No.26 - Fri. 26th December 2008; The Premiership 3.00pm at The City of Manchester Stadium, Sportcity, Manchester M11. (Att: 45196; Admn: £15; Prog: £3)
Matchday images (12) >view> Manchester City (4) 5 Hull City (0) 1 Tigers left licking their wounds Even though we would be sitting with the home fans, the opportunity to get cheap tickets for this game on Boxing Day was simply too good to miss. It was with eager anticipation that we made our way to the City of Manchester Stadium for this Premier League fixture against the mighty Tigers. We all hoped that our heroes could find their goal scoring boots once again and halt a recent poor run of results that had seen just one win in the last nine games. Manchester City, despite being tagged the richest club in the world, were also going through a bad patch themselves and started the game in the bottom three. A close contest was on the cards or so we thought! For the record the Tigers were on the end of an absolute thrashing as they were crushed 5-1 by Manchester City. Four goals in the opening 36 minutes ended the match as a contest with Craig Fagan’s second half consolation being the only highlight for the travelling fans. It was a poor display to say the least. Confusion between Mendy and Myhill gifted the home side an early chance (2 mins) but Elano could only curl his shot over the bar. Brazilian Robinho and Ireland combined well and as the ball was squared across goal: Caicedo made no mistake to tap home from close range after only 5 mins. It could have been 2-0 in the 18th minute when Robinho cut inside after picking up a pass from Shaun Wright-Phillips, but Myhill tipped the South American’s shot over. It didn’t take long before the hosts doubled their lead as Caicedo (20) once again tapped home from close range. It was now one way traffic as the Light Blues dominated the game. Robinho (28) was set free by Ireland and cutting inside Turner he curled home into the far corner of the net. Caicedo could have had a hat-trick on the on the half hour but headed straight at Myhill. The Tigers saw Doyle replace Boateng but it made little difference as City went 4-0 up moments later. Wright-Phillips was the provider from the right this time as Robinho tapped in at the far post (36). Myhill prevented a fifth goal beating a shot away from Wright-Phillips. The same player then missed a golden chance in added time, sliding the ball wide when well placed. The half-time break couldn’t come quick enough for us! And then something unusual happened, the likes of which I have never seen before at a football match. As the players started to walk towards the tunnel manager Phil Brown summoned them all (including his back-room staff) to the far end of the pitch. After applauding the Tigers’ fans Brown sat everyone down in the penalty area. His anger at his side’s performance led to a brief team talk on the pitch directly in front of the away supporters. It was clear to everyone that he was extremely frustrated by what he had seen during the opening forty-five minutes here. Ironically this was his 100th game in charge! Hull made a change at half-time with Fagan replacing the luckless Windass. Wright-Phillips looked set to add to his side’s lead but, just as he was about to shoot, Doyle’s well-timed tackle prevented him from doing so. The Tiger’s final change came in the 70th minute when Cousin replaced Geovanni who was quite rightly given a warm ovation from all sections of the ground. Zayatte received a yellow card for a foul on Wright-Phillip. Mendy was the next to be booked for a foul on Elano. The visitors grabbed a consolation on 80 minutes. When Cousin’s shot was parried by keeper Hart, Fagan reacted quickly and fired home the rebound. The Hull City fans who had not stopped cheering from the first whistle had at last something good to shout about! Unfortunately Manchester City went straight up the other end and made it 5-1 as Robinho cut the ball back for Ireland who slammed the ball home past Myhill. This ended a thoroughly miserable afternoon for the visitors and marked the heaviest defeat since losing by the same score in the Football League Chamionship at Colchester United on 28 November 2006. It was also the first time that they had trailed by four goals at half-time since turning round by a 0-4 margin at Oxford United in the Football League Second Division on 13 August 1994! The ground, action and match day photos will serve as a useful ground description. The stadium certainly looked different to the one we had attended for some of the Athletics events at the Commonwealth Games in the summer of 2002. One home fan was extremely helpful in providing us with a rough guide and explained how the venue had been transformed into a football ground. It was amazing to think that the running track would have been above our heads and that we were in fact sitting in a giant bowl-like crater that had been dug out to create the lower tier of seating! It goes without saying that this is a terrific place to watch football. A quite superb 100-page match day programme was issued for the game. It contains everything you would expect with plenty of up-to-date news and reviews on the visitors as well as loads of glossy photos. The production is simply terrific. I cannot remember reading a programme that has so much information in it – in fact a spine (not staples) helps to bind the pages together. This is definitely a first in my collection. In view of the extremely cold conditions we bought a couple of hot drinks but wish we hadn’t. Mrs W was not impressed after peeling off the lid on her coffee cup. Without access to a milk jug this pre-packed stuff really was too strong! Now this is not the sort of thing we are used to on our non league football travels. Come on you bigger clubs sort out your catering! Directions. We followed some instructions taken from the excellent ‘Internet Grounds Guide’ website to help with our itinerary to Eastlands. Despite obvious concerns we couldn’t believe how easy it was to get to and from the ground. With loads of parking sites in the immediate vicinity (costing approximately £5 for the privilege) we managed to leave the car within easy walking distance of the stadium. To be honest without old fashioned floodlight pylons helping to provide a useful landmark we didn't realise just how close to the ground we had parked. Amazingly we were back on the M66 motorway within only thirty minutes of the final whistle. Despite the result it was a terrific experience and one that will stay in the memory for a long time (well some bits anyway). A visit to the City of Manchester Stadium comes highly recommended! One final thought. It is hard to believe that on Boxing Day last year we beat Wolves 2-0 at the KC to move up to 11th in the Championship!! Bearing this in mind I am a realist to know that the Tigers will find it a struggle to maintain their status (even after a terrific start). I'm not too worried where we finish in the Premiership this season as long as it is in the top seventeen. Now that's progress! FGIF Match Rating: 5 edited 14/01/09
