Newsletter #1387

Not the best weekend for Blues as City were beaten by Spurs, Ireland was not so superman and got a red card for his troubles and Hatton was beaten in Vegas.

Tonight we have Alex’s November review, player opinion and match views.

NOVEMBER ROUND-UP

Two clean sheets, three promising performances and, after results against Sunderland, Portsmouth and Reading, an unbeaten run that stretches to four games. At home to the Black Cats, the Blues won a very hard fought 1-0 victory as Roy Keane slumped to another defeat in Premier League football management. The once intimidating presence of the former Stretford United captain seemed to wilt into his dug out every time he attempted to rally his team. Every time Keane stood to speak to the Sunderland players, he was booed and jeered by the City faithful. Kenwyne Jones missed a hatful of ‘should have been’ goals and in the end it was Stephen Ireland’s volley from a pin-point Darius Vassell cross that won the game for the Citizens. The goal was followed by one of the strangest celebrations seen at the City of Manchester stadium for a long time as Ireland exposed his bright blue superman pants for the entire crowd to see. Why? No-one really knows and I think that it’s best if it remains a personal joke.

Kenny Jackett found the lure of football management to much to resist as Millwall offered him their vacant managerial post. The New Den came calling and Jackett chose to start a new challenge rather than continue his post as City reserve team boss. However short, Jackett’s stint was successful after his reserve side won their Manchester Senior Cup tie with a 3-1 victory over local rivals Stretford United. Sven wished Jackett luck, saying: “He’s worked particularly well with the youngsters, and also helped us out with the first team when Hans was away. He goes with our best wishes and we wish him good luck for the future.”

Remembrance Sunday brought the long trip down to Portsmouth. There’s only so much you can write about a 0-0 result but the trip to Fratton Park was well worth it to show the Premier League that City’s attacking abilities this season can still be easily matched by the strength of character in defence. Free flowing football from both sides came to no avail as both sides proved their defensive prowess. Joe Hart especially was superb and yet was replaced the game after.

It was Andreas Isaksson between the posts as Sportcity hosted Reading after the international break and City left it late to wow the fans. As the ball bounced around in the penalty area most of the Blue attacking options couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net; that was until Bulgarian winger Martin Petrov stepped up. Petrov slotted the ball home and gave City an eleventh minute lead. The lead was stolen from the Blues two minutes before half time by a James Harper finish. As the game went on, Stephen Hunt made an awful high footed tackle against Gelson Fernandes and was lucky to only be booked. Geovanni missed a glorious chance with very little time left on the clock but seconds later ‘Geo’ knocked the ball up to Stephen Ireland who again scored with a beautiful volley. The stadium erupted with noise as the blues kept hold of their 100% home start.

With the Christmas programme quickly approachings, this time next month we will have a better idea of where City are likely to finish in the League come May. I’d like to wish everyone connected to the club a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Hopefully this time next month I will be writing of City’s consistently good form that has kept them sitting comfortably in the top six and speculating as to which brilliant players Sven will tempt to the City of Manchester Stadium.

November’s star player- Stephen Ireland. The young Irish Academy graduate has recovered well from his recent troubles and is deservedly my player of the month. With two winning goals in consecutive home games, I can hardly fault him, except maybe that strange celebration. Gelson Fernandes also deserves a mention following his successful breakthrough into the first team.

City’s best moment- Stevie Ireland’s amazing volley that won the Reading match and preserved Sven’s 100% home start at the club.

OPINION: SUPER MAN?

Well call me an old cynic but I think Steven Ireland did exactly the same as his mate Joey did last season… he got himself Christmas off.

Well thanks a lot Steven you cost us at least one point and you can see both your grannies this Christmas. Not very professional though is it?

Joey got a wake up call when we won without him, let’s just hope Steven gets the same message.

Apart from that the season’s going rather well don’t you think?

OPINION: PC VIEWING

I’ve struggled to find somewhere to watch City on my PC when they are not on Sky but I may have found somewhere.

I tried this, strangely enough, at the end of last season when they played Tottenham away. I paid £4 and they showed the United game!

I thought I’d give it another go yesterday since none of the pubs around Hyde that usually show the foreign channels had a feed. It cost me £3.50 this time and I managed to tune in to see the match at Tottenham. Picture OK but not if you make it full screen as it becomes a bit ‘Woolly’. You have to download some software to play the stream.

When you register and login, you will be offered 3 types of download. I tried the top one, which is labelled ‘Player v4 Beta’. Don’t try this as it tries to install something that isn’t accessible (that was my experience anyway). Try the second option for 95, 98, 2000, XP, and Vista and it should work OK.

Each time there are a set of games, you pay the fee and, I believe, you have access for that day (please correct me if I’m wrong).

You can pay by Paypal so giving me further confidence with this site. (incidentally, I got my £4 back from May when they showed United instead of the game at Tottenham).

Link is here: http://www.liveonlinefooty.com/

As for the game itself, disappointed that their first goal was allowed but Keystone Cop defending for the second. How difficult is it to ‘Welly’ it upfield?

And it becomes more apparent as the weeks go by that Garrido is out of his depth. Steven Hunt of Reading made him look like a snail 2 weeks ago, was continually out of position at Wigan and poor again yesterday. I would play Ball instead.

OPINION: SEASONAL TIDINGS

I think that a big thank you for all their hard work during the year is in order to Heidi, Don, Mads and everyone else connected with the production of McV.

Thank you all, and may you, and your families have a Merry Christmas, and a Happy Blue New Year!

RESULTS

9 December 2007

Middlesbrough         2 - 1  Arsenal               26,428
Tottenham Hotspur     2 - 1  Manchester City       35,646
Blackburn Rovers      0 - 1  West Ham United       20,870
Bolton Wanderers      4 - 1  Wigan Athletic        20,309

8 December 2007

Aston Villa           1 - 3  Portsmouth            35,790
Chelsea               2 - 0  Sunderland            41,707
Everton               3 - 0  Fulham                32,743
Manchester United     4 - 1  Derby County          75,725
Newcastle United      2 - 1  Birmingham City       49,948
Reading               3 - 1  Liverpool             24,022

League table to 09 December 2007 inclusive

                             HOME          AWAY        OVERALL
                    P  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F   A   GD Pts
 1 Arsenal         16  7  1  0 20  6  4  3  1 13  8 11  4  1  33  14  19  37
 2 Manchester Utd  16  8  1  0 20  2  3  2  2  9  6 11  3  2  29   8  21  36
 3 Chelsea         16  5  3  0 14  3  5  1  2 10  6 10  4  2  24   9  15  34
 4 Liverpool       15  3  4  0 16  4  5  2  1 11  5  8  6  1  27   9  18  30
 5 Portsmouth      16  2  5  0 11  6  6  1  2 17  8  8  6  2  28  14  14  30
 6 Manchester City 16  8  0  0 13  3  1  3  4  7 14  9  3  4  20  17   3  30
 7 Everton         16  5  1  2 19  7  3  2  3 10  9  8  3  5  29  16  13  27
 8 Aston Villa     16  5  0  4 13 12  3  3  1 14  7  8  3  5  27  19   8  27
 9 Blackburn R.    16  4  2  3 11 11  3  3  1  9  8  7  5  4  20  19   1  26
10 West Ham United 15  2  3  2  9  7  4  1  3 11  5  6  4  5  20  12   8  22
11 Newcastle Utd   16  5  2  2 14 13  1  2  4  9 13  6  4  6  23  26  -3  22
12 Reading         16  5  1  3 12 12  0  1  6  9 21  5  2  9  21  33 -12  17
13 Tottenham H.    16  3  1  4 19 16  0  5  3  9 13  3  6  7  28  29  -1  15
14 Bolton Wndrs    16  3  3  3 12  9  0  2  5  4 14  3  5  8  16  23  -7  14
15 Birmingham City 16  2  1  4  7 10  2  1  6 10 16  4  2 10  17  26  -9  14
16 Middlesbrough   16  2  3  3 10 13  1  2  5  5 15  3  5  8  15  28 -13  14
17 Fulham          16  2  4  2 14 14  0  3  5  4 13  2  7  7  18  27  -9  13
18 Sunderland      16  3  2  2  7  7  0  2  7  8 24  3  4  9  15  31 -16  13
19 Wigan Athletic  16  2  2  3  6  7  0  1  8  6 23  2  3 11  12  30 -18   9
20 Derby County    16  1  2  4  5 14  0  1  8  1 24  1  3 12   6  38 -32   6

MCIVTA FAQ [v0708.01]

[1] MCIVTA Addresses

Articles (Heidi Pickup)          : editor@mcivta.city-fan.org
News/rumour (Don Barrie)         : news@mcivta.city-fan.org
Subscriptions (Madeleine Hawkins): subscriptions@mcivta.city-fan.org
Technical problems (Paul)        : paul@city-fan.org
FAQ (David Warburton)            : faq@mcivta.city-fan.org

[2] What are MCIVTA’s publishing deadlines?

Deadlines for issues are nominally 6pm, Monday and Thursday evenings bu email. Unfortunately we cannot accept email attachments.

[3] 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.

[4] What is the club’s official web site?

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

[5] What supporters’ clubs are there?

Manchester City FC recognises three supporters’ clubs: The “Official Supporters Club” (http://www.mcfcosc.com/); the “Centenary Supporters’ Association” (http://www.reddishblues.com/CSAWebsite/CSA.htm) and “The International Supporters’ Club”.

[6] Where can I find out about Points of Blue (formerly the Fans’ Committee)?

The committee operates as an interface between supporters and the club. Points of Blue appears on the club website as a minor entry under “Fans Zone”.

[7] What match day broadcasts are available on the web?

The Radio Manchester (née GMR) pre and post match phone-in is available on the web at http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/sport/manchester_city/index.shtml.

Live match commentaries and archives of games, reports and interviews can be found at http://mcfc.videoloungetv.com/do/preLogin?clubSiteCode=MCFC&CMP=AFC-003.

[8] Where can I find out if City are live on satellite TV?

http://www.satfootball.com/pl.html provides a listing of Premiership games being shown on UK domestic and foreign satellite channels. Useful sites for North American viewers are http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer, http://www.soccertv.com/, and http://www.livesoccertv.com/.

[9] Do we have a Usenet newsgroup?

Yes we do: uk.sport.football.clubs.man-city is our home on usenet. If you are not familiar with usenet, a basic explanation is available here: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci213262,00.html

[10] Do any squad members have their own web pages?

There are a number available and direct links can be found at http://www.uit.no/mancity/players/

[11] Where can I find match statistics?

Statistics for the current season are available from the club site, but for a more in-depth analysis try http://www.mcfcstats.com/.

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.

Heidi Pickup, editor@mcivta.city-fan.org

Editor: