From: seanb@cs.man.ac.uk (Sean Bechhofer)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.soccer
Subject: Man City vs. Norwich report
Date: 27 Aug 92 10:04:28 GMT


	MANCHESTER CITY 3	NORWICH 1
	White 45, 80		Megson 58
	McMahon 90

City: Coton, Brightwell, Phelan, Simpson, Curle, Vonk, White, Sheron,
Quinn, Holden, McMahon
  Subs not used: Reid, Flitcroft, Margetson (gk)

Norwich: Gunn, Culverhouse, Bowen, Butterworth, Sutton, Megson, Fox
(Newman 57), Goss, Robins (Woodthorpe 82), Crook, Phillips
  Sub not used: Walton (gk)

Att: 23,182

City finally got their faltering Premier League campaign on the road
last night with a solid performance and a deserved victory against
Norwich, early season high fliers. Two goals from White and a McMahon
strike at the death gave them the win, but this game should have been
over by half time. 

After a draw and two losses, the Blues desperately needed a result in
this game, and after the dreadful show at Middlesbrough which was
deemed unacceptable by Peter Reid, a good performance was also
required. What we got was fairly standard Maine Road fare, with superb
play at times, and the usual collapse allowing the opposition back in
the game. It was also the debut of Terry Phelan, the left back signed
from Wimbledon for 2.5 million pounds. 

Both teams started well, but after a couple of Norwich attacks, for the
first half an hour or so, it was one way traffic for City. Quinn had the
ball in the net after quarter of an hour, from a lovely move involving
Simpson and Sheron, but the centre forward was an obvious couple of yards
offside when he took the ball. Gunn was kept busy in the Norwich goal,
tipping over a long range David White shot, and blocking well with his legs
from a Steve McMahon blasted free kick.  Gunn had been holding the ball in
the penalty area, waiting while Bowen tied a shoe lace. Unfortunately for
him, the referee decide he'd waited long enough, and awarded an indirect
free kick. This is a good thing, in my opinion. There already exist rules
where the referee can penalise time wasting, and the more they use them the
better. The free kick was tapped to McMahon, who thumped it past the wall,
but Gunn was there. Gunn later fell foul of the referee, and ended up in
the book after foolishly taking the ball away from a City throw-in. City
were virtually camped in the Norwich penalty area for quarter of an hour,
and there were other chances, but the Norwich defence held up. City made
good use of the wings, with White, and especially Holden on the left, doing
good work in getting round the full backs. Norwich had one really good
chance in the first half, Mark Robins forcing a save from Tony Coton. The
Norwich attack came mostly down the centre, through Robins and Fox, with an
occasional run by Crook on the left hand side. As a result, it was
difficult to judge Phelan in the first half, although he made no mistakes,
and came forward well occasionally.

As ever, the new backpass rule caused some fun and games, with
defences being under that bit more pressure. Curle showed himself to
be equal to the challenge, beating the forwards, and leaving Robins
flat on his arse at one point, an incident much enjoyed by the Kippax!
Curle also made a couple of superb runs out of defence, beating three
or four players, but he always seemed to try just a bit too much,
eventually losing the ball. After a lot of City pressure, which they
failed to capitalise on, the game went off the boil slightly, until
just before half time, when the Blues finally struck. It was a pretty
standard David White goal, as he pushed the ball through into the
penalty area, past the back four. As Gunn raced out to cover, White
used his pace to reach the ball first, and slipped it neatly under the
goalie and into the far corner.

Thankfully, as this wasn't a televised match, we were spared the
"entertainment" at half time. The PA was broken, so we didn't even get the
dodgy records. Norwich came out looking the hungrier side after half time,
and had most of the early pressure. They were unlucky to lose Fox after
twelve minutes, but the pressure paid off a minute later, as two ex-Maine
Road men combined to bring Norwich level.  A David Phillips corner was met
strongly by Gary Megson (of all the players...), giving Coton no chance. At
this point, City fell apart a bit, and Norwich looked like they could have
swung it. The defence panicked, with Brightwell in particular putting Coton
under a lot of pressure with some wayward back passes. Coton's temper got
the better of him after a clumsy Norwich challenge on Phelan, which went
unpunished. He raced out of his goal to berate the linesman, and got a
(quite justified, really) booking for his trouble. This prompted the first
choruses of "whos's the b*st*rd in the green?". Ah, the changing face of
football :-). Coton really has to get a grip on his temper, as it may well
ruin his international chances. Phelan seemed to settle down, and made a
good few runs down the left. Curle also came out of defence well, although
at times this left City slightly open. Quinn had what looked like a
reasonable penalty claim turned down, as he seemed to be felled on the edge
of the area. It was on the other side of the ground, though, so I couldn't
be sure. The Blues came back into the game, and ten minutes from the end,
got the goal they deserved. Curle knocked in a long ball from half way,
Quinn got a superb knock down, and White was there to slam the ball home.
For the last ten minutes, City ran riot through the Norwich defence. Holden
had several good runs down the left, and crossed in well, McMahon almost
meeting a cross with a diving header.  White was put through, but
inexplicably ran towards the corner flag, when a hattrick was in the
offing. In the dying seconds, McMahon finished the game off. White took off
down the right wing, and came inside to the penalty area. It looked like
he'd taken too long as the defenders closed him down, but he cut back well
to McMahon, who crashed the ball past Gunn. Quinn also had an attempt kept
out by a combination of Gunn and the woodwork. The delight of the players
as full time came was obvious.

This was a reasonable performance, with some good and bad points. When they
play well, the team is looking very good, but there were moments,
particularly in the second half, when things began to fall apart.  However,
that's nothing new at Maine Road. The ball's being played out wide a lot,
rather than the long ball nonsense we were subjected to at the end of last
season, with Holden giving defenders a hard time.  White still can't cross,
but Holden is hitting some great balls into the area. Quinn was getting up,
holding the ball up well, and causing a lot of trouble. He'll be missed
during his three match ban. Hopefully we won't see any more of that kind of
behaviour from him, although he was being fouled a lot last night, which
must be frustrating. The defence is looking solid, although Brightwell lost
his head for a while. It's difficult to judge Phelan on this performance.
He's very fast, and managed to get out of trouble through his speed a
couple of times. He also looks dangerous coming forward, and is prepared to
attack. We'll just have to wait until he comes up against a very good right
winger to tell. I'm still very doubtful that he's worth all the money Reid
payed for hin. As for the midfield, when McMahon isn't chopping players
down, his balls from midfield are tremendous, and Simpson looks good every
game. I felt Sheron was a bit anonymous last night, but had a couple of
good moments.

The news on Paul Lake's injury is that it may not be as serious as first
thought. According to the programme, it's not a recurrence of the cruciate
ligament damage, but is instead an injury to the lateral ligaments (don't
ask me what that means!), and he could be back in three or four weeks.
They're waiting for the specialist who performed the operation on him to
return from holiday, in order to have a full check on him.

After the first three games, last night's performance was quite heartening.
The next game is at home to Oldham on Saturday. That should be interesting,
with Pointon and Redmond returning to Maine Road for the first time, and
Rick Holden meeting his old team mates.  Last time these teams met, on the
last day of the season, City ran riot and scored five at Boundary Lane.


Cheers,

	Sean B