Stoke
No more snow after the Friday night flurry. Usual
car park closed so a bit of a trudge to the ground. Picked up a programme and
the Oatcake fanzine on the way.
The Oatcake had the same front cover as KK203 but with a different caption, and a reference
to us having “no class”. What the f*ck would anyone in Stoke know about class?
Dull game, Zab finally got the goal and a flare was
let off near us then thrown on the
pitch.
Snowball barrage from Stokies after the game but we
were through which is the main thing. Off down to South Wales after the game to
continue the youngest grandson’s City education. you
ITV MOTD coverage was annoying. Constant
interruptions with adverts for future programmed punctuated by a bit of soccer.
As for the draw can’t ask for anything more than a
home draw against lower league
opposition, even though we’ve slipped up sometimes in the past (Forest a couple
of years ago anyone?).
Then we were off to West London, good run on the M4
and parked up in the usual street as creatures of habit. We just had the top
tier tonight and it was a disappointing nil niller again so 2 points lost as
you well know.
Bitter article in the manumirror today by Liverpool
fan Brian Reade re Mario’s departure citing George Best as the top maverick
player. Best was best remembered bu City fans for ending Glyn Pardoe’s career.
Transfer window’s closed and we’ve compounded the
summer calamity by weakening the team yet again with the selling of Mario with
no replacement.
Rags have just won at Fulham so that’s 10 points
plus goal difference to make up.
Can we start with Liverpool tomorrow? Here’s the It’s
A Fix extract from KK 203:
25)
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 4TH : LIVERPOOL (HOME) KO 4PM
Last promotion was in 1962, since when they’ve won
the lot but no title since 1990 (who’d’ve thought we’d win it before them?)
Recent connection : Daniel Sturridge. 154th* league meeting.
The
season so far: They’re in 7th place with 35 points from 24 games
and 3 wins 5 draws and 3 losses away from home.
At
Anfield in August it was a ‘Desmond’. Skrtel put them one up
(34) Ya Ya equalised (63), Suarez then scored that free kick (66) but Carlos,
after Dzeko pressurised Skrtel, scored the equaliser (80). Crowd was 44,942
with 3,027 Blues.
In
the Capital One Cup: They beat West Brom away 2-1 in the 3rd
rd but lost 3-1 at home to Swansea in the 4th rd.
In
the Europa league it was :
FK Gomel 1-0 A, 3-0 H: Hearts 1-0 A, 1-1 H; BSC
Young Boys 5-3 A, 2-0 H; Udinese 2-3 H, 1-0 A; Anzi Makhachkala 1-0 H, 0-1 A
In the knock out stage they play Zenit St
Petersburg.
In
the FA Cup they’ve won 2-1 at Mansfield in the 3rd
rd but lost unaccountably 3-2 at Oldham away in the 4th rd.
Form
at home to Liverpool: Last season it was a 3-0 City win. Aguero opened
(10) Ya Ya made it 2 (33), and Milner rounded it off (75 pen) after Barry was
sent off. Crowd was 47,331 with 2,685 red scouse.
Prior to that it was 4 wins 3 losses and 8 draws
For
City it’s : WWDLDDLWDLDDWDD
Comment
; Firstly congratulations to Liverpool for their success
in the ‘Justice for the 96’ campaign.
On the pitch they’re still rebuilding after the
Dalglish bad buys and have had good and bad results, Suarez is on fire though.
Not much strengthening in the window after a summer cock up almost as bad as
ours, ex Blue Danny Sturridge being thenotable first signing.
Not the same Liverpool as of old, let’s hope we can
continue our good recent league form against them, but it certainly won’t be
easy.
WWTWTWShite:
Averaged 22,742 in 30/31 and this season it’s
44,696
Just a reminder that we’ve pulled the deadline date
of KK204 forward to next Tuesday February 5th owing to deciding not
to go to Saints and having the 5th round of the Cup at home to
Leeds.
Send them contributions in please, plenty in already.
Dave
10 points is probably a bridge a bit too far, especially as I can see us slipping up today due to the raft of players unavailable or out of sorts. The only consistent performers at the moment, for me, are Hart, Zabaleta and Barry. To be honest, if I was offered the FA cup and Champs league ( doesn't matter whether we finish 2,3 or 4th for the group we'd get ), I'd probably take it. It's hard to see us finishing lower than 2nd, but the strikers will need to buck up a lot.
ReplyDeleteIf united win the league, there's a good chance Ferguson would retire and the whole corrupt ediface would duly collapse. However, if we clawed back our title from the current position, the satisfaction would be without compare.
But can anyone, realistically, see united lose 2/3 games ( not including us at o/t ), probably not, and we can't afford to drop any more silly points like QPR away
I'm afraid that I have to agree with you Dave. Even a win today is only a stay of execution as united don't have many "hard" games left. We have to go to theirs, Spurs and Swansea and Everton as well as Chelsea at home yet and its hard to see us taking maximum points from those. The problem this season, apart from us dropping silly points at QPR is that they have won so many games they haven't deserved to win, but I guess that's what makes them what they are. I fully agree that once Ferguson goes, something will change at O/T.
ReplyDeletePretty much as we'd expected it would go with Sturridge scoring (bit mean of the fans to boo him as he did the decent thing and didn't celebrate) and a long range effort from Gerrard who'd done sod all apart from that. The FA are really going to have to sort this business of what is a bad tackle and what isn't out, because as Mancini pointed out had Kompany made that tackle, he would have walked.
ReplyDeleteLiverpool should have won this tbh and it is a real shame we've more or less surrendered so limply. Why all 11 back when we're defending corners, no outlet at all. Why surrender most of the middle third of the park and only defend on the edge of our area?
ReplyDeleteAlex
As well as he's played all season I thought Zabaletta was poor against Liverpool. Silva was hiding when the going got tough and this only served to expose our lack of composure when the opposition play a high pressing game.
ReplyDeleteLiverppol looked vibrant and the game reminded me of a European fixture with City struggling and looking lethargic against energy and pace.
Fair play to Sturridge after the game. He gets a lot of stick from City fans and I thought he spoke well about our club.