Olympic rower Steven Redgrave had a good fiddle with his ball bag at Wembley today (hurr hurr), and as a result the Tigers will face Wigan away in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. It’s hardly a draw to get excited about, one rather hoped we’d get to hammer some Lower League Shite, Leeds for example.
Cup runs are a rarity for City, though last year we featured in the Semi Final draw, we were however eked out at the Quarter Final stage courtesy of a clearly offside goal by Arsenal at the Emirates in a game now famous for Cesc Fabregas’ dress sense and alleged expectoration.
Subject to the machinations of TV companies, the Wigan tie is to be played on Saturday January 2nd 2010.
How did you feel at approximately 4.52pm on Saturday 28th November? Head held a little higher? Chest sticking out a bit more? Massive grin on your face that could only be removed surgically? God it feels good to be a City fan again. We have a club that, for various reasons, we can be incredibly proud of. And that includes the manager.
Much has been written about our defeat at the impressive City of Manchester Stadium on Boxing Day last year. Too much. However, you couldn’t help but sense that the eyes of the football world were on Phil Brown in the run up to Saturday’s game. How would he cope? Admirably. (more…)
Jimmy Bullard, having just thrashed home a penalty to bring City level with, err, Citeh, gives the team a dressing down, a tongue in cheek reference to Phil Brown’s half time team talk at Eastlands nearly a year ago. Brilliant, and lapped up by the travelling Tiger Nation. One suspects the press won’t get that this is more a mockery of their over the top reaction and constant referral to the original incident than a mockery of Phil Brown. Fuck ‘em.
Jimmy Bullard’s inevitable return to the midfield seems set to be the only necessary change that Phil Brown will make for tomorrow’s much-discussed trip to Manchester City in the Premier League.
Bullard missed the midweek victory over Everton purely as a precaution as he continues to find full fitness, but will almost certainly come into the team as the Tigers revisit the scene of their manager’s supposed nadir of the last campaign. (more…)
It’s a brave man who gets involved in the match betting on this one. City have won four games since the last time Mark Hughes’ men recorded a victory in the Premier League, yet the home side are a virtually unbackable 3/10 (BlueSQ) to overcome Phil Brown’s resurgent Tigers. Then again…faced with one of the Premier League’s six best sides who are overdue a victory, would you really want your money on City, even with Stan James’ 12/1?
Doesn’t it feel like 2008 again? That giddy feeling is back: the goals are flowing, the points tally is hurtling up and suddenly we fear no-one.
And if that sounds like getting carried away, well, let’s get carried away. It’s been a while since life in the Premier League felt like this, we know it may not last, so we should endeavour to wring the maximum satisfaction from the two days separating a thrilling victory over Everton to a daunting trip to Manchester.
Never a dull moment. City clung on for dear life at the end but made a scintillating first half performance count with a 3-2 win over Everton.
Injury-ravaged the visitors may have been, but they still put out a useful team that the Tigers swatted aside in a truly stunning first half display. Stephen Hunt followed up Jozy Altidore’s saved shot to open the scoring, then a completely gorgeous Andy Dawson free kick made it two.
Dean Marney’s first goal since the dawn of time, via a deflection, made it three by the break and had the Tiger Nation rubbing 22,000 pairs of eyes in disbelief. However, it’s never as straightforward as you’d wish, and Kamil Zayatte’s miskick gifted the visitors an early second half goal and made everyone very nervous.
Zayatte’s nightmare continued when his foul in the box led to Louis Saha further reducing the deficit from the spot – and still there were 25 minutes left. City hung on, however, and barring a few mild panics when corners were delivered into the box, coped admirably with the late Everton onslaught.
That’s 14 points at home this season, already surpassing last year’s tally. We’re up to 15th, albeit having played a game more. We’re scoring for fun and playing fantastic, flowing football. And we’ve just turned over Everton for the first time in more than 50 years without Jimmy Bullard. The match report will explain in more detail before long.
City’s third home match in succession sees the Tigers welcome Everton to the Circle this evening, as Phil Brown’s charges aim for a victory that’d ensure a highly encouraging seven points from this run of games. Already, the victory over Stoke and impressive display over West Ham have probably secured the City manager’s position, at least for now. A win tonight would lift us to 15th, while a draw – no disgrace against a side of Everton’s quality – would put two points between ourselves and the bottom three.
Goals, goals, everywhere. All of a sudden, City are exciting again – a slight shame that the action is likely to occur at both ends of the pitch, but after much of the turgid stuff we’ve seen in 2009, at least we’re getting value for money.
Everything points to more goals during tomorrow’s visit of Everton. Nine goals have resulted from our last two home games, Everton have already scored four here this season, and in fifteen matches the two sides have never drawn 0-0. You can get evens on +2.5 goals tomorrow, not a bad bet given the aforementioned, and the case is strengthened further by factoring in City’s form this season – more than half of our league game this season have seen at least three goals.
If we continue the goals theme, then 5/6 is available with Skybet on both sides to score. Everton are 10/11 (Boylesports) to do what our last two visitors have done: score first. If you fancy Everton to take the lead but City to claim at least a point, William Hill offer 5/1 – that appeals, though Boyle’s offer 16/1 on the Tigers winning from behind for the more adventurous.
No victory, but the evidence of just how much heart the Hull City players possess right now was plain for all to see. From two goals down to 3-2 up, and then a show of admirable resistance after going down to ten men made sure that a precious, satisfactory point was bagged and that Phil Brown’s employment was prolonged.
The win against Stoke suggested the players still wanted to play for Brown; this display absolutely confirmed it. A lesser motivated, more divided team would have withered away after losing two goals in the opening 11 minutes and Brown would have been a goner. Again, it was an active performance from a spirited side that kept Brown alive and there’s more than a glimmer of hope, suddenly, for City to flower as a Premier League force.
Geovanni’s return was expected by some, doubted by others. Absent for the Stoke game through suspension, he was ultimately placed only on the bench as Brown, justifiably, kept faith with the strikeforce of Jozy Altidore and Craig Fagan, with Jimmy Bullard doing all the prompting. The only change saw hamstring injury victim Seyi Olofinjana replaced by the energy and wayward shooting of Dean Marney. Thus, the Tigers lined up as Duke; Mendy, Zayatte, Gardner, Dawson; Garcia, Marney, Bullard, Hunt; Altidore, Fagan. Mark Clattenburg was the referee, a man claimed to be the most lenient in the top flight. We’d later see why. (more…)
