Manchester City 4-2 Watford FC - 25/1/2014 - FA Cup Fourth Round

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As with many football clubs Manchester City came into being as a church organized club. The aim being to provide an activity for the less socially well off of east Manchester to participate in over the winter months. St.Marks formed in 1880 and played in black and white with a large Maltese cross on the chest possibly a link to the Knights Hospitallers of Malta.

As was usual with most clubs a succession of mergers followed includin a short lived association with local rivals Belle Vue before the club moved to Ardwick in 1887 and became known as Ardwick Association playing at Hyde Road and using the adjacent hotel as changing facilities.

The Brewery Men as they were then known also adopted halved sky blue and white shirts and in 1891 beat fierce local rivals Newton Heath in the Manchester Cup to ignite a feud that has been running ever since. 1894 saw the club adopt the title of Manchester City and the following year the acquisition of their first star player Welsh wizard Billy Meredith. As was the norm players had an occupation during the week and like the late lamented Bill Foulkes he worked as a miner during the week.

A first title in the Football League winning the Division Two race in 1899 was soon followed by a tradition of performing well in cup runs. 1904 saw the FA Cup won for the first time against Bolton but soon after as was commonplace financial misdeeds hurt the club. In the season that followed City needed to win their last match of the season against Aston Villa to win the title and it was claimed by the Villa captain that he was offered money by Billy Meredith to throw the game.

The 1904 FA Cup winners


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Meredith feeling let down by the club turned whistle blower on illegal payments and subsequent investigations saw seventeen players suspended and a player auction which saw then Manchester United manager Ernest Mangall take Meredith and several others to Old Trafford to form the basis of a title winning team in the 1907-8 season.

City had contemplated a move to share with United at Old Trafford but the prohibitive rent saw them eventually leave for a purpose built stadium in south Manchester at Maine Road with a capacity for eighty thousand souls.

The club reached the 1926 FA Cup final scoring 31 goals in just five matches but Bolton gained a measure of revenge for the 1904 loss. The club were then sunk by Dixie Dean in the 1933 final with a side that included Matt Busby and one of the best English goalkeepers of all time Frank Swift who as a journalist for the Manchester Evening News perished in the 1958 Munich disaster.

An FA Cup run in 1937 also saw a record crowd of 85000 turn up a far cry from the somewhat watered down version this oldest of domestic cup competitions has become. The team scored over one hundred goals in the same season to take the League title but suffered with what has become termed the City syndrome. Despite being equally prolific the following season they somehow contrived to be relegated the only reigning champions ever to suffer this fate.

The club returned to the top tier shortly after the war under the stewardship of former captain Sam Cowan. They also despite controversy at the time signed Bert Trautmann a former German paratrooper from St.Helens to replace Frank Swift and who became a legendary figure at the club until his recent sad demise

With Johnny Hart and Joe Hayes scoring freely upfront and Don Revie as player implementing a new shadow striker role adopted through the Magyars via River Plate the side went to Wembley in successive years. 1955 saw the side lose to a Jackie Milburn inspired Newcastle having had to play the majority of the game with ten men due to injury in the days when no substitutes were allowed. The following year was that of the famous Trautmann final who played on unwittingly with a broken neck after a trademark dive at the feet of an opposing player.

http://www.wfcforums.com/showthread.php?36066-Obituaries&p=862649&viewfull=1#post862649

A comfortable 3-1 win over Birmingham was the last success for a while as the club was relegated in 1963.To revive flagging fortunes and crowds Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison were brought in as a managerial duo with Allison undertaking training duties. His methods were advanced for their time in terms of physical fitness including ballet exercise to improve flexibility and core strength.Like Revie he altered the away kit to red and black to imitate AC Milan to inspire his players. With his motivational skills and the astute signings of Colin Bell and Mike Summerbee the free flowing attacking style paid dividends with a league title in the 1967-8 season, an FA Cup triumph in 1969 over poor Leicester.

Flamboyant and far ahead of his time the lately passed Malcolm Allison



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This was followed by success in the European Cup Winners Cup against Gornik Zabrze and a League Cup win over the Baggies in 1970. With Mercer moved upstairs Big Mal as he was known almost took the team to a title in 1972 with the signing of Rodney Marsh cited as a reason for failing not to win the title that season as he struggled to fit into the City system. Mercer a man of the old school resigned that summer due to differences with Allison who with his trademark fedora, cigars and champagne and girls lifestyle minus one lung formed a wonderful counterpoint to the musings of Sir Brian Clough. However he was better a coach than manager and resigned in the 1972/3 season with the club struggling.

The icing on the cake for many City fans and with delicious irony was former United legend Dennis Law relegating the Red Devils to the second tier in the 1973-4 and club stalwart Tony Book took the club to a period of solid stability and a League Cup title in 1976 over Newcastle with a stunning overhead winner from Dennis Tuehart.

Desperate for success Allison was reappointed after a successful period at Crystal Palace but the magic touch disappeared with club favourites like Peter Barnes replaced by expensive flops namely Steve Daley. John Bond then guided the team to an FA Cup final in 1981 and replay which saw two of the greatest ever goals scored at Wembley in the competition. Everyone remembers Ricky Villa's mazy run and dribble but Steve Mackenzie's effort in the first game was equally spectacular.

[video=youtube;vTQBAP2RWXY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTQBAP2RWXY[/video]​

A last minute effort from Antic against City which saw our own fierce rivals Luton escape relegation consigned the club to the second tier amd a period of stagnation which coincided with the Ferguson era at Old Trafford.

1996 saw the humiliation of a fall to the third tier despite which crowds at Maine Road and on the road remained extremely high with the club's fortunes in comparison with their neighbours accepted with a degree of fatalism and good humour. How things can change was epitomized by the drama of a penalty shoot out win over the Gill's in 1998 after a 2-2 draw in normal time with all four goals in the last ten minutes of play and an equalizer by Paul ****ov with the referee about to signal full time.

2003 saw an emotional departure from Maine Road and the Kippax to the City of Manchester Stadium originally built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games though originally envisaged as the centrepiece of an Olympics bid.

After a period of yoyoing and what appeared to be another false dawn when then owner Thaxin Shinawatra had his financial asset's frozen the club was bought by the Abu Dhabi United Group and Sheikh Mansour who immediately signalled their intentions with the acquisition of what turned out to be an expensive flop in Robinho.

Since then the club bankrolled by it's new owners has taken an FA Cup title in 2011 against Stoke and with a dramatic injury time winner scored by Aguero the League title in 2012 from under the noses of Alex Ferguson.

One can only expect that this success will continue although the number of home grown players is likely to remain rather small despite the success of Academy graduates with a win in the FA Youth Cup as recently as 2008.

Manuel Pellegrini a man urbane as he is intelligent is the current manager. His vast experience from his time at River Plate to Villareal has brought out the best of many of the expensive signings City have made and the tie against Barcelona is the pick of matches in the Champions League from two sides who are in the peak of form and with two of the three best players in the world at present Argentines Lionel Messi and Kun Aguero.

Aguero who I have watched from his time at Independiente to World u20 Cups in 2005 and 2007 is underrated by most and not just for his scoring but playmaking abilities. At the back Kompany and Zabaleta (the latter who epitomizes all a player should be) and Yaya Toure driving the midfield are the key components for this team who have been prolific all season.

If there is a weakness it is the performance of some of the fullbacks outside of Zabaleta in a defensive sense and whoever partners Kompany. If it is Dimichelis we may have a rare chance now and then as the man is a walking disaster zone who is well past his best.

I cannot see us even if as expected City do field a 'reserve' side pulling off an upset given the way that Blackburn Rovers who are arguably the same level as us at present being taken apart 5-0 in their trip to the City of Manchester Stadium and our 3-0 loss last season with a side that although weakened were playing a far higher standard of free scoring football with thumping wins over Nottingham Forest for example at the time.

Possible Manchester City line up:

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Perhaps it would be best if we did field a reserve side although one would have to balance that with the possibility of an almighty shellacking as a consequence. Any repeat of the tussle of almost twenty seven years ago that saw us eventually triumph in a second replay at Maine Road 1-3 will be one of the biggest shocks in the history of the competition more so given the opposition's performances in recent cup matches.

The rather frightening last ten match record of the Blues:



Our match record against the Blues:
http://www.11v11.com/teams/watford/tab/opposingTeams/opposition/Manchester City

Opposition fan forum and the best one there is:
http://forums.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=296374

EB Hornet:
Couldn't see a match thread yet, but obviously replace this one when someone does a proper one. Just to get some chat started....

I saw they played an almost full strength team last night in a tie that they had already won, with little to play for, still won 3-0 away v a prem side! Unbeaten in 18 matches is it? And averaging more than 3 goals a game this season! ​

Goooood luck to the boys for this one!!

 

I think Man City will play a 'weakened' team (it's all relative - weakened team for them = dream team for most Championship sides) & will still batter us. Sorry - happy to be proven overly pessimistic.

 

Fair play - I did think that as I wrote it!

 

You think we are going to score 2 goals?. We didn't score 1 against Yeovil. And city will score only 1? That's more likely than us getting 2 to be fair