Man City v Bournemouth - Sat 17th Oct - 15:00

[Whitechapel]

Match day chat

 

[AFCB_Mark]

Gulp. Help.

Those of a slightly older generation than myself have been reminiscing in the build up to this, about a game at Maine Road at the end of 88/89. City needed a win to earn promotion, and were 3-0 up at half time. We came back to draw 3-3! Luther Blissett...

Fair to say both clubs have changed hugely since those days, and none more so than Man City.

Touching wood, we managed to get through the international break without any further injuries, at least none we know about yet. We even have Harry Arter back playing development games, although it'll be a while before he can be considered for first team selection sadly. So it's going to be the same team as the 1-1 home draw with Watford, a game we really should have won. We paid for calamity goalkeeping and a late penalty miss there.

The aim will be to get as many crosses in around Glenn Murray as possible. Or try. Which means our wide players will be used aggressively. We just don't do setting up defensively and I think we might be a refreshing change for City's home fans in that respect. What that will mean for us in terms of City chances created in the gaps we leave... I don't want to contemplate.

Getting through the international break without injury is not something that can be said for Man City. Looks like Aguero and Silva picked up lengthy knocks. Our two best attacking players and a left back are all out for the entire season, and we don't have De Bruyne, Navas, Sterling, Bony etc. So forgive me for not feeling too sorry for them!

Ah well, I'm gonna get slightly pissed and see what happens. My ticket is up in the top tier, so distance combined with enough drink and I probably won't even see the goals fly in! Me and the other 3000 or more masochists in a sold out away end,

 

[PDS]

A birthday trip up to watch us get utterly trounced. To be honest our strongest 11 would lose by about 3/4 here, buit I would maybe fancy us nicking a goal; as for our current XI that is weaker than last year, well we'll have to see.

Aguero being out doesn't really help, considering Bony is the type of striker who has a field day against our squad of mostly midgets. Hopefully Distin can look after him leaving the small matter of De Bruyne, Toure, Navas, Sterling etc. These are the sort of games where not having a specialist defensive midfielder is really going to bite us.

 

[ArmchairDiehard]

Citeh 3-0 Bournemouth

 

[G-Dragon]

Easy win for the Champions.

 

[AFCB_Mark]

Easy win for the Champions.

....of the Championship yeah? Very kind of you!

 

[SALTIRE]

City 4 - 0 B'mouth

 

[silkyman]

Loving Sterling's second goal there..

 

[silkyman]

Shame the goal from the lad Itchy was chalked off. Consecutive 6-1 wins would have been nice.

54,000 at the old Emptyhad, too.

 

[AFCB_Mark]

The irony of 50,000 odd Man City fans screaming "where were you when you were shit" at us Record attendance against Bournemouth, random. Haven't other teams sold out?

Coming to you on 4G right now from deep inside Manchester as we try and get out of the place. Gridlock.

As for the game, City utterly clinical first half, scoring from some frankly daft chances we gave them. All you can do is make the opposition score a bloody good goal if they are gonna score. We just repeatedly dropped a bollock and Sterling was all too happy to make us look stupid. Bugger me he's fast.

When we did manage to attack, City's defence actually wasn't up to much, and we really should have had a few goals ourselves. Murray and King failing from some excellent positions, although Murray took his goal well. Should have got back to 2-2 really.

And although it makes no difference, we're pretty pissed off with the first City goal. Clearly offside to the point where the lino put his flag up. Then put it down again when the ref played on ignoring him.

Makes absolutely no difference to the end result, but irritating all the same.

De Bryune is pretty impressive, able to get a lot of power from barely touching the ball. We found it impossible to handle both him and Sterling.

Second half City dropped down a gear or two and it was pretty non eventful. Except the final goal, which half the home fans missed cos they'd already left. Perhaps I should have taken that as a warning for the road chaos I find now.

Just remind me to reconsider my travel plans if I end up here again. Might get back on the m6 sometime tonight...

 

[Stevencc]

You can't be right there Mark, sorry. Silky points out offsides for a living, even when they are clearly onside, so if he didn't mention it then I can't imagine that it happened.

 

[smat]

No end product, that Sterling.

:giphy:

 

[GodsGift]

Must have been tap-ins.

 

[silkyman]

First goal wasn't offside. You can see why the liner gave it, but the defender who had tracked PZ and slid off the pitch was playing him on.

 

[silkyman]

Unless they've changed the rules...

"Any defending player leaving the field of play for any reason without the referee’s permission shall be construed to be on his own goal line or touch line for the purposes of offside until the next stoppage of play."

 

[Jamie_SFC]

The irony of 50,000 odd Man City fans screaming "where were you when you were shit" at us Record attendance against Bournemouth, random. Haven't other teams sold out?

Coming to you on 4G right now from deep inside Manchester as we try and get out of the place. Gridlock.

As for the game, City utterly clinical first half, scoring from some frankly daft chances we gave them. All you can do is make the opposition score a bloody good goal if they are gonna score. We just repeatedly dropped a bollock and Sterling was all too happy to make us look stupid. Bugger me he's fast.

When we did manage to attack, City's defence actually wasn't up to much, and we really should have had a few goals ourselves. Murray and King failing from some excellent positions, although Murray took his goal well. Should have got back to 2-2 really.

And although it makes no difference, we're pretty pissed off with the first City goal. Clearly offside to the point where the lino put his flag up. Then put it down again when the ref played on ignoring him.

Makes absolutely no difference to the end result, but irritating all the same.

De Bryune is pretty impressive, able to get a lot of power from barely touching the ball. We found it impossible to handle both him and Sterling.

Second half City dropped down a gear or two and it was pretty non eventful. Except the final goal, which half the home fans missed cos they'd already left. Perhaps I should have taken that as a warning for the road chaos I find now.

Just remind me to reconsider my travel plans if I end up here again. Might get back on the m6 sometime tonight...

To be fair the City fans have a point. Bet you didn't take anywhere near 3k to Oldham in League One.

 

[PDS]

Got back not long ago, I was expecting a trouncing, but very disappointing that we gifted then so many our defending was even worse than usual.

City were fantastic, but they didn't need to try too hard because we presented them with four before half time. Federici coming in was another chance we probably didn't need and he was as poor as what was in front of him.

The etihad was like a morgue, a bit surprisingly.

Finally no way was Sterling's goal offside, Ritchie was playing him on by a mile but the linesman had a 'moment' that caused minor confusion. The right decision was made in the end.

 

[PDS]

To be fair the City fans have a point. Bet you didn't take anywhere near 3k to Oldham in League One.

To be fair I often feel like chanting it at our own fans at times, I get very frustrated with the 'new' crowd. But to hear it coming from Man City fans did raise a smile

 

[silkyman]

City get that chanted at them all the time, so there may have been some irony there. But... City's attendances did hold up pretty well during the shit years. Not quite 54,000, granted, but even down in the doldrums of League One, they were selling out. 26,000 in the ground for the 0-0 draw with Bournemouth in 1999 and averaged 47,000 in 2003/4 when they were nearly relegated. The third highest in the PL.

For a genuinely high number of fans, the answer to 'where were you when you were shit' is 'here, suffering'.

Not that any of that really matters!

 

[silkyman]

Finally no way was Sterling's goal offside, Ritchie was playing him on by a mile but the linesman had a 'moment' that caused minor confusion. The right decision was made in the end.

Can you send a memo to Match of the Day who seem to be pretending that the laws of the game just didn't exist these days. See also Shearer just not wanting to accept that there was at least one infringement in the lead up to the West Brom winner.

 

[voltage]

Great performance from Sterling. A hat-trick with a very beautiful second goal.

 

[AFCB_Mark]

To be fair the City fans have a point. Bet you didn't take anywhere near 3k to Oldham in League One.

Would have depended on the situation, but certainly not for a run of the mill game. Certainly been in sold out away gates at league one and two outposts such as Barnet, Carlisle and Bury for important games.

What struck me was the number of kids in our crowd yesterday, a noticeable and significant chunk. No chance their dad's would have taken them to Oldham, Bury or Stockport, but the kids would have wanted to see us play City I'm sure. Keep them decked in Cherries gear and keep them going to games, ideally not seeing us battered like that every week, and our fanbase will hopefully continue to grow.

BTW, PDS you did well getting back for that time, how did you travel if you don't mind my interest?

Regarding the first goal, I'll get around to watching the footage back in the week, but it sounds like the lino just caused confusion but that it was correct eventuually. Up to us to play to the whistle, last thing you need to do up against the pace of City is to hesitate because you think play might be stopped.

 

[silkyman]

http://www.highlighthub.com/manches...g-scores-hat-trick-against-bournemouth-video/

Second goal is really a thing of beauty.