SON OF SOBS: CITY
After some stellar recent performance including our first win in Europe we headed to That Manchester as we faced our second of the 'big six' in just over a week. Diane made his first start following Reinildo's contentious red against VARsenal. Pep Copyola had spoken during the week of our impressive recent form and hope to wipe up after the mess Arse-nal made yesterday. We looked to a tough test hoping to continue what we'd be doing so far... only with more goals.
2pm Super Sunday kick off.
Methalie kicked off our bright start with a blistering run, mazing all over the left side of pitch. Our form against Arsenal would be hard to replicate again, but master tactician RLB had gotten his squad rotation down to a tea... so far. Angulo found himself in front of goal much like last Saturday night but was unable to convert. He should be our top scorer by now.
Against the run of play City Mr Fernandez scored a ridiculous free from the right side of the box. I'd barely had a chance to finish swearing when Enzo instantly responded by playing through BBB who promptly and deservedly got an equaliser. Deafening cries from the travelling RAWA echoed through the Etiadvert. It was early days, but great to see us rattling another big side early on.
1-1.
Things slowed down as we approached the 20 minute mark with the home side failing to register a touch in our box. We controlled Harland at our end whilst Brobbey battled away at the other. 4 shots on target by the half hour mark was a vast improvement on our opening away fixture, which was zero.
We gave City far too much time after they incepted a crap pass by Danso and the man who made a mockery of us on the same fixture last season stepped up to take the lead. I'm not going to learn to spell his name though.
2-1. Shi... - 2-2! Big Bry stepped up again and brought things level before I could even begin swearing. Gerrup!
VAR had a look. Enzo and Meunier had linked up exceptionally while City had 40 winks. The Home side made the loudest noise so far this afternoon, booing as we were rightly award our double dutchman second goal of the day. Apart from one blast of 'come on, City' all the home crowd had done was whinge about non-existent handballs and bemoaned.
Just before half drew to a close, former Mackem Semenyo scored their third of the afternoon. We failed to get it out of our box and were punished for it.
3-2.
The first half ended having seen 5 goals. Definitely not boring but City had begun to find gaps everywhere the more the game had gone and we welcomed when the ref whistle signalled the break. The second half would have a lot to live up to. Once again we looked to master tactician RLB to work his magic.
2nd Half.
Having had some time to reflect during the break I'd reminded myself most teams go to City looking to sit back and hope for a break. We'd done the opposite, which had back fired but our moxie execution going forward had been good. Giving City too much time in our box and poor pass from Danso had cost us.
Noah started the second half by reminding us of two things 1) he couldn't be knocked down easily and 2) he still can't shoot for toffee. He is however still a bairn. Brobbey continued to drop deep, which engaged him within our attack much more effectively. Methalie went another one of his mad run, definitely a trade mark of his I'm looking forward to see more of. Enzo had a right mare when he fluffed a back heel on the edge of the box, stifling a promising attack. Much to Brian's dismay.
Another break shortly afterwards saw Nordi and Danso clatter into each other gifting Semenyo a second.
4-2. FFS. As VAR looked at a blatant had ball from Smelliot Anderson, BBB made it GGG. Hattrick Brian.
4-3.
With half an hour to go the game looked far from over.
Fofano replaced Angulo. Nilson had looked great. First touch and holdup play had been brilliant but lack the final 5% going forward. Regis obviously had other plans. Every time we scored the home side had responded by throwing everything behind the ball going forward. Fofana had looked slightly better tracking back than Angulo, but that wasn't hard. Hopefully he'd get the service he needed on Wednesday.
Nordi had clearly been instructed to try and break the lines with his passes as he found another risky play intercepted. Sadiki made way for Wilson and Le Fee tucked back. No sooner had this happened than City had to clear off their own line. Fofana then rattled on into a pile of defenders as we saw ourselves denied again. City started to look nervy.
With 20 minutes to go we'd had 12 shots, 7 of which had been on target. Much better. Super marionette Doku entered the affray.
A hectic ten minutes saw bodies thrown at the ball as we looked to catch up. Malik showed some tidy footwork and linked up with Methalie well. The rollercoaster afternoon wasn't over though as some bloke called Eric Holand scored the 8th goal of the afternoon. Never heard of him.
5-3. Speechless.
While I was struggling thinking of something to type RR produced a world class save denying them a third as we seemingly sat back to implement some damage control. On 90 minutes Ballard hit the post. This summed our afternoon. We continued to pepper promising balls into the box right up until the final whistle.
Full time: 5-3. After Wednesday night (which was mint by the way) I'd gone into this game of the mind set - 'If we keep playing the way we have been we're bound to get goals'. We did, but unfortunately we'd been the victim of more than a couple mind farts at the back. We could have easily had 5 today too. More of the same please. Less of the mind farts.
KTF,
GPD
