Home v manchester city | Page 14 | Vital Football

Home v manchester city

Hopefully the players will be up for Burnley. DF made a point that he will expect the sane against Burnley.
 
Canary Kevin said:
Injuries aside, who of todays starting 11 does not start next week. ?
Click to expand...

I don't think many will be fit from injury so same again but please not 2 go on the bench...that just makes me itchy. You could maybe bring in Hanley and move amadou in place of Tettey (his knees can't last too many games) but I'd happily go with same
 
They say that nothing concentrates the mind more than an impending execution and there was a certain doom laden inevitability as we approached Carrow Road. However, as Cool Hand Luke said, when you have nothing, nothing is a cool hand.

And nothing is what we had. Eleven of our best players injured and only untried youngsters available to replace them. Things were so tight that Daniel had to play Krul and Godfrey even though they were carrying injuries. Playing last season's champions made the probability of a big loss pretty much inevitable.

So, what do you do? The only hope is to play the game you know; use the skills your players possess and take the game to your opponents. And that is what we tried to do. In the opening minutes MC's inexorable assault suggested that it was only a matter of time before they would break through and unleash a torrent of strikes on goal. At fifteen minutes we were congratulating ourselves on our resilience; "We've got them on the back foot." I said in a weak attempt at gallows humour. The nods and chuckles around me lightened the atmosphere.

Bravely we cheered and sang giving our support to the poor souls facing a devastating blow to their confidence and bravely our boys found space and passed and tackled. We made our runs and were rebuffed until our pressure forced their defence to concede a corner.

We rarely have much success with corners but this time the cross was perfectly placed and McLean found the perfect spot leaping beyond their defenders to head the ball into the back of the net.

We went Wild. It didn't matter what happened after this; We Scored First against Man City! People around couldn't believe it.

Naturally, they responded with more pressure but there was a change. There was creeping air of desperation so opportunities were missed. Shots that would have been put away with ease were skied into the stands or buried in the side netting.

And then Buendia who had been a revelation, playing the way we knew he could, dinked a ball over the challenging midfielder and took the ball deep into their half. Buendia to Stiepermann to Pukki to Cantwell who coolly placed a left-footed shot into the goal. This was met by the unedifying spectacle of MC players surrounding the referee claiming Pukki was offside. He wasn't.

Well, whatever is wilder than wild that was us. In my usual calm and understated way I declared "It's like playing Ipswich". I would like to think all around agreed.

As we approached half time it looked for all the world that we would be going into the break 2-0 up. However, a defensive mistake led to an Aguero goal so the first half finished 2-1.

As the second half began, we were expecting Pep's much vaunted man management skills and tactical genius to produce a very different challenge. However, That man Buendia pounced on a loose pass and relieved the defender of the ball and slotted a perfectly placed pass to that other man Pukki who made no mistake in dispatching the ball into the back of the net.

It was then that we truly believed. This was a team that could and would beat Manchester Multi Million City. They may get a lucky consolation goal but we had the power to stay the course.

And we did. There were heroics; Tim produced some stupendous saves. Ibrahim Amadou was a rock in defence and Cantwell ran himself ragged. Everyone played their hearts out and were great just great.

Someone in our row who has been supporting the team since the 60s said that this was the best performance he had ever seen.

I find it hard to dispute that.
 
Rex said:
They say that nothing concentrates the mind more than an impending execution and there was a certain doom laden inevitability as we approached Carrow Road. However, as Cool Hand Luke said, when you have nothing, nothing is a cool hand.

And nothing is what we had. Eleven of our best players injured and only untried youngsters available to replace them. Things were so tight that Daniel had to play Krul and Godfrey even though they were carrying injuries. Playing last season's champions made the probability of a big loss pretty much inevitable.

So, what do you do? The only hope is to play the game you know; use the skills your players possess and take the game to your opponents. And that is what we tried to do. In the opening minutes MC's inexorable assault suggested that it was only a matter of time before they would break through and unleash a torrent of strikes on goal. At fifteen minutes we were congratulating ourselves on our resilience; "We've got them on the back foot." I said in a weak attempt at gallows humour. The nods and chuckles around me lightened the atmosphere.

Bravely we cheered and sang giving our support to the poor souls facing a devastating blow to their confidence and bravely our boys found space and passed and tackled. We made our runs and were rebuffed until our pressure forced their defence to concede a corner.

We rarely have much success with corners but this time the cross was perfectly placed and McLean found the perfect spot leaping beyond their defenders to head the ball into the back of the net.

We went Wild. It didn't matter what happened after this; We Scored First against Man City! People around couldn't believe it.

Naturally, they responded with more pressure but there was a change. There was creeping air of desperation so opportunities were missed. Shots that would have been put away with ease were skied into the stands or buried in the side netting.

And then Buendia who had been a revelation, playing the way we knew he could, dinked a ball over the challenging midfielder and took the ball deep into their half. Buendia to Stiepermann to Pukki to Cantwell who coolly placed a left-footed shot into the goal. This was met by the unedifying spectacle of MC players surrounding the referee claiming Pukki was offside. He wasn't.

Well, whatever is wilder than wild that was us. In my usual calm and understated way I declared "It's like playing Ipswich". I would like to think all around agreed.

As we approached half time it looked for all the world that we would be going into the break 2-0 up. However, a defensive mistake led to an Aguero goal so the first half finished 2-1.

As the second half began, we were expecting Pep's much vaunted man management skills and tactical genius to produce a very different challenge. However, That man Buendia pounced on a loose pass and relieved the defender of the ball and slotted a perfectly placed pass to that other man Pukki who made no mistake in dispatching the ball into the back of the net.

It was then that we truly believed. This was a team that could and would beat Manchester Multi Million City. They may get a lucky consolation goal but we had the power to stay the course.

And we did. There were heroics; Tim produced some stupendous saves. Ibrahim Amadou was a rock in defence and Cantwell ran himself ragged. Everyone played their hearts out and were great just great.

Someone in our row who has been supporting the team since the 60s said that this was the best performance he had ever seen.

I find it hard to dispute that.
Click to expand...
Great write-up, Rex! That’s going on the front page! ????
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rex
Fabulous picture and I have saved that one to my photo album of the day . My voice is still hoarse after standing in the Snakepit screaming my head off for 90 minutes .... boy, did the Snakepit make some noise !!
 
Also, buendia pulled off an amazing piece of skill but was offside. I saw it again today but can't find the video now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.