Newsletter #113

Plenty has happened since the last issue, most significantly a 5-1 drubbing at the hands of Hearts which prompted some interesting comments from Alan Ball. There’s also been widely-reported transfer speculation regarding new defenders, so could this be the end of the road for Curle, Kernaghan and/or Brightwell? The line-up against Spurs on Saturday will no doubt have some surprises, but will Uwe be in it? He hasn’t played since the last half hour at Stockport so it makes you wonder. Better news at last of Georgiou Kinkladze who has at last managed to get through all the red tape but unfortunately not in time to play in any of the friendlies. Will he play on Saturday?

This is my last edition of MCIVTA as Ashley is now back and ready to take over again. I’ve enjoyed the 3-week stint as editor and would like to thank all of you who’ve contributed or even just written to me, but I’ll certainly be glad to get back to the easy life. It just makes me realise how much effort Ashley’s put into MCIVTA over the last 12 months and what a great job he’s done for us all.

Bye for now, Paul.

Next game: Tottenham Hotspur, home, Saturday 19th August

MATCH REPORT `LIVE’

Hearts vs. Manchester City, Saturday 12th August 1995

Manchester City boss Alan Ball watched in horror as his team were ripped apart by a rampant Hearts side at Tynecastle. And while he admitted his own team’s display was a major disappointment, he was full of praise for Hearts.

Ball said: “They totally outclassed us from start to finish, to the point of embarrassment. But there were reasons for that with the injuries we have. Hearts played very well and beat us in every department of football – passion, ability, workrate – everything. But hopefully this is a shadow of the team we will have for our first game of the season against Spurs next Saturday.”

John Colquhoun led the Hearts attack in the absence of international striker John Robertson who was on international duty with Scotland. Colquhoun scored two goals and almost grabbed a hat-trick.

Hearts boss Jim Jeffries could scarcely control his delight after the performance. He said: “We watched City against Raith on Thursday night and we knew they were there for the beating, but you don’t expect a scoreline like this. But they did make some horrendous mistakes in defence but the pleasing thing for me was that we punished those mistakes. This shows what we can do without John Robertson and all the other 1st team mebers who were missing.”

Brian Hamilton shot the first goal in five minutes after Richard Edghill had knocked his first effort off the line (unlike Peter Beardsley on Wednesday who knocked the ball from behind the line). Then an amazing blunder by Ian Brightwell presented Allan Johnston with the second after 20 minutes. City made a token response with Nicky Summerbee pulling one back with a low shot 2 minutes later.

But Hearts were not to be denied. A superb pass by Craig Levein on the stroke of half time picked out John Colquhoun who finished from a tight angle. And Colquhoun made it 4-1 five minutes after the break with a well placed header from a Gary Locke cross. City keeper Andy Dibble blundered a clearance on 57 minutes and David Hagen scooped the ball into the net. Two mins later Colquhoun came within inches of a hat-trick but was denied by the post.

Hearts:-

Smith, Locke, Wishart, Levein, McPherson, Hamilton, Colquhoun, Mackay, Hagen, Johnston, Callaghan.

Subs:-

Jamieson, Ritchie, Wright, Leitch, Nelson. All used!

Man City:-

Dibble, Edghill, Phelan, Lomas, Brightwell, Kernaghan, Summerbee, Walsh, Quinn, Flitcroft, Simpson.

Subs:-

Foster, Freeman, Vonk, Griffiths, Mike, Thomas, Beagrie. All used!

City had quite a large support and contributed well to the atmosphere both inside and outside the ground. All in all an enjoyable day out but City were rather poor. Hearts played well considering how many injuries they had. Hopefully this will be the fright City need. Bring on Spurs!

MATCH REPORT

Raith Rovers vs. Manchester City, Thursday 10th August 1995
Report by: Paul Hince of the Manchester Evening News

Manchester City are a distance away from being ready for a new Premiership season. But at least there were signs in last night’s entertaining friendly against Raith Rovers that manager Alan Ball is starting to get his message across to his players. The slick, accurate passing movements and inventive set pieces which the Blues brought to the ramshackle Stark’s Stadium in Kirkcaldy were straight out of the Alan Ball coaching manual in an eye-catching preview of what the Maine Road fans can expect in the coming campaign.

And not even the last-second penalty which denied City the victory they deserved could erase the smile from the face of their notoriously hard-to-please new manager. “It’s starting to come together,” said Ball. “I am not blind and there are obviously one or two problem areas still to sort out. But our movement and passing at times was terrific and when you add players like Keith Curle, Georgiou Kinkladze, Uwe Rösler, Paul Walsh and Peter Beagrie to the equation, we won’t be far short of being a very good side.”

The game really burst into life in the second half with three goals in three minutes. City took the lead 20 minutes from time with a magnificent goal started and finished by Garry Flitcroft, who was head and shoulders above any other player on the park. Raith, however, were level within 60 seconds as Gordon Forrest gathered a poorly-cleared corner to thunder an unstoppable 20-yarder past Andy Dibble. A minute later, City were back in front with Fitzroy Simpson squeezing a low shot into the bottom corner.

Manager Ball handed a senior debut to rookie goalkeeper Nathan Freeman for the final 15 minutes and it was the promising youngster who inadvertently handed Raith the equaliser when he was left with no alternative but to pull down Craig McKinlay, who had been given a clear run at goal by City’s shoddy defence. Midfielder Danny Lennon duly completed the formalities from the spot with only enough time left for the kick-off before the final whistle blew.

NEWS – SYMONS I (Monday 14th)

According to GMR 7.25 Monday morning – AB is supposed to be signing Kit Symons today – the fee is expected to be around £800,000, with Fitzroy Simpson and Carl Griffiths going in the deal.

NEWS – SYMONS II (Monday 14th)

It is reported that Alan Ball is signing £1.5m-rated Kit Symons from Portsmouth. Symons is a 24yr old central defender with 18 caps for Wales. The deal is supposed to be Symons for £800k+Simpson+Griffiths. Alan Ball “discovered” Symons as a 12yr old when Ball was Portsmouth’s youth team manager (sounds familiar?). As City will now have six central defenders, any chance of a solid defence? Maybe Ball’s thinking of doing a Liverpool, say Kerneghan, Curle and Symons across the back with a couple of attacking full backs?

The Independent on Sunday is predicting City will be 19th (out of 20) this year. I certainly can’t agree with that, but with three to go down and only Bolton obvious contenders, it’s going to be tough.

NEWS – VARIOUS (Monday 14th)

Hertz 5 City 1

Doesn’t look good. So City round off the pre-season friendlies with a good, thumping defeat, just the result to get the players in the right frame of mind! According to AB however the team against Spurs will totally different; if so, why play the ‘reserves’ team? Also, just to really please everyone, Flipper was injured in the game!

New signing…?

AB is reported to be ready to offer Pompey £1,000,000 for Kit Symons, as well as including Simpson and Griffiths in the deal. I’m not sure what to make of that.

NEWS – VARIOUS (Monday 14th)

There’s no news about the Flipper injury in the MuEN so maybe it wasn’t an injury but just a plain substitution! According to the report City were outplayed and were generally pathetic and inept at defending. The scoreline could have been much worse except for the woodwork and poor finishing! The worrying thing about the 5-1 thrashing is the team that played. There seemed to be reports indicating that this wouldn’t be the team that started the Premiership campaign. That gave me the impression that there were plenty of reserves/youth playing; how wrong I was, here’s the team:

Dibble, Edghill, Brightwell (I), Kernaghan, Phelan, Summerbee, Lomas, Flitcroft, Simpson, Quinn, Walsh
Subs: Foster, Griffiths, Vonk, Thomas, Mike, Beagrie (not used) Freeman (not used)

It’s pretty frightening when you consider how many of them would feature in the league campaign; it’s nearly a full-strength team!!

However, it seems that AB had finally lost his patience with some of the players, claiming after the defeat ‘That was the last time you will see some of those players in a Manchester City first-team shirt.’ So who’s gonna be out? The obvious replacements are Kinky, Uwe, Curle and TC when (if) fit, but other than that who’s left?

More transfer news. AB is still interested in signing Kit Symons; this could depend upon Simmo and Griffiths’ decisions (however, if it’s made clear they don’t have a future at the Academy of Comedy then would they really want to stay?). It’s also reported that AB is about to ‘swoop’ for an un-named full-back (either position), valued at around £1,000,000. He’s got proven Premiership pedigree, is currently out of contract with his club in the south and is aged 25, so any guesses? AB is hoping to have them both in the starting line-up for the Spurs game!

Also just seen in the MuEN, City have been linked with Tranmere’s out of contract, 30 year old, John Morrisey, valued at £500,000.

NEWS – SYMONS III (Tuesday 15th)

City are reported to be chasing Kit Simons from Portsmouth in a deal involving Carl Griffiths and Fitzroy Simpson. They are also interested in Southampton defender Jason Dodd.

NEWS – ROCHDALE ISA (Tuesday 15th)

Arrangements are being made for Alan Ball and Asa Hartford to visit the Rochdale branch of the ISA on the 18th September. The meeting is set for the function room at Rochdale FC. I’ll confirm details later.

OPINION – EXPECTATIONS I

The new season is starting and it is with a sense of hope that I am looking forward to it. The key factors for us will be injuries and confidence. If we keep clear of injuries we should finish in the top half of the table. If we remain confident throughout the season then top 8 should be achieved.

If we have another spate of injuries, and the early signs are of another injury-plagued season, then we may struggle. In previous seasons confidence has gone as injuries have mounted and our worst performances have come during injury crises. Therefore, we desperately need to stay clear of injury.

A good cup run is not out of the question. We are capable of beating anyone on our day (e.g. Blackburn) so could easily reach a semi-final or better.

Key players for the season could be Flitcroft and Kinkladze. Flitcroft needs to start fulfilling his vast potential and, if he does, he should have a great season. If Kinkladze is as good as claimed, and he settles in English football, then these two could form a very good midfield.

TC needs to recover from injury asap, but, apart from the injuries, I’m optimistic. Let’s give Ball a chance (2 years?) to prove himself and who knows, perhaps we could have a trophy in 12 months to celebrate the 20th anniversary of our last trophy!

OPINION – EXPECTATIONS II

After reading the views of other MCIVTA subscribers on the season ahead I thought I’d add my views to the current flow of opinion.

Being one of the supporters who was disappointed at the appointment of Alan Ball as manager, I have to say I’ve been quietly impressed with the way things have developed. Over the past decade the number of managers at Maine Road has led to a rather unstable and regularly changing squad with each manager having his own style of playing, or frequently “differences of opinion” with players they have inherited. This has obviously led to a team which has been up and down more times than a yo-yo. However, AB has made no such drastic changes and has therefore got a team which should know how to play together as a team. If you look through the first team we already have a number of class players, and others with the potential to be class. If AB has the charisma to motivate these players week in, week out, who knows? Remember this is still the same team that is capable of taking apart the present champions at their home ground (and yes the same team that got crucified at the swamp)!!! The problem last season was the vast numbers of injuries we had, especially in defence, and this led to the Oldham syndrome: no matter how many times we scored, the opposition always scored more!!

Providing we don’t lose important players to long term injuries again I think we should have a fairly consistent, if not good, season when compared to previous ones. This doesn’t mean that I think all is well, and I’ll agree with anyone who says that the squad is a few players short of being good enough to fight for honours.

This brings me around to the subject of transfers again. No we haven’t bought any major signings in the off-season but that is certainly no bad thing in this summer of madness. For example, Villa have spent well in excess of £10 million on several players who have definitely yet to prove themselves, and on Little’s part this is probably the biggest gamble of his life! However, at Maine Road, firstly we haven’t got that sort of money and secondly a sudden spending spree on players who don’t provide the goods will probably throw us back to the dark ages of Swales and Co. (what a nice thought). But with careful purchases and a continued investment in the youth development programme we can bring about the same result.

Hopefully this will be the first of many seasons in which City reinstate themselves as a top Premiership side. But it’s going to take time. I just hope I’m still living when it happens!!!!!!

Forever Blue (and probably will be when I realise that what I’ve written is optimistic bullshit).

OPINION – MERCHANDISING

A note about the ad in Mens’ magazine “Loaded” for new City T-shirts as modelled by Oasis: I tried to call the club to get some, but as usual nobody at the club could help. Nor could the Arndale store. Surprise, surprise. I thought City were getting it together but maybe not? Anyway, I finally spoke to someone at the Maine Road shop who said that they were nothing to do with the club shop. He did say also though that they were overpriced and poor quality. He then proceeded to tell me what a shambles the club still was. He’d ordered 3,000 new team shirts from Umbro and as yet had received only 100. He was a very disgruntled fellow giving me the impression that while the people at Maine Road were nice they were as inept business-wise as Swales. So the shirts in Loaded look great, good designs, nice idea, normal City execution. Why oh why can’t we get merchandise sorted out!

I would send you a scan of the ad, but technology at MTV doesn’t stretch that far!

On the team, I had a discussion with a colleague yesterday who challenged me to name four teams who were definitely worse than the Blues. Give it a try! I think we’re in for a long battle this season.

OPINION – PREDICTIONS LEAGUE

I tend to agree with Paul here about not having any points for correct times of goals. I think Paul’s idea of greater than 5 goals may get a little complicated and confusing though. I think I’d opt for something simple like:

• 3 points for predicting the correct result i.e. home, away or draw.
• 1 point for getting the home team’s goals correct.
• 1 point for getting the away team’s goals correct.
• 1 point for each correct goalscorer. I suppose if you predict Rösler (2) and he scores 2 then that would be 2 points.

OPINION – TRANSFER AWARDS?

Just a couple of odds and ends…

How about an award for “Wackiest Transfer Rumour”? Mine goes to the Mirror (I think) which claimed that QPR were about to buy Roberto Baggio.

What odds we get Sunderland or Huddersfield away in the third round of the FA Cup?

I noticed that on the Virtual Manchester WWW pages, the section on United has been removed following legal advice; are the people from “Red Issue” on the net 🙂

Yours in Blue,

DO YOU A SUPPORT SCOTTISH TEAM?

Up here in sunny Scotland most of us always have an English side close to our “Hearts” as well. I would be very interested in finding out which Scottish teams City fans would say they “support”.

Please take the time to mail me direct and tell me which Scottish team (if any) you “support”.

I’ll compile all the stats and mail them back to the list.

OPINION – KINKY

I was on a train to Stirling to work at one of the Open University’s residential schools when I read a few lines in the Guardian that we had signed Georgiou Kinkladze. I get back to an overflowing mailbox, read MCIVTA to see some positive comments for once and I’m stunned to find that some people think it’s a bad deal!

The simple truth was pointed out by someone else. £2 million will barely buy an average carthorse in the current transfer madness. Would you prefer a raw and outstanding talent (if he’s so bad how come Tblisi were approached by Milan and Barca???) “Georgia only beat Wales and they’re crap” someone said, but the Welsh team in choc a bloc of the “Mr Averages” that Kinky will be up against week in, week out. Consider some of the players that have been sold for £2 million+.

Brian Deane, Dion Dublin, Gareth Southgate, Carlton Palmer…

Can you see the likes of Milan approaching any of these???? No I can’t either. An English player who is raw and not the finished article (Chris Armstrong) has been sold for £4.5 million. The board are to be congratulated on this bold and imaginative move.

Yours in Blue,

OPINION – SYMONS

I thought that Kit (first name terms now…) was/is a good player and I’m glad that AB (GG) is not sitting on his but finding cover/ a replacement for Curly. I’m also a bit pissed off that Fitz is going; I think he could be a really good player. I suppose AB’s hands were tied with the lack of cash at the moment. I thought that Griffiths hasn’t been given a chance – especially when he has a better goal ratio than Mr Mike!

I’m trying to spread the word by taking a German friend of mine. He’s not really into football but at least I can show him Manc-pubs especially and hopefully Uwe (if fit) can show him something.

BAY AREA BLUES

I’ve moved to the San Francisco Bay area to attend business school for the next couple of years. What other MCIVTAers live in the Bay Area? I would like to find out where the local P-League bar is, akin to Flanagan’s in the Washington, DC area, and also meet the other Blues in the area. Please mail me at the address below.

Finally, my compliments to you and Svenn for the Man City web site. Now that I have access to Netscape, I can finally see all the great data and graphics that you have put there. The FAQ are particularly useful as are the geographic distribution statistics for MCIVTA subscribers.

Thanks again and let’s hope for a good start to the season despite all of the injury troubles this summer.

MEET UP?

I’m gonna be taking an Argentinian mate of mine to watch QPR vs. City on the 26th. If any of you want to meet up with a rag and an Argie before or after (I’ll be in with the neutrals) they are more than welcome.

HELP WITH CITY’S EUROPEAN GAMES?

I’m a great fan of international and English football; I became interested in Man City (and many other clubs English and European) because I began collecting programmes many years ago and I got involved more and more. I’ve never attended a match of City but I’ve seen many highlights on TV.

I’ve included all the data I’ve got about international Man City matches (all the matches in European competitions are complete), anyway I wish to complete all the other matches so if someone has some information to update this, could you send me an e-mail (p.muscara@me.nettuno.it) with the missing or correct information?

Matches played in European competitions

Date        Match                        Score   Com Scorers        Att
18/Sep/68   MCFC - Fenerbahce Istanbul   0-0     CC
2/Oct/68    Fenerbahce Istanbul - MCFC   2-1     CC  Coleman        45000
17/Sep/69   Athletic Bilbao - MCFC       3-3     CWC Young, Booth,
                                                     Og             45000
1/Oct/69    MCFC - Athletic Bilbao       3-0     CWC Oakes, Bell,
                                                     Bowyer         49655
12/Nov/69   Lierse - MCFC                0-3     CWC Lee 2, Bell    19000
26/Nov/69   MCFCy - Lierse               5-0     CWC Bell 2, Lee 2,
                                                     Summerbee      26486
4/Mar/70    Academica Coimbra - MCFC     0-0     CWC
18/Mar/70   MCFCy - Academica Coimbra    1-0     CWC Towers         36338
1/Apr/70    Schalke 04 - MCFC            1-0     CWC
15/Apr/70   MCFC - Schalke 04            5-1     CWC Young 2, Doyle,
                                                     Lee, Bell      46361
29/Apr/70   MCFC - Gornik Zabrze         2-1     CWC Young, Lee     10000
16/Sep/70   MCFC - Linfield Belfast      1-0     CWC Bell           25184
30/Sep/70   Linfield Belfast - MCFC      2-1     CWC Lee            25000
21/Oct/70   Honved Budapest - MCFC       0-1     CWC Lee            10000
4/Nov/70    MCFC - Honved Budapest       2-0     CWC Bell, Lee      28770
10/Mar/71   Gornik Zabrze - MCFC         2-0     CWC
24/Mar/71   MCFC - Gornik Zabrze         2-0     CWC Mellor, Doyle  31950
31/Mar/71   Gornik Zabrze - MCFC         1-3     CWC Young, Booth,
                                                     Lee            12100
14/Apr/71   Chelsea - MCFC               1-0     CWC
28/Apr/71   MCFC - Chelsea               0-1     CWC
13/Sep/72   MCFC - Valencia              2-2     UC  Mellor, Marsh  21698
27/Sep/72   Valencia - MCFC              2-1     UC  Marsh          54000
15/Sep/76   MCFC - Juventus              1-0     UC  Kidd           36955
29/Sep/76   Juventus - MCFC              2-0     UC
14/Sep/77   MCFC - Widzew Lodz           2-2     UC  Barnes,Channon 33695
28/Sep/77   Widzew Lodz - MCFC           0-0     UC
13/Sep/78   Twente Enschede - MCFC       1-1     UC  Watson         12000
27/Sep/78   MCFC - Twente Enschede       3-2     UC  Kidd, Bell, Og 29330
18/Oct/78   MCFC - Standard Liege        4-0     UC  Hartford,
                                                     Kidd 2, Palmer 26498
1/Nov/78    Standard Liege - MCFC        2-0     UC
23/Nov/78   A.C. Milan - MCFC            2-2     UC  Kidd, Power    40000
6/Dec/78    Manchester City - A.C. Milan 3-0     UC  Booth,
                                                     Hartford, Kidd 38026
7/Mar/79    MCFC - Borussia M.Gladbach   1-1     UC  Channon        39005
21/Mar/79   Borussia M.Gladbach - MCFC   3-1     UC  Deyna          35000

International Friendlies

Date            Match                    Score   Com Scorers        Att
29/Apr/31       Derry City - MCFC        1-5     F
9/Jun/35        Sparta/Slavia XI - MCFC  1-5     F
9/May/51        MCFC - WackerWien        2-1     F
7/Jun/61        Torino - MCFC            1-1     F   Law
11/Oct/61       MCFC - Torino                    F
6/Dec/65        MCFC - Dinamo Moskva     2-0     F
20/May/67       Eintracht Braun. - MCFC  1-2     F   Jones
11/Aug/67       MCFC - Borussia Dortmund         F
22/Aug/67       MCFC - Standard Liege    1-0     F   Coleman
11/Dec/67       MCFC - Sparta Praha              F
1/Jun/68        Atlanta Chiefs - MCFC    3-2     F
18/Nov/70       Anderlecht - MCFC        1-0     F
1/Dec/71        MCFC - Gornik Zabrze             F
18/Jul/72       Hammarby - MCFC                  TMT
2/Aug/78        Djurgaardens I.F. - MCFC 1-1     F   Kidd
3/Aug/78        Fredrikstad - MCFC       0-5     F   Kidd 4,
                                                     Donachie
7/Aug/78        Hamarkameratene - MCFC   0-7     F   Kidd 2, Bell,
                                                     Henry 2,
                                                     Hartford, Coughlin
8/Aug/78        S.C. Heracles - MCFC     2-3     F   Hartford 2, Kidd
11/Aug/78       Lierse - MCFC            2-2     F   Booth, Henry
13/Aug/78       A.Z. 67 Alkmaar - MCFC   5-1     F   Palmer
23/May/79       A.S. Roma - MCFC                 F
8/Nov/79        MCFC - Werder Bremen     4-0     F
21/May/80       New York Cosmos - MCFC   3-1     TMT
24/May/80       Vancouver Whitec. - MCFC 5-0     TMT
27/May/80       MCFC - A.S. Roma         3-2     TMT
30/Jul/80       Porto - MCFC                     F
1/Aug/80        MCFC - Legia Warszawa    1-5     F
5/Aug/80        Werder Bremen - MCFC             F
1/Aug/81        I.F.K. Goteborg - MCFC           F
25/Aug/81       A.C. Milan - MCFC        1-0     F
1/Aug/82        Her. Berlin S.C. - MCFC          F
24/Aug/82       Koln F.C. - MCFC         1-1     TMT
25/Aug/82       Inter Porto Ale. - MCFC  3-1     TMT
Jul/84          Elfsborg Boras - MCFC            F
14/Nov/84       MCFC - Australia         1-3     F
Jul/86          Edmonton Drillers - MCFC 0-3     F
Jul/86          Los Angeles Heat - MCFC  1-1     F
Jul/86          Seattle Sounders - MCFC  0-1     F
Jul/86          San Jose Earth. - MCFC   0-1     F
Jul/86          Hollywood - MCFC         0-3     F
Jul/86          San Diego Nomads - MCFC  1-3     F
Jul/86          Portland Timbers - MCFC          F
15/Aug/86       Barcelona F.C. - MCFC    1-1
                                        (3-4 P.) TMT
16/Aug/86       Recreativo Hue. - MCFC   2-2
                                        (4-2 P.) TMT
25/Jul/89       Askim - MCFC             1-2     F   Morley, Allen
27/Jul/89       Sandefjords - MCFC       2-3     F   Megson, Biggins,
                                                     Morley
29/Jul/89       Larvik Turn - MCFC       0-10    F   Allen 6, Brightwell,
                                                     Morley, White,
                                                     Biggins
31/Jul/89       Oslo-Grei - MCFC         3-3     F   Allen, Oldfield,
                                                     Biggins
1/Aug/89        Tromso - MCFC            0-0     F
3/Aug/89        Faaberg - MCFC           0-0     F
21/Aug/90       Twente Enschede - MCFC   1-0     TMT
22/Aug/90       Real Sociedad - MCFC     1-1     TMT
7/Aug/91        Austria Wien - MCFC      5-1     F
30/Jul/92       Brescia - MCFC           2-1     F   Lake           500
2/Aug/92        Cremonese - MCFC 2-2             F   White, Lake    1000
5/Aug/92        Vicenza - MCFC           1-0     F
6/Aug/92        Verona - MCFC            2-2     F   Sheron 2
8/Aug/92        Torino - MCFC            0-0     F

Friendlies against Scottish teams

Date            Match                    Score   Com Scorers        Att
8/Mar/52        MCFC - Hibernian         1-4     F
14/Oct/53       MCFC - Hearts                    F
20/Feb/54       MCFC - East Fife         2-1     F
1/Nov/55        Hibernian - MCFC         2-1     Asc
4/Nov/57        Hearts - MCFC            3-5     Asc
18/Nov/57       MCFC - Hibernian         1-0     Asc
25/Nov/57       Hibernian - MCFC         5-2     Asc
Aug/59          St Mirren - MCFC         3-0     F
21/Oct/59       MCFC - St Mirren         6-1     F
30/Gen/60       MCFC - Hibernian         1-1     F
17/Feb/62       Dundee United - MCFC     2-1     F
Aug/70          Celtic Glasgow - MCFC    0-0     F
Aug/76          Partick Thistle - MCFC   0-4     TMT
6/Aug/79        Hibernian - MCFC         1-1     TMT
7/Aug/79        Hearts - MCFC                    TMT
6/Aug/80        St Mirren - MCFC         3-4     F
3/Aug/84        MCFC - Hibernian         0-0     F

CC

Champions Cup

CWC

Cup-Winners’ Cup

UC

UEFA Cup

F

Friendly

TMT

Tournament

ASC

Anglo-Scottish Cup

Ciao!

Probably someone with access to ‘Manchester City: The Complete Record‘ can help Pietro out?

SKY ADVERT

For those of you with SKY, did you see the ads during the breaks on SKY’s footy stuff? They simply state that the world’s best footballers will be re-appearing on that Channel (we know – I hear you cry) and show snippets of top class players juggling the ball.

Well, one such world class player was Brian Roy juggling a ball in a small boat on a Dutch canal. One of the others showed our very own Uwe dribbling in front of the Brandenburg Gate (?).

Just thought you’d like to know.

MAILING LISTS FOOTBALL COMPETITION

An Invitation to take part in a Football E-Mail Extravaganza….

You may or may not be aware of a football match which took place last Sunday the 30th July 1995 – between teams from the e-mail lists of Leeds and Tottenham Hotspur. The event was a great success despite the ordeal of a 2pm kick off in 92deg heat. It should be emphasised that the match was played in a competitive but friendly spirit, the standard of football was fairly poor and although Leeds won 6-3 both teams enjoyed themselves. Match reports can be found on the ‘What’s New’ Web pages of Tottenham –

http://www.sys.uea.ac.uk/recreation/sport/thfc/thfc.html

and Leeds –

http://kendall.csc.liv.ac.uk/Leeds/lu.htm

As a result of this match, both teams plan more matches against other e-mail list teams. In addition, I plan to organise a “Cyberspace Challenge Cup” which will be open to teams from all English league club list services. At present I have no hard and fast plans for this, but I would anticipate that the first round will be played sometime after the start of the coming university year (since I am led to believe that a significant proportion of list subscribers are students). The draw may be on a regional basis depending on the location of the entrants. I will also be looking for a suitable WWW site in which to store all the relevant rules/match arrangements/match reports and scanned photographs etc.

If your list is interested in participating, please could you let me know. A definite commitment is not required at this stage, I’m really just interested in finding out approximately how many teams are likely to want to compete. Please feel free to add any comments on how you would like to see the competition run.

One thing which I must insist upon (although it will obviously be impossible to enforce) is that all team members are subscribers to your list. Please could you e-mail your replies to:-

david.walmsley@ukbla71.specialties.zeneca.tmailuk.sprint.com

[So far we've got 6 or 7 people willing to play in an MCIVTA team. ]
[Anybody spurred on by the opportunity of a national competition?  ]

WWW MANCHESTER CITY SUPPORTERS’ HOME PAGE:
http://www.uit.no/mancity/

Thanks to David (x4), Jim, Adam, John, Tony, Tats, Eric, Stretch, Pietro, Martin, Paul, Ashley, Roger & Mark.

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.

Editor: