Forthcoming Fixtures

City went in at the break one nil down, with the home sides goal coming from ex City Academy player Danny Hudson

However goals from Razak, Veseli, and Roman or as most of the crowd believed an og ensured certain passage through to the final of the Manchester Senior Cup

City fielded a mixture of players in their fourth Manchester Senior cup fixture of the season with a couple of experienced players alongside a couple of trialist one of whom is just sixteen years old. The game was completely a one sided affair but it took until the second half for City to stamp their authority on the eventual result.

City were rather unfortunate not to be awarded a penalty when an Owen Hargreaves free kick was heading in the general direction of the goal and Mark Hughes stuck out an arm to stop the ball going further but play continued.

Then completely out of the blue Francisco de Silva who is still being amazingly quoted as a trialist despite being in and around City for over five months now gave the ball away to former City academy player Danny Hudson and he ran on towards goal and coolly fired past Eirik Johansen in the City goal.

Joan Roman looked lively to help get City back on level terms but as per usual his decision making much like Denis Suarez in and around the opposition area there needs some serious work but yet again attack after attack fell down because they either failed to shoot or release the ball at the right time.

City continued to dominate and probe forward for an equalizer seeing a Roman free kick tipped onto the post but they were unable to capitalise from the rebound. Jeremy Helan was left free on the far post from a corner but Richard Branagan managed to get across to save his header of the ground.

The second half did not have to wait long to see City get back on level terms when substitute Abdul Razak had a speculative shot from twenty five yards or so and even he would admit it was not his best ever strike but for some reason Branagan was a bit casual about getting down for the ball and it appeared to go right through him.

City peppered the Bury goal and Jeremy Helan and Jordi Hiwula were very unfortunate not to add to the City score line as the Bury defence was struggling to keep up with City’s movement.

Just after the hour mark and City final edged in front when a good move down the left hand side that culminated in Wayne Bridge crossing into the near post but Hiwula could not quite wrap his foot around the ball and Freddie Veseli who had stayed up pounced on the half clearance to turn and fire into the goal.

City were mainly dominant as they looked to extend their advantage with a good effort by Helan but it was Eirik Johansen who was called into service to save from a Mark Hughes re-taken free kick and to close down Liam Boswell after another defensive error by Reece Wabara this time.

City did get their third when Joan Roman cut inside from the left hand side and he shot whilst falling backwards slightly and so Branagan thought he had it covered but it was heavily deflected and it just rolled past he as he was left stranded.

Late on Abdul Razak nearly doubled his tally but both he and substitute Omar Elabdellaoui were denied by good saves from Branagan.

City only need to beat either Bolton or Manchester United in their final two Manchester Senior group games to ensure they make the final after winning all four of their games so far.



Team:

Johansen, Wabara, Bridge, De Silva, Veseli, Tomaz Diaz Navarrette(T), Roman, Hargreaves (Razak 46), Sarafim Mihajlov (T) (Hiwula 46), Suarez, Helan (El-Abdellaoui)

Subs: Halsall (GK), Meppen-Walter

Attendance : 58 paying guests

This does not include the 40+ people who were in the directors box