows why it took him more than half an hour to book Brown. In contrast, Corluka’s first mistimed challenge in the game brought him a booking. Hamann’s first mistimed challenge also earned him a caution. Talk about double standards. How can these referees sleep at night? Why do the so-called big four clubs need such help? City beat 12 men in a Manchester derby again. All of which makes City’s achievement more remarkable.

The atmosphere crackled as we backed the Boys in Blue fervently. The visitors were posing threats: Nani fired just wide, and Richards used his lightning pace to good effect to make two wonderful tackles on Tevez. Micah was having an absolute stormer.

The ‘Argentina, Argentina’ refrain from the sad visitors was met with a firm ‘Inger-lernd’ from the South Stand and the Kippax. Never mind Argentina, though. Just after the half hour, the game changed with a bit of Brazilian magic. Elano controlled the ball a few yards in from the left touchline, and fed a lovely pass into the inside left position, where Geovanni hit a low, bending shot which brushed past a defender and just inside the post, past a beaten Van der Sar. 1-0 to the Blues! Cue bedlam, hugs and manic cheers born of extreme joy. On reflection, it was also so pleasing, not to mention fitting, that the two boys from Brazil survived the previous assaults to deliver the decisive blow. It was certainly a show of strength of character by the South Americans.

City were transformed up to half time, having gained confidence and found the knack to keep the ball, and there followed a passage of play when City put together what at least twenty-odd continuous passes, which were greeted by cheers, and a few Oles! The only thing wrong with this move was that it was terminated by a shot straight at Van der Sar. The Blues went in at half time to a deserved standing ovation.

In the second half, the pattern reverted to that of then first half hour with the visitors holding the lion’s share of possession. Vidic hit the bar with a header, only for Scholes to comically scuff his effort wide from the rebound to cheers of derision.

When we did get the ball, the Rags’ rough house tactics went unpunished with Geovanni eventually having to go off after being flattened by another unpunished, thuggish tackle. United’s tactics got more and more desperate and their players got more and more rattled as the game went on, with several wild tackles going in from them. Ferdinand got himself booked for a stupid lunge on Corluka who had showed great strength to hold him off. You know that Ferguson is rattled when he starts bellowing and gesturing from the technical area, and rattled he most certainly was. Fergie the Fruitcake then inexplicably replaced the dangerous Nani with one of their fringe players. You know has to be really desperate when he brings John O’Shea on!

The whole City team had to work hard though. Mpenza, who had been industrious up front, even if he didn’t get a sniff of goal all afternoon, was switched to give muscle to the right hand side as Bianchi came on for Elano. Hamann and Johnson both worked tirelessly in central midfield and are forming a good partnership in there. Johnson is so cool and composed for one so young, and has a superb mentor in Hamann who is enjoying having better players around him to make angles for his perceptive passing.

Micah Richards was a colossus at the back and thoroughly deserved his man of the match award. Those crucial two tackles amongst several others in the first half plus a great clearance in the six yard cross from a searching Tevez cross in the second period were the highlights of a brilliant performance from Micah, who was ably supported by the sublime skipper, Richard Dunne, who was again a rock at the back, bravely getting headers, blocks and clearances in when required, and even shedding blood for the cause with a cut eye in the dying minutes. Indeed, Micah paid tribute in the post match interview to his skipper for his words of encouragement during the game. Garrido looks very solid at left back, and Corluka made some lovely clean tackles on the other flank once he settled into the game. The young Croat also went close to doubling City’s lead with a powerful long range effort that just missed the angle of post and bar. It was good to see Michael Ball slot in seamlessly at left back for the last few minutes as Sven astutely stiffened the left hand side, pushing the versatile Garrido into midfield.

Who would have thought just a few short years ago that we would have seen two Schmeichels feature in two winning Manchester derbies for City within five years of each other? No one would have predicted that, but young Kasper showed the confidence required to give another assertive performance in goal.

City rode their luck as Tevez hit a teasing Giggs cross wide, then proceeded to put an easy header past the post in stoppage time. City deserved such breaks for all their back to the wall endeavour. It says much about the character of the players that they rode out the storm, with City attacks few and far between. As the visiting ‘supporters’ sat in silence, ‘We’re the Pride of Manchester’ and ‘City are back’ was the refrain from us, before we hugged, clapped and cheered our Blue heroes at the relief of the final whistle. Who is to argue? Furthermore, who is to say that City don’t do well against teams in the lower half of the table? All in all, happy memories are made of days like these.

It is good to know that Sven enjoyed the moment, understands what it means to us for City to beat United, yet he talks of improving the squad further. We should always look to improve, and there is much work to be done. The team lacks a little physical strength in wide midfield positions, and he is looking to add one or two more midfield players. He may need another striker if Bojinov’s injury proves to be long term. Whatever he decides, Eriksson inspires confidence with his actions, and that can only be a good thing for Manchester City.

MATCH REPORT: MCFC 1 MUFC 0

For as long as I can remember, City have never been tp of the Premier League after 3 matches and mind boggling maximum points too. I will lap it up as long as I can. I was eagerly looking forward to the match, not knowing what to expect. Would City play bewildering football? Would United give us a footballing lesson? Could we win? Would we get hammered? These were the thoughts going through my head before kick off.

Well the whistle went and it was all United, I just kept saying to myself, we’ve just got to stop them scoring in this good spell that they are having, ride out the storm and then show them what we can do. As each minute ticked by, we just could not keep the ball, and United were playing neat one two football, and whenever there was a 50/50 it fell to a red shirt. Kasper then made a couple of good saves and I kept thinking, sooner or later they are going to score. I never felt confident for one minute.

The player I wanted to see on the ball (Elano) was getting hounded and buffeted by Hargreaves, once or twice a bit over the top, but the referee did nothing. Then out of the blue we had a bit of possession, the ball was fed by Elano to Giovanni and he shot and scored, I could not believe it, we were ahead with our only shot at goal. The question now was: could we prevent them from scoring? Half time finally came and I thought Sven would alter things so that we would look more secure in the second half; surely United could not keep going for another 45 minutes in the same vein.

Well the second half was a mirror image of the first with our star players being the defence and the ‘keeper, I was willing us on to get the second that would ease the pressure on us, but it was all United and how they didn’t score is just incredible, Richards and Dunne were just giants, ably supported by Johnson and Hamman who was doing well but was tiring. One time we made a great counter attack and all Hamman had to do was to play in Petrov on the wing, but that snarling pitbull Hargreaves chased back and won the ball; he must have done that at least 10 times. Injure him I kept shouting at the TV, hoping Hamman would put his foot in early or late, just to reduce his influence on the game.

Elano was on the periphery for all the time he was involved and should have been replaced at half time. I was glad to see the back of Nani, as he too, was a scourge on the left wing. I was glad when we had 2 sets of fresh legs as we needed all hands to the pump. As the game wore on it looked inevitable that they would equalise, and the amount of the times the ball just went wide of the post left me a gibbering wreck.

The final whistle went and I could not believe that we had won 1-nil, it was just incredible. How Ferguson must have been seething when he went to shake Erickson’s hand at the final whistle; at least he got a nice bottle of red wine.

Player ratings:
Schmeichel 8. One or two mistakes but fantastic match for him and his family, great confidence booster.
Garrido 7. Nowhere near as influential or accomplished as Evra.
Richards 9. A brilliant game at the back, he was everywhere mopping up.
Dunne 9. A giant at the back, captain’s performance.
Corluka 6. Getting better, but gives the left winger too much space to operate.
Petrov 6. Not a game he could really excel in, the best is still to come.
Johnson 7. Considering who he was up against in midfield, a great performance.
Hamann 8. He is getting better with each game and did really well considering.
Elano 5. Was put off his stride by an aggressive opponent in Hargreaves; needs to get stronger.
Bojinov 5. Too little time to make an assessment, hope he recovers quickly.
Giovanni 8. A liitle gem, to think we got him on a free.
Mpenza 6. Worked hard but still did not make any impression.
Bianchi 6. Didn’t have much of a chance to perform as we were defending so much.
Ball 5. Came on very late, we know what he can do.

Generally, I am very pleased with Sven’s “new look” team but this match has highlighted the need of a midfielder in the mould of Hargreaves, who I thought was awesome. We really need a tiger in the middle for games like these, maybe Bresciano or Appiah would be that man, as Elano was out-muscled, and needs to be protected more, as he is that link man that will open up lesser teams than United.

All in all we have the bragging rights till the next derby, but boy were we given a footballing lesson. Hopefully Sven and his back room staff and Shinawatra’s money will buy us a bit more quality before the transfer deadline.

Hopefully our third win on the trot will get the few doubters and moaners back into the fold and support our team for the rest of the season.

C’mon City, let’s have a real go at Arsenal, and who knows we might even get a victory there too.

MATCH VIEW: MCFC 1 MUFC 0

Excellent 3 points today against United. However, to say we just about snatched victory from the jaws of defeat is an absolute understatement.

A game of boys versus men was very apparent for most of the game, with United a totally class act, utterly composed and dominant, likely 85-15. For all of that though, it’s only goals that really matter, and in that respect we came out top with a very good (albeit defender-deflected) strike. If this game had been played at Old Trafford, we’d have been demolished for sure, but it clearly wasn’t.

I anticipated and expected so much more from Elano (who appeared devoid of confidence/ nervous) and I was very disappointed with Petrov. However, Micah Richards and Richard Dunne were each immense (eat your heart out Mr Greed: Sylvain Distain). Well done, too, to Schmeichel, another one for the future, although I feel he shall learn very quickly: a big, strong lad.

We’re badly in need of an experienced attack-minded and creative midfielder, as well as at least another quality and proven striker; we simply cannot go through the season playing so lightweight up front. Eventually, this will catch up with us, to our cost. Hopefully, Sven will be addressing our obvious shortfall during the next two weeks.

The crowd was terrific and noisy but instead of some of the songs from our guys in the stands, we’d be much better at a few rousing renditions of the plain and simple: “City! City!”; much more easy to understand, especially, by our non/little English-speaking players. Plain and simple, much like the game itself.

So, we were battered to hell today but we managed the three points. We have the makings of a good side but we’re far from the finished article. Certainly no-one should get carried away though. The football season is a marathon not a sprint, as Sven well knows.

On to the next game!

OPINION: SWEDE 1 BEETROOT 0

I had to write with a few comments after witnessing the derby match on Sunday. What a great game and fantastic atmosphere. City’s defence was magnificent; much praise has been made of Micah and Richard Dunne, and rightly so. However, one player that caught my eye was Corluka. I had a front row seat and spent much of the second half at close quarters watching him defend against Giggs, Tevez and Scholes. This lad is very good, he made several superbly timed tackles, one in particular, a two footed tackle in the area that dispossessed Giggs. Garrido also had a good game and when Ball replaced him in the second half served to strengthen the defence further. The defence is starting to look like a class act and capable of holding their own against any team. They will only get better as the season goes on.

Ferdinand was up to his usual tricks at the end of the match. It was nice to wipe the smile off his face and to avenge the derby result from last April. I must admit I smiled when the ground erupted with chants of “Going Down”.

Let us now sit back and enjoy the ride, we only have the league to concentrate on with no other distractions; could it be possible that Sven could mastermind a route to a top five finish or dare I say it, the league title!

OPINION: SO FAR SO GOOD

Well credit where credit’s due. I was a little apprehensive when Sven was signed as manager, mainly because of his time as England manager. But he seems to have bought very well, most of the players I haven’t heard of, but it’s nice to see a City team play football again, with flair and pace.

Okay, a few doggy moments in defence, but all in all a really good performance. As I went to bed (before getting up at 12.30pm to watch the game), I prayed that the good Lord would put a glass shield over the goal so United couldn’t score.

As the second half progressed it seemed as He had. I wonder if He would leave it there, although I suppose that’s a bit much to ask. Still, three points sets the week off really well.

Now for the players: Young Schmeichel certainly has what it takes. Corluka and Garrido are quick and uncompromising (although ran out of a bit of steam later in the second half), Dunnie and Richards (now there’s a decent pairing isn’t it?), the two Brazilians Elano and Geovanni are quick and skilful (and Geovanni knows where the goal is). Glad to see Hamann back to what we all know he can play like, Johnson looks like a young Colin Bell (ain’t we lucky that he does?). Didn’t see the unfortunate Bojinov, and Mpenza and Biannchi have pace and flair as well.

I know it’s only three games and that doesn’t make a season, but this side has the makings of a great one like the Mercer Allison era. Hmm, maybe I might be getting a little carried away, but who cares, this is City. Staying home to watch the replay at 11.30 this morning. Very lucky I work from home on days like this.

Have a great day, and wear those shirts with pride.

OPINION: THUMBS UP

Just a quick line to congratulate Phil Banerjee on an excellent, incisive and pacy report on the Derby victory. At the time of writing I am longing for a ‘derby’ victory and to extend my heartfelt sympathies to both the author and his wife for their recent bereavements.

Having known Phil for the past four years and sharing a similar fiery, and in no small way, articulate passion for Manchester City, I hope the SGE revolution will bring some crumbs of comfort to help ease the pain of losing his dad. When my wonderful father departed this world in 1996 I was left to focus on the dubious delights of Lincoln City 4 Manchester City 1.

Hang in there Big Fella, it doesn’t seem like it now but the pain eases and you know that the memories will never fade… but there again isn’t that the essence of being a City fan?

On a personal note I was asked to speak as a City fan on the BBC Five Live Monday Night Club with Mark Saggers, Stan Collymore, Paul Jewell and our dear old friend, Graham ‘Matinee Man’ Poll. It was a good knockabout session with my new found mate Stan, saying he had every belief that City under Sven will do well, Paul Jewell claiming I was getting ‘carried away’ and me wishing that Poll the ****hole had been carried away several years ago.

Modesty prevents me from saying that I gave a sterling, robust and balanced view of the new look City and if anyone should wish me to sign the City vs. Scum programme (thereby rendering it totally worthless) I am available for signing sessions. Just contact my agent and we’ll take it on from there!

Final word to SGE – great job so far, keep strengthening the squad – one more striker, one more midfielder and a defender to give us real stength in depth. If Kasper comes through Sunday having given a good account of himself then maybe we don’t need to spend £5 million on Amelia – who knows?

OPINION: NO, SERIOUSLY

A typical story of Manchester football.

One Manchester club goes top after winning the first three games of the season, helped by another clean sheet from a ‘keeper called Schmeichel. Their local rivals are seven points and 15 places behind them, massively in debt, can’t score and are forced to bring on two untried youngsters for a key game.

Genius!

OPINION: STEADY AS SHE GOES

Wow, what a great start to the season. This is more than any City fan could have expected.

But as old habits die hard all I find myself thinking is “Another 31 points and we should be safe.”

OPINION: NOT SO CHARMING MAN

LONDON (Reuters) Alex Ferguson will accept Sven-Goran Eriksson’s offer of an $800 (400 pound) bottle of wine after Sunday’s Manchester derby but does not plan to share a drop with the Manchester City manager.

“If he gives me a present I will accept it,” the United manager told a news conference on Friday. “But I will not be sharing it with him. I will take it home instead.”

Gracious as ever. To a T. What a nice man.

OPINION: GENERATION GAME I

In MCIVTA 1354, Ian Barton asks whether Peter and Kasper Schmeichel are the first father and son combination to play in the Premier League. Well, I don’t know but it is very likely. Interestingly, there have been some significant father and son City connections in the past.

Alec Herd, a City star of the late thirties and his son David Herd, who played for United in the sixties, featured together in a Stockport County team in 1951. Similarly, Ian Bowyer who played for City as a youngster and went on to European glory with Forest, played alongside his son Gary for Hereford United in 1980.

I also believe that George, Mike and Nicky Summerbee are the only grandfather, father and son trio to have played in the Football League (though obviously not at the same time!).

OPINION: GENERATION GAME II

How about Bradley and Shaun and their famous dad?

OPINION: RESPECT

Just a thought. If Shaun Goater or Uwe Rösler wrote to City asking for a couple of parking permits and seats in the director’s box, wouldn’t it be out of order to stick them in the stand?

Unless there’s a longstanding policy to that effect, it would seem like an insult to me to do that to a legend and ambassador of our club. Tueart is dead right about that.

OPINION: SWEDISH BLUES

I’m a Swede and I have been a Man City fan from the time of Francis Lee, Colin Bell, Rodney March and so on. Of course I’m very pleased now after 30 years of “nothing”, having Svennis, Backe and Grip as managers of “my” team.

However, don’t blame these three Swedes for the Thai owner’s background, please! What’s this compared to Russian Chelsea?

These three Swedes are the best team in UK right now, as you certainly have read in the newspapers in UK (London). Two of them were the best you have had in England for the national team since 40 years, but you didn’t understood it.

I really hope that you support Svennis, Backe and Grip all the way, and then I mean at least three years from now on, to the top of PL!

REQUEST: ARSENAL TICKET

Desperately seeking ticket for Arsenal game. If you can help please call 0790 873 8897 or email.

REQUEST: PASADENA/LA BLUES VIEWING

I was wondering if there are any City fans in the Pasadena/Los Angeles area who are interested in watching any of the matches together?

Lucky Baldwin’s in Pasadena is showing the derby. I’m sure there will be a sea of Red. I will definitely make myself heard. Go on City!

REQUEST: PERTH BLUES VIEWING

Funny how life goes, but after nearly thirty years of living in Australia and being a lone City fan for much of that time, I now feel the need to make contact with my fellow City fans in the northern suburbs of Perth.

So if anybody on the web knows of a supporters’ club in this area then please give me a ring on 9307 9785 or send me a phone number or web address so that I can make contact.

REQUEST: ONLINE VIEWING I

Just a little warning for my fellow Blues who use this excellent newsletter. I was interested in the piece by Marshall in MCIVTA 1354 and his/her endorsement of a site at pcfootie.com. Whilst I accept that the endorsement was probably given in good faith, I do have a little caveat. The site charges a very reasonable (GBP) 7.95 for a year’s ‘season ticket’ for the ability to watch all Premier League matches, Champions’ League, etc. live. The site is valid and delivers what it promises. But, and here is the reason for my caveat, if you go to http://www.worldtvpc.com/live/ you can get exactly the same thing for nothing! The streams are (I think from memory) Asian in origin and I stopped using them when my PC was infected with Spyware and God knows what else, which I only got rid of by formatting my hard drives and re-installing all my software. One further warning. If you do go ahead and use it, the site (pcfootie.com I mean) advises you that you may have to take down your firewall when using some of their software. To do so would be utter madness. In my humble opinion.

On a more positive note. I was able to watch the WHU treat online using the http://www.liveonlinefooty.com/ link (which has been discussed on this forum before). More expensive certainly but a site I do trust. I write this on Friday night after listening to TalkSport and also 5Live, discussing the weekend to come. I get the definite impression that the ‘chattering classes’ in the media are becoming very concerned that my beloved City are to be taken very seriously, and it galls them greatly, much to my joy and amusement. I have no idea how we will go on against the old foe on Sunday, but, like most others can only see this team getting better and better as the understanding develops.

Onwards and upwards Blues, CTID

REQUEST: ONLINE VIEWING II

These are a couple of sites you can watch free online football, though you do need a good broadband connection, I watched the West Ham game last week online, so I’d just like to pass on the info to all Blues fans right across the world as I know there are many ex-pat Blues that send in stuff to MCIVTA.

These can be watched anywhere in the world as long as you have the right connection and have downloaded the right software. Each website has a beginner’s guide of what to download. I’ll be honest, sometimes you can get on and sometimes you can’t and sometimes it freezes, but I’ve watched City a few times in real time, and it’s been great, but because it’s streamed it may be between 30 secomds and 2 minutes behind. Anyway, happy viewing.

Oh and they run on donations so drop them a couple of quid, and do pass them on to your family and friends, you wo’nt find them on any search engine.
http://www.myp2p.eu/
http://www.fsicrew.info/index.php

RESULTS

19 August 2007

Manchester City       1 - 0  Manchester United     44,955
Blackburn Rovers      1 - 1  Arsenal               24,917
Liverpool             1 - 1  Chelsea               43,924

18 August 2007

Birmingham City       0 - 1  West Ham United       24,961
Fulham                1 - 2  Middlesbrough         20,948
Portsmouth            3 - 1  Bolton Wanderers      17,108
Reading               1 - 0  Everton               22,813
Tottenham Hotspur     4 - 0  Derby County          35,600
Wigan Athletic        3 - 0  Sunderland            18,639
Newcastle United      0 - 0  Aston Villa           51,049

League table to 19 August 2007 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  3  2  0  0  2  0  1  0  0  2  0  3  0  0   4   0   4   9
 2 Chelsea          3  1  0  0  3  2  1  1  0  3  2  2  1  0   6   4   2   7
 3 Wigan Athletic   3  2  0  0  4  0  0  0  1  1  2  2  0  1   5   2   3   6
 4 Everton          3  1  0  0  2  1  1  0  1  3  2  2  0  1   5   3   2   6
 5 Portsmouth       3  1  1  0  4  2  0  1  0  2  2  1  2  0   6   4   2   5
 6 Newcastle Utd    2  0  1  0  0  0  1  0  0  3  1  1  1  0   3   1   2   4
 7 Arsenal          2  1  0  0  2  1  0  1  0  1  1  1  1  0   3   2   1   4
 8 Blackburn R.     2  0  1  0  1  1  1  0  0  2  1  1  1  0   3   2   1   4
 9 Liverpool        2  0  1  0  1  1  1  0  0  2  1  1  1  0   3   2   1   4
10 Reading          3  1  0  1  2  2  0  1  0  0  0  1  1  1   2   2   0   4
11 Sunderland       3  1  0  0  1  0  0  1  1  2  5  1  1  1   3   5  -2   4
12 Tottenham H.     3  1  0  1  5  3  0  0  1  0  1  1  0  2   5   4   1   3
13 Fulham           3  1  0  1  3  3  0  0  1  1  2  1  0  2   4   5  -1   3
14 Middlesbrough    3  0  0  1  1  2  1  0  1  2  2  1  0  2   3   4  -1   3
15 West Ham United  2  0  0  1  0  2  1  0  0  1  0  1  0  1   1   2  -1   3
16 Manchester Utd   3  0  1  0  0  0  0  1  1  1  2  0  2  1   1   2  -1   2
17 Aston Villa      2  0  0  1  1  2  0  1  0  0  0  0  1  1   1   2  -1   1
18 Birmingham City  3  0  1  1  2  3  0  0  1  2  3  0  1  2   4   6  -2   1
19 Derby County     3  0  1  0  2  2  0  0  2  0  5  0  1  2   2   7  -5   1
20 Bolton Wndrs     3  0  0  1  1  3  0  0  2  2  5  0  0  3   3   8  -5   0

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[6] Where can I find out about Points of Blue (formerly the Fans’ Committee)?

The committee operates as an interface between supporters and the club. Points of Blue appears on the club website as a minor entry under “Fans Zone”.

[7] What match day broadcasts are available on the web?

The Radio Manchester (née GMR) pre and post match phone-in is available on the web at http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/sport/manchester_city/index.shtml.

Live match commentaries and archives of games, reports and interviews can be found at http://mcfc.videoloungetv.com/do/preLogin?clubSiteCode=MCFC&CMP=AFC-003.

[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://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer, http://www.soccertv.com/, and http://www.livesoccertv.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] 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/.

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: