Newsletter #465

An extremely quiet weekend! City failed dismally to carry-through their festive momemtum, gaining only a draw with a very poor performance at Blackpool. There also appears to be precious little going on on the news front at the moment; Terry Cooke played for Wrexham at the weekend, despite being supposedly injured, and any further developments are suspicious only by their complete absence.

Anyone fancy doing a Why Blue? Please send them to me for inclusion.

This one reaches 2,284.

MATCH REPORT – ‘LIVE’

BLACKPOOL vs. MANCHESTER CITY, Saturday 9th January 1999

A midday kick-off meant an early start for a “traditional Lancashire derby” (in other words a Division 3/4 fixture – how the mighty have fallen). We’d managed to get on a coach trip taking in the game, a meal and a few beers!

Got to the slum that is Bloomfield Road with time to queue and gain entry; thankfully we were on the East Terrace, under a roof so the sun wasn’t blazing in our eyes. City lined up:

              Weaver
Crooks  Morrison  Wiekens  Vaughan
     Brown  Pillock  Horlock
            Dickov
         Taylor  Goater

Subs: Bishop, Russell, Jim Whitley

The pitch looked in fairly decent nick, still a bit frozen in one goalmouth where the sun hadn’t got too, so no excuses there for a poor performance. The game started and to say it was entertaining was an overstatement. It turned into a dire match, devoid of any mental ability of footballing ability. Weaver nearly got caught with one of his customary roll the ball out and try to kick it. Just why does he persist in doing it? He managed to escape but it’s not going to be long before he gets caught out! Goater had a brilliant effort touched round the post by Banks after he created some space on the edge of the box. Oh alright, Goater’s shinned effort bobbled just in front of Banks and it trickled out for a corner. Other than that, not much more to say, well with a few exceptions:

• Just how thick is Pollock? Are you sick and tired of him trying totake a free-kick when the ref’s talking to someone? Fine captain’sexample!
• Taylor, how many times will he be caught fouling (elbowinggenerally) opposition and giving away a good position?
• Another point, glad to see that Crooks has started taking theresponsibility for some of the corners. Horlock’s were fairly poor.At least it gave us another option.

Second half started in much the same vein, zzzzzzzzzz. City may very well have the possession, but the inability to create any genuine chances is starting to tell again! Dick (sic) did his usual trick of falling down in the box trying to con the ref into giving a penalty. This infuriated the Blackpool defence, their number 4 (and Dick) were both booked after a difference of opinion following a falling down incident. Soon after Dick was replaced by Russell who was stationed wide on the left. The match really deteriorated into a listless affair until Blackpool introduced a sub with about 10 minutes to go, the Boy Wonder. His pace and skill nearly turned the game twice. Firstly he ran from the half way line, leaving Horlock in his wake (well that’s not hard), beat Vaughan (again not hard) and then “fell over” after beating Morrison(?); if he’d stayed on his feet then he could have scored. The second chance came a minute from the end, when Patterson played a perfect diagonal through ball, Vaughan was left trailing but Weaver saved the day with a knee. And that was that.

Instead of an all-action match, this was again really poor. The team is crying out for someone with a little bit of skill and ability and most importantly a footballing brain, either from the management team or the actual team. The current crap (sic) of stars just makes me wonder how they became professionals, I’ve seen better skill, commitment, ability and pride in Sunday league teams. So a nil-nil might be a good result against top of the table opposition, but against Blackpool it’s not good enough. Now 9th spot; when are they going to realise it’s not good enough?

After the match it was on the coach down to Leigh for a meal and a few pints and then back home for a night out. Good day out with the exception of the match, the suggestion of a day out avoiding the match was met with some approval.

NEWS SUMMARY

Blackpool didn’t rock

City failed to continue the momentum provided by six points from two games at Christmas, managing only a goalless draw at Bloomfield Road in a game whose quality was universally panned by everyone in attendance from whom I’ve seen comments. Joe Royle drew solace only from the fact that we kept a clean sheet, though this was thanks to Nicky Weaver’s late save in a one-on-one when Blackpool’s Ormerod seemed on course to clinch the Seasiders’ first home win in four months. Not so encouraging was the fact that, despite plenty of possession, we had not a single shot on target in the entire match (the City fans who reportedly smashed up a pub after the game seem to have caused far more damage than the team). With a degree of understatement, Joe reflected that “we didn’t have a cutting edge” – looks like hopes of a remedy for this failing fall squarely on the shoulders of Terry Cooke. City have dropped two places to ninth, still only two points off the play-off places, though several teams around us have games in hand.

Ready Steady Cooke

After announcing boldly that City had signed Sheffield Wednesday’s Scott Oakes only to discover that the deal didn’t ever seem to have progressed past a tentative inquiry, I’m rather reluctant to stick my neck on the line and say that Terry Cooke will join us this week. However, reports are still indicating that we should secure his temporary registration, maybe even by the time MCIVTA 465 reaches you. This is despite the rather surprising news that he played for Wrexham at Reading on Saturday – the word last week was that his loan at The Racecourse had already ended and he’d returned to Old Trafford to recover from a calf strain. Given that we’re pinning our hopes on his rectifying the lack of width in our team, which again attracted plenty of comment at the weekend, I certainly hope there are no late snags. Incidentally, I take issue with comments that we’re relying on charity from United here. There’s a benefit to them in having one of their young reserves gaining first-team experience somewhere else, while if we buy him permanently, we’ll have to pay the going rate.

Anyway, in their history our neighbours have had plenty of help from us or from people with Blue connections: their first two titles were won with a team including several players they bought from us for a pittance after the FA made us sell them as punishment for making illegal payments; in the thirties, we sold them some of our squad players on the cheap when they were really struggling – at one point they almost went down to Division Three (North); we let them use our ground after the War when theirs was bombed out (the crowds they drew at Maine Road were much bigger than they’d been getting previously and stayed with them when they went back to Old Trafford), and again for their pioneering European ties when we had floodlights and they didn’t; the manager who took them from relative obscurity to European champions learned his football at City; one of the star players in their great sixties side was also an ex-City player; and more recently, they signed up a couple of our associate schoolboys called Giggs and Butt. I guess what I’m saying here is that maybe they owe us one!

Royle approval for goal-shy Goater

JR has sprung to the defence of striker Shaun Goater, who after managing ten goals by the middle of October has scored just once in the three months since then. According to Royle, the player is “working hard”, his “team effort is excellent” and the goals will come. And to be fair, Goater’s not the only one who isn’t in the best goalscoring run at the moment. Joe pointed the finger at the midfield, and it’s difficult to argue – for example, Jamie Pollock hasn’t scored this season, Michael Brown has never scored a league goal for City and Kevin Horlock, our midfielder with the best pedigree in this department, has found the net from open play in only one game in eight months. However, the other strikers are hardly showing themselves to be prolific goal-grabbers just now either. Paul Dickov never really has been, of course, while Gareth Taylor has played in every game in his six weeks at the club and managed one goal. Now stop me if you can spot a recurring theme here, but the hope must be that Taylor and Goater, who’ve thrived on service from wide in the past, will improve once we have a supply line provided by … Terry Cooke (do you get the feeling we’re expecting quite a lot from him?).

Odds and sods

Largely a case of quickly rounding up what’s not happening, actually… Doesn’t look like City will be signing York’s Richard Cresswell, as Preston have made a club-record £1 million bid which is expected to be accepted… City have landed sought-after schoolboy Northern Irish striker Gary Browne, fighting off competition from Rangers and Derby… No word on Andy Morrison’s appeal against last week’s red card – a decision is expected Tuesday, but odds are it’ll be unfavourable… Despite a decent performance in the reserves last week from Neil Heaney, Hearts don’t seem as yet to have followed up their rumoured interest… And there’s been no follow-up after David Bernstein’s pre-Christmas revelation that he’s in talks with potential investors, though as Geoff Donkin noted the share price has risen and according to the Ofex web site is now 85p, a fairly steep increase of 21.4% on the value of a couple of weeks ago.

Former Blues in the news

Which could also be headed, “Peter pads out the summary because there’s nothing really going on”. And after updates on old favourites Andy Dibble and Frank Clark last time out, now there’s news of another figure much loved and admired by the Blue hordes – a certain Mr. Alan Ball. Most Blues seem to be of one mind on the merits of his managerial reign, but whether or not they’re right, Bally’s far too much of an easy target for someone like me to be bothered about trifles like whether I’m being fair to him.

So it was with some amusement that I read last week of the ginger one’s indignation when his company Mercedes was repossessed. I’d like to emphasise that I take no pleasure in Portsmouth’s financial plight and hope for the sake of their fans the club doesn’t go under – if it were City (and I suppose we can’t rule out the possibility if things continue to go drastically wrong), I’d be devastated. But I was still entertained by the delicious mental image of arguably English football’s most frequently relegated manager, resplendent in flat cap and shell suit, chasing after the vehicle as it disappeared up the road, squeaking plaintively, “You can’t take me Merc, I’ve won the World Cup, y’know!” Ginger? Relegation? Flat cap? Squeaky? World Cup? Do I win a prize for most Alan Ball clichés in a single paragraph?

Request for help from Seattle-based Blue; any Blues in Montreal?

And finally, this should be entitled “Not news at all – Peter’s abusing the summary for his own personal purposes”. I need to get a letter to an address in Washington state, USA, this week if possible, and may need to send another couple before the end of January. Of course, I can’t trust the task to the Russian postal service. Is there a Blue located in Seattle or environs who could supply me with a fax number (fax is preferable to e-mail as the letter will be in Russian and it takes me ages to type in Cyrillic), pick up a page or two from the fax machine, stick them in a stamped envelope and mail it to an address I’ll send by e-mail? In return I can offer only my limitless gratitude and lots of free beer if we ever meet.

Sorry for using the news summary in this way – I won’t make a habit of it, but it would be a life-saver if someone can help. Also, if there are any Blues in Montreal, please let me know as I hope to be there sometime in February/March and am thinking of moving there permanently.

SOUTH FLORIDA BLUES – NEWS

Following the success of the South Florida Blues’ Christmas Bash, the Ft. Lauderdale – Miami Blues are making plans for 1999. Mark the calendar for the following events: United States Women vs. Portugal 2:00p.m. Saturday Jan. 30th. Lockhart Stadium, Ft Lauderdale. This match is part of the U.S. warm up program for the 1999 Women’s World Cup. Team USA won this cup in 1991, and is a top four seed for this year. Other seeds are China, Germany, and Sweden. Anyone who saw the women play in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics will know that the standard of play is at a very high level. Attending these games is a mixture between football and a rock concert. Just a whole lot of fun! Blues will meet at the Tudor Inn Ft Lauderdale 12:30p.m.

United States Men vs. Chile 3:30p.m. Sunday February 21st. Lockhart Stadium. New coach Bruce Arena begins to rebuild after the disaster of France 98. Squad will include Claudio Reyna, Jovan Kirovski, Eric Wynalda, Tony Meola. Blues will meet at the Tudor Inn at 2:00p.m.

Miami Fusion vs. New York Metro Stars, 8:00p.m. Saturday March 20th. Lockhart Stadium. Don’t miss the opening game of the 1999 campaign. Most games will be at night this season, after the lessons learnt last year. Then, F.90 degree temperatures wore out the players and fans in the afternoon. Blues meet at the Tudor Inn at 6:30p.m. All Blues are welcome. Turn up at the pub, or contact me before hand. Don’t forget to wear your City shirt if you have one.

More news on a trip to see Steve Kinsey’s Florida Thundercats coming soon.

BLEAK AND BLUE

In response to Richard Jenkins’ question (MCVITA 464): My girlfriend, a lifelong scum fan, gave me this book for Christmas. I am only about half way through it as it is more of a book to dip into than read through cover to cover at one sitting. It consists of match reports and comments based on the author – Craig Winstanley’s – scrap book entries from 1976 to present day. The book starts off around the time of the 1976 League Cup win and covers the gradual decline that followed. A period that is of particular interest to myself as I was born a few days after that glorious April day and am still waiting for our next big win (and I thought the Auto Windshields was there for the taking!). Whilst not as funny as Colin Schindler’s ‘Manchester United Ruined My Life‘, the inclusion of last season takes the story even further into the realms of farce. Let’s hope the next book written on Man City has a happy ending.

CITY DOWN UNDER

Just a quick mention to all City fans who attended the recent England vs. Aussie, Ashes match in Sydney. I was there on the Sunday and met loads of Blues and by far and away the most popular footy top on show was City! It was a great day, shame about the result.

Great to meet City fans and have a few drinks and catch up with the news, it made for a great atmosphere. City Barmy Army!

LEGENDS OF ’81

Don Price’s trailer for the “Evening with the legends of 1981” (Gow, MacKenzie, McDonald, Booth and Bennett – mind I thought Booth was long retired by 1981) reminds me of happy times to be a City fan, one of the great Cup games, and one of the Guardian Newspaper’s finest ever spelling mistakes (or was it?).

Big Mal had been banished and John Bond had bought wisely to turn a talented but underachieving young team into a growing force. Gow in particular had added steel to the midfield (allowing us to bid farewell to record waste of money Steve Daley). The scene was set for the FA Cup Quarter Final against Everton at Goodison. The Toffees took the lead early but City fought back and equalised on the stroke of half time (“…and City have equalised … just when it mattered most” screamed David Coleman reaching the higher octaves of his range). Everton scored again in the second half and then City threw everything at them. Surely we must score we all thought, but somehow the Scousers held out. Time was running out, the final few minutes were entered when, as the Guardian reported it, “God popped up to head the equaliser”. I couldn’t have put it better myself. Of course we went on to stuff Everton at Maine Road, and beat Ipswich with a Paul Power stunner in extra time of the Semi at Villa Park, to set up one of the classic cup finals. Aaah happier times!

SCREENSAVERS AND RUMOURS!

Does anyone out there know where I can get some decent City screensavers?

P.S. any truth in the latest rumour that if Murdoch fails to buy the scum, then he will go for City? The main reasoning behind this is that it won’t cost him that much (it should be easier with the recent death of Stephen Boler), he can get the team into the Premiership with a relatively small investement, and think of the pay-per-view opportunity of say a City – United FA Cup semi-final shown exclusively on Sky in a few years time…

Anyone else heard anything?

OPINION – CITY

I don’t really care what division City are in and how they are doing, I just care that they are doing their best, as they did in the second half against Stoke and the whole game against Wimbledon. It’s not that I don’t care about City winning, I get butterflies in the stomach and I was truly scared whenever Wimbledon got a corner, I knew that we could never come back from 2 down. The match was great for me because the players showed some bottle, and the players looked like they enjoyed playing football for Manchester City.

I do think that we need to stop talking about loyalty to the team though. Then some of the guys that whinge and whine about how we were in the Premiership only 3 years ago can feel comfortable deserting the Blues to go and support a team that today gets the results that they expected to last forever when they started supporting City in the seventies. If they suddenly become Reds we can deny ever seeing them at Maine Road, we’ll even tell stories of how they were Red through and through. We’ll never question why they passed Edgeley park to watch their local team.

The fact is, if you support Manchester City you are either a loser, someone that has a romantic attachment, or someone that supports your local team. Whatever it is, either live with it or stop boring me,

OPINION – MALAYSIA

Enjoyed reading Why Blue from Andy Noise (MCIVTA 462) where he mentioned Rags in Malaysia. Having spent Xmas and New Year in Malaysia you have to see it to believe it, Rag shirts everywhere and shops in all the large malls. To me it was a red rag to a bull as it only made me more determined to let everyone know about Manchester City by asking for a City shirt at each shop I saw; always the same reply but I never left until they fully understood Manchester City Football Club exists.

So Murdoch knows exactly what he is doing as they are just as popular elsewhere in SE Asia (as long as they are winning). This will only widen the gulf between the clubs which makes it more imperative we climb out of this division this season, by hook or crook, use of illegal drugs, bribery, cheating or perhaps winning lots of games, we must go up we cannot afford another season where we are. We all know the consequences for the football club but for us Blues it is just as vital, one cannot turn off a lifetime’s commitment.

How many fans were disappointed we could not sign Craig Hignett when he wanted to come to Maine Road and was the player the team needed? This may sound a little naïve but if it was only money City needed why were the fans not consulted and maybe help out with donations which could be repaid by the club in the form of match tickets for next season when we are out of this mess? It is our football club and maybe the passion and commitment of the fans may rub off on to the players and by all accounts some players need that.

This is coming from someone who has only seen one game this season as I am overseas but the highs and lows I have to endure each week tuning into the BBC are driving me a little desperate.

Anyway I am planning to be in Manchester at the end of the season as I do believe we can go up, if City can get on a roll there will be no one to stop them until they are safely back in the Premiership. Confidence and a winning team can turn average players into world beaters, look no further than the Swamp to witness that, especially in the past. I agree with what JR said recently that City must turn Maine Road into a fortress and have teams dreading of coming to play here. We all know it starts with the team but the fans can play their part by getting firmly behind the team, reading match reports here it seemed to work in the second half against Stoke. All the best for 1999.

OPINION – GROENENDIJK

Neil Haig’s contribution made interesting reading. W.r.t. Alfons Groenendijk, my son-in-law is a Dutchman supporting Ajax. He also takes an interest in the Blues from across the water. When we bought Alfons he told me that, although he was a very skilful player he was reknowned throughout Holland for being one of those “sickly” players who spend twice as much time on the treatment table as he does on the pitch. Why do we keep throwing good money away? Don’t our mangement check this type of thing before they buy? I asked my son-in-law how Kinky was doing at Ajax. He told me that he was stuck out on the left wing and very rarely got into dangerous positions, where he is famous for his little dribbles and cheeky goals. Apparently he has only once shown his true value.

OPINION – SIMON

I can understand Simon’s frustration, but for goodness sake if he wants to whinge (and MCIVTA thankfully is an open forum from which to do this) please bring something new to the party. All we have this time is regurgitated stuff from before. Despite this, my personal view is that he has some valid points and I would like to add my twopennyworth. What we must not do is to adopt a negative stance which could well lead to destruction. I don’t see City being finished as a club, although there are challenges ahead. It’s not the fault of the current board that City are in a mess and the fact remains that all of us, that’s fans, the executive, the financiers, are having to pay for what can only be described as gross mis-management over too long a period. It is a fact that the club is in a parlous financial position, let’s not bury our heads in the sand for one minute. Joe Royle has a very difficult task in reducing the playing staff while at the same time keeping enough players and buying where he can to get us out of this division. There is simply no money at this time, we have to live with that. That said, JR knew the task when he took it on and it could be argued that it was his fault we went down – after all he had the last third of the season to keep us up.

I hear from fairly reliable sources that management of the players is not so much of a problem than the tactics (or lack of them!) and coaching. This is WD’s responsibility. I hear that WD is too full of theory and seems incapable of handling the dynamics of the game. Hence the players become confused, which we see most games with WD bawling his orders. It would appear that either the messages are not getting through – or that WD simply does not have the qualities required! This is Joe’s management team and it simply is not working. Second half against Stoke and at Wimbledon we were superb. Same away at Derby. Strikes me that we would get by in a higher division, but we don’t have the strength to get out of this one. It looks more and more like we will need to buy good Division 2 players to get out. The problem being that we don’t have money to lay out in the short term and these players would need to be sold soon after promotion (or sell some of the present staff otherwise we get back to the ridiculous situation where we have 50-odd professionals on the books). Though as a boss of long ago once told me – that’s what management is all about!

As far as David Bernstein is concerned, I totally disagree with Simon. DB appears to have brought some management thinking to the organisation. I believe this is a temporary board he has put together to hand over to new investors as soon as the sorting out is complete. Where does Simon think the investment is to come from – perhaps somewhere in the trees?! It is obvious we need someone of Jack Walker proportions moneywise but, we are a Third Division club at this time. The primary objective is to get out of this division then we might become more attractive to investors. Simon seems to think this will come by magic. As for DB living in London, well he sat near me in the director’s box at Wrexham. To get from home for a noon kick off 200 miles away on Boxing day shows some support and commitment. It is the quality of the work he puts in not the quantity; we have seen plenty of that in the past! There is no quick win, we all have to be patient although I am deeply concerned that we do not appear to be able to control a game. This is either because the players we have are not good enough or the management of them is inadequate. In reality the answer probably lies somewhere inbetween. We all agree that what we should be doing to this division is what Sunderland are doing in Division 1. We should be up there with Fulham and the next three games are crucial. I think we will do well against Fulham, Walsall and Stoke because they are good sides, but then we slip back into mediocrity. We need to learn how the clubs at the top of Division 2 handle the rest.

Simon you are right. City needs huge investment but please try to concentrate how this can be brought about.

OPINION – WALES/ENGLAND

or GEORGIA/SCOTLAND/HOLLAND/BERMUDA/IRELAND for that matter.

What is Martin Ford on about (MCIVTA 464) – supposedly if you’re English (British according to my passport) then it’s compulsory to support the national team, fill up with pride when they take the pitch and cheer for them regardless? Cast your mind back to the World Cup game vs. Argentina and how proud was the nation, let alone Blues, when Stupid Spice petulantly kicked out. It’s not just single actions like that but also the whole nationalistic fervour that is whipped up when ‘our boys’ go into action that means that I don’t support England regardless.

An England team vs. say Georgia with 2/3/4 City or ex City players and we’re expected to hope that Nicky Butt outshines Gio and or Sheringham gets the better of Murtaz – sorry Martin but it’s an international game now and like it or not we are becoming part of Europe as our team mixed with Europeans and other nationalities demonstrates.

I know it is somewhat illogical, but my blind allegiance is only to City as my home team regardless of who plays for them and supporting England does not kick in automatically when SkyManU shows their next game.

REPLIES

To Martin Ford: Wrexham is in Wales!

To Neil Haigh:

Didn’t Keith Curle play half a game for England (in the wrong position) after David White had played his last? Look who is still playing first team football near the Premiership. Keith Curle was a class player in my opinion; whenever he played the defence knew what they were doing – ever since…

Hendry wanted to to return to Blackburn and don’t forget the goal that Phelan scored against Spurs in the FA cup when we were stuffed by them. It sounds like you weren’t there when the pitch was invaded, but I may be wrong, it was long time ago and your memory doesn’t seem to improve with age.

P.S. I didn’t read your comments about Franny Lee – I couldn’t be bothered.

THANKS!

I’d like via MCIVTA to thank the 60 plus Blues that took the time to message Amy on her recent birthday. Her face was a picture when she opened them up, just proves what we all knew all along, City fans are the best.

Thanks.

RESULTS

Second Division Results, Saturday, January 9 1999

Blackpool                 0-0  Manchester City        9,752
Bristol Rovers            3-4  Burnley                7,129
Cureton (25)                   Davis (14)
Roberts (35)                   Branch (30)
Lee (45)                       Payton (44)
                               Cooke (54)
Chesterfield              3-1  Colchester United      3,761
Wilkinson (62)                 Tresor Lua Lua (75)
Howard (69)
Reeves (82)
Fulham                    1-0  Macclesfield Town     10,153
Hayward (55)
Lincoln City              2-1  Bournemouth            3,141
Bimson (19)                    Fletcher, S (33)
Battersby (81)
Luton Town                3-1  Wycombe Wanderers      5,063
Spring (15)                    Carroll (pen 88)
Evers (68)
Douglas (74)
Millwall                  3-1  Wigan Athletic         5,625
Nethercott (45)                Jones (89)
Sadlier (76)
Shaw (83)
Notts County              0-1  Oldham Athletic        4,669
                               Mardon (6)
Stoke City                3-1  Northampton Town      11,180
Wallace (56)                   Howey (90)
Thorne (74)
Lightbourne (84)
Walsall                   2-1  Gillingham             5,495
Wrack (44)                     Patterson (69)
Rammell (50)
Reading                   4-0  Wrexham                8,087
Williams (pen 7, pen 53)
Brebner (44)
Parkinson (82)
York City                 0-1  Preston North End      5,744
                               Nogan (72)

Second Division Table, Up to and including Saturday, January 9 1999 (5:10pm)

                              HOME            AWAY
                         P  W  D  L  F  A   W  D  L  F  A   Pts   GS
Fulham                  24  9  2  1 24  8   7  2  3 13  9    52   37
Walsall                 26  9  3  2 22 13   6  2  4 15 16    50   37
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Stoke City              25  8  2  2 18  7   7  0  6 16 13    47   34
Preston North End       24  6  3  3 26 13   7  4  1 16 10    46   42
Gillingham              25  9  3  2 25  9   1  8  2 11 12    41   36
Bournemouth             23  7  3  0 21  6   4  3  6 15 18    39   36
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Chesterfield            25 10  1  2 23  9   1  5  6  5 12    39   28
Reading                 24  6  6  2 21 12   4  1  5 10 17    37   31
MANCHESTER CITY         25  5  5  2 15  9   4  5  4 13 13    37   28
Millwall                25  5  6  2 17 11   4  3  5 10 16    36   27
York City               26  4  6  3 19 17   5  1  7 16 25    34   35
Wigan Athletic          25  6  3  3 18  7   3  4  6 14 19    34   32
Luton Town              23  6  2  2 14  6   3  5  5 18 21    34   32
Blackpool               26  4  6  3 16 13   4  4  5 13 16    34   29
Burnley                 26  5  5  3 12 12   2  3  8 18 31    29   30
Bristol Rovers          24  5  5  3 22 17   1  5  5  8 12    28   30
Colchester United       25  3  5  4 10 16   3  4  6 14 19    27   24
Northampton Town        25  2  7  2 12 12   3  3  8 12 18    25   24
Wrexham                 25  6  3  5 15 14   0  4  7  7 23    25   22
Notts County            24  4  2  6 16 17   2  4  6 10 18    24   26
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Oldham Athletic         25  3  2  7 11 19   3  4  6 13 19    24   24
Wycombe Wanderers       26  5  2  7 18 15   0  6  6  7 19    23   25
Macclesfield Town       25  2  4  5  9 12   2  5  7 10 19    21   19
Lincoln City            25  4  2  6 16 19   1  3  9  9 25    20   25

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

MCIVTA ADDRESSES:
Contributions: Ashley – mcivta@tollbar.u-net.com
News & Rumours: Peter – brophpe@moscow.whitecase.com
Subscriptions & Club Questions: Steve – sbolton@buxtonrd.u-net.com
Technical Problems: Paul – paul@city-fan.org

DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in MCIVTA are entirely those of the subscribersand there is no intention to represent these opinions as being thoseof Manchester City Football Club, nor of any of the companies anduniversities by whom the subscribers are employed. It is not inany way whatsoever connected to the club or any other relatedorganisation and is simply a group of supporters using this mediumas a means of disseminating news and exchanging opinions.

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

Editor: