Newsletter #442

A vitl win on Saturday (getting some luck for once) in absolutely atrocious conditions – this issue includes 2 match reports. The main news concerns the AGM, which seems to have been quite a unified affair (Dunkirk spirit coming through!); we have a report from an attendee and also an objective and, believe it or not, slightly upbeat view of the accounts! There’s also the usual opinion and a Why Blue.

This one reaches 2,217.

MATCH REPORT – ‘LIVE’ I

WIGAN ATHLETIC vs. MANCHESTER CITY, Saturday 18th October 1998

Phew! A vital win – and a vital 3 points in the bag.

I don’t want to hear City fans say we don’t get any luck after watching this game at Springfield Park on Saturday! Three times Wigan hit the bar and we managed to scramble the ball away. Having said that there was the most blatantly obvious penalty I’ve ever seen not given by the ref, when one of the Wigan defenders tripped Fenton in the box after the ball broke loose.

After torrential rain all morning we wondered if the match would go ahead, as Wigan is a notoriously “bad drainer”; it looked OK as the players were knocking up but there were obviously some really waterlogged patches which made it tricky once the game got underway. I was in the Wigan end (?) behind the goal with my girlfriend’s dad (who got me the ticket and is a keen Latics fan) so I had to be diplomatic and keep my voice down. Having said that I don’t reckon the “friendly northerners” – unlike at Millwall, would’ve beat me up if they had sussed me out – but I took no chances, going incognito by leaving the Kappa jacket at home!

City dropped Edge (’bout bleedin’ time) and Vaughan, and in came Crooks and Shelia. Two very smart moves by JR on his comeback! We started brightly and completely controlled the first 10 minutes or so, Goater going close with a 20-yard strike that he didn’t quite get hold of as he slipped on the shot! Considering the conditions though both sides played quite fluently. On the half hour they hit the bar for the first time and Fenton cleared it off the line a short while later. Then came our blatant penalty appeal turned down. I can only assume the ref was unsighted but what about the linesman? The wing-backs were playing well I thought – especially Tiatto, while Horlock and Mason were controlling the middle of the park. Lee Bradbury was working well but he and Mason just were not on the same wavelength when a promising move broke down on the left. I think JR really should give some thought to playing 3-5-2 for away matches and going back to 4-4-2 for home games.

Half time: 0-0

City came out positively in the 2nd period, which was a welcome change (as when I see them at Maine Road they usually dip a bit between 45-60 minutes for some reason). This pressure eventually told as Crooks put Goater in with a lovely ball which he crashed into the net on the volley. “Yeessss!” I thought to myself – remembering where I was – and who I was with (don’t want to upset the future father-in-law now do I?!). Shaun celebrated by galloping over to the City fans at the far side near the corner flag, where he was mobbed. It was just brilliant to see our end erupt as the ball flew in – I’m sure there were more than 1,400 of ours in there, so some of the forgeries must’ve been quite good!

There were bookings for Tiatto, Shelia (innocuous) and Barlow and one other Wigan player but the match was played in very good spirit. They got a free-kick on the edge of the box and Greenhall smashed it onto the bar but City cooly cleared, Weaver made a couple of great parries away for corners, but for crosses he was electing to punch rather than catch after a first half scare when he tried to hold one. Trouble was he flapped a bit and this led to a few goal-mouth scrambles. Then their new lad (Liddell from Barnsley?) really should’ve equalised as a great cut-back by Barlow saw him try to break the crossbar as well, when it looked easier to score. But City rode the storm (and the luck) replacing Mason with Jeff Whitley and the midfield battle was then won as we moved into calmer waters in the last 10 minutes.

Final score: Wigan 0 City 1 (Goater)

My MoM? … Undoubtedly Gerard Wiekens. This guy is pure class (and is every time I see him). Trouble is we’ll lose this player if we don’t go up this season.

So stuff the play-offs! Let’s beat Lincoln, Reading, Colchester, Oldham etc. Let’s stamp our class and pedigree on this division and make sure we win an automatic spot, where we can organise our assault on regaining our rightful Premiership place.

MATCH REPORT – ‘LIVE’ II

WIGAN ATHLETIC vs. MANCHESTER CITY, Saturday 18th October 1998

Shades of Macclesfield this one, due to the weather and also being a small ground never visited before! (OK, I went to Macc last season to see them in the League Cup vs. Hull whilst City were at Blackpool) but it’s a tick off the “92 ground” list although their new ground means I may have to visit it in future if, God forbid, we are still in this Division next year. I hope not!

Sorry Wigan fans but your ground is a dump! It didn’t look too bad when we got off the coach but, after having had our tickets checked for forgeries and purchasing our progs, we went through the turnstiles to pick our spot and our faces fell. I hate to bring up that dreaded seven letter word Halifax but Springfield Park reminded me painfully of that January afternoon. Anyway, I decided to have a pie at the food bar – huh! Either a cheeseburger, burger or hot dog only and they were rushing you between £2.30 to £2.50 for these, 60p for a Mars bar and about a quid (I am told) for a hot drink! And we moan about Maine Road! Whilst still munching my 24-carat-gold cheeseburger (at least it was well cooked and not salmonella-laden), we wandered into the away end to pick a sheltered-ish spot. Adrian unfortunately fell over on the steps but was OK if not a trifle soggy! We found somewhere fairly sheltered – up the far end of the away section near their fans and remarked about the moat which was forming just the other side of the stone wall. The stewards on duty, ours, weren’t looking forward to having to stand in this moat – common sense finally prevailed and they were later told they could stand on the grass instead. Just as young Nick Weaver came out for his warm up, Maggie and I decided to visit the loo. Wotta mistaka to maka! The ladies (just behind the entrance to the away end) consisted of two loos, one with and one without lock and a corrugated roof which let in the rain. But it did have proper loo rolls and soap – Bernard Halford please take note of this fact for the Kippax!

The rain was on and off and I yelled out to Asa as he set out his little cones to watch no-one fell in the moat – fortunately he laughed! We soon saw how the pitch would react after the first two players finished their stint between the cones. Oh dear! Muddy? Slight understatement that! Nick Weaver was hurling himself around and getting wetter by the minute, Moonchester joined in throwing himself about and being a pest but he got the players laughing by diving onto the turf after “scoring a goal” past Nick.

The game started – City consisted of Weaver, Tiatto, Wiekens, Fenton, Shelia, Crooks, Mason, Jim Whitley, Horlock (captain), Bradbury and Goater. The subs were Dickov, Madge and Jeff Whitley.

The first half hour was spent splashing around and trying not to give too many things away – Tiatto was booked for sending a Wigan player swimming into the far corner, Nick Fenton was unlucky not to be given a penalty after being flattened by Bradshaw (cheers for the rude gesture to the City fans Carl, you haven’t changed much since you were with us!) and the ref seemed not to take into account the conditions when making his decisions. David Lee caused problems and Andy Liddell their new signing made a reasonable début. Our main gripe was that route one football should have been the order of the day, not our passing game.

The second half was much the same although this time the rain decided to be a damn sight more persistent. We still tried to play too much pretty football, Wigan began to slowly get on top but then Shaun Goater latched onto a pass from Mason and buried the ball in the back of the net with a volley. Well taken Shaun! We didn’t relax too much but Wigan were stung into action and from the time Goater scored to the final whistle, they hit the bar 3 times causing Nick Weaver to have a torrid time, flapping one minute but making great saves the next! He must have learned something from the match!

The final whistle blew much to everyone’s relief! Three welcome points and a leap up to 7th in the table. Let’s hope we can beat Lincoln on Tuesday – I won’t be there in person but will be in spirit! Sorry for a not too wonderful report but my brain went numb before the game started – due to the cold and rain not the dodgy burger – but I’m sure someone else will do a better report than mine!

Marks out of 10 – all of them 6 I think for having to put up with such atrocious conditions… it wouldn’t be fair to pick one player as man of the match – nice to see Bradders getting a good reception though.

NEWS SUMMARY

New job for Lake

Burnley have appointed a new physio following the summer departure of Nick Worth. Very surprisingly, former City midfielder Paul Lake is the new man with the magic sponge after quitting Maine Road in the summer. Lake had begun to learn the physio’s trade from Roy Bailey, but left the club a few months ago to concentrate on studying for the necessary full qualifications. All of which makes his new rôle at Burnley something of a surprise. I’m sure all Blues everywhere will wish Lakey all the best; such a shame that injury cut short his career, but having said that City would have cashed in on him years ago à la Flitcroft and Lomas etc.

Teamtalk are trying to get us all excited about the forthcoming Auto Windscreens Trophy, billing it as “Another route to Wembley!”; another one, hahaha. Anyway, we drew Mansfield at home and the game will be played in the week commencing Dec.7th. To get your pulse racing did you know that it will be 23 years to the day since we beat them on the way to winning the League Cup in `76? The Blues also won at Mansfield in a pre-season friendly last year, scraping a 7-1 win at Field Mill; Lee Bradbury signed for City from Portsmouth the same day. Altogether now “Wemberlee…!” and speaking of cups, don`t forget that our heroes are going into the hat for the first round of the F.A. Cup next month; what’s the bet we get knocked out by Isle of Wight Athletic? The non-League clubs are now one step away from the first round proper after yesterday’s draw for the fourth qualifying round of the competition. All cherish a glamour tie with City on Saturday, November 14, with the prize greatest of all for the four Unibond League clubs from Greater Manchester still left in the cup. Tameside-based Ashton United are away to either Runcorn or North Ferriby United; another Tameside club Droylsden – who have close links with City – meet Leigh RMI while Mossley must overcome Lancaster in a replay and then either Buxton or Leek to go into the hat with City. The fourth qualifying round is on Saturday, October 31st, with the Nationwide League Second and Third Division clubs going into the First Round draw which is made at about 5.15 pm on the same day.

Academy sides go down

Remember all the hype about City being granted Academy Staus by the F.A. so that we could attract the cream of talent to our excellent facilities at the Platt Lane complex? Well this weekend City slipped to a double defeat as Manchester derby rivalry was renewed at junior level on Saturday. City’s under-17 team lost 2-0 to Manchester United and the Reds chalked up a 4-1 success at Under-19 Academy level with Shaun Holmes scoring the City goal. So it looks like business as usual on the derby front. Oh, by the way Andrew Porteous was sent off for the Blues in that match and wins this week’s Jamie Pollock award for an early bath. Thank your lucky stars lads and lasses, that the Rags’ fans at your work probably won`t know the side were even playing.

Bond shock admission

Former City boss John Bond has revealed in an amazing statement how he was courted by a certain ‘other’ club not far from Maine Road. He said: “I hadn’t been at Manchester City very long when I was out on a social occasion with Martin Edwards. Martin told me that when they appointed Dave Sexton, the other two names on their shortlist were Lawrie McMenemy and John Bond. When Sexton eventually left Old Trafford an acquaintance of mine who was very close to the United board told me that if I applied for the manager’s job at Old Trafford I would get it.” Now with non-league outfit Witton Albion, Bond also reveals he was approached by Portugese giants Benfica, two years after guiding City to the FA Cup final. He said: “My assistant John Benson and myself met the president in Lisbon and he offered me a three-year contract at £75,000 a year – a fortune in those days. On the flight back home I asked John what he felt about the move and he said he would prefer to stay in England. So I said ‘Okay then, we’ll stay.'” Bond added: “That’s how blasé and cock-sure I was in those days. But I thought that if I ever left Manchester City, another top job would be waiting just around the corner. Just shows how wrong you can be.”

Supporters’ group go public

A new group of shareholders went public at the annual meeting today with their aim of speaking up for the ordinary fan. The Manchester City Small Shareholders’ Association is a limited company set up two months ago with members owning 200,000 shares – about one per cent of the total shares in the club. Their aim is to buy packets of shares – currently fetching £1 on the market – with the ultimate aim of gaining a big enough power base to prevent a takeover situation similar to the experience at neighbours United. At the moment an offer for the shares of businessman Stephen Boler – the major shareholder with 23 per cent – would effectively gain control for any potential buyer. The MCSSA, who have already held talks with chairman David Bernstein, have a voluntary membership drawn from the legal and financial professions, as well as other forms of industry, and they have been going through the balance sheet carefully. “We want to ensure the City fans who have taken so much grief over the years don’t have the club snatched from under us at some stage in the future. There are a lot of reasonably wealthy men involved and we have taken the best advice,” said a spokesman for the group, whose members include Manchester Euro MP Glyn Ford.

Bernstein gives his reaction to his first AGM

He was delighted to have received a vote of confidence, the first anyone can care to remember. There was evident, he believes, at the meeting, a feeling of unity. On the financial side there has been a record loss, borrowing is too high and interest payments are too high. These are factors which are being dealt with. There is not a substantial amount of money to bring players in. The board will listen to Joe Royle’s requests. The Chairman and the board believe that Manchester City has the potential to become one of the top 8 clubs in the country. Promotion is vitally important. The board realise they cannot play on the fans’ patience, but they are doing everything to bring success to the club.

Which cynically could be read as: He was delighted to have received a vote of confidence, the first anyone can care to remember (we might as well stick with this guy `cause no-one else wants to pump millions into the club till we get back into the Premiership). There was evident, he believes, at the meeting a feeling of unity. On the financial side there has been a record loss, borrowing is too high and interest payments are too high. These are factors which are being dealt with. There is not a substantial amount of money to bring players in (we`ve sod all money and anyone Joe Royle wants to sign will be a loan signing and will play for little wages). The board will listen to Joe Royle’s requests (how about asking them to sing Money, Money, Money by Abba, they were good in the 70`s too!). The Chairman and the board believe that Manchester City has the potential to become one of the top 8 clubs in the country. Promotion is vitally important (but if we don`t get it we`ll bulls**t our way through another summer of cost-cutting until you lot shell out for your season tickets again). The board realise they cannot play on the fans’ patience but they are doing everything to bring success to the club. Sorry for being cynical.

TICKET NEWS

Lincoln vs. MCFC
Tuesday 20th October
Kick-off 7.45pm

Tickets for this fixture are still available, priced £13 for adults, £8 for juniors/OAP’s.

Tickets will be on sale from the Ticket Office at Maine Road until 2pm on Tuesday 20th.

Supporters are advised that there will be cash turnstiles operating on the night of the game, giving admission to the terracing in the Stacey West Stand.

THE ACCOUNTS – A SIDEWAYS LOOK

When you look at a loss of £6.3 million on a turnover of £15.3 million, you have to be a bit of an optimist to say things are looking good, but there again…

It is a fairly standard trick by any incoming chief executive or chairman to load all the bad news up front. This way, someone like David Bernstein can say – don’t blame me, I’ve only been in charge for a few months.

Let’s just look at that loss. Firstly, there was a loss on transfer fees of £1.9 million, and you can’t argue with that. It does however not include the £5 million plus that we got for Gio, and since his arrival, JR has been pretty cash flow neutral, £400k for Shaun, 300k Danny, offset by the odd few thousand for a few more rejects. This year’s figure could well be a positive contribution of maybe £4 million or more.

Next, there is interest at £1.1 million; well the surplus on transfers and a lower general cost of borrowing should make a good size hole in that.

Then there is the £2.3 million of provision for downsizing; what does this mean? Well (government health warning here – I am not an accountant), a provision is setting aside a sum of money now to be spent in the future. Now didn’t I read somewhere that Bernstein had a pot of money put aside to pay off the likes of Clough? So I assume that a lot of this is the money he has put in last year’s accounts to provide for turfing out all the high earning t***ers.

Talking of whom, there was a total of £8.7 million for a payroll of 141 people. This figure works out at over £61k per head, but if we imagine 55 players at £100k, 10 senior staff at the same, there are then 76 other staff at about £30k a head. On this reckoning, if he cuts about 25 players, there will be a saving this year of at least £2.5 million.

Let’s return to the pay-off to t***ers. If you make a provision, you make it realistic, so for Nigel you would have to account for the rest of his contract plus all sorts of bonus and loyalty payments. By slinging him out fairly early in the year, we probably did a deal, paying him a lump sum up front – but not the full shilling. So, the provision may be in practice an over provision.

Two entries that someone else may be able to shed some light on are liabilities for transfer fees – £0.7 million – could this be the payments for Shaun and Danny? And most baffling £3.7 million for loyalty bonuses. Wouldn’t we all like to know who these loyal servants are, and which of our glorious ex-managers granted them?

All in all, I think that this year’s accounts will look very different to last year’s. Like for like turnover (£15.3 million) will be down, but possibly not by all that much. Gates are staying healthy, Mike Turner seems to have got merchandising sorted out – it may even be up, due to Internet sales etc. Let’s make a stab at £14 million to reflect loss of TV money.

Then add in a modest refund from the provision (+£0.4 million) and a surplus on transfers of (+£4 million) should swell this figure to £18.4 million against which to offset costs.

Costs will be down by (£2.5 million) on wages – from 25 (very) average players, interest will be down a modest amount (say £0.3 million less), and I cannot believe that the other costs (£7.6 million) will not be pruned back in similar fashion – by say £1 million.

That brings total costs down from £21.6 million to around £13.6 million, and makes a turnaround from a loss of £6.3 million to a profit of £4.8 million.

If we add in promotion back to the First, this will put Bernstein in a very good position when seeking the type of big investment many fans have been crying out for some years now.

Anyone out there who still thinks he is useless should perhaps think how they would have done the job. Many will say spend the £5 million now to ensure promotion, but I would venture that big money spent on players now would be an absolute waste. The odd £400k on players like Shaun is the right strategy. Better players costing more will not be very effective in this journeyman league.

All we need is that promotion.

MILLWALL VIOLENCE

Re: Simon Jones on Milwall violence, MCIVTA 441

I was in a similar position to Simon Jones at the New Den in the East Stand with the Milwall fans. Without wishing to keep this subject up for too long, the experience of 90 minutes with the constant and unwarrented abuse towards the City fans and players was bad enough, but it was largely the stewarding and ticket arrangements that contributed to the ugly atmosphere and violence.

On entering the seating area me and my mate Dave couldn’t even get to our allocated seats; the Milwall fans were standing around in the aisle. When we finally got to where we should have been, the seat numbers had been taken off the seats so it was impossible to tell which seat was which. We then had to stand with the other sixteen-year-old arseholes who just constantly abused the players and the away fans. It was impossible where we were to watch the game and the atmosphere was unlike anything I have ever experienced at an away ground. The constant pitch invasions weren’t prevented, the steward near us was laughing as the fans ran on. There were constant racist threats towards our black players and the language was appalling. It was so easy to see even from half time that the atmosphere was going to turn nasty, I honestly cannot understand why a bigger police presence was not called on to protect the safety of the players and away supporters. The fans may have been drunken dickheads but that is what ground safety and security are there for.

At the end of the game when it became clear that the City fans were not getting out, the Milwall fans grew impatient and started to dismantle walls and brick the police horses. Despite the youthful 100% male crowd and even City’s last minute goal, I still think the violence could have been avoided. In this instance it is nobody but the club’s fault and I hope everything is done to punish the club for their terrible preparations. I also reckon that if this is the way that clubs are going to treat ground safety legislation then there is zero chance of the re-introduction of standing areas, and it is probably for the best.

THE AGM

Just a quick report from the AGM on Friday morning at the Bridgewater Hall (I’m sure other reports will go into more detail so I’ll just put mine “into a nutshell”)….

A very impressive turn-out from the shareholders and a very impressive looking Board of Directors on the stage. After a minute’s silence for Bryan Brett, Bernstein opened the meeting. He seems quietly confident that they will get us “back on track”, no more silly money being spent, each prospective purchase, small or large, now needs to be signed off by the Chairman himself and he does some serious questioning before making any financial decision.

Financially we are actually still in the s**t, but with some careful handling this could be turned around within 12 months. £15 million turnover this financial year which is not at all bad considering we are a 2nd Division club. Where has it all gone? Why are we £6 million down? Yes, these questions were asked. The answers were believable and it is going to take some time to pull us out of the quagmire our previous Board got us in to. Basically, if we hadn’t sold Kinky, we’d be £11 million down!

The new Board seem to be a good blend of financial experts and businessmen, just what a PLC needs, not a shoddy gang of “old boys” there for their own gain and gratification.

Joe Royle was there, bravely ignoring the fact that he has had a new hip fitted recently. He answered a fair number of squad questions honestly and with confidence. He said there really is no other way forward than working hard with the current team and developing the new talent. “Making the best of a bad lot” was the impression we got! There is no money to be spent, but Bernstein said funds are always found (somehow) if Royle is serious about a player. Royle actually said he has been looking at three Premiership players over the last couple of weeks, no clues as to who though.

No promises were made from anyone.

This is what we need from our “top dogs” now. No more false promises of immediate promotion, trophies and glory. They know and we know it’s going to be a hard slog. It’s been hard enough so far for the fans, but I feel that at least now we have a Board and a Management Team we can trust.

CITY AND WATCH FACES

It was Friday afternoon, one of those really boring meetings that has you praying for a meteorite strike just to put you out of your misery. I looked at my Manchester City FC, 3 ATM water resistant quartz watch to check the time again and noticed something odd. It took me a couple of minutes to realise what was wrong – it was the Roman numeral for 4. Instead of the staid and traditional IV City had decided to strike out in an innovative direction with a IIII. At least it made me smile, my beloved Man City, the club that can even cock up a watch face.

MACKENZIE AND IMMEL

Technologically minded Blues might like to know that Steve MacKenzie, scorer of the finest goal in FA Cup Final history, is now a self employed Internet trainer in the West Midlands. He specialises in showing people how to set up websites. His website is at www.smiletec.com.

Also if you wondered where Eike Immel had disappeared to, I saw him this morning on a Channel Four schools domestic science programme tasting German food made by kids from a school in Greater Manchester. Honest.

BANK WITH YOUR HEART!

I just finished reading the (Manchester) Guardian of Monday Oct 12 and on the front page is a story about the possibility of English banks copying a system now ongoing in Mauritius where banks tie interest rates on saving accounts to the performance of their favourite soccer teams — in Mauritius, apparently, it’s only Man United and Liverpool who are attached to this scheme – they being the two favourite teams. So everyone gets a base interest rate of 8 per cent which never decreases but if the investor’s chosen team wins, 0.03% is added – for a draw 0.01%

I wonder how many people on the MCIVTA list would be willing to tie their interest rate to the performance of Man City?

OLDHAM TICKETS

Lots of tickets left at Oldham (in home end). Send a cheque with a letter and they will be posted out, tell them you are an Oldham fan!

OPINION – WHY DO WE PLAY 3-5-2?

It doesn’t work, can’t Joe realise this? The wing-backs can’t tackle coming back and can’t cross going forwards (stand up Richard). The defence lies too deep and hoofs long balls forwards continually with minimal accuracy. The midfield doesn’t have a clue what its proper rôle is and the strike force are forced to receive

1. high balls with their backs to goal, or
2. innacurate threaded through balls that even Michael Owen in Schumacher’s car would have trouble reaching.

Here is a simple premise – 4-4-2 works in the English Second Division. So why not play it thus:

The boy Weaver in goal, Shelia and Wiekens in the middle, new full backs, Pollock and Mason in the middle, Horlock on the left flank, ermmm on the right (surely our academy has some spotty sixteen-year-old who can cross the damn thing?), Bradbury and Allsopp/Goater up front.

There, simple, promotion ensured by Good Friday.

OPINION – GOATER

It’s that Rotherham fan here again. Having advised you to keep patience with ‘Lenny’ during my Matchview from Pride Park a few weeks ago, I have been pretty disturbed to read the on-going criticisms regarding said bloke from you Blues’ fans. No-one pretends that he looks convincing all of the time and it’s never been said that his chance/goal ratio is favourable… but he’s already got 10 goals for you. The winner at Wigan on Saturday was Lenny at his best (though I have to admit his ‘pull back’ for Dickov against Nob End last week was Lenny at his worst). Let’s face it, who else is scoring for you? Leave him alone, encourage him and you will reap the benefits. As we all know, you’re a big club in a pi** league and at this level you have to take what you can get. Ten goals ain’t a bad start in my opinion… I wish Rotherham still had him!

From a supporter of a club from an even lower Pi** league.

QUERY – CITY MAGAZINE

Query: does anyone know where I can buy the City magazine in London?

WHY BLUE?

I was born in Manchester and my father was a City fan, so I became one as well. Although we moved to Shrewsbury when I was seven, we continued to support City. I have to say that my dad was mainly an armchair supporter, so we did not go to many games and as we did not have a car we pretty well stopped going altogether when we moved.

After I got married I rather lost interest, but after five years I begat two sons and much to my wife’s disgust, started to take an interest and became a City supporter once again. As a Father I failed miserably however, as one of my sons became a Chelsea supporter; we were living in Hertfordshire and one of his friends was a Chelsea supporter. The other one tended to follow success so he changed his allegiance to whichever team he felt fitted the bill at the time, but again I regret to say he never supported City. Even my dad was not 100% successful in leaving behind a family of City supporters. I have five nephews, three of whom support City, but the other two support, dare I say the word in what is a family news sheet, United.

I will not be as successful as my dad in leaving behind City supporters. I have one 12-month-old grandson who I am trying to teach as his first words ‘Up the Blues’, but as he is half American and lives in Hong Kong it isn’t easy, although I see quite a lot of him. I have another grandson on the way, but as his father is the Chelsea supporter and as he will live in Scotland, I have an uphill task. Quite what my long departed dad would think of the present situation I shudder to think. He would however comfort himself with what he used to say to me: ‘Don’t worry son you must remember that a better class of person supports City’.

RESULTS

Second Division Results

Saturday, October 17 1998

Bournemouth       1-1 Northampton Town       6,362
Stein (26)            Hodgson (49)
Bristol Rovers    0-0 Wrexham                6,074
Burnley           1-1 Notts County          10,559
Vindheim (90)         Pearce (7)
Chesterfield      2-1 York City              4,113
Williams (45)         Cresswell (4)
Reeves (pen 67)
Lincoln City      1-2 Stoke City             6,159
Battersby (8)         Robinson (49)
                      Sigurdsson (52)
Luton Town        2-0 Oldham Athletic        5,447
Gray (82)
Scarlett (90)
Millwall          0-1 Fulham                11,876
                      Symons (89)
Preston North End 2-0 Colchester United     10,483
Eyres (12)
Nogan (39)
Reading           0-0 Gillingham            11,467
Walsall           1-0 Blackpool              4,728
Wrack (39)
Wigan Athletic    0-1 Manchester City        6,700
                      Goater (56)
Wycombe Wanderers 3-0 Macclesfield Town      4,012
Baird (12)
Simpson (26)
Scott (68)

Second Division Table

Up to and including Sunday, October 18 1998 (4:54pm)

                               HOME            AWAY
                         P  W  D  L  F  A   W  D  L  F  A   Pts   GS
Stoke City              13  4  1  1  8  3   5  0  2 12  8    28   20
Preston North End       13  4  1  1 15  5   4  2  1 10  7    27   25
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Walsall                 13  4  1  2 10  8   4  0  2  7  6    25   17
Luton Town              13  4  1  1  8  2   3  2  2 11 10    24   19
Fulham                  12  3  2  1 10  6   4  1  1  6  3    24   16
Bournemouth             13  4  2  0 10  2   2  2  3  7  8    22   17
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Manchester City         13  3  3  1 11  6   2  3  1  6  7    21   17
Blackpool               13  4  1  2 12  8   2  1  3  6 10    20   18
York City               12  2  3  1 10  7   3  1  2 10 11    19   20
Wrexham                 13  5  1  2 13  9   0  3  2  2  7    19   15
Chesterfield            13  5  0  1  7  3   0  4  3  1  6    19    8
Millwall                13  3  3  1  7  4   2  0  4  6 11    18   13
Bristol Rovers          13  4  3  0 13  5   0  2  4  3  9    17   16
Wigan Athletic          13  3  1  3  8  6   2  1  3  7  8    17   15
Gillingham              13  3  2  2 13  7   0  5  1  5  6    16   18
Notts County            13  2  1  3  8  8   2  3  2  9  8    16   17
Colchester United       13  2  1  3  4  8   2  2  3  8 10    15   12
Burnley                 13  2  3  1  7  6   1  2  4  9 10    14   16
Northampton Town        13  1  4  1  8  8   1  2  4  6  9    12   14
Reading                 11  2  3  0  7  3   1  0  5  4 14    12   11
Oldham Athletic         13  2  1  4  8 10   1  1  4  4 11    11   12
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Macclesfield Town       13  1  2  3  4  6   1  2  4  5 12    10    9
Lincoln City            13  1  0  5  8 13   1  2  4  4 11     8   12
Wycombe Wanderers       13  1  2  4  6  8   0  1  5  3 13     6    9

Top Scorers

Nationwide Division Two

                                    FA  Lge
Player     Team                 Lge Cup Cup Euro Other Total
Goater     (Man City)            8   0   2   0     0    10
Payton     (Burnley)             8   0   1   0     0     9
Stein      (Bournemouth)         5   0   4   0     0     9
Cresswell  (York)                8   0   0   0     0     8
Barlow     (Wigan)               7   0   1   0     0     8
Hayles     (Bristol Rovers)      7   0   1   0     0     8
Horsfield  (Fulham)              7   0   1   0     0     8
Rammell    (Walsall)             7   0   1   0     0     8
Aldridge   (Blackpool)           5   0   2   0     0     7
Crowe      (Stoke)               6   0   0   0     0     6
Nogan      (Preston)             6   0   0   0     0     6
Davis      (Luton)               5   0   1   0     0     6
Shaw       (Millwall)            5   0   1   0     0     6
Douglas    (Luton)               4   0   2   0     0     6
Corazzin   (Northampton)         5   0   0   0     0     5

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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.

Ashley Birch, mcivta@tollbar.u-net.com

Editor: