Newsletter #149

The revival continues with an excellent three points, won at Elland Road; there’s a match report from that game as well as a belated but extensive report from Rob Watson on the Villa game. The Why Blues have dried up so if anyone wants to send in the story of why they are a City fan then now would be a good time. A few books have also appeared on the market recently. e.g. The ‘Manchester City Football Club A – Z’, if anyone has bought a copy and could spare the time to write a review, it would be most welcome.

This one goes out to 525

Next game, Middlesbrough away, Saturday 9th December 1995.

MATCH REPORT ‘LIVE’

MANCHESTER CITY vs. ASTON VILLA, Saturday 25th November 1995

Maine Road
Attendance: 28,027
Referee: Gerald Ashby

Manchester City

           Immel
Brightwell Curle Symons Edghill
Kinkladze Lomas Flitcroft Summerbee
        Rösler Quinn
[ UNUSED: Coton Creaney Kernaghan ]

Aston Villa

           Bosnich
Charles Ehiogu McGrath Southgate Wright
Taylor (Staunton 67) Draper Yorke
     Johnson Milosevic (Scimeca 78)
[ UNUSED: Spink ]

I suppose like most I was optimistic about this game following City’s recent form but pessimistic since we were playing Villa who were 4th in the Premiership at the start of play. The day started with the official opening of the £11m Kippax stand by 72 (or is it 75?) year-old Bert Trautmann, the former City goalkeeper. Poor old Bert had to struggle with a dodgy microphone and when it was working compete with the boos from the Villa section of the crowd. Mind you he seemed to enjoy his lap around the pitch on a golf kart.

• 01min: From the kick-off, Edghill plays the long ball and it comes straight back with interest. Suddenly, Johnson is clear of the centre-backs and rounds Immel at the edge of the area. Johnson, forced wide of the net, places his shot nicely only for Symons to race in and concede the corner, clearing the shot at the edge of the six yard box. Full marks to Kit.
• 02min: From the corner the ball is given to Kinkladze who gallops up the pitch before passing to Flitcroft. Garry’s cross is just too high for Uwe who manages to make contact with the top of his head.
• 04min: Nice combination: Rösler to Kinkladze and out to Summerbee. Summerbee’s effort is blocked – goes out for a City throw. Throw-in is taken and simply lobbed towards the box where Bosnich gratefully accepts it. Poor! City regain possession. Lomas, wide on left, crosses. Cross just beyond Uwe at the near post.
• 05min: Yorke on left takes on Brightwell at edge of box. Yorke gets a space in front and blasts ball selfishly and from a poor angle into the side netting. Johnson is furious at the far post.
• 08min: Quinn flick almost falls for Summerbee. Corner conceded.
• 09min: Yorke shot from outside box is a couple of yards off mark. No trouble to Immel.
• 10min: Summerbee cross chested down by Quinn. His shot is weak, wide and uppish.
• 11min: More danger from Villa. Wright, the left back switches it to Charles in acres of space. Charles has already found possession and space in that area several times so far. City must be wary of this.
• 12min: Kinkladze runs at Villa defence having shrugged off one challenge. Kinkladze chips ball into box where Flitcroft tries to lob/touch it past an oncoming Bosnich. Ball hits Bosnich’s chest and falls nicely for Rösler who wellies it! McGrath blocks the shot onto the post (unfortunately for Uwe – he could have done with that). Then Flitcroft back on his feet at a poor angle blasts the ball into the side netting. Great chance.
• 15min: Uwe pressurises Bosnich who punts for touch. From the throw, Summerbee crosses to the near post, just in-front of an oncoming Lomas.
• 16min: Flitcroft 1-2 with Uwe doesn’t work at the edge of the box.
• 17min: Lomas smacks a 25 yard swerver which Bosnich does well to gather cleanly at the first attempt.
• 20min: Curle nearly loses ball at the back for a second time.
• 21min: Kinkladze again attacks the Villa box. McGrath can hardly keep up and following an unnecessary challenge with Kinkladze starting to veer away from the goal, Kinkladze bowls over. Penalty! There is little complaint. My neighbour can’t believe that Curle is going to take it ‘Curle! Oh-no! Don’t tell me he’s going to take it!’. Understandable following his below par display in the first twenty. Curle connects well but … misses the target by a long way. Also Bosnich had guessed right.
• 22min: Brightwell chip into box for Lomas (who with Flitcroft has spent half his time running in and out of the Villa box), out to Flitcroft who crosses it towards Quinn but it is cleared.
• 24min: Draper’s shot is blocked by Kinkladze’s back.
• 25min: Milosevic turns well on edge of box but Symons gets in the tackle at the last moment.
• 26min: Edghill does a Phelan. He sprints up line, passes two midfielders then passes. Unfortunately his pass goes astray.
• 27min: Flitcroft completely free but crosses poorly.
• 28min: Milosevic is pulled back by Curle being on the brink of getting away from his marker. Free-kick! Lobbed into box. Taylor heads it but Immel is down low to save it about 2 yards out. An oncoming Ehiogu can’t stop and catches Immel on the head. Quinn lets Ehiogu know what he thinks with much finger wagging.
• 30min: Summerbee the ball winner. Nicky wins ball back twice after Lomas flick went astray.
• 32min: Quinn flick. Rösler sprint. But Ehiogu gets there first and places it well.
• 33min: Danger for City. Cross from Charles to Yorke who turns and shoots from the corner of the six yard box (much like David Platt’s goal against the Belgians in 1990) but it is straight at Immel.
• 34min: Yorke header soft and wide.
• 35min: Curle nightmare. Keith loses Johnson outside box and Johnson shoots. Immel saves and Curle picks up the loose ball and passes it to Milosevic who shoots Gulp! Side netting.
• 36min: Quinn flick pass to Kinkladze who lets one rip. His shot dips but it still is about a foot over the bar.
• 38min: Uwe fouled but not given. Edghill picks up the ball and is fouled by Ehiogu who sees yellow.
• 39min: Symons’ cross is headed wide by Flitcroft.
• 40min: Symon’s header is picked up by Draper the steam train. His cross is headed on by a back pedalling Symons and Milosevic volleys well over from a tight angle, when perhaps a cross would have been better.
• 42min: Ten City passes in a row finding a City player. One problem though is that City have kept moving back towards their own half. Villa enclose Kinkladze who releases to Lomas, central, square and unmarked. He takes it towards the box before passing to Edghill when there were probably other options. Edghill takes on Charles before releasing a great shot from the corner of the area. The shot is hard and dipping well under the bar (for once). Bosnich touches it over. Had it been towards the corner of the net, Bosnich might have been in more trouble. Nevertheless great effort!
• 43min: Symons and Edghill descend on Yorke near the corner of the City box and concede a free kick between themselves. Interesting Villa sequence: Obviously there is a communication breakdown. The ball is laid off and Flitcroft intercepts with ease.
• 45min: Johnson flicks the ball on but is adjudged offside by the City defence. Pity the ref/linesman did not see it the same way. City defence chase back desperately. Milosevic passes to Yorke who passes to Taylor. Shoots wide!
• Injury time: Draper tripped on edge of box. Play continues. Johnson crosses to near post but Immel gathers unchallenged.

Half-time score: Manchester City 0 Aston Villa 0

Penalty miss could prove dear. However, there is no doubt that City didn’t let their heads drop and they must have been encouraged by the fans’ support. City have probably had the best two chances of the half but Villa have had a lot of half chances. Guy in the loos refers to Curle’s penalty as ‘a bit of a Waddle’ which I feel is a bit unfair on Chris.

• 46min: Good tackle by Edghill. Ball comes to Rösler who lays it off to Summerbee and sprints on towards box. Nicky’s cross is redundant as Uwe is penalised for a foul challenging McGrath in the air.
• 48min: Yorke is furthest Villa man back and is surveying the field for a pass. He knows Summerbee is coming but is cool. Nicky comes in and robs him excellently. Takes ball up and at the edge of the box and lets it rip. Bosnich turns it over. It was a quite similar distance to his Bolton goal but I could not help thinking he should have tried to close in and beat Bosnich. Something of which I am often a culprit.
• 49min: Villa hand ball unseen by ref. Regained by City. Kinkladze blocked by number 4, chips ball to far post. Bosnich claims in front of Quinn. Quinn dives IMHO and gains a yellow card (papers report he got the card for complaining).
• 51min: Charles (number 2?) falls after a Kinkladze shoulder charge!!!
• 52min: Edghill one-two with Kinkladze leads to Uwe shot from a poor angle.
• 53min: Flitcroft checked going for return one-two from Lomas. Taylor is booked. From the free-kick Flitcroft is set up but his shot is deflected for a corner.
• 55min: Kinkladze is shouldered by Draper. No foul. Milosevic shoots wide. Uwe is holding his face up-field like he’s been elbowed.
• 56min: Corner comes in. Symons gets there first. Johnson volleys the return and Immel, perhaps unsighted behind a crowd of players, saves excellently.
• 58min: Milosevic spreads it wide to Wright who crosses to 7 who is unmarked. His shot lacks power but is saved by an excellently placed Immel.
• 58min: Summerbee takes on two defenders and herds them wide. Then passes back to Kinkladze in tons of space. His cross is back headed by Uwe and easily saved by Bosnich.
• 60min: Ball played into Milosevic with time and space to take it and try to beat Immel. Immel gets enough onto it to take the speed off it and Edghill clears from about two yards from the goal-line.
• 63min: More nice passing: Flitcroft, Summerbee, Brightwell, Kinkladze. Eventually with Edghill who inspired by his earlier effort fires over ambitiously.
• 66min: Ehiogu pass back. Bosnich there first in-front of Uwe.
• 67min: Draper shot swerving away from all of 30 yards.
• 68min: Curle takes down someone (oops, my notes say Curle) 25 yards out in a central position. Substitution: Staunton for Taylor. Draper fires over.
• 69min: Quinn tries to set up Lomas in the box but he just overplays it.
• 70min: Draper shoots (again!) from the edge of the box. Straight at Immel.
• 72min: Curle recovers twice against Yorke. Ball picked up by Milosevic. His cross met by Ehiogu who heads wide. Ehiogu may have been better leaving it for the player coming in behind him.
• 74min: Charles cuts insides and runs along edge of box before shooting well wide.
• 75min: Cross by Quinn evades everyone’s head.
• 77min: My neighbour is beginning to mutter: “If only we’d got that penalty!”
• 80min: Lomas clears from Yorke at the edge of the area to Kinkladze who takes it up-field only to be stopped by McGrath. I thought McGrath got booked for this but not according to the paper. From the free-kick, Quinn’s flick almost finds Rösler except Ehiogu is in the way and he bends very low to head it back to Bosnich.
• 81min: Another swerver from Draper. Only a couple of feet away this time.
• 83min: Quinn shot blocked. Ball breaks down-field. Brightwell booked for a challenge, possibly showing studs.
• 84min: Rösler makes an excellent run but when he comes up against McGrath loses his footing and pulls McGrath’s shirt. He just can’t keep on his feet this days.
• 85min: Edghill interception; tries to play curling ball down line but it is intercepted and a throw conceded. From the throw, Kinkladze plays the ball to Quinn with his back to goal just inside the Villa box. Kinkladze accelerates and leaves Staunton in his tracks. Quinn plays a lovely back-heel with his left foot. Kinkladze nice touch sets up for the shot. That’s a narrow angle I thought as I watched the netting just inside the far post bulge. Goal! One Nil! Kinkladze then jumps into the North stand just in front of me and is joined by Lomas. The referee is not amused.
• 88min: Villa pressure. The atmosphere is fantastic. Immel comes for Charles’ cross and doesn’t gather it. It falls for Paul McGrath to strike a goal-bound shot. Ian Brightwell is there and he heads it/deflects it for a corner amazingly when it seemed easier to score. It’s all getting really frantic and my note taking is almost non-existent.
• 89min: Bad tackle on Kinkladze goes unpunished. Charles thinks he has got a throw when it came off him. Referee reverses decision and books Charles when he throws the ball away.
• 90min: Curle almost sets up chance for Rösler.

Final score: Manchester City 1 Aston Villa 0

Excellent game. Excellent result. And lots of credit should be given to Villa who made it entertaining. It definitely wasn’t as one sided as the papers make it out but it was a good team performance. I being chairman of the Stevie Lomas fan club, noted that he only had 3 poor passes in the whole match. All 3 were in the final third, one of which was an attempted flick. That’s good seeing the amount of possession he actually won. Kinkladze stole the headlines of course and rightly so but he will find it harder in other matches where the midfield is tighter (Villa played with only 3 in midfield). Match of the Day showed brief highlights and the panel admired Kinkladze (briefly) and were amazed by Quinn.

MATCH REPORT ‘LIVE’

LEEDS UNITED vs. MANCHESTER CITY, Saturday 2nd December 1995

“Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to see City win away…”

It’s been a long time since we’ve had reason to sing “Jingle Bells” and thankfully there was a good turn-out of Blues making the short journey over a congested and foggy M62 to savour the moment. City were allocated the whole of the South Stand and came quite close to filling it with the largest number of City fans I can remember going to Leeds, certainly since the promotion season. Hopefully those previously put off by memories of the unsavoury seventies and eighties will now consider making an annual visit to Elland Road, where our support has been a little thin on the ground in recent years.

Before the game I bought a copy of the Leeds fanzine “The Square Ball”, an interesting and amusing publication with numerous digs at our red neighbours. They also have an e-mail address and feature articles by Chantelle and the Voice of Football, both of whom will be well-known to regular readers of rec.sport.soccer.

Both sets of fans were fairly quiet before the game but livened up during the course of the match. Both sides had good victories (and good performances) in their last matches and must have gone into the match with a high degree of confidence. On Thursday morning a good friend of mine, a Leeds season-ticket holder, asked if I was “ready to see the Blues take a good thrashing on Saturday?” “In your dreams!” I said. However, City started nervously and were under a fair bit of pressure in the opening ten minutes. After a few early scares they got their act together and began to control the match. Kinky was way ahead in the battle of the pocket midfielders (Tomas Brolin was making his home league début), although you could look at this one as a warm-up for the main event next week against Juninho. The young Georgian was a delight to watch, regularly dancing round bemused opponents and, more importantly, looking more and more to create openings for himself and others.

Uwe was looking a bit more like his old self, having one shot well- saved by Lukic and seeing a point-blank header at the far post crash down off the bar, just the wrong side of the goal-line and away to safety. He also had the ball in the net once but the whistle had long since gone for a push by Summerbee. Leeds had their moments too, with one effort at the Kop end (difficult to see from where I was) cleared off the line. Curle was booked for a blatant piece of time-wasting (like Phelan’s at Everton last season) after 40 minutes when Edghill was off the field having treatment for an injury which eventually required his substitution. As in the Wimbledon game, Creaney came on as a right-sided midfielder, Brightwell switched to left back and Summerbee dropped back to right back. City struggled to adjust to this change and Leeds had their best spell of the half, though Immel was never really called upon to make a difficult save.

During the half-time break the match-stats (corners, shots on goal, fouls etc.) for the first half appeared on Leeds’ flashy electronic scoreboard (when are we going to get one?); reading them you’d have thought that the home team had had the better of the first half, which was far from true. Whilst they may have had more shots on goal, they were mainly wayward efforts from outside the area whilst City had come very close to scoring on at least two occasions.

For the second half Brightwell and Summerbee swapped places with each other and City started to look the part once again. Creaney, stuck out on the right wing, didn’t seem to fit into City’s game plan but was shortly to make his impact on the game. Both sides had periods in control at the start of the second period but Kinky was once again the star of the show. Usually the Leeds defence had to resort to fouling him to stop him, only making two or three successful and legal tackles on him during the course of the whole match. The inability to get to grips with Kinkladze was a significant factor in the winning goal: as he approached their penalty area on another run, two defenders came out to meet him, leaving Steve Lomas totally free on the left wing. Kinky played the ball into his path and he sent over a great cross which was met by Creaney 6 yards out from goal; he had sneaked between two defenders and headed powerfully through Lukic’s arms to send the City fans wild with joy. Say what you like about Gerry, he’s certainly shown useful finishing ability when given the chance.

So, half an hour to go – could we hold out? Some of the Blues started singing “Jingle Bells”; this is usually greeted by a chorus of “Shhhh” from everyone else but something’s changed: City haven’t conceded a goal after taking the lead in any game this season and with a string of clean sheets behind us, belief that we could and would hang on was widespread. Not unexpectedly, Leeds pressed forward and did start to carve out some decent openings but they all fell to Brian Deane and he spurned them. Much more dangerous-looking was Tony Yeboah. He’s got good close control and is so powerful that it’s very difficult to dispossess him once he gets going. My heart missed a beat every time he got near our goal but he was usually shepherded away from the danger area. On one occasion though he managed to get a cross along the edge of the 6-yard box but it seemed to pass straight through Deane’s legs without touching them and away to safety.

City still looked quite useful when playing out from defence; it seems that we’ve learned a lot from the Liverpool matches and we now have a good pass-and-move game which is pleasing to the eye. When the fans sang “Alan Ball is a football genius” this time there was no sarcasm. How times change. He responded to chants of “Alan, Alan, give us a wave” too; let’s hope it’s the beginning of a long and fruitful friendship between the manager, the team and the fans. The fans have done their part this season and now manager and team seem to be sorting their end out.

For the next few games City will be without Garry Flitcroft who I felt played a big part in this victory. He starts a three match suspension next week and has already collected another booking towards his next suspension with a badly mistimed challenge on Carlton Palmer in the second half. He makes a lot of very aggressive challenges and almost invariably wins them but when one goes wrong it inevitably means a booking, or maybe worse. Although it’s an important part of his game, I think he should cut it out.

In summary, City played very well and thoroughly deserved their victory. However, we’re still not scoring enough goals for my liking and pretty soon teams will stop going into matches against us with an air of complacency (as I suspect Villa and Leeds both did). I think we need 40 points to stay up so there’s still a long way to go yet but now, unlike this time last month, I think we’ll get them.

Final score: Leeds 0 City 1 :-))

BALL INTERVIEW

From PA news:

‘City boss proud of his born again side’

Manager of the Month Alan Ball hailed his revitalised Manchester City heroes and said: “I’m a very proud man.” City clinched their first away success since Easter Monday at Elland Road today, beating Leeds 1-0 to continue their climb away from the relegation zone. And Ball cannot wait for next week’s contest between his brilliant midfielder Georgi Kinkladze and Middlesbrough’s Brazilian maestro Juninho. “Georgi has immense talent for a 22-year-old,” enthused Ball. “I can’t wait for next week and the tussle between him and Juninho. They won’t be able to squeeze a piece of cigarette paper between them. It’s a pity Georgi isn’t English — mind you, he might not get picked!”

Ball, who only a month ago was struggling to lift City off the foot of the table, added: “I stuck to my guns and beliefs. I am proud of the way we have come through our bad patch and it has been a team effort. Everyone has stood by me — there has not been one word of dissent from the board, my chairman or the fans. They have all been magnificent. It has been a lesson for those who clamour for managers’ heads. We should be given a chance to get on with it. We have had some real dark days and there has been a lot of hard work but you have to remember that there were a lot of changes at our club at the start of this season — including the arrival of a young Georgian who couldn’t speak a word of English. But since we let in 10 goals in two games at Liverpool we have conceded only one — and that was a penalty at Sheffield Wednesday.”

City defender Richard Edghill was taken to hospital after suffering a knee injury just before half-time and being substituted by goalscorer Gerry Creaney. A Manchester City spokesman later said Edghill will stay in hospital overnight as a precautionary measure. The extent of his knee injury will then be assessed in the morning.

HONORARY PRESIDENT?

A couple of issues back, someone suggested that we get a President of MCIVTA, a high profile number. Well I guess it’s not a bad PR stunt to ask Mr Leeson or Paul Calf to fill the rôle of Honorary President. Does anyone else think that this would be a good idea? We need someone who represents us, has a high profile and has strong ties with the club. As for a true reflection of oursleves either candidate would be suitable; perhaps it could be the dream team? Nick Leeson has so many parallels with Swales’ fiscal abilities, namely, gambling, and Paul Calf represents the ‘man’ inside us all, you know, likes a few beers, a debate, an argument, a fight, break someone’s nose…

So perhaps we should contact them both and see if they’d put their names behind MCIVTA. A bit of press wouldn’t do us any harm I guess, as they say any publicity is good publicity. Let me know your feelings and I’ll put pen to paper and see what turns up.

RAGS WRECK THE STREET

There was a documentary on TV last night about 25 years of Coronation Street (I wasn’t watching honest, my wife was!). One part of the film was reflecting how the programme was a comment on the social history of Britain. In one scene from the late seventies/early eighties a group of ‘football hooligans’ walked down the street smashing up a car and throwing bricks through the windows. I watched in amusement at the hairstyles and clothes these lads were sporting and suddenly I realised that they all had U****d scarves. Do you think Tony Warren is a closet Blue?

REVIEW – THERE’S ONLY ONE BRIAN MOORE (Sat. 2nd December 1995)

The latest in this series of programmes went out last Saturday night in the LWT/Carlton area (anywhere else? [Granada, Monday 4th]) and as ever concentrated on two teams from the seventies, using ITV archives.

This week the main team was our beloved City, as well as QPR.

I had the privilege of being at the recording along with four other members of the London Blues. The programme was presented by Bob Mills, stand up comedian and Leyton Orient supporter and his panel guests included Franny Lee and Bernard Manning (!), as well as the referee from the 1971 Maine Road derby, which was the main focus of the programme.

This was the famous 3-3 draw when City came back from being two goals down and Franny did his ‘bellyflop’ to show the Ref. how George Best had taken a dive to get him booked. Anecdotes about that game were shared by the panel and Mike Summerbee, who had been placed amongst the audience.

The rest of the show featured a QPR game vs. Newcastle which was only significant for the contribution of one man… Stan Bowles. With him being another old City favourite, much of the discussion drifted back to focus on life under Mercer and Allison with tales of drunken excess involving Stan and Tony Coleman. Bowles was sacked by Allison after he held him back as Coleman hit Mal in a nightclub early one morning!! (and I thought we were a family club).

When the recording ended, Franny weaved past a couple of cameras to come and shake hands with the 5 Blues in the audience. He thanked us for our continuing support (this was the day after the Arsenal defeat). We then got chatting to Summerbee who asked how often we got to see the team. Well, we’re all season ticket holders and see quite a few away games as well. Mike was impressed and invited us for a tour of the ground as an acknowledgement of our support.

As you can imagine we were all thrilled and enjoyed a great tour of Maine Road before the Leeds game (I’ll give my insights into the new look ‘backroom’ scene if people are interested). We’d all left Maine Road after the Arsenal game with heavy hearts but 24 hours later we realised why we supported City. The clips of some glorious City football during that derby match and the warmth we felt from both Franny and Mike made for a superb evening.

OPINION – THE CURRENT RUN

OK, we have just gone a month undefeated. Quite impressive for a team who, according to some journalists, were as good as relegated. I am not about to say that we are going to win the league (although you just never know with City!) or even that we will win a pot this season, but the fact is that since Franny has arrived a cloud has been lifted away from Maine Road, making way for “new and exciting times” (now where have I heard that before?)

Since the departure of the Serial Killer (well the beard did look quite dodgy to say the least), the last remains of the Swales double decade of disaster… with the exception of getting beaten 5-4 by Chelsea in the final of the Full Members’ Cup in ’85, have gone. A new manager in the shape of AB has been installed, and as I am sure you would agree, has so far proved many people wrong, myself included. Roy Bailey has been re-appointed as the physiotherapist (and as many may have noticed the consistency of the team this season, in terms of who has been available, has been excellent).

With regard to players, the team is again taking shape. Kinkladze (whose signing was down to Franny) is beginning to show the sort of form we all knew he was capable of. Immel – truly world class. Symons – What a bargain for a player who must already be the favourite for Player of the Season The list goes on with Buzzer showing form, Quinny better than his previous best and Flipflop & Lomas back where they were before Lomas got injured in the Palace game last year.

In terms of finanace the board has just anounced a small profit of £250,000, which when compared to last year’s loss of £6,000,000 is a remarkable turnaround. The club now owns two City Store and is in the process of buying the catering rights. The Kippax is now fully operational with many executive boxes and the new M.E.N lounge. All of which will further increase the club’s revenue.

The new training complex is also of the highest standard and should help the already impressive looking youth players improve to a Premier League standard with the help of Neil McNab and Colin “The Legend” Bell.

Away Support : It is only this season that I have started to go to away games and after reading and hearing (on the radio) about it I was still left amazed. The humour, chants and sheer noise is immense. And long may it continue cos “after all he’s our Alan Ball”

So, overall the future looks rosy.

OPINION – WHAT NEXT?

I should really have mailed you this earlier but I forgot. The recent feel-good factor at the Academy has been highlighted with the rise out of the bottom three and Bally getting Manager of the Month (just when was the last time a City manager was awarded that?). Well just to round things off it appears as though City have managed to make a profit of £250,000 and are back in the black. Now as to whether that means the debts (what was it: over £6,000,000?) have been paid off, or it was a straight operating profit, in other words whether City still owe millions is unclear, but what is clear is that City made a profit. I assume this profit comes from all activities, because the report mentioned that the Platt Lane complex had attracted over 200k users.

It seems as though City are planning other money making schemes and to also attract more local community contact. One scheme mentioned was that City were going to apply for planning permission to build a 40 bay Golf Driving range! (I suppose that would save Franny having to trek down to Mere Golf and Country Club in his lunch hour to practice)

So a profit, Manager of the Month and out of the bottom three, what next – a decent third round draw in the FA Cup (Monday 4th Dec, 10:10 p.m. live on BBC1’s Sportsnight)!

As far as I can glean from the report, the club owes millions but is actually making a profit not a loss nowadays.

INTERNET FOOTBALL NEWSGROUPS

Hello,
Let me start by introducing myself. My Name is Ian Offers and I am the maintainer of the WHU FAQ. I also write the home reports from WHU games, which are posted to the WHU Mailing list, rec.sport.soccer and various WWW Sites.

I wondered what the feeling would be about a UK.Football.teamname newsgroup structure. Currently the only football newsgroup is rec.sport.soccer, and this tends to be too busy to make it of any use to followers of UK teams.

I mentioned this on the WHU Mailing list, and surprisingly wasn’t flamed; in fact some of the people thought it was a good idea, hence this mail.

The reasoning behind the newsgroups isn’t to replace the mailing lists, but

1. Would help lists where the maintainers were struggling to keep the list going (especially if it is a big list)
2. Give access to fans who cannot receive E-Mails (work accounts etc.)
3. Open access to people who may want to see the other team’s views on a game, but doesn’t want to actually join the mailing list.

There are times when match reports I have written have been re-posted to other teams’ mailing lists. There are also times when it would have been nice to get the opposition’s views on a game.

What I would like, if possible, would be for you to place this on your mailing list, asking people to reply, via E-MAil to *MYSELF*. I will then weigh up the response, good and bad, and then decide whether to procede. Please ensure that people are told to reply to me, to keep the traffic down on your lists.

uk.football newsgroup hierarchy. Good or Bad? Let me know.

RESULTS

Saturday, December 2 1995

ASTON VILLA           1-1    ARSENAL                37,770
BLACKBURN ROVERS      4-2    WEST HAM UNITED        26,638
BOLTON WANDERERS      1-1    NOTTINGHAM FOREST      17,342
LEEDS UNITED          0-1    MANCHESTER CITY        33,249
LIVERPOOL             1-1    SOUTHAMPTON            38,007
MANCHESTER UNITED     1-1    CHELSEA                42,019
QUEENS PARK RANGERS   1-1    MIDDLESBROUGH          17,546
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR     0-0    EVERTON                32,894

Sunday, December 3 1995

WIMBLEDON             3-3    NEWCASTLE UNITED       18,002

Sun 03 Dec

Team                Played   Won Drawn Lost  For  Against   Points
Newcastle United      16     12    3    1     36    14        39
Manchester United     16     10    4    2     33    15        34
Arsenal               16      8    5    3     22    11        29
Aston Villa           16      8    4    4     20    12        28
Tottenham Hotspur     16      7    6    3     22    17        27
Middlesbrough         16      7    6    3     15    10        27
Nottingham Forest     15      6    8    1     25    22        26
Liverpool             16      7    4    5     28    15        25
Leeds United          15      7    3    5     20    17        24
Blackburn Rovers      16      6    3    7     27    19        21
Chelsea               16      5    6    5     15    18        21
Everton               16      5    5    6     19    19        20
West Ham United       16      5    5    6     17    20        20
Southampton           16      4    4    8     16    26        16
Manchester City       16      4    3    9      8    22        15
Sheffield Wednesday   15      3    5    7     14    20        14
Wimbledon             16      3    4    9     22    36        13
Queens Park Rangers   16      3    3   10     12    24        12
Bolton Wanderers      16      2    3   11     15    31         9
Coventry City         15      1    6    8     14    32         9

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