Newsletter #1806

‘Game time’ again y’all. Yee haa, it’s them cotten-picken Wanderers boys…

Sorry, forgive me, came over all funny then… not sure what happened.

A determined Bolton will be with us tomorrow. An unusual kick off time too, Saturday 3pm. Match scheduling gone mad, I say!

Three items today and all of interest. A quizzical look at our goal scoring record, a song for the mercurial Silva (who played wonderfully well for Spain on Wednesday) and a stroll down memory-lane from Phil with a reflection on the sadly now departed (ex-Coronation Street actor) Davy Jones.

Enjoy the game this weekend if you can make it and fingers crossed for 3 points in what is always a tough battle irrespective of form/league position.

ARTICLE: STRIKERS

Agüero, Dzeko and Balotelli have now all reached double figures for goals scored in the league this season (16, 13 and 10 respectively).

The last time we had a strike force that managed that was only 2 seasons ago during the 2009-10 campaign when Tévez (23), Adebayor (14) and Bellamy (10) did the business.

I’m keen to know if anyone can tell me when the last time we had 3 strikers that managed the same feat? I don’t know the answer by the way I’m just keen to know! :o)

SONGS: SILVA

One or two have said how ironic it is that our ‘best player’ doesn’t have a chant. I saw a Spanish flag hanging over the edge of Level 2 in the East stand last Saturday with the words ‘Silva es magico’ on it and thought we could chant that to the tune of “Ireland is Superman”. It could also be the first chant in a foreign language by a home crowd – let’s start a trend.

“Silva es magico,
Silva es magico
Silva es magico
Silva es magico”

P.S.: Couldn’t remember a use of the tune before my son reminded me that we used it for Stephen Ireland.

AND FINALLY… A FIRST SIGHTING OF CITY. HAPPY EARLY MEMORIES

I have some vivid memories of moving to the North West in the early 70s. The accent was different in Glossop. People said “boooook” rather than “book”, “to” sounded like “two” and when they said “bounce” it sounded more like “bayoonss” to me.

We moved into a wonderful three storied council house with plenty of little nooks where you could hide (my parents, strangely didn’t appreciate this) and there was an older kid, a United fan called Bernard, who I could play football with (and bicker with when I thought he was cheating).

The Manchester Evening News was full of stories about a team that played in red but there was another team that played in light blue. It was the first time that I heard of Manchester City and I remember the colour pull-out at the start of the 1971-1972 season with a picture of the City team (if only we’d kept it) in their smart light blue shirts with the vicar’s collar. They looked brilliant, and I subsequently found out that they were brilliant.

The larger than life Malcolm Allison was impossible to miss, even for a 6 year old like me at the time, and there was the TV of course. Black and white in those days. Grandstand and a “Football Preview” section (a forerunner to Football Focus) was presented by a chubby Scotsman who I thought was called “Samwich” (I thought it was spelled with an “m” and to be fair he looked like he could put away a few “samwiches”). I later found out that his name was actually Sam Leitch (who came out with the quote “They’ll be dancing in the streets of Raith tonight” – Raith play in a town called Kirkcaldy).

There’d be footage of European games with a cacophony of klaxons drowned out the crowd as Dukla Prague and FC Magdeburg did battle with whichever Dynamo they were playing that week. But I was a little kid, and on a Saturday morning I loved the Banana Splits, The Arabian Knights (“Rozan kobar!”, “Size of an Elephant!”), and of course The Monkees, which I was hooked on.

It’s never mattered to me that they were a manufactured boy band. The programme was great fun and the songs were greater still. It didn’t matter that they didn’t write those big hits or even played on them. It’s never mattered that it was Micky Dolenz that sang on more of those songs than Davy Jones (Manchester-born but a United fan, though who cares?).

Like so many, I’ve always loved their records. In those days in the early 70s when they sang “Here we come, walking down the street” and in the opening titles to their show the lyric went “We may be coming to your town”, I looked forward to them coming to Glossop to perform.

To my immense disappointment, they never came! Oh, the naivety of a six year old!

In the eighties my mates and I sung and danced to those songs at Sheff Poly’s “Sheff One” “disco” (a seventies word if ever there was one!). We didn’t care if it wasn’t “cool”! For me the songs (written by top writing talents like Neil Diamond etc.) evoke happy memories of a childhood in what seemed like a perpetually sunny Glossop that early 70s summer.

Didn’t the sun always shine in the summer back then or does distance lend enchantment?

All I had to worry about was what to play next when the kids’ programmes stopped. Now, forty years on from those days, I can hardly believe that the Peter Pan like little Davy Jones has passed away at the tender age of 66. He entertained us royally. Thanks for the very happy memories. God rest his soul.

RESULTS AND TABLE

League table to 26 February 2012 inclusive

                             HOME          AWAY        OVERALL
                    P  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F   A   GD Pts
 1 Manchester City 26 13  0  0 40  6  7  3  3 27 13 20  3  3  67  19  48  63
 2 Manchester Utd  26 10  1  2 37 15  9  3  1 26 11 19  4  3  63  26  37  61
 3 Tottenham H.    26 10  2  1 29 10  6  3  4 22 20 16  5  5  51  30  21  53
 4 Arsenal         26  9  2  2 29 11  5  2  6 24 26 14  4  8  53  37  16  46
 5 Chelsea         26  8  2  3 30 19  5  5  3 17 12 13  7  6  47  31  16  46
 6 Newcastle Utd   26  7  4  2 20 14  5  3  5 18 24 12  7  7  38  38   0  43
 7 Liverpool       25  4  8  0 14  8  6  1  6 15 15 10  9  6  29  23   6  39
 8 Norwich City    26  5  4  4 20 17  4  4  5 18 26  9  8  9  38  43  -5  35
 9 Sunderland      26  5  4  4 20 13  4  2  7 14 17  9  6 11  34  30   4  33
10 Everton         25  5  3  5 14 13  4  3  5 12 14  9  6 10  26  27  -1  33
11 Fulham          26  6  4  3 24 19  2  5  6  8 17  8  9  9  32  36  -4  33
12 Stoke City      26  5  4  4 17 14  4  2  7  9 24  9  6 11  26  38 -12  33
13 West Brom A.    26  3  2  8 13 16  6  3  4 20 19  9  5 12  33  35  -2  32
14 Swansea City    26  5  6  2 18 10  2  3  8 10 24  7  9 10  28  34  -6  30
15 Aston Villa     26  3  4  6 14 17  3  7  3 15 17  6 11  9  29  34  -5  29
16 Wolves          26  3  2  8 17 28  2  5  6 13 23  5  7 14  30  51 -21  22
17 QPR             26  2  4  7 13 21  3  2  8 14 24  5  6 15  27  45 -18  21
18 Blackburn R.    26  4  0  9 19 26  1  6  6 18 33  5  6 15  37  59 -22  21
19 Bolton Wndrs    26  2  2  9 15 27  4  0  9 14 27  6  2 18  29  54 -25  20
20 Wigan Athletic  26  1  6  6 11 22  3  2  8 12 28  4  8 14  23  50 -27  20

MCIVTA FAQ [v1112.01]

[1] MCIVTA Addresses

Articles (Philip Alcock)         : editor@mcivta.city-fan.org
News/rumour                      : 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 by email. Unfortunately we cannot accept email attachments.

[3] MCIVTA Back Issues and Manchester City Supporters’ home page/Twitter

http://www.mcivta.com/ 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. You can also follow on www.twitter.com/mcivta to get the latest updates.

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

The official club web site can be found at http://www.mcfc.co.uk/ and the official club Twitter page at www.twitter.com/mcfc. The club also has a facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/mcfcofficial

[5] What supporters’ clubs are there?

The Official Supporters’ Club and the Centenary Supporters’ Association have merged to become the Manchester City Supporters’ Club (http://www.mcfcsupportersclub.com/). The club also recognise the Manchester City Disabled Supporters’ Association (http://www.mcdsa.co.uk/).

[6] Where can I find out about Points of Blue?

The committee operates as an interface between supporters and the club. Points of Blue appears on the club website under the “Fans” heading (http://www.mcfc.co.uk/Fans).

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

Live match commentary can be found on the club website. The Radio Manchester pre- and post-match phone-in is available on the web at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/england/manchester/.

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

http://www.satfootball.com/ provides a listing of Premier League games being shown on UK domestic and foreign satellite channels. A useful site for North American viewers is http://msn.foxsports.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://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/Usenet

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

There are a number available and direct links can be found at http://www.mcivta.com/players/

[11] Do any squad members have their own Twitter accounts?

A list of genuine player accounts is maintained at http://twitter.com/#!/MCFC/players

[12] Where can I find match statistics?

Statistics for the current season are available from the club site, but for a more in-depth historical 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.

Philip Alcock, editor@mcivta.city-fan.org

Editor: