Classic games from '18/'19

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After Saturday I was thinking how many outstanding games there have been this season.  No matter how it ends up, there are quite a few games that will be worth remembering so I thought I'd start a list...beginning with games I've been lucky enough to attend in person ...

 

City were starting to do will in September but for me things really got started with a 2-1 win at Forest on 20th October.  Forest were flying high at the time and have spent a lot on their squad, with Karanka they had a manager who knows how to get a team promoted.  When they caught us out on the right after a few minutes and Grabban scored for them to take the lead, it looked bad for City.  But (as we'd seen repeatedly this season) City just kept on plugging away and came steadily back into the game creating some excellent chances.  At 0-1 down at half time, you didn't feel we were out of it and a free kick on the left after 60 minutes was met by Klose to equalise, and City continued to look the better side and improbably it was Klose again who put the ball in from close range on 85 minutes when Rhodes won the header.  An excellent performance but perhaps short of classic status ?

 

No doubt about the next one though, when we went to Sheffield Wed on 3rd November, with Rhodes ineligible, there was a touch of worry beforehand - after all, we'd lost there 5-1 on our previous 2 visits.  But City were on top from the start, winning a penalty after 5 minutes only for Vrancic to fluff it. It didn't disturb the team who stayed on top for most of the half, the concern was just whether we'd wasted our period of superiority.  Those concerns proved unfounded when Pukki scored 5 minutes into the 2nd half when he pounced on a deflection from Vrancic's shot (sound familiar) followed shortly after by a superb finish in the corner by Buendia and then a brilliant one-two and run down the right by Aarons who fed the ball across for Pukki to tap in his second and City's third.  Wednesday were now totally on the ropes and towards the end the Wednesday keeper made a poor clearance straight to Vrancic who played in Srbeny to score with his first touch as sub.  It could have been more and sent City top of the table for the first time this season.

 

Next post... Millwall !!

 

 

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So Millwall at home on Nov 10th. On paper a comfortable home win but checking them out before the game I thought their league position might be misleading and so it turned out. Not too long had gone when Millwall won a free kick centre right and from behind our goal I could see a man was unmarked on our far left , he was duly picked out and had a free header to put it nicely into the box for their striker to attack and we were 1-0 down.

 

city of course kept plugging away and shortly after the break a good move led to a cut back to Pukki who put it away, and soon after we had another penalty but Pukki served up a tame effort this time.  Happily soon after Leitner was able to strike an excellent shot into the bottom corner and it felt like we were back on track. It didn’t last though as our defence switched off to let Millwall score twice quickly and we were back behind. They hadn’t read the script and as 90 minutes loomed we were 3-2 down. Rhodes and Vrancic were thrown on, and Buendia found Rhodes in the box to finish clinically and save a point it seemed.

 

then with the 6 minutes of injury time almost up City won possession at the back and in a move that perhaps defines our season, rather than launch it forward we played a composed move through the middle on the floor , capped by a superb through ball by Buendia which found Pukki to chip the ball over the keeper and win it at the death. CR erupted and that is a win to stack up with Sim Jackson's winner against Derby. Truly the sort of game you can expect to see once in a decade if that, and kept City on top of the league.