Man City Observations

By: Miles Moss
Date: 24/10/2001

I DON'T have the knowledge for in-depth analysis, all I can say is that it was all too easy for City - they tore us apart in the first half hour, and they could have had around 8 goals. If they hadn't taken their foot off the unleaded petrol when their third went in, they would have murdered us.

Town seem to have no spirit - I've never seen a bunch of people less motivated (outside of my office anyway). And anyone watching had to feel sorry for Coyne - what can he do with that defence in front of him? But even Danny gave up shouting after a while. He was wasting his breath anyway.

Strangely, Town started quite brightly, from the kick off, the ball was sprayed way out wide to Boulding (ooh, hello - Boulding on the left to start. what a good idea.), and he attacked straight away, twisting and turning as the City defence tracked back. It looked fairly promising - and it wasn't long before he did it again. But it came to nothing. And it was all downhill from there. A cross into the box gave Goater a simple tap-in volley, and very shortly afterwards, a Benarbia corner floated nicely over to Howey on the back post, who rose effortlessly above the marker to nod in. Two easy, simple, training ground goals. 20 minutes gone, Town deflated, we might as well have gone home right then.

City's other two goals were very well taken efforts from Huckerby. He was fast, accurate, attacking, deadly. And both of his goals, I seem to remember, were courtesy of errors from a Town defender. On the first occasion, Broomes (or was it Neilson - our new number two was living up to his shirt number all night) was turned and left for dead - and boy, does Huckerby know how to finish. His second half goal was also a good one-on-one finish, the ball gift-wrapped for him by Gally, who tried to control a bouncing ball in his own half by deftly chipping it over Huckerby and moving upfield with it, leaving the City number 7 agog at the skill and impudence. Yeah, in your dreams, Tony.

But it was all over by then anyway. All we could wish for was a 5th or 6th goal, so that some outside bets came in for the odd £125 consolation. We didn't even get that.

What next for the Mariners? I don't know what to suggest. It really is going to take a miraculous turnaround to stop us being relegated - this isn't just me being a miserablist - you all know I don't do that. It's a reality. Town have no plan, no communication between the disparate, desperate loanees, journeymen, twilighters and prospects... but most of all they have no spirit. Their heads are down, and personally, I can't see how they're going to get them back up. There are one or two exceptions - Boulding tried hard, did what he is paid to do. And Coyne, as always, came out like he means it - but even he looked bloody and bowed by the end of last night.

This hasn't been pleasant reading - sorry, but these are dark days indeed.

Add To Facebook

This site is by the fans, for the fans, and we will consider articles on any subject relating to the Mariners whether it be related to current news, a nostalgic look back in the past, a story about a player, a game or games in the past, something about Blundell Park or football in general. Click here to submit your article!

Related Stories

• What Went Wrong?
• What The Guardian Said!
• 2001-2002 Squad Statistics
• More Stories