My review of this match is simple and to the point because to be quite honest a high-flying club with so much talent should have had the mettle to slice apart Newcastle, a team is much turmoil as well as playing a man down but they didn’t have the fortitude to do so. I have enormous respect for clubs that put forth the good fight but come up on the wrong end of the score but when a “collection of players” do not have the resolve to play with little heart, their is little more that needs to be said. Granted Mark Hughes is one of the best managers in the sport today but I cannot understand how some of the players aren’t feeding off his drive and determination, nor playing for the pride of the crest. Yesterday was a glaring example of how winners overcome adversity and this club needs to take a few lessons in a professionals approach to winning Football.
The match started off fast for Man City with Robinho converting on a penalty at the thirteen minute mark. Newcastle equally was faced with the daunting task of playing a man-down with Habib Beye receiving the straight red-card. However instead of pouncing on the man advantage, City couldn’t break through and the Maggies leveled the match before the break with Shola Ameobi’s goal. Eighteen minutes after the break, Richard Dunne inadvertently re-directed a Geremi corner into the net to give Newcastle the one goal advantage. City eventually brought the man level with a perfect through-ball from Robinho to Stephen Ireland.
After the match Mark Hughes commented:
“We played some good stuff in the opening period, creating chances with the angles of our runs and we were in good shape.
“I expected us to go on and win the game comfortably. But the sending off seemed to help them. We found it easier to open them up when it was even player-wise.
“We had to dig in and get back into the game. But we’ll look back on this game and performance as three points lost.”
Man City welcomes Stoke to Eastlands next Sunday.
