Newsletter #395
Thanks to Noel Bayley for the title – most appropriate. Indeed we are relegated but at least we acquitted ourselves in style, rebutting the usual Sky jinx by demolishing Stoke 2-5, a scoreline which could easily have been more emphatic. There was inevitably some trouble, something which ought to have been impossible with today’s ticketing and policing policies, but unfortunately, today’s enlightened methods have yet to reach Stoke City FC.
I’m afraid that there are no match reports – probably due to the fact that it’s a holiday here in the UK. If anyone can send one in for Thursday’s issue, please oblige.
2,061 can be wrong!
NEWS – SUMMER TRAINING IN CORNWALL
Just thought I’d let you know that Andy Foden who runs the South West Supporters’ Club got a letter off the club this week confirming that the boys will be training in Cornwall in July. I don’t know if any friendlies have actually been arranged yet but as they asked him to sponsor a match some are obviously planned.
Steve Heggs – Plymouth Blue (Heggsie@aol.com)CALLING ALL BLUES IN MERSEYSIDE AND THE WIRRAL
There are plans for City fans on Merseyside to meet on a regular basis; to share news, gossip, help with travel to and from home/away games and generally have a bit of fun etc.
For my sins and being the Sec’ of the Centenary Supporters’ Association (MCCSA), I am helping with co-ordinating and set-up. I would be pleased to hear from and receive emails from anyone who either wants to get involved in running, helping organise or just being part of a group of a Blues’ branch in your local area. There are already 12 to 15 City fans that I have details of in the Upton/Irby areas.
Please send details to;
Clive Hamilton, MCCSA
243 Moorside Road, Urmston, Manchester, M41 5SH.
Telephone: 0161 746 7638
Email: MCFCSuppAs@aol.com
THE CRAZY SEASON STARTS – CALLING ALL BLUES IN RADCLIFFE AND OFFERTON
Yes it’s true we are crazy, barmy and we are off our ****ing heads. In a season which we’ve seen some absolute crap, it never ceases to amaze me that City fans still want to show their support and share their sense of frustration etc. with other Blues. It does surprise me though that as things look like they couldn’t get any worse (oh OK … I know they will come – Stoke away!) but we have been asked to help form two new supporters’ outlets.
I was surprised when I got the enquiries from the Merseyside Blues in late March (see separate message sent to you all this week) but these two requests just go to show that in our own little crazy world, City fans can still amaze each other!
There are plans for City fans in both Radcliffe and Offerton to establish venues and plans to meet on a regular basis; to share news, gossip, help with travel to and from home/away games and generally have a bit of fun etc.
Offerton; there are 30’ish Blues already meeting in a pub and we are aiming to help them organise themselves more effectively etc. so they can achieve more.
Radcliffe; the intention is to hold meetings at Radcliffe Borough FC, which as some of you know is linked to City with a Youth Development Centre and the involvement of Bernard Manning Jnr. etc.
Now here’s the standard request – for my sins and being the Sec’ of the Centenary Supporters’ Association (MCCSA), I am helping with co-ordinating and setup. I would be pleased to hear from and receive emails from anyone who either wants to get involved in running, helping organise or just being part of a group of a Blues’ branch in your local area.
Please send details to;
Clive Hamilton, MCCSA
243 Moorside Road, Urmston, Manchester, M41 5SH.
Telephone: 0161 746 7638
Email: MCFCSuppAs@aol.com
SATURDAY 30th MAY – 5 A SIDE & AGM
MANCHESTER CITY CENTENARY SUPPORTERS’ ASSOCIATION
The annual general meeting of the “CSA” takes place on Saturday 30th May at the Platt Lane Complex. The day will start at 11.00/11.30 am with our first 5 a side football competition; there are 25 teams entered from branches in the CSA, both near and far. The serious money is on a final of South Yorkshire vs. Prestwich with a showing in the semi’s from Stalybridge. The female challenge to the lads may be taken up by either the Midlands or the Stretford & Urmston branches who have entered ladies teams also!
The formal bit of the day will take place after the footie at about 4.00pm and should finish by about 7.00pm or so but who knows. The bar and food facilities will be open all day.
The footie competition is open to anyone who wishes to watch, come along and cheer etc. The AGM is open to all CSA members who are either in branches or just associated to the organisation as Execs. However if there are any other interested parties who want to come along and see what it’s all about they will be made welcome if they contact us beforehand.
Details are available from;
Clive Hamilton, MCCSA
243 Moorside Road, Urmston, Manchester, M41 5SH.
Telephone: 0161 746 7638
Email: MCFCSuppAs@aol.com
CARL NIELD
Perhaps this should really have been requested before Sunday, as this is depressing stuff too, but here goes anyway…
Three weeks ago in Macclesfield, a 29-year-old local lad called Carl Nield was knocked over in the street by joyriders. He lived until last Thursday and his funeral was yesterday (30th April).
Carl was a smashing lad and a true Blue until the end. He left a girlfriend and a young daughter.
I drove past where Carl was hit by the car, an abundance of flowers were laid out on the path. Numerous “laser” blue and white wreaths and bouquets had been sent and (this really hit me hard) his Kappa away shirt was laid out on the path too.
Over 500 people went to the funeral but it always seems a shame to me that nothing ever seems to come from City on occasions like this. I was thinking of making a donation personally but thought it would be a nice idea to see if anyone else wanted to join me, just to represent MCFC in some way from a MCIVTA donation. I would ensure that his family were informed.
All proceeds are going to Stepping Hill Emergency Unit (local hospital). E-mail me, Ros Lawton if you would like to make a donation.
Ros Lawton (ros.lawton@cmc.co.uk)THINGS!
It looks like Dave Barker has got the magic touch, first training session and 14 bodies turn up. Now if we can keep that up things look promising for future games and who knows even WorldNet 98 in Reading. Well done Dave.
Other points:
QPR at home… Danny Baker is commissioning a new ‘Own Goals and Gaffs’ video, exclusively featuring the Academy of Comedy this season. He must surely now have enough material to merit the video!
An impression of the gifted goals…
Goal One. Long ball over the top, beats Vaughan, that’s when the trouble started. We all know he ain’t got any pace but what does TV try to do, control the ball under pressure form Gallen(?) and then play it back to the ‘keeper, who we know ain’t the best kicker in the world! Sorry TV, the only option should have been: “Launch the effing thing into the crowd for a throw-in or hump it as far back up-field as possible.” Still on goal one. Margaret – just what were you thinking of, not only picking the bleeding thing up (not in this day and age, with backpass rule) but handing the ball to Gallen for him to set up Sheron for the equaliser. Once more the options should have been: “Kick the pass from Vaughan either out, or up-field.” Then, after the free kick was awarded, there were several options but not the one you eventually did:
- Keep hold of the thing and question the decision.
- Throw/kick the ball away.
- Take the ball back to the goals and only release the ball when you were ready.
Goal Two. Jamie Pillock (sic), that took real flair and skill to flick the ball over the defender and then deftly (?) head over Margaret. Who else saw the veins in Pillock’s (sic) neck stand out as he made contact with the ball! Oh yeah, surely the simpler header would have been at chest level?
Oh well it’s all done and dusted now, the game’s been played, the cock-ups been done and the result stand and it just about sums up the season!
Notice that Moonchester diving around like a good ‘un in the half-time penalty shoot-out, saving numerous penalties from the kids! Has Weaver managed to get a part time job between the sticks?!
Also, did anyone actually stay behind after the final whistle to give the players some applause? I left in disgust after the whistle as did the majority of the ground; maybe, maybe finally the players will realise what we think of them? They should get used to playing in front of sparse crowds.
Martin Ford (MFORD@fs1.li.umist.ac.uk)BLUES IN BANDIT COUNTRY
The next meeting of “Blues in Bandit Country” (a.k.a. Stretford and Urmston Branch, Manchester City Centenary Supporters’ Association) is on Thursday 14th May. This is a charity evening in benefit of Christies and The Children’s I.C. unit at Trafford General Hospital. The meeting will take place at the Stretford Trades and Labour Club on Sydney Street off Chester Road (just before the Stretford Arndale if you’re travelling out of Manchester towards Altrincham). Guest include; Gary Owen, Peter Barnes, Kit Symons, Eddie McGoldrick and the Whitley Brothers plus Frank Sidebottom, Moonchester, Jimmy Wagg and Ian Cheeseman.
Raffle prizes include; 20″ colour remote TV, A Day Sailing/Cruising on LakeWindermere, A weekend for Two at Mottram Hall near Prestbury, a signed one off drawing by Jim Whitley and loads of sports goods/clothes.
The meeting is also our first birthday party as we’ve been up and running for 12 months now and have a membership of nearly 500(!) and regular attendance at the meetings of 160/180(!). Not bad since we were told we needed our heads testing when we set out to form a regular meeting place for the frustrated Blues in the area. We were even told that there were no/very few Blues out there which we knew wasn’t the case, even so we have been surprised.
During our first year we have raised £1,300 for the City Youth Development, held a kids’ Christmas party (Moonchester & Santa), organised and run a football school for local kids (where one kid was asked to City for trials – turning United down as a result!). We have made a donation to a local childrens’ home and had numerous guests along for Q&A sessions including Andy Hinchcliffe, Mike Turner, Franny Lee, Tony Vaughan, Alex Williams, Gary Mason, Chris Gereenacre, Lee Crooks, Paul Power, Jimmy Wagg and loads more.
If you would like more details please give me or my wife Cheryl a call. We are both in this together! The meeting is open to members, friends, families, kids etc. and non-members. Tickets for this one are £3 per adult (including food), kids are free (we normally charge £1 on the door to cover costs (which includes a free raffle)).
We can be contacted as follows;
Stretford & Urmston Branch MCCSA
Telephone; 0161 746 7638
Address; 243 Moorside Road, Urmston, Manchester, M41 5SH
Contacts; Clive & Cheryl Hamilton.
COMMISERATIONS
As I write, the streets of Ankara are full of lunatic Turks celebrating the fact that Galatasaray have won the league here. They clearly have not heard that the `Maine Road Marvels` have sunk to what is really the third division.
I am very depressed.
Commiserations to all, Steve Bryant (steve@surf.net.tr)OPINION – ALL THE BEST
Hmmm. Never have I felt so close and yet so far away from those hopelessly glorious boys in blue. I’m writing this, whilst sat in the library of the University of Colorado at Boulder (where they filmed Mork and Mindy!), and wondering just how I’m gonna survive on Sunday. Not only will I not be able to see the game but I’m seven hours behind my home city and in the middle of some messy finals here at Colorado. It’s all getting very stressful. I’ll probably find a computer early Sunday morning and watch the action unfold (update?) on Soccernet with a coffee and a cigarette. It’s gonna be tense.
Well, for what it’s worth, I’d just like to voice my undying love for City, come what may, and wish the boys all the best on Sunday. Let’s hope we come out victorious, and when I return next month we’ll still be in the First Division. Fingers crossed.
’til the day that I die… Andy Hebden (Andrew.Hebden@Colorado.EDU)OPINION – NOW WHAT?
by Noel Bayley – editor of BTH
Now that our fate is known, now what? Business as usual, methinks. A massive clearout is planned apparently, but then haven’t we heard it all before? While Uwe and Gio have either left or are leaving, there are players at Maine Road that cannot even be given away. The club’s future is in the hands of the board now like never before. Perhaps this will shake some of them out of their slumbers? After all, it won’t be quite the same for them next season, being ushered from the luxury of their jallopies and into the reality that is the Moss Rose and Bloomfield Road. As I have said time and time again, we – the supporters – have done our bit and well beyond the call of duty, so let us see, at last, the manager manage and the directors direct.
As a caller to Piccadilly said yesterday afternoon, money has been disappearing out of Maine Road for years now, seemingly unaccountably. How else has one of the best supported clubs in the land found itself in such a lowly position that it cannot even compete on the same level as traditional rubbish like Bury and Stockport, never mind Coventry and Derby? Yet there are reasons aplenty for City’s relegation; we can all point to Alan Ball’s sale of too many influential players or Frank Clark’s frittering away of £10 million last year, but persistent mismanagement at all levels throughout the club over a period of years has culminated in this drop into uncharted waters, as Joe Royle appeared to be hinting at yesterday afternoon.
While I can accept that no one person is to blame for this latest tragedy, I will be looking to the present management – be it the chairman, the board or the manager and coaching staff – to turn it all around. Leave the past where it belongs; this might yet prove to be the best chance the club has ever had to rebuild. Let us hope that the men at the top can seize upon the initiative.
P.S. But wasn’t it great to see Arsenal win the League? Along with the rest of a grateful nation, I’ll raise a large treble to the Gunners!
Noel Bayley (noelbayley@compuserve.com)OPINION – SICK AS THE PROVERBIAL
Well Monday morning here in Hong Kong, having endured the Internet ICQ commentary last night and what can I say… a sad, sad, day. Consolation… can’t find any… at least we went down fighting… but think of the goals conceded in the last minutes of previous games… what if we just got a couple more points along the way?
Hope for the future… yes, but it’s going to be a long, hard battle.
I would like to pay my own tribute to the fans who follow our beautiful club week in, week out… keep on doing what you do… cheer extra loud for exiles like myself and let’s take ’em all by storm in 1998/9.
CTID – still, Phil Gregory (pg2356kb@netvigator.com)OPINION – POST-MORTEM
Only City could have scored 5 away from home and still not stayed up! I’d been telling myself and others who were prepared to debate that if we won we’d probably be OK as I couldn’t see both Port Vale and Portsmouth winning. I watched the match on video (fast forward) well after the event and the team appeared to play quite well against an awful Stoke team, albeit in a somewhat surreal atmosphere towards the end of the game. The old adage has it that a team isn’t promoted or relegated on the strength of one game, and in truth if we’d played more like this in more of the other 45 games we’d not be contemplating the joys of Division 2 come September.
Looking for silver linings, I think this might turn out to be for the good of the club in the long run provided we bounce back quickly. I suspect if we’d just stayed up, there would have been the temptation to tinker at the margins, to duck some difficult decisions, to not quite tackle the fundamental problems. Division 2 should focus a few minds.
Even allowing for the fact that every one of our 46 games is going to be like a Cup tie (oh yes, we’ve got FA Cup Round 1 to look forward to I believe!) as the opposition raise their game against the Blues, we should have enough class to come back provided the summer doesn’t see key people leave because they don’t want to play down there; JR’s recruitment plans may be mucked up too. We need the clear out and the money for Gio needs to be carefully spent.
We won’t breeze it, though I’d like us to storm away with it as much as the next person but I feel it will be easier to rebuild from a position of challenging for promotion rather than scrapping against relegation. A bit of managerial stability, notwithstanding reservations about JR; a bit of team stability with less chopping and changing; a bit of boardroom stability with the ‘cancer’ excised if it is really there.
I never thought we’d sink so low, but we’ve just proved there are no divine rights in this game. Let’s hope the 21st century brings us more luck than the end of the 20th.
CTID, Geoff Donkin, Beverley Blue (Geoff@Donkin.Demon.Co.UK)OPINION – RELEGATION
So it’s finally happened, and no-one should be remotely surprised. Absolutely typical of City to produce such an emphatic away win when it was too late to matter. I keep thinking of all the hundreds of thousands of supporters down the years of City’s proud history, supporters who watched the club grow to win its first trophy in 1904, watched City dominate the English game in the 1930s, and what they’d be thinking now if they could see what we’ve fallen to.
The impression of confidence portrayed in sweeping Stoke aside should not be allowed to colour the overall impression of this season. The sad truth is that this is the poorest City side ever, even allowing for Kinkladze. Stoke if anything were even poorer and we even contrived to allow them two goals on an afternoon of pantomime-horse defending by both sides.
In the end of course it wasn’t Portsmouth or Port Vale’s wins that sent City down. They sent themselves down with a whole string of dreadful, gutless performances throughout the season. It wasn’t Francis Lee’s fault, Frank Clark’s or Joe Royle’s. It was the players out on the field who surrendered at home to teams we should have been swatting aside. It was the players out on the pitch who too often caved in like a house of cards in a wind tunnel. It was the players out on the pitch who threw soft, threatrical goals away and squandered routine chances.
It was the players out on the pitch who let us all down and they should be ashamed. It hurts deeply, almost physically, to have to write like this about my club.
So off we go to Wycombe, Bournemouth and Macclesfield and I know I’ve already seen today at Stoke a preview of next season’s tactics – continual long balls hammered upfield for Goater and Bradbury to chase. But we have to go into next season with all guns blazing, and I hope to God that we can win the crucial first few games because if anyone turns us over then the whole of the division will instantly scent blood and the scene will be set for another stage of the long, downward spiral.
City fans have shown themselves to be among the very best in the country but they are long overdue a season with a little success in it, above all something to be proud of. There’s been precious little pride at Maine Road for too many years but it doesn’t just appear from thin air, it has to be earned in the performances on the pitch, where it matters. The intense loyalty of the fans will carry through into next season but they will not stand much more of the current mediocrity.
Steve Maclean (stevemaclean@email.msn.com)OPINION – BRING ON…
Well that is that!
Can’t say I’m shocked as it’s what I have expected since we lost at home to Oxford. From the reports from those of you at the coal face who witnessed the tragedy of Shakespearean proportions first hand, it was inevitable. Still, perhaps it will serve as a kick up the arse for all concerned at the club (fans excepted) that from the top down we have been nothing short of “dross”.
Things I’d like to see in season 98/99 are therefore:
- Kinkladze start in August for City (fat chance) or at least £5 million plus sell-on clause for a further £1 million.
- Joe Royle admit he made a bigger cock up than Hugh Grant’s devine one by not even bringing Gio off the bench over the last 8 weeks.
- Changes to the players’ contracts that lower their grossly overweight paypackets by 25% should they lose at home to any team next season and if theyare ever worse than 3rd place at any given stage in the 2nd division.
- Offloading of the likes of Clough, Symons, Brannan and the other half adozen at least or so underperformers for their inherent value i.e. ashilling.
- Policy of utilising some of our youngsters more often whom I’m sure willdie for City up to and beyond the shedding of blood, unlike powderpuffssuch as Uwe “Oh Ref” Rösler. Hope Kaiserslautern have a sturdy stretcherand a large bottle of aspirin ready!
My congratulations finally go out to the local UK City fans, for whom I have the utmost respect and pride as a 24-season City fan living as far away from Maine Road as one can get. Your sense of humour and loyal support for a team in its death throes has been excellent and has provided some cheer for the long distance faithful.
Revenge on Blackpool & Lincoln and pulsating ties with York, Gillingham and Chesterfield now await you and I hope your frayed nerves will allow you to continue to follow the team to places you’ve probably never seen City play before… or ever wanted to! Hang in there, the Championship for best supporters is still safely in the City trophy cupboard… on its own.
In the immortal words of Delboy… don’t worry Rodders this time next year we’ll be… back in Division One!
MCIVTA rules.
Hawkeye of the “Bay” – Chris Loveridge (hawkeye@clear.net.nz)OPINION – RELEGATION
Last time round I cried my eyes out. This time I had no tears. Just the numbness of a shock that is too deep to draw out with words. Last time round I was willing and willing Coventry or Southampton to concede one goal, or for City to score one more. This time we were winning handsomely through some really class goals but I knew twenty minutes from time that there was no way back.
What lies ahead is unimaginable because untrodden. Let’s not kid ourselves, there’s no way City, the big club, are going to bounce straight back up. The first Wycombe game and Blackpool spring to mind. Going down means that the squad-trimming might not be merely of dross. It’s more likely to be a repeat of what happened that last time: losing our better players. Of Kinkladze we need say no more than good luck mate!, hope Ajax will be a better stage for your genius. R
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The Editorial team of mcivta.com consist of several people. Typically news and information that is provided by a third part will be distributed by the "Editor". Phil Alcock is the current Editor in Chief of the MCIVTA newsletter.