MAN CITY 1 – 0 Man Utd – MY THOUGHTS
18 Apr
Unbelievable. Manchester City 1 – 0 Manchester United. Let me repeat that for you; it makes pleasant reading. Manchester City 1 – 0 Manchester United. We travelled with no hope, fearful, down in the dumps after a defeat. We returned victorious, joyous, elated and most importantly, proud.
We, Manchester City, the ‘noisy neighbours’, are in the FA Cup final. It was a thoroughly deserved victory: an hour of battling, inspired and committed football seeing to that. Yes, the first opening half hour was laboured, but we hit back with a bang and not even the most die-hard Red could argue against the result. We sent out a message on Saturday, a message that could be delivered on May 14th.
We face Tony Pulis again at Wembley and hopefully the end result will be the same as it was in 1999. I don’t think my heart could take us being 2-0 down with five minutes to go, however!
This won’t be the normal style review of picking out some factors from the game – it’s just a few thoughts from the day that struck me. So sit back and enjoy. And if you recorded the game, watch it again – it puts a smile on your face!
First of all, I just want to highlight the players. It was a huge day for them, a chance to announce themselves and show their true quality. There was talk before the game of City lacking belief, but the eleven who started the game produced a performance full of spirit, heart and ‘Superbia in Proelio’. Their showed the belief we have in the squad, the togetherness that many thought absent and they deserve all the plaudits that comes their way.
Joe Hart was outstanding in goal, with his saves every bit as crucial as Yaya Touré’s goal. Vincent Kompany, captain for the day, was a truly inspirational leader and he should be handed the armband on a permanent basis. Nigel de Jong was his usual self, whilst Mario Balotelli, so often criticised, produced his best City showing. It was a team performance, one that made the fans extremely proud to be Blue.
Saturday was my first experience of the new Wembley, and I have mixed views. From the inside, it is spectacular, a thoroughly impressive stadium. The view I had was great, the atmosphere was rocking and the ground looked a sight to behold. But for such a modern stadium, the facilities are verging on dire. The lack of toilet services, although a minor issue, was ridiculous – fans were queuing up well into the second half to use them, and there weren’t enough access points around the ground.
The policing inside was fine, as was their presence at the train stations. But walking to and from the ground was interesting. Both sets of fans walking together, with no police presence at all. Fortunately, the large majority were well behaved, but there was scope for trouble.
The media is another point I want to raise briefly. They have given us a certain amount of credit for the win and there have been some great articles written about the impact this may have, but I have been taken aback by the focus of some of the attention.
Not a great deal has been written about Paul Scholes’s disgraceful challenge, virtually nothing on Rio Ferdinand’s violent and thuggish attack on Balotelli, but we have seen a large amount said about the Italian and his post-match celebrations. He supposedly faced the United fans, most of whom had disappeared at that stage, and kissed the badge on his shirt.
And which point, Anderson and Ferdinand sprinted over and started pushing and grabbing him, all whilst Mario calmly walked away. A little wink at the former England and United captain wound him up a bit more, but if people are focusing on that, rather than a great City performance, then they need to retain a sense of focus. And imagine what would have been written had it been Balotelli attacking Ferdinand, or it had been De Jong who made that tackle…
My final word goes to the fans, the ones who helped to make Saturday so special. The atmosphere on the train down was decidedly subdued, but once we got to London, the sea of blue soon saw to that. London, which we have been lead to believe is the home of the Reds, was awash with blue. Blue shirts everywhere, City songs being sung – it was a home away from home.
At the game, the fans were brilliant, completely drowning out any feeble attempt from the United supporters to encourage their team. Apart the elation at Yaya’s goal, my highlight of the day was the Poznan when United’s team was being read out – 32,000 bouncing Blues was a sight that I won’t forget.
I just want to say a special thanks as well to carriage D of the delayed Thomas Cook charter train for the journey home. Plenty of ‘Never felt more like singing the Blues’, ditties to Sun Jihai and just general goodwill made the trip a great laugh. So thanks to everyone on there, including Tom.
So there you go, a few of my thoughts on what was a memorable day. Let’s hope the final makes us just as happy.
I completely agree about the facilities.
Queued before the game for 20/25 mins for a ‘pint’ which turned out to be an emptied out bottle which was barely chilled (as advertised!) the toilet queue was shocking and I thought how you were searched once you got inside the stadium was probably not the best solution!
But anyway the football was good and the result great so no need to go on too much!
Being thousands of miles away, I can only imagine how it would feel to cheer and root for the team you love at Wembley esp when are victorious over United. My hat is off to all players who gave it all to make it happen. And I tend to believe that this victory was the “tonic” needed to lift our team to change history.
We are so close to win the FA cup and qualify for Champions League
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3389828/Man-City-fans-are-doing-the-Poznan.html
Check out the second comment down. Bloody immigrants…
You are so lucky to have been there. Great performance, although we were very lucky in the first half not to concede. But the team had great resilliance until the end. Ferdinand was a disgrace with his buffonary destroying his calculated politically correct image even for people here in Ireland, where most are United fans.
I would like to point out that not everyone “travelled with no hope, fearful, down in the dumps after a defeat”. As I said on Friday we have always had the quality to beat United and I always thought we had a very good chance of beating them and City tend to play their best when their backs are against the walls.
A huge thank you to all City fans at Wembley – it was the most perfect day and the atmosphere was out of this world
I was in carrage D and what a laugh we had on the way home… great end to a fantastic day… same again on the 14th may!!
p.s it was the city players that got off the train in stockport when we stopped!!
OH SUN JIHAI… HE’S A ….. NOT A THAI!!
CTID!!
Going into the games it was 50/50 who was going to win so to say the say that ‘we travelled with no hope’ was quite simply not true as United are extremly overrated and are just a big name and in no way whatsoever was it a shock result. To say that the United fans had all disappeared before the end is quite simply not true, obviously a minority had left before the end but the majority of the 32,000 were still there at the full time whistle although the all departed quickly as the city fans would have done if they had lost. To describe Rio Ferdinand’s attack of Balotelli as ‘thuggish and violent’ is a large exaggeration, you make it sound like he beat him up when you don’t mention anything about what Baltelli did wrong. The fact that you have such a go at United and there fans in this blog just shows that United are a much bigger club.
Matt, I disagree with virtually all you have said there, I’m afraid. First of all, to quote you: “To say that the United fans had all disappeared before the end is quite simply not true, obviously a minority had left before the end but the majority of the 32,000 were still there at the full time whistle although the all departed quickly as the city fans would have done if they had lost.”
Please can you point out where in the article I have said the United fans had all disappeared before the final whistle?? I never mentioned that – you can’t just make stuff up..
Secondly, it is very easy to say after the game it was 50/50.. United had come into the game having beaten Chelsea comfortably and were top of the PL and in the semi-finals of the CL, whereas City had just been disgracefully beaten 3-0 by Liverpool. So to say it was 50/50 is, I’m afraid, nonsense.
And please tell me what Balotelli did wrong? Turned to the United fans and kissed his badge.. Well I’m not sure there’s a great deal wrong in that. I suppose it would have been better had he run towards a camera and angrily sworn…
And your last sentence – I think I mention United fans twice, so don’t exactly go on about them..
Looks like this comment is one from a very bitter red.
you said that all the United fans had disappeared when Balotelli kissed the badge which was right after the final whistle. Players are not allowed to provoke fans and by doing that Balotelli was doing something wrong.
I am not a ‘very bitter red’ i was just correcting some blatant lies and exaggerations
Let’s stick with the Balotelli kissing his badge point.
If my memory serves me well, I seem to remember a similar incident several years ago with a certain G Neville thrusting and kissing his badge in front of the Liverpool fans at OT.
One thing that I don’t get about some united fans, is their complete inability to see that their own aren’t always as innocent as they think (hence there seems to be no mention of the Neville celebration anywhere).
On similar lines to innocence, I will applaud Ferguson a small amount. For once, he has seen a bad tackle as a bad tackle and a red card as a red card. Well done to that man for taking defeat gracefully (or at least with a little more grace than usual).
Yes Matt, that is what I said in the article and that remains true. Unfortunately, you twist my words in your first comment, stating: “To say that the United fans had all disappeared before the end is quite simply not true” – I never said that… At the end of the game, virtually all United’s fans had left, and to be honest, having been at the game, I know that many had gone even before the final whistle. However, I didn’t mention that in the article, yet you claim I did.
I quote from facebook ‘seeing the pathetic united fans swarm out before the end’ i knew i’d read it somehwere!! as for the gary neville incident against Liverpool, he was stupid to do it and i do not condone it at all
Just another point I’d thought i’d add, there were 18 coaches that left from eastlands on saturday, 27 left old trafford plus 25 more from the bishop blaize pub round the corner,so is London really the ‘home of the reds’ as you put it
Plus 9 City coaches with National Express, but only 1 for United. Plus Thomas Cook charter trains for City.. Both fans had 32,000 fans there, I don’t know what point you’re trying to make.
Yes i know both teams had the same amount of fans there, but i get fed up of city fans saying the old trafford on match days is full of cockneys when that quite simply isn’t true. Obviously an successful football team attracts the wrong sort of people e.g cockney glory hunters, but these people rarely go to games, for example there are apprx. 1500 united fans on chartered flights to shalke from manchester airport. I’m sure city will attract plenty of glory hunters in the next few years!!