Citizens caned

By: Tim | January 4th, 2009

Logic dictated that yesterday’s game at Eastlands would end up in humiliation for someone. Now, if I’m totally honest I didn’t think that side would be City, but it looks like we thoroughly deserved to be on the right side of a 3-0 scoreline.

The Blues had the majority of possession at 60/40, and more shots on target, but, unlike us, they didn’t look motivated, and we were able to convert all 3 of our shots on target in to goals. It was a real team effort from us though too, with Smudge performing well after playing second fiddle to Camp for the past few months, and Big Wes making some crucial blocks as well.

Hughes has pointed to the fact that they were without Ireland and Robinho, and that Shaun Wright-Phillips went off after 18 minutes too, but all three of our goals came from dodgy defensive errors – a defence that was pretty much at full-strength (correct me if I’m wrong there City fans). Tyson took our first chance with a sublime angled volley from 20 yards out, capitalising on a poor headed clearance from Micah Richards (what has happened to him by the way?).

Less than five minutes later we were two up after Cohen dispossessed Zabaleta on the left flank, he set up Matt Thornhill whose mis-hit shot fell to Earnshaw to poke home from 6 yards. The final City blunder came from Hamann’s throw-in with fifteen minutes left on the clock, deep inside his own half he decided to throw the ball across his own box and into the path of Joe Garner, who coolly slotted home to finish the game off. You can watch the highlights here.

Sadly there’s a dearth of good headlines in the wake of this win. Some papers have gone with the boxing reference, such as The Times with ‘Tyson’s knockout blow hits City’ and the Sunday Express with ‘City on the canvas’. ‘Forest Chumps’ from the Daily Star doesn’t even make sense. What about ‘I guess that’s why they call them the Blues’? Or my own ‘Citizens caned’? Only one paper went for the Robin Hood reference (which is refreshing), that was the Daily Mail with ‘Big spender Hughes humiliated by Billy’s merry band of men’. Lowest. Common. Denominator.

Unsurprisingly the majority focus on the mounting pressure on Hughes, who seems to be in a similar position to Calderwood a few weeks ago i.e. the home fans are getting on his back for inconsistent performances and bizarre tactics. At least he was honest about the performance after the match: ‘I won’t defend it because it was indefensible. They showed more desire, physically they pushed themselves, ran around and forced errors. They took their chances when they presented themselves, in fairness they fully deserved the victory’.

It was a good team performance but credit must also go to John Pemberton, who managed to motivate the players in the knowledge that he would be going back to his reserve team coach position on Monday: ‘I just wanted the lads to give a good account of themselves and get them ready to play. Today was probably the highlight of my career. To win 3-0 against a Manchester City side stuffed with talent – and deserve it – was fabulous’. I couldn’t agree more.