August 2005-2006
City 3 Olympiacos 1 Thomas Cook Trophy
Aug 6th 2005 att 20,000
There was a sparse crowd at the City of Manchester Stadium for this friendly against Greek champions Olympiacos and with the top tier out of action ( they are obviously fitting central heating to my seat!) I was in an unfamiliar location for this final game before the real contest begins next Saturday. After a pretty boring first half with the visitors generally on top City played better after the break and ended comfortably winners with goals from Bradley Wright-Phillips and Vassell.
Lead out by Reyna in the absence of Distin who is likely to be out for several weeks the game saw the home debut of new signings Cole and Vassell.
There was a small but very noisy Greek contingent present and I must say for the most part they were noisier than the rest of the crowd put together
A foul by Reyna on Stltidis in the 4th minute gave an early chance to the Greek side. Yaya Toure their new signing from Donetsk sent in a curling shot.
which was saved by a diving David James.
34 year old Greek international keeper Antonis Nikopolidis in action at a City corner
Sommeil and Jordan clash with Ivory Coast international Toure
Nikopolidis's fist narrowly misses Sinclairs head at a corner as he punches clear
Kiki Musampa plays with Greek defender at the edge of the box. He looks once again to be a force on the left
Joey Barton takes evading action as James kicks clear
After 23 minutes a diving header by 27 year old Cypriot international striker Konstantinou is brilliantly saved by David James.
After almost half an hour Olympiacos took the lead. At a corner from the right Yaya Toure outjumped a static City defence to head past James .
Though Vassell has his shot saved by the Greek keeper it would not have counted as the flag was up for offside.
Stoltidis's deflected shot flicks the post as James dives across to cover
James saves at the feet of Konstantinou
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Again not on the bench, manager Stuart Pearce and Steve Wrigley watch from the Colin Bell stand, a better position to see the patterns of play
OOh ,ah, missed me, argh as a Greek free kick hammers into the wall early in the second half with City a goal down.
Sun Jihai who came on as sub in the second half looked full of positive play in defence and here in attack
Nikopolidis again uses his fist to clear the City corner
The Greek keeper saves right on the line
A rejuvenated Trevor Sinclair was in good form and looks to keep the right midfield position
Kiki Musampa showing good balance and control
The Greek keeper can even punch without looking
City pressure was rewarded in the 65th minute when Coe passed to Vassell who beat the offside trap and lobbed the keeper to equalize for City
Ten minutes later and City went ahead. Musampa fed Ireland whose cross was headed home by Bradley Wright -Phillips.
Four minutes later and City went 3-1 up. It was a solo effort by BWP. Bradley beat a couple of defenders and slotted the ball home. He is now looking much more confident and his goal against Stoke must have really lifted him.
The Greek supporters who had earlier been very vocal were subjected to some good natured chants of -" You're not singing any more"
A late substitute was Lee Croft who had a couple of good runs down the right wing.
Steve Ireland and Bradley Wright - Phillips have come out of the friendlies with a lot of credit and could well figure in City's early games in the Premiership especially with the rising injury list and the slow intake of transfers to reinforce the squad. Biggest worry will be the centre of defence with the absence of both Dunne and Distin, key players last season. Stuart Pearce may have to switch his immediate need from mid-field to a central defender. I hope he does not depend on Sommeil and Onuoha the latter rather short of match practice. Barton got a good reception from the crowd in view of all his problems but had a fairly quiet game by his standards.
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James : Mills , Sommeil , Onuoha ( Sun Jihai) , Jordan : Sinclair ( Sinclair), Barton , Reyna ( Ireland), Musampa (Flood) : Vassell , Cole (BWP )
City 0 West Brom Albion 0
Aug 13th 2005 att 42,983

Life without SWP started in earnest today and there were blank spaces in the ground as fugitives from the rain affected Test Match got to the ground. The absence of Dunne from the warm-up was a bit of a blow so how would the City defence fare without the double D ? This was not however a match to remember despite the first league appearances of Cole and Vassell upfront.

As the teams came out we wondered who was going to take the central defenders positions without the injured Dunne and Distin
Jordan and Reyna combine to defy Kevin Campbell
A Greening run down the middle ended in a deflected shot and James had to save from a deflected Wallwork shot after about 6 minutes
12 minutes on the clock and a Cole header from a Musampa cross is easily saved by Kirkland and a minute or so later another shot flashes just wide
Cole shoots just wide again with Kirkland desperately trying to cover his far post
Vassell clatters Albrechtsen and has the dubious honor of becoming the first City player to be booked in the Premiership this season
25 minutes gone and a good cross from Sinclair end with Kirkland having to make a good save from Barton.
On the half hour Musampa makes a run down the left but is bought down by Gera who signals a six ( was he at the test!)
Worse was to come for Zoltan Gera who missed an absolute sitter after 34 minutes heading wide from close range. James then gave Jordan and company an earful after the poor marking. To be fair it was one of the few occasions when the defence went missing
Five minutes before half time and Kirkland once again saved West Brom pushing a good shot from Reyna round the post. All last season only 38 goals were scored at Eastlands and this game was looking like a goalless draw.
Though City continued to attack the West Brom goal Kirkland was certainly earning his wages keeping a clean sheet upto half time.
Two minutes into the second half and West Brom had a golden chance to take the lead. Campbell somehow broke through and James won the one on one confrontation by blocking the shot. What an escape.
The biggest cheer came when Stu Pearce left his zone to get the ball from old England colleague Bryan Robson only to slip up and give everybody a good laugh
City might have had a penalty at this corner when Cole was held by Gaardsoe
James had to be alert to push away a long centre cum shot from Gera
Back on the touchline after some games in the stand Stuart Pearce was living every move
City were certainly in need of creativity in midfield and with Josep "Pep" Guardiola the 34 year old ex Barcelona and Spanish star over here from the Quatari League on 'trial' for a week I thought he might be watching the game. So I did a 'search' and I think I spotted him in the Colin Bell stand - centre of the right hand picture in the striped brown jumper. He may be playing for the reserves on Tuesday evening. A great football 'organizer' ,providing his fitness is upto Premier League standards, he would be a great asset in midfield.
After 78 minutes Barton broke through and only great save by Kirkland saved West Brom.
With only three minutes left on the clock Wallwork a former swamp player went down after a miskick with nobody near him. Referee Foy let play continue and West Brom who had possession for a short while then failed to kick the ball out. However when they lost the ball and City broke away the referee blew up much to the anger of the City players. Notice though, as the confrontation builds up, Joey Barton can be seen walking way. Excellent, and overall Barton was one of the best of the City players so his anger management treatment appears to be paying off.
Ronnie Wallwork who has made a miraculous recovery from 'his injury' then gets involved with a handbags at close range with Danny Mills.
Both Wallwork and Mills ended up with yellow cards but the referee should have blown up straight way or let play continue. His indecision was a feature of his average display
Despite City bringing on BWP for Vassell, Kirkland kept a clean sheet for the visitors and it all ended goalless.
James 7: Mills 6.5, Sommeil 6.5, Jordan 7, Thatcher 7: Sinclair 6.5, Reyna 7, Barton 7.5, Musampa 7: Vassell 6.5 ( BWP 6.5) , Cole 7:
other subs on for a short period - Croft, Sibierski
City 0 West Brom 0