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Sunday 13 April 2014

Gritty City edge out Brummies

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Battling City delight Thompson

Man of the Match Angel Di Maria celebrates his winner goal


Manchester City climbed back into the automatic promotion places on Saturday evening after a hard fought 2-1 victory over 10 man Birmingham City at St Andrews, the performance from City was far from vintage but Thompson's men showed a different side to their game with a real gritty performance something which they may have to do more often if they are to be successful this season.

Thompson named the same side that beat Rochdale last time around and despite enjoying the lions share of possession and chances they went into the break with the score at 0-0. The second half started quietly for both sides but with 58 minutes on the clock City finally made their dominance pay making it 0-1 courtesy of a rare goal from defender Phil JONES who fired low from the edge of the area.
City continued to dominate and on 72 minutes they made it 0-2  Ángel DI MARÍA netting his 3rd goal of the season with a neat finish from close range after a fantastic ball from Messi.

Birmingham were certainly up against it and their task was made near impossible on 74 minutes when they were reduced to 10 men when former City player Luis NANI  received a red card after a reckless challenge on fellow countryman Cristiano Ronaldo. Despite the numerical disadvantage the host set up a nervy finish making it 1-2 on 77 minutes thanks to a close range header from Canadian international Junior HOILETT but City held out to claim a vital 3 points and climb back into the automatic promotion spots. FULL TIME.

City manager Steve Thompson praised his players after the game......


"I am delighted to come away with the 3 points tonight this is a very difficult place to come but we have battled and showed we can mix it up and in the end i thought we were deserving winners. It was nice to see Jonesey (Phil Jones) on the score sheet he doesn't get a lot of goals but we have been encouraging him to have a go when he can and it's payed off, hopefully he can get a few more before the end of the season.

We have thankfully come away with no injuries from tonight. It was a battle both teams showed plenty of grit and nobody held back. We will need to display more of that throughout the season you can't always play nice attractive football sometimes you have to dig your heels in and give as good as you get.

We now look forward to getting back in front of our own fans on Wednesday against Rotherham they haven't started the season as they would have liked but they got in the play offs last season so we will treat them with the respect they deserve they have a vastly experienced manager and i have no doubt they will turn their form round"

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