Manchester City 0  Valencia 1             Early Days for New Boys
Saturday 4th August 2007 : GYKO at the COMSTAD

Valencia spoiled Sven-Goran Eriksson's Manchester City welcoming party at Eastlands to leave City's new manager with plenty of work to do before their Premier League opener at West Ham next week.With five new signings in his starting line-up, some of whom the former England manager had never even seen play it was always going to be an interesting day for the Swede.

Eriksson would certainly have been able to pick a few positives out of the narrow defeat, not least the performance of young midfielder Michael Johnson. But David Silva's early winner, combined with a series of missed chances including two by star striker Rolando Bianchi, confirmed the theory it may take some time for Eriksson's new-look side to gel.

With new owner Thaksin Shinawatra looking down from the stand above, Eriksson had strode onto the pitch before kick-off to a standing ovation, bowing politely to all four corners of the ground. It was an enthusiastic welcome, although the sight of thousands of empty seats suggested the former England coach has some work to do if he is to claw back the huge number of City fans who have become increasingly disillusioned with life at Eastlands.

In contrast, Ricky Hatton will forever be a hero in these parts and when he was spotted taking his seat five minutes into the game, the world light-welterweight boxing champion - and lifelong City supporter - was greeted like the superstar he has become. Hatton barely had time to take his seat before Eriksson's side fell behind.

Switzerland Under-21 skipper Gelson Fernandes was the man at fault, gifting possession to Silva 35 yards out.
Silva laid a neat pass off to Miguel Angel Angulo but when his shot was parried by Kasper Schmeichel - handed his chance in the absence of injured duo Andreas Isaksson and Joe Hart - the Spanish international stroked home the rebound.

To their credit, City responded in defiant fashion with academy graduate Johnson leading the resistance.
Johnson rattled the Valencia bar with a fierce 25-yard shot and not long afterwards Bianchi did the same as he tried to steer Elano's cross goalwards.

An £8.8million capture from Reggina, Bianchi is the man Eriksson is hoping will end a scoring crisis which condemns City to start the new campaign without a home Premier League goal since New Year's Day. Bianchi certainly has the physique of a modern-day forward but the way he fluffed a golden opportunity when Marco Caneira's attempted clearance rebounded off Martin Petrov and spun into his path was a bit of a worry.

Petrov sparked sporadically down the left flank, although it appears the Bulgarian will look to cause defences problems with the accuracy of his crosses rather than any speed or trickery. Geovanni became the first Brazilian to sign for City last month but did not show much Samba flair when he smashed a long-range free-kick straight into the Valencia wall although he had some excellent touches in the second half and a superb scissor kick which flew just over.

Bianchi then failed to turn his far-post header goalwards after Petrov had picked him out.

Get Your Kits Out View : On arriving at the COMSTAD I was suddenly in the company of more Thai's than I could shake a stick at. There were groups of them everywhere. There were dancers, singers, protesters as well as a large marquee with an even larger queue, serving free Thai food. The carnival atmosphere was only spoiled by the football which was played at around ½ pace. It has to be remembered though that this was just a practice match and the real thing starting next week hopefully will laced with a fair old lashing of passion. I thought our old boys were the pick of the crop especially Johnson and Stephen  Ireland who incidentally seems to have had a hair transplant. Bianchi looks awfully similar to Corradi but a little quicker. Petrov looks classy and I did like the look of Geovanni the little number eight - reminded me of Ali Bernabia, oh if only....
I don't fancy their chances at West Ham but hopefully things will start to come together in the Derby County game in readiness for the rags.  Incidentally, the Thai food was nice but a little hard to swallow, if you know what I mean.

City: Schmeichel, Richards, Onuoha (Jihai 62), Dunne, Garrido, Elano (Geovanni h-t), Johnson (Corradi 71), Fernandes (Hamann 71), Petrov, Ireland, Bianchi.

Subs: Mentel, Ball, M MIlls, D Mills, Logan, Dabo, Miller, Vassell, Dickov, Samaras.

Valencia: Canizares, Caneira, Moretti, Albiol, Marchena, Albelda, Joaquin, Baraja, Angula, Silva, Gavilan.

Subs: Miguel, Mora, Vicente, Alexis, Del Horno, Sunny, Mata, Arizmendi, Villa, Morientes, Hildebrand.

Goals: 0-1 (Silva 10)

Bookings:

City: Corradi (74)

Accrington Stanley 2  Manchester City Reserves 0
Saturday 4th August 2007

Kenny Jackett's youthful reserve side ended their pre-season campaign in defeat this afternoon, but Jackett refused to be too downhearted after the 2-0 loss at Accrington Stanley.

He said: "It's been a good build-up during the pre-season for us. We started off playing non-league teams but we've had Morecambe and Accrington the last two Saturday's and won one and lost one.

"There's a lot of excitement around the place going into the new season, we've had a tough pre-season, but a very good one."

City's team v Accrington:

Martin (19-year-old trialist), Obeng, Breen, McDonald, Vidal, Clayton, Laird, M.Daly, Marshall, Moore, Evans.
 

Shrewsbury Town 0 Manchester City 2
Wednesday August 1st 2007

Manchester City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson is looking to add to his squad and it is easy to see why as the Barclays Premier League side struggled to overcome League Two club Shrewsbury.
The Swede took a good look at the players at his disposal by fielding different teams in each half at the New Meadow. With the possibility of four more additions to his squad, he appears ready to shuffle his pack and allow players to leave.

Striker Valeri Bojinov is scheduled to arrive from Fiorentina and join fellow Bulgarian Martin Petrov at Eastlands. There is also speculation that defenders Javi Garrido and Vedran Corluka are also about to come on board from Real Sociedad and Dinamo Zagreb as well as midfielder Elano from Shakhtar Donetsk.

Petrov, a £4.7million buy from Atletico Madrid, made his bow in this friendly and looked quick and strong. New signings Rolando Bianchi, Gelson Fernandes and Geovanni were also in from the start. Geovanni rattled the crossbar in the 21st minute from 25 yards but a minute later Shrewsbury almost opened the scoring when Michael Symes flicked a header wide.

Petrov was involved in the 38th minute but saw his shot blocked by goalkeeper Glynn Garner after a neat one-two with Bianchi. City nearly made the breakthrough in the 40th minute following a delicate chip from Stephen Ireland but Garner tipped his effort over the top. Petrov miskicked in front of goal a minute before the break and the ball fell to Bianchi, whose effort was blocked by Neil Ashton.

Georgios Samaras could have earned a few plaudits in the 50th minute only to see his weak effort saved by Garner. Then Corradi headed wide for City following a corner from Ousmane Dabo two minutes later. Corradi, however, made the breakthrough with a header in the 82nd minute and Paul Dickov added a second goal with a shot into the corner on the stroke of full-time.

Teams

Shrewsbury: Garner, N.Moss (Langmead 63), Ashton (Humphrey 46), Drummond (Ryan 68), Kempson, Murdock, Herd, Hall, Pugh, Cooke (Onibujek 74), Symes (Leslie 63).

unused subs: T.Moss, Mackenzie, Flynn.

City (1st half): Schmeichel, Onuoha, Richards, Dunne, Sun, Geovanni, Johnson, Fernandes, Petrov, Ireland, Bianchi.

City (2nd half): Hart, D.Mills, M.Mills, Ball, Logan, Samaras, Miller (Vassell 78), Hamann, Dabo, Corradi, Dickov.

unused sub: none.

Goals: 0-1 Corradi (82), 0-2 Dickov 90

Bookings:

Shrewsbury:

City: Geovanni (42)

Charleroi 2  Manchester City 0    The Roller Coaster begins
Saturday 28th July 2007

Geovanni starts his first match for Manchester City in this evening's friendly against Charleroi.

The Brazilian, who has played as an attacking midfielder and as a striker during his career so far, lines up alongside Rolando Bianchi as Sven-Goran Eriksson assesses his options with this starting line-up.

After an uneventful first 20 minutes, City were victims of a bizarre penalty decision. Matthew Mills was adjudged to have pushed Dos Santos Costa in the area and Oulners scored from the spot.

City then had their best spell of the game so far, but were hit by a sucker punch on 35 minutes. Dos Santos Costa outpaced Matthew Mills and squared to Jovian, who side footed it home from close range to double the home side’s lead.

Matt Mills’ day got no better when he picked up a booking on 39 minutes, and two minutes later Rolando Bianchi had City’s only real chance of the first half, but his weak header never threatened to claw a goal back.

A raft of substitutions at half time added a lot more urgency to the Blues, with Georgios Samaras having the best chance of the game so far when his left-footed shot rattled the crossbar on 53 minutes.

City had the best of the remainder of the match, however they could not create enough decent chances. The best was substitute Miller forcing a save from goalkeeper Laquat.

The Blues can now look forward to facing opposition a little nearer to home when they take on Shrewsbury Town at the New Meadow on Wednesday night, kicking off at 7.45pm.

Team: Isaksson, D.Mills, M.Mills (Fernandes h-t), Dunne, Ball, Logan, Johnson (Miller 59), Hamann (Vassell h-t), Ireland, Geovanni (Corradi h-t), Bianchi (Samaras h-t).

Subs: Hart, Dabo, Dickov.

Morecambe 1  Manchester City Reserves  2
Saturday 28th July 2007

City's reserves have had another successful afternoon, this time against league opposition. Kenny Jackett's young side travelled to Morecambe to take on Sammy McIlroy's Division Two outfit and came away with a 2-1 win.
The Blues went into half time a goal up thanks to Paul Marshall on 17 minutes, but the home side equalised through Curtis with 10 minutes of the second half gone.
But City came away with the spoils thanks to the prolific Ched Evans, who lobbed the Shrimps' keeper from a long way out on the hour. It was the young Welshman's third goal of the pre-season fixtures.
Kasper Schmeichel kept the lead intact, with one superb point-blank save from Baker and good work with his feet to deny the onrushing Curtis.
The reserves complete their warm-up programme with a visit to Accrington Stanley next Saturday.

Teams
 City :Schmeichel, Obeng, McDonald, Breen, Vidal, Clayton, Laird, Daly, Marshall, Moore, Evans.
Subs: Ramsey, Mentel, Kay, McDermott, Ball.

Morecambe: Davies, Yates, Bentley, Artell, Adams, Baker, Sorvel, Stanley, Burns, Curtis, Twiss.
Subs: Drench, Hunter, Howard, Newby, Grand, McNiven, McLachlen

Carlstad United 0 Manchester City 4
Saturday 21st July 2007

Rolando Bianchi (pictured right) scored twice as Manchester City rounded off their tour of Sweden with a comfortable victory over Carlstad United.
The £8.8million Italian set up his countryman and strike partner Bernardo Corradi to round the goalkeeper and open the scoring after five minutes.
With 20 minutes on the clock the roles were reversed, allowing Bianchi to drive home for City's second.
Sven-Goran Eriksson's men wasted little time in making it three after the break as Bianchi swept home for his third in two games in his manager's homeland.
Substitute 'keeper Kasper Schmeichel had to save a penalty after Micah Richards' handball before another replacement, Marc Laird, struck a fourth from the edge of the box.

Curzon Ashton 1 Manchester City XI 3
Saturday 21st July 2007

It was back to winning ways today for the young reserves as they won comfortably at Curzon Ashton the Unibond Premier league outfit.  Goals from Adam Clayton, David Ball and Ched Evans for City and Michael Norton for Curzon. Curzon are at New Mills next Saturday so it will be interesting to see how my local North West Counties div 1 team fare against higher opposition.

City Team: Mentel, Obeng, Breen, Mee, McGivern, Moore, Marshall. Clayton. McDermott, Evans, Ball.
Subs: Vidal, Kay, Daly.

Hyde United  4   Manchester City XI  2

Ben Mee shapes to test Craig Dootson in the Hyde goal

Man City started the game with some slick moves and looked very comfortable in the opening exchanges. It didn't take long before they pressed home their advantage as Karl Moore drilled the ball into Dootson's right hand corner from the edge of the box. Adam Clayton added the second within minutes with a great solo effort to put the blues in command. With City's oldest player only 18 it was looking like boys against men might just be good enough. With Hyde only just outside the Conference Premier last season they weren't about to be taken apart by a bunch of kids. After City hit the post they suddenly awakened and got stuck in. On 24 minutes Gareth Seddon the Hyde goal machine pulled one back. Soon after the City defence allowed Gareth too much room and he brought the Tigers level with a well taken goal. Five minutes before half time the Tigers were ahead when Dale Johnson shot across goal to beat Filip Mendip at his far post. The half time shake up didn't happen but Hyde grew in confidence and Seddon completed his hat trick mid way through the half to cap a fine comeback from Hyde United.
With a number of the regular youth players over in Sweden (five from Saturday's team against Stalybridge) these young City players were certainly not overawed by their senior opposition. Karl Moore and Javan Videl both had very good first halves and Mendip made a couple of very smart saves. Craig Dootson also saved very well to his right to keep what looked a certain City equaliser out from close range when the score was 2-3. A good nights football though for the 301 crowd who turned out on a very pleasant night.

Geovanni joins City