Our occasional international break series continues as we Doctor Who-ishly rewind through a time travel vortex to October 2005 to find out where we were when we were etc…
With regularity, rival supporters have this season and the last begun to shriek ‘where were you when you were shit?!’ Of course, we haven’t won anything yet and there’s still a lot of hard work to be done, but thanks all the same. We’ll take it as a compliment.
So back to 2005. City, dumped out of The League Cup at Doncaster on penalties had just beaten Everton 2-0 in the Premier League thanks to goals from Danny Mills and Darius Vassell. It was a season that would see the Blues lose 9 of their last 10 league games yet finish 9 points clear of relegation so poor were Birmingham, West Brom and Sunderland in that campaign.
Vital Manchester City ran a piece called “The Man City Times” which proves a timely reminder of how far the club has come in the last two years and sets the scene at a time when The Blues were running on a debt laden Premier League shoestring….
The Man City Times 12/10/05
by Vital Ed
I got all excited about the headline at the official site saying ‘Jordans Progress,’ then I realised it was about 23 year old Stephen Jordan! Stuart Pearce has heaped praise upon the young player who has made five appearances this season and 19 last season.
Manchester City Reserves game with Bolton had to be abandoned on Monday night after a fire broke out at the Regional Athletics Arena. It was tough luck really because a young reserves team with only one player with Premiership experience were leading 2-1.
Don Givens, the Republic of Ireland Under-21 manager has praised 20 year old midfielder Willo Flood’s performances as a pleasing aspect of an unsuccessful European Championship qualifying campaign.
Pearce is relieved that City’s injury problems look to be easing:
‘We’re hoping Joey Barton will be back from his ankle niggle on Thursday, Ben Thatcher will be touch-and-go for the weekend but he shouldn’t be far off if he takes care of his hamstring. Mikael Bischoff and Bradley Wright-Phillips should be back to full training next week and Robbie Fowler joined us yesterday, but he still has a bit of discomfort with his back, it might be something that solves itself quickly or it might be a long-running thing, we’ve got our fingers crossed on that one.’
Fowler’s back injury is being monitored on a daily basis because the player is still struggling for fitness and his injury may require surgery.
Pearce has said that he feels he has enough cover in defence at the moment and won’t be spending any of his transfer kitty in January on adding to that area.
David James has signed a one-year contract extension with Manchester City to keep him at the club until the end of the 2006-07 season. And Sven-Goran Eriksson has said the door is still open for the player to get back into the England squad.
City’s clash with Tottenham at the City of Manchester Stadium has been postponed. It was originally to have been played on January 2nd, but will now be played on January 4th at 8pm.
The City of Manchester Stadium has received the ‘Excellence in Business Tourism Award’ at the second annual ‘Northwest Tourism Awards.’
City youngster Nedum Onuoha made his England Under-21 debut against Poland coming on for the last five minutes of Englands 4-1 victory.
VMC Archives 2005
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