Friday Night Featurette

From my hazy memories of Match of the Day last Saturday night Man City looked like they were a handy side with plenty of talented individuals. I still think we’re going to beat them tomorrow though, by a single goal. Our recent form has been beyond everyone’s wildest dreams and I fancy dreaming on a while longer especially as a win for us and a defeat for Bolton at home to West Ham would guarantee our survival with the luxury of four games left. That doesn’t sound like our usual style, I must say, as we invariably leave things to the last match and, come to think of it, West Ham have hit a very bad patch recently… Anyway, surely Chelsea will see off Wigan and Reading should beat Fulham while Boro have a difficult trip to Spurs and Brum entertain Everton.

The Game

When I heard on Five Live that Chops was starting instead of Edwards, I was pleased as I fancied him to get another goal today. After watching Roy Keane’s press conference I tuned into the Radio Newcastle commentary, which had Gary Bennett on expert analysis. The crowd was in good voice and we seemed to have the better of the first ten minutes, winning two corners, with Collins getting a lot of good mentions. Whitehead was yellow carded after 18 minutes when he pulled Petrov back just after a Man City player had blocked the ball, in the words of the commentator, “painfully” and Bardsley soon followed him into the book. It sounded like a scrappy game at this point but then we had the best chance so far when Kenwyne was dispossessed by Hart at the last moment. He seemed to be getting the better of Richard Dunne, which augured well, but his team-mates weren’t getting on the end of his good work. Meanwhile Fulham went 1-0 up at Reading and then Boro went 1-0 down at Spurs. At half-time it was 0-0 and it had sounded dull with both goalies having little to do. Gary Bennett said that the second half “can’t be any worse.”

Of course Roy would’ve had a few quiet words during the break and Leadbitter came on for Richardson for the second half. Things definitely livened up and after Murphy fired over after 48 minutes we continued to press and had a number of decent chances. News from elsewhere wasn’t good with Bolton taking the lead and Boro equalizing at Spurs. Edwards came on for Murphy and Chops moved upfront only to be replaced in turn by O’Donovan. Just after news of Everton going one-up at Birmingham came through, City took the lead after 79 mins through an Elano penalty after Nos fouled Sturridge, though this was disputed elsewhere. I was just adjusting my brain to defeat mode when three minutes later our best move of the match produced a great equalizer from Whitehead. Back up the other end Elano missed a sitter and I smelled victory and the crowd did too by the sound of it but unfortunately City had other ideas and after some careless play by Leadbitter, Vassell scored the winner three minutes from time. Four minutes of added time couldn’t produce one of our trademark late goals.

Well, this was a below-par performance with complacency perhaps to blame and a bad day all round with Fulham and Bolton both winning. Anyway, seven points ahead with four games left still sounds good to me. We haven’t got Mike Riley again this season, have we? Happy New Year to all our Sikh readers.

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