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Sunday 18 May 2014

City edge out Glovers

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Thompson demands more from his squad

Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi were both on the score-sheet for City

Manchester City made a welcome return to winning ways at the Etihad Stadium last night with a narrow 3-2 success over fellow promotion hopefuls Yeovil Town. The result see's Thompson's men climb back to 3rd position on the table but still 5 points behind current league leaders Northampton who they face this coming Wednesday. 

City made one change from that side that fell to the defeat at Plymouth in midweek with loan signing Luke Shaw dropping to the bench and regular left back Gael Clichy coming in. Despite pressure from sections of the support goalkeeper David De Gea kept his place in the side.

The match started at a furious pace and City were in front with just 2 minutes on the clock Ángel DI MARÍA with his 6th goal of the season. The home side made it 2-0 just past the half hour mark thanks to Cristiano RONALDO who netted his 12th of the campaign. 
City took the lead into half time and with less than 5 minutes of the second period gone Thompson's men were 3-0 to the good Lionel MESSI the scorer bagging his 11th goal of the season.

The small travelling contingent from Somerset had something to shout about on 51 minutes when they pulled a goal back through Turkish midfielder Emre BELÖZOĞLU to make it 3-1 then on 60 minutes they ensured it would be a nervy final half hour when they scored again courtesy of Andrès D'ALESSANDRO to make it 3-2.
The host thought they had made it 4-2 with the game in it's closing stages but Messi saw his celebrations cut short but the linesman who had adjudged the Argentine to be offside when firing home. That proved to be the last meaningful action of the game as City held on to claim a much needed 3 points and end their 5 match winless run at the Etihad. FULL TIME 3-2.

Man City manager Steve Thompson spoke to the press following the game and demanded more from his players ........ 



"It's nice to get the 3 points especially at home were things haven't been going for us lately. The result in midweek was a real downer for me personally i have spoken to the board regarding my resignation and we have agreed to sit down at the end of the season and discuss the future. I cam to this football to win things and i feel that one or two within the squad don't share that same ambition and are letting their team mates down.
Tonight's performance is very chalk and cheese first half was fantastic and we started the second just as good but at 3-0 we took our foot off the gas and allowed Yeovil to get themselves into the game with 2 goals inside 10 minutes. We need to see games out better than we have tonight if we want to win the league and we will continue to work hard on the training pitch to get these things right.

We now move on a look ahead to what is a very tough test against Northampton on Wednesday. They lead the table at the minute and certainly have an impressive young squad with a very astute manager in Richard he has a very good points per game average and if he can keep that up he should get them out of this division this season but we go there looking for the 3 points and to put some pressure on the top two"

1 comments:

  1. There should be a few goals on Wednesday - City have hit 40 already and though we have scored just one less, our goals have been shared around the team.

    I dont think we can out-gun them without Rossi available to us, so we might park the bus and try and take a point.

    The City forward line is pretty awesome, but they don't have that level of quality further back, and we certainly have an opportunity to nick the game. Whether our back four can deal with Messi and Ronaldo will determine our chances of victory.

    With long-time leaders Coventry hitting a rocky patch, a draw would probably suit both sides.

    Pogba (90) is due back from injury - but whether he's fully fit to start remains to be seen.

    Both sides have cup ties to negotiate against decent opposition on Monday, so some starters may feature as victory sets up a last 16 slot.

    ~The Butcher, Northampton

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