Newsletter #741

Well no City game to comment on for this edition but still plenty of comment in the ongoing debate about Live TV and Sky in particular. This is the end of my brief stint as “Temp-Ed” – all I can say is if you’ve enjoyed it half as much as me, then I’ve enjoyed it twice as much as you! Back to Heidi – see next item below.

EDITORIAL NOTE

Heidi returns from Thursday so any articles from today back to her please at: heidi@mcivta.freeserve.co.uk

NEWS SUMMARY

Kevin Keegan has revealed that, despite offers for striker Shaun Goater, he refused to sell him as he knows what the player means to City. Several clubs, including it’s thought Wolves, Leicester, Burnley and Birmingham, apparently tabled offers for ‘The Goat’. But Kevin Keegan, having talked to the Bermudian, has shut the door on any potential move. Keegan said “We had a number of offers for Shaun before I arrived at the club. We listened to what the clubs had to offer, as I believe there is no harm in that. It is obvious to me that he loves the club and that the fans like him.” He went on to add “I know it hasn’t always been like that but it shows you that there is only one way to win the fans over and that is on the football pitch, producing good performances and, in Shaun’s case, scoring goals. That’s no different from any other club I have been at. Now Shaun has won the fans over and sometimes when that happens the fans appreciate you even more because you have shown that you have character and that you haven’t just given up and taken the easy option.”

City Internationals

Richard Dunne put in a solid performance against a Dutch side featuring Ruud Van Kneestilsore. Kevin Horlock surprisingly played the full ninety minutes for Northern Ireland in their 1-1 draw in Denmark and is set for a place in their home tie against Iceland on Wednesday night. Paul Dickov will travel with the Scotland squad to Brussels for their crucial match against Belgium. The striker played no part in the Scots 0-0 draw with Croatia. City youth prospect Rhys Day again captained Wales under 21s in their 1-1 draw against Armenia at Merthyr. Not only that but Day, a centre half, also scored Wales’ only goal with a penalty just before half time. To add to the perfect day it was also his 19th birthday.

Ins, Outs, Rumours

Stockport County are said to have made a loan offer for Paul Dickov. County are currently propping up the Nationwide Division One. Dickov is probably behind Darren Huckerby in the pecking order and will again probably only make the bench against West Brom despite Paulo Wanchope’s suspension. Dickov is in the final year of his current contract with the Blues, and admits he is keen to earn an extended deal and has insisted that he is ready to fight for his place in the first team, reportedly saying in an interview with the Scottish Sunday Mail: “I’ve had six managers in my time in Manchester and haven’t started as first choice with any. I’ve had to get my head down, work hard and win them over. I’m confident I can do that again.”

Keegan has had more trialists at Carrington in his bid to improve the squad. One is apparently under consideration for a place in the City Academy. “We are just really looking at all our options,” Keegan said. ” We have a French and Italian with us at the moment, but I don’t want any names out at this stage. Suffice to say we have others coming over. We are just trying to look at any which way we can strengthen our squad in terms of quality or position.” The two trialists at the moment are both supposed to be strikers, whilst late last week we apparently had a Swiss midfielder training with us. Much horror dawned upon me this weekend as the only player linked with a move to the Academy was Newcastle’s Warren Barton; please Kevin, no!

Ex-Blues’ News

Jamie Pollock has turned down a loan move to Wigan Athletic. Pollock, who has been out in the cold at Crystal Palace for a while now, is thought to have wanted a more permanent move.

CITY DIARY: September 3rd-9th

September 3rd:
1955: City 1 United 0, on Joe Hayes’s goal. In 1892 the Football League formally expanded to two divisions and Ardwick F.C. was admitted to Divison 2. They opened the season by beating Bootle 7-0. In 1906 Scousers took some revenge as Everton beat City 9-1. In 1969 City went to the posher part of Merseyside, beating Southport 3-0 in the League Cup; Stan Bowles was in the side and Oakes, Bell, and Lee scored.

September 4th:
Tony Book’s birthday (1935). Jackie Bray, Alex Herd, and Eric Brook scored in the 3-0 win over Leicester in 1937. Aimson (2), Young, and Kevan got the goals in City’s 4-0 victory at home to Cardiff in 1963. Dennis Tueart hit the winner to beat Watford 1-0 in 1982, and City had won three out of three to start the season, but they lost the next match at Notts County, a sign of things to come, and ended the season being relegated.

September 5th:
A roll-call of City’s stars. City 2 United 0 in 1953, goals from Don Revie and Johnny Hart. City 6 West Brom 2 in 1936, Peter Doherty and Alex Herd getting two each, Heale and Brook the others. Billy McAdams scored three against Wolves in 1959, though City lost 6-4. Alex Harley scored both goals as City beat Ipswich 2-1 in 1962. Goals from Murray and Kevan defeated Portsmouth 2-0 in 1964. Guys called Lee, Summerbee, and Bell (2) scored in the 4-1 home win over West Brom in 1970. Rodney Marsh got the winner in the 1-0 home to Coventry in 1973. Trevor Francis scored twice on his début, 3-1 at Stoke in 1981. And David White (2) and Michael Vonk gave City a 3-0 win at Sheffield Wednesday in 1992.

September 6th:
Neil Young got one against Newcastle, Paul Hince got the other, City won 2-0 in 1967. In the League Cup in 1972 City beat Rochdale 4-0, Rodney Marsh scoring twice, plus Bell and Lee.

September 7th:
City 1 United 0 in 1912, goal by G. Wynn.

Today would have been Bobby Johnstone’s 72nd birthday. Following on from what has already been written about him, this seems an appropriate time to repeat the City Diary entry from MCIVTA 681, which included a match report of a City vs. Birmingham league game in 1956. Don Davies, or “Old International” was moved to write the following, which captures something of his play:

“Johnstone had just slipped his opponents most beautifully and was about to score when he was upended onto his nose in the penalty area. No penalty was given and the Scot spent a good deal of the time ruefully rubbing his knee and his face and glowering at the referee as though tempted to march up to him, demand his notebook and pencil, and ask for his name. In spite of this, Johnstone did not allow his feelings to cloud his judgment or blunt his skill. His footwork in the second half was magical to a degree. Glory and loveliness have not yet passed entirely away from Moss Side. There are still those left who can draw staid, not to say arthritic, members bounding wildly out of their seats.”

It was disappointing that Maine Road did not observe a minute’s silence for this fine player at the game against Crewe. Does the club intend to do anything in this respect? The thing can be overdone, and has been overdone, but someone like Bobby Johnstone deserves to be remembered in a public way.

In 1949 Frank Swift played his last game, a goalless draw at Everton. In 1895 Billy Meredith got the winning and only goal in City’s first match of the season away to Woolwich Arsenal. In 1999 Gerard Wiekens was reported as attributing his improved form to the fact that his golden retriever Joey who he’d brought over from the Netherlands, was with him again after coming out of six months’ quarantine. Gerard had been visiting him nearly every day in the kennels.

September 8th:
4-1 down at home to West Ham in 1962, City conceded a fifth goal which Bert Trautmann insisted was offside. Bert angrily picked the ball out of the net and booted it upfield, hitting the referee in the back and knocking him over, who then sent him off. City eventually lost 6-1 (they would lose the return match by the same score, too, this time with Harry Dowd in goal).

September 9th:
Clive Allen’s goal beat QPR in Division One 1-0 in 1989, City’s first win of the season. City had their first ever win in Division One in 1899, beating Derby County 4-0 at Hyde Road, Meredith (2), Jimmy Ross, and Gillespie scoring the goals. A bit less significantly, City defeated Queen of the South 5-1 away in a 1984 friendly.

VIDEO REQUEST

Hi from South Australia; please could anyone help us with a video recording of this season’s games? We here in Australia are getting absolutely nothing on free to air or pay T.V. (except Premier League). We will send blank videos, cost of postage and any fee for the service.

Our meetings are held on the last Wednesday of every month at The Union Hotel, Waymouth Street, Adelaide (anyone coming over?). We have a vibrant club and of course get results and reports via the Alps and the Net, so all that is missing is the video recordings of any of the games shown on U.K. TV.

Please help if you can. Nice to be top of the league as I write.

CITY ON TV

For the 99.9999% of us without ITV Digital, you can find pubs in your area that show ITV Sport at http://www.itv-digital.co.uk/company/home/publocator/locator.html. How up to date it is, I don’t know – for example, it doesn’t list the Bristol Tavern in (yup, you got it, Bristol), which last night showed the Bristol City vs. QPR game (in which Fat Blobby Bob Taylor utterly failed to distinguish himself in his first start on loan at QPR). I spoke with the landlord there to ask him whether he would be prepared to show City games as well as Bristol City ones, and he will do, except at weekends. Don’t know how many there are of us in this area now but quite a few of us used to meet up to watch us in the dark days of our fall from grace and drown our sorrows together. Simon Owen – you still out there? Leon Black?

Keegan Rules. There, I take it all back.

SKY NEWS

Broadcast magazine today says that Leeds, West Ham, Chelsea, Southampton etc. have arranged a deal with Sky to stream match highlights on their websites. This is because under the new football rights package, rights to matches revert to the clubs after 48 hours. I think Sky will be doing the editing of the pictures and selling that service to the clubs.

I don’t know if the same rules apply in the Nationwide league but I have emailed the marketing guy at City to see if they have any plans. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.

SKY STUFF

The debate has gone on and on but I think I might have the answer! Firstly, speaking to Sky customer services, they reckon it is going to be about December at least before the ITV Sport channel is offered on the Sky platform. If you ask me, they’re buying time to see if the ITV Digital subscription rate carries on rising. If it does they may decide not to give it to Sky after all as they won’t need to. Anyone who has recently subscribed will tell you it’s hell to get through to activate your account so that should tell you something about how that is going.

So, if you pay £34 for the top Sky package including movies and sport and you wanted to add the ITV Sport channel as a subscription channel you’d end up paying £41 per month. Currently, the top tier for ITV digital is £40.99. Although for that you only get 2 Sky movie channels (Premier and Moviemax, not all the other screens that go with that) and Sky Sports 1, 2 and 3 (not Sky Sports Extra and Sky Sports News). With ITV Digital the “Family” (or “Primary” channels as they call them) are not as extensive as Sky either. So there is a bit of a dilemma. However, I think I have solved it! I have obtained ITV Digital and subscribed to their minimum package plus the all important ITV Sport channel. This costs £14 per month. I have also streamlined my Sky subscription to £29 per month. This means I effectively have the top tier of Sky except Moviemax, Sky Sports 2 and Sky Sports Extra. I think I can live without these as the main stuff is on Sky Sports 1 and I’ll also get Sky Sports News (which I like). So for £2 more than it would cost just to have the ITV sport channel added to Sky I’ve basically got the lot, barring some old movies and interactive sports. The only other consideration is the “aerial upgrade” myth. If you can pick up ITV and ITV2 when you plug in the ITV digital box you will be able to receive the ITV Sport channel, although there may be some primary channels that you cannot pick up, but if you’re on the minimum package this won’t matter. It is only if you want to add lots more primary channels that you will need an “aerial upgrade”. My normal terrestrial ITV picture was terrible so I presumed I’d need an “aerial upgrade” but this wasn’t the case. I can receive ITV, ITV2 and the ITV Sport channel far better than my terrestrial coverage. So, if you’re still seething about the Nationwide coverage you needn’t. It should only cost £14.00 extra per month at the most. Far less than going to the pub to watch it I reckon. You don’t need to go to Comet and buy the prepaid either (in fact it’s probably better that you don’t because you’ll have paid for channels you don’t need and probably can’t pick up, thereby forcing you into the dreaded “aerial upgrade”). Just ring 0808-100-0101 for ITV Digital sales and they’ll send you a box and you can plug it in and be receiving wall to wall Nationwide coverage in a few days. Then you just subscribe monthly to spread the cost. Simple!

My apologies to non-UK readers who will find this email baffling and completely useless! If anyone wants any more information let me know.

P.S. I do not represent ITV Digital in any way (or Sky for that matter)!

P.P.S. Thanks to Dorien James for putting the idea into my head for mixing and matching the packages.

REQUEST – CITY ON TV

From the last MCIVTA: Does anyone have a schedule for further City matches to be shown on ITV Digital. I am considering changing from cable, but feel I may have missed a large portion of our games already.

Taking the info from the City vs. Watford programme, the Blues are on ITV Digital on the following occasions:

Sep Sat 15 Birmingham  12.30
Oct Sun 21 Preston N E 14.15
Oct Sun 28 Forest      18.15
Nov Fri 16 Portsmouth  19.45
Dec Fri 7  Palace      19.45
Dec Sun 16 Bradford    14.15

All Times are UK kick-off times.

BLUE HUMOUR

This came from a Liverpool fan colleague (original source unknown) – I guess this is a problem for City fans registering new cars too?

Liverpool fans staging new car MU-tiny:

Liverpool fans are calling foul on the new-style car number plates which will hit the streets of Britain on Saturday.

The first two letters of the new registration plate indicate the town in which the vehicle is registered, and in Liverpool that will be M plus another letter. That letter, chosen randomly by the DVLA computer, happens to be U. MU are the initials of Liverpool’s hated rivals Manchester United.

Motor dealers in the city say they are now receiving complaints from prospective new-car buyers, with many Liverpool fans refusing the new plates and demanding an alternative. Merseyside’s nearest DVLA office is Manchester so all vehicles registered in Liverpool will get the letter M.

MORE CITY ON TV

Just a bit of advice from my own experience (and by the way, I like brackets):

Comet (the electrical store) were the first to offer the ITV Digital ITV Sport package on sale at £200 (many others now sell it for the same amount). I went in and paid £200 on the Sunday mainly to watch City. I asked at the counter what the £200 was for; they weren’t too sure! I said, not to worry, I would sort it out when I got the package home as the match (MCFC vs. Watford) was starting in 2 hours! On ringing ITV Digital, they did not know what had I paid for. It’s £100 for a package with 6 primary channels, and £6.99 per month for the football (total £184 and shouldn’t I get some discount for paying it up front?!). Erm, excuse me – why have I paid £200?

I took it back the next day (they advised me to!)! My advice: You can apparently get a box (to own) for less than £50 at many electrical wholesalers, which gives you some free to view channels (such as ITV2), or on Internet auctions for a similar price. You can just get the football for £6.99 per month (plus £3 per month if you want the pay per view matches). At most, just get the package off ITV Digital, and then pay for the football. Do not prepay £200. Even the person on the end of the phone who worked for ITV Digital almost admitted it was a rip off!

By the way, the programmes on ITV Sport are/were excellent!

SKY VIEW

I know I am going to get my bllx chewed but every football fan who rushed to sign up to Sky is in part guilty of what we have now on the box. I live alone, the family gone to do their own thing (happily and well), and Sky effectively made Football viewing conditional on signing up to a package of channels. Surprise, surprise, OnDigital did the same. Can we hear a little less bleating about not being able to see City on the box? Who effectively ended BBC Match of the Day (not brilliant) but BBC did along with ITV have a chance to show excerpts from other leagues? No I did not like Sky joining me and many others as shareholders.

FINAL POSITIONS?

Every year I keep track of the league results and project the final standings. Usually update it each week or as time permits. Thought my fellow Blues might like to see it this year. Or not, as the case may be!

Projected final positions: results through Sunday September 02. The number in parentheses is their current league position.

 1 Manchester City (3)
 2 Birmingham (5)
 3 Burnley (1)
 4 Bradford (4)
 5 Coventry (15)
 6 Norwich (6)
 7 Preston (21)
 8 West Brom (17)
 9 Wolverhampton (7)
10 Gillingham (8)
11 Grimsby (2)
12 Watford (11)
13 Nottingham Forest (12)
14 Barnsley (19)
15 Sheffield Utd (14)
16 Sheffield Wednesday (18)
17 Wimbledon (13)
18 Crewe (22)
19 Crystal Palace (10)
20 Portsmouth (9)
21 Walsall (16)
22 Millwall (20)
23 Rotherham (23)
24 Stockport (24)

NEIL YOUNG CAMPAIGN UPDATE

It’s that time again to let you know how the Neil Young Campaign is going and to make an important announcement.

The fund is continuing to grow as Neil and the committee visit more and more branches. So far we have been to about two dozen with visits to another seven or eight planned. Everywhere we have been the reception has been tremendous and the generosity of the fans has been a credit to Blues everywhere. Other events are in the offing apart from branch visits and I’ll come to those in a minute.

The biggest event so far was a benefit match held at Mossley FC between MCFC vets and a Mossley XI at the back end of July. The turnout of 700 was about twice the number that would normally attend a vets game. City won (naturally!) 3-2 and with guest appearances by Colin Bell, Peter Barnes, Paul Power, Asa Hartford amongst many famous names the day raised just over £3,000 for the fund.

So to up and coming events… On Friday 7th Sept the Prestwich and Whitefield branch have organised a benefit night on behalf of the tribute fund. Amongst their guests will be Peter Barnes, Paul Hince, Stan Gibson, Gary Owen, Paddy Fagan and Roy Clarke. Entrance is just a quid but there will be the chance during the evening to win some great prizes. Monday 10th Sept sees a similar benefit evening being held at Droylsden FC by the Droylsden Independent Supporters’ Club branch. Their guests will be Pete Barnes, Jimmy Wagg and Neil with a visit by Phil Noble with some of his collection of City memorabilia. Watch out also for an announcement in the next few weeks of an evening at Bernard Manning’s Embassy Club. The usual mayhem will take place and it’s open to all Blues to attend.

Finally the important bit. The date for the grand gala dinner to round up the campaign has now been fixed. On Saturday 24th November at the Piccadilly Hotel right after the Rotherham fixture a black tie dinner is being held for up to 450 guests. Tickets are available at a cost of £50 per person from ourselves at the address below. A non refundable deposit of £20 per person is payable with the order and full payment will be required four weeks before the event. Tickets will be dispatched on receipt of full payment. We are also offering tables for sponsorship at a cost of £1,000 and we would be glad to discuss this with anyone who feels they would like to take part.

The contact details are as follows:

David and Vanda Cash
9 Hawkstone Avenue,
Droylsden,
Manchester.
M43 7RU
0161-370-8367
07899-872589

RESULTS

Recent results from 28 August 2001 to 2 September 2001 inclusive.

2 September 2001

Bradford City         2 - 3  Burnley               17,547

1 September 2001

Grimsby Town          1 - 0  Barnsley               6,173

28 August 2001

Crewe Alexandra       1 - 0  Millwall               5,913

League table to 2 September 2001 inclusive.

                       HOME           AWAY          OVERALL
                P  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F  A  GD Pts
Burnley         5  1  0  1  5  6  3  0  0  7  2  4  0  1 12  8   4  12
Grimsby Town    5  2  1  0  4  2  1  0  1  3  4  3  1  1  7  6   1  10
Manchester City 4  2  0  0  8  2  1  0  1  4  4  3  0  1 12  6   6   9
Bradford City   4  2  0  1  8  4  1  0  0  1  0  3  0  1  9  4   5   9
Birmingham City 4  2  0  0  6  1  1  0  1  3  4  3  0  1  9  5   4   9
Norwich City    4  2  0  0  4  0  1  0  1  1  4  3  0  1  5  4   1   9
Wolves          4  1  1  0  3  2  1  1  0  3  2  2  2  0  6  4   2   8
Gillingham      4  2  0  0  8  0  0  1  1  0  1  2  1  1  8  1   7   7
Portsmouth      4  1  0  1  4  3  1  1  0  3  2  2  1  1  7  5   2   7
Crystal Palace  3  1  0  0  4  1  1  0  1  5  6  2  0  1  9  7   2   6
Watford         4  2  0  0  5  3  0  0  2  0  4  2  0  2  5  7  -2   6
Nottm Forest    4  1  1  0  5  3  0  1  1  1  2  1  2  1  6  5   1   5
Wimbledon       4  1  0  1  3  2  0  1  1  3  4  1  1  2  6  6   0   4
Sheff. United   4  0  2  0  2  2  0  2  0  2  2  0  4  0  4  4   0   4
Coventry City   4  0  1  1  0  1  1  0  1  3  2  1  1  2  3  3   0   4
Walsall         4  1  0  1  3  3  0  1  1  2  3  1  1  2  5  6  -1   4
West Brom A.    4  1  0  1  1  1  0  1  1  2  3  1  1  2  3  4  -1   4
Sheff. Wed.     4  0  1  1  1  3  1  0  1  2  2  1  1  2  3  5  -2   4
Barnsley        5  1  1  0  3  2  0  0  3  0  8  1  1  3  3 10  -7   4
Millwall        4  1  0  1  4  2  0  0  2  0  5  1  0  3  4  7  -3   3
Preston N.E.    4  0  2  0  2  2  0  1  1  2  7  0  3  1  4  9  -5   3
Crewe Alex.     4  1  0  1  1  2  0  0  2  2  6  1  0  3  3  8  -5   3
Rotherham Utd.  4  0  1  1  3  4  0  1  1  3  4  0  2  2  6  8  -2   2
Stockport C.    4  0  0  2  0  3  0  0  2  2  6  0  0  4  2  9  -7   0

MCIVTA FAQ [v1.3]

[0] MCIVTA Addresses

Articles (Heidi Pickup)        : heidi@mcivta.freeserve.co.uk

 News/rumour (Michael Leafield) : mplctid@aol.com

 Subscriptions (Geoff Donkin)   : subscriptions@mcivta.city-fan.org

 Technical problems (Paul)      : paul@city-fan.org

Comments concerning this FAQ should be sent to David Warburton using the address: mcivtafaq@warburton.org

[1] MCIVTA Deadlines

Deadlines for issues are nominally Monday and Thursday evenings.

[2] MCIVTA Back Issues and Manchester City Supporters’ home page

http://www.uit.no/mancity/ is the unofficial Manchester City Supporters’ home page. Created in 1994, it is the longest running of the Manchester City related web sites. Back issues of MCIVTA are also hosted on the site.

[3] Club Web Site

The official club web site can be found at http://www.mcfc.co.uk/

[4] Supporters’ Clubs

Manchester City FC recognises three supporters’ clubs: The “Official Supporters Club” (http://www.mancity.net/osc/index.html); the “Centenary Supporters’ Association” (http://www.callnetuk.com/home/sef/) and “The International Supporters’ Club” (http://www.mcfc.co.uk/extra/fanzone/isc.asp)

[5] Fans’ Committee

The Fans’ Committee operates as an interface between supporters and the club. It has its own website, http://www.mcfc-fans.com/ containing info about forthcoming meetings as well as minutes from previous gatherings.

[6] City of Manchester Stadium Progress/Web Cam

The latest information regarding the progress of our new home can be found at http://www.commonwealthgames.com/

[7] Match Day Broadcasts

Live match commentaries and archives of games, reports and interviews can be found here: http://www.mcfc.co.uk/comment.asp. GMR Saturday Sport is also available live online between 1-3pm, and 4.45-6pm at http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/sport/index.shtml

[8] 01/02 Season Match Day Theme Tune

The music the teams run out to at Maine Road this season is “Nightmare”, by Brainbug, and is available on the Positiva label (my thanks to John Arnold for this information).

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.

Steve MacLean, stm1@stm1.freeserve.co.uk

Editor: