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Season 2008-09
Manchester City (a) Premier League
 
  Date: Wednesday 28th January 2009, 7.45pm

Venue:
 City of Manchester Stadium

Conditions: 
Catastrophic. Once again.

Admission: £29.50 (£27 last season)

Programme:
£3
 

Manchester City

Newcastle United

2 - 1

Teams

Goals

17 mins A quickly-taken throw midway down the City left saw Bellamy involved before Wayne Bridge's centre found Robinho in the area. The out-on-bail Brazilian took a touch before half-turning and threading a pass between Bassong and Enrique, to where Shaun Wright-Phillips shot low through Harper's legs from the right hand edge of the six-yard box. 0-1

Half time: City 1 United 0

77 mins Pablo Zabaleta was allowed to push the ball infield from the City right to the edge of the United box, with Taylor unable to stop Bellamy taking possession and turning neatly before wrong-footing Harper with a low drive. 0-2

81 mins Coloccini's sweeping ball down the right found the advancing Edgar who out-muscled Bridge before slipping the ball across Andy Carroll for a close range tap-in 1-2

Full time: City 2 United 1

We Said

Another colourful crop of JFK post-match comments:

On the penalty shout:

"I'd like to see whether Taylor was fouled or not - it looked like a cert penalty to me - it looked like he got wrestled to the ground, but that's the way things have been going of late.

"We did have two or three chances and got ourselves back in the game in the second half - we took more chances breaking forward. I would say we were the better side in the second half and deserved something out of the game."

On his own future:

"I don't think there's a problem there really because I've got a three-and-a-half year contract on the table that I myself haven't signed. I could have signed it three weeks ago but I'm prepared to leave the situation as it is until the end of the season and take stock then.

"It's a really tough job but I ain't gonna walk away from it. 

"I can see many other managers turned it down - but I wouldn't have thought it's as tough as it is now if I've got my key players back. Unfortunately most of them are injured or sitting on the treatment table so it will make things tougher."

On Shay Given and Charles N'Zogbia - or "insomnia" as Joe inadvertently christened him:

"Shay pulled out yesterday with a knee injury, as did N'Zogbia - who has an ankle injury. 

"I'm doing my best but it's tough. I've bent over backwards to keep Shay and I have told the powers
-that-be that he has got to stay. But I understand it from Shay's point of view. He's done 11 years at Newcastle and he wants a new challenge."

On Mike Ashley:

"Mike has lost £2bn* in his own business because of the credit crunch - it's not easy for him. He's paying the wages, just about. But it's in the records, you just have to look. I do not know what this club is worth, but at the moment we have to get on with it as best we can."

*
(The Sunday Times put Ashley's wealth @ £1.4bn) 

On outbound deals:

"I tried to sell Geremi yesterday because I thought it would raise £4 million but that deal fell through so I had to play him tonight."

On inbound deals:

"I still think
(Albin) Ebondo will come. I was supposed to have it done four days ago.
Hopefully he will come and join us. Ebondo was due to come in on Wednesday night from France, but we're still tied up in negotiations. 

The original price was £2.5m but they moved the goalposts and it's now £3m. We are still out in France negotiating. It's been two weeks now, so we have to wait and see."

On the immediate future:

"I don't know what team we will play next week and it's our biggest game of the season. This is the way it has been for us all season - we are chopping and changing every week. We've got one fit striker and that's Andy Carroll."

On his own personal frustrations:

"It's devastating when you look at a club like Tottenham offering £16m for this player, £14m for that player. I would love to go and spend millions like that and I wish I was in the position to do so. 

"But you can see why a lot of big names out there didn't have the arsehole to take this job. You can see why so many people bottled it."

They said


Mark
Hughes said:
 

"We have won games by a healthy margin, but I much prefer this way in fairness! But we have now won three out of four in the Premier League, which is the good consistent run that we have been looking for. We saw a decent performance tonight and we got the job done.

"At 2-0 we should have seen the game out comfortably, but we suffered a couple of injuries that affected our rhythm, then we were a little nervous towards the end. That was understandable as we really wanted the points to get into top 10. It could have been more comprehensive, but a win's a win and we are delighted.

"I was really pleased with our performance in the first half, the way we shifted it across the pitch at times was excellent. The interplay between Robbie and Craig was very encouraging, and Nigel linked things from back to front - two very impressive debuts. Once we realise when to release Craig a touch earlier, he will be key to how we play.

"Now we are in the top 10, and we don't want to drop out of it. That's the aim for the rest of the season. We want to look ahead, not behind us, and we have the quality to be confident enough in our ability to win more games."
 

Stats


City v United - Premier Years:

CoM Stadium:
2003/04 Lost 0-1 
2004/05
Drew 1-1 Shearer 
2005/06
Lost 0-3 
2006/07
Drew 0-0 
2007/08 Lost 1-3 Martins 
2008/09
Lost 1-2 Carroll

Maine Road:
1993/94
Lost 1-2 Sellars
1993/94 Drew 1-1 Jeffrey (LC)
1994/95
Drew 0-0
1995/96
Drew 3-3 Albert 2, Asprilla
2000/01
Won 1-0 Shearer
2002/03
Lost 0-1

Total record against Man City:
 
  P W D L F A
SJP 74 48 15 11 147 71
MR/CoM 74 16 20 38 77 131
League 148 64 35 49 224 202
SJP(FA) 6 3 2 1 8 5
MR/W 4 3 0 1 10 7
SJP(LC) 1 0 0 1 0 2
MR/W 2 0 1 1 2 3
Cup 13 6 3 4 20 17
Tot 161 70 38 53 244 219

Still no win at the CoM Stadium for United, but Andy Carroll's second senior goal for the club at least broke our duck of never having scored at the "away" end.

There was a debut off the subs bench for Peter Lovenkrands, who became the 147th player to have featured for us in the Premier League. 

Mention must also be made of his shameless mugging to the away section at the final whistle - while most of his new team mates skulked off, Mr Lovepants applauded, gave numerous "thumbs up" signals and generally looked utterly chuffed with himself. How exactly did he get out of Schalke04? was it by digging a tunnel or jumping the wire on a motorbike?

Steve Harper made his first senior appearance of the season, bringing him up to 102 career starts for United, plus ten as sub.

Fraser Forster was preferred to Tim Krul as back-up 'keeper, while there was a first call-up to the bench for Brad Inman - an Aussie-born midfielder from the academy who turned 17 just last month.

We need hardly mention that another former player scored against us - in the case of that Welsh so-and-so, it was his first career game since scoring against us for West Ham.
 

Waffle


 

 

Wednesday evening's clash of the have and have-nots ended with all three points predictably remaining at the CoM Stadium, even if the margin of City's victory was smaller than many had envisaged.

The inevitable debut goal from Craig Bellamy ultimately proved to be the difference between the two sides, with the travelling support enjoying a rare moment of pleasure when Andy Carroll netted a close range consolation.

But while the Welsh striker and his new fans enjoyed the moment, the returning Mike Ashley had far more to worry about than taunting ex-Mags and Manc mockery - even if the fans of his own club didn't turn against him tonight. The shirt-sleeved United owner took his place in the Main Stand next to Derek Llambias (sensibly attired in coat and Toon scarf) but doubtless ended up hot under the collar as United proceeded to quite literally put their foot in it.

First Michael Owen limped off within twenty minutes of the first whistle after appearing to do no more than make a slightly awkward landing after challenging for the ball - although he had been the victim of a strong tackle from behind by Nigel de Jong in the early stages.

Joey Barton was then was forced from the field to a mixed response from his former fans (cheers among the boos) after a similarly innocuous-looking passage of play.

An ankle injury of unknown severity afflicted Owen, while Barton seemed only too aware that he'd broken another bone in his foot - sending his discarded boot sailing down the player's tunnel in frustration after he exited. Already lacking the services of the allegedly-injured want -away duo of Given and N'Zogbia, our squad selection was already at crisis point, with unknown academy players making up the numbers on the bench. 

JFK resisted the temptation to recall Alan Smith after one comeback game the previous evening, but had another injury scare when Sebastien Bassong took a heavy knock. He continued after treatment though, but another yellow card for Jonas Gutierrez now sees him sit out the visit to West Brom on Saturday week, while Steven Taylor moved to within a booking of his own one-match ban.

The absence through injury and suspension of Danny Guthrie and Nicky Butt forced Kinnear to recall Geremi to the midfield and deploy Coloccini in front of the back four.

Things looked to be going as predicted when City went ahead after 17 minutes and within two minutes Owen had departed, leaving Andy Carroll to plough a lone furrow up front until a second half re-org saw some belated help from new boy Lovenkrands.

The remainder of the first half was short on action and excitement at either end though, as mediocrity across the field led to indifference from both sets of supporters. Shay Given wasn't present, but on the evidence of this disjointed display from City, his desire to exit SJP is greater than a wish to move here for "football reasons."

It took until just before the hour mark for either side to create another opportunity worthy of the name, when Barton and Geremi combined down the right for Duff to get to the byline and send over a well -weighted cross.

Steven Taylor made it to the ball but looked to have been dragged back from behind by Micah Richards. Penalty claims were waved away, but later TV replays showed the incident to be immeasurably more deserving of an award than the one given against Edgar in our last away game. 

Duff then cut into the box from the United left to latch on to Enrique's through ball, but inexplicably elected to try a pass rather than shoot, Bridge intercepting the attempted ball to Lovenkrands.

Enter Bellamy, who stoked himself up with his own hopeful claim for a spot kick after Bassong leant into him and within minutes had a second goal in successive games against Newcastle - for different clubs.

The visitors threatened to make a game of it with nine minutes left when Carroll converted, but despite five minutes of added time Newcastle were unable to emulate City's escape act at SJP and find another goal to make it 2-2.

The defeat mean that we've failed to win any of our last seven outings in league or cup and have managed just two wins in twelve Premier League games. Occupying sixteenth spot, results on Saturday could see us drop into the bottom three ahead of Sunday's game.

By the time the transfer window closes on Monday evening, the picture will be a lot clearer in terms of arrivals, departures, non-combatants and the level of misery on Tyneside following Sunday's games.

Rather than witter on as usual, we'll just leave it at that - and wait and see like everyone else.

Biffa
 

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Page last updated 08 February, 2017