Had a read of the match day thread when I got home.
A long day. Up at 5am, out at 6.15, and walking through the door at 2.25am Monday morning - bed 90 minutes later.
A good trip down, off at 7.15 or so, and there with plenty of time to spare, around 12.30pm if I remember correctly.
Rising was right, it was breezy in and around the area, so a lot of time to kill having a good walk around, the area is changing all the time with new buildings going up, and it's totally different from the first time I went there in 1974.
Up in the Gods, but not a bad view, and not many spare seats that I could see, to reply to the usual fools who comment on this.
I thought we totally dominated the game overall, and the stats seem to back this up, Villa had the early headed effort on the roof of the net, but that was it until the end of half, and we all known what happened then.
I was honestly surprised at Foden starting, and I got 7 of the line up, but two of the substitutions - he rightly merited his motm, but playing out wide again, as he has recently, in the Mahrez/Bernardo role.
A typical finish by Aguero, (with a lovely pass by Rodri to Foden), and I thought the Spaniard lost his marker superbly to get himself a free header for the second, and then I was sure we'd add a couple more overall, but it was not to be, mainly through overelaboration.
Poor Stones can't buy any luck, can he? His distribution otherwise was pretty decent for mine. A good finish for the Villa goal, Bravo no chance.
There was a spell in the second half when matters got a little feisty, and I though we were losing our collective cool, but the only way Villa seemed to pose a real threat was at set pieces.
Mason was poor, but what a way to produce a cup winning/preserving save, and, if I remember rightly Skoorb noting in the MDT Stones was on hand to complete the clearance.
You never tire of winning, but the trip home was longer due to being stuck for nearly an hour in the car park after being good to go at just after 7pm, and traffic delays coming back.
Think it was getting past 1.30am when we hit the Etihad, and then a very pleasant walk into town via the Ashton canal that runs past the stadium on a very still and mild Manchester early morning.
Great to see all the negative media reaction - up the cup winning Blues!
PS - a thank you to Buzz again for this thread.
