Scunthorpe United v Manchester City

Sunday, January 24, 2010

F.A. Cup

Scunthorpe United :
Murphy, Williams, Byrne, Jones (Milne 82), Mirfin, Togwell, McCann (J.Wright 88), Thompson, Woolford, Hayes (Forte 88), Hooper.
Subs not used:
Lillis, Crosby, Sparrow, May.

Manchester City :
Taylor, Onuoha, Sylvinho, Kompany, Boyata, Ireland (Zabaleta 66), Petrov, De Jong (Cunningham 46), Robinho (Bellamy 85), Mwaruwari, Ibrahim.
Subs not used:
Nielsen, Richards, Wright-Phillips, Barry.

SULSESC REPORT

by Andrew Metcalfe at Glanford Park

When the the draw for the 4th round of the FA Cup was made, it would have been very easy for me to head to a local pub, with friends, most of whom are Manchester City fans anyway, and watch a match that represented The Iron's first live game on terrestrial television.

However, you cannot miss attending a fixture like this. There could be a shock, couldn't there? The world's richest club were visiting Scunthorpe, and Robinho would be playing in the very modest surroundings of Glanford Park, in what could be his last match ever in the UK. What a fitting finale.

The sporting press had a field day with this fixture, especially with the current Robinho situation. According to the Sunday Times, he was playing against a team he could afford to buy. Some of the comparisons between the two clubs were incredible:-

Steve Wharton family wealth £33million

Sheikh Mansour family wealth £56billion

Scunthorpe's loss in 2008/09 £1million, Manchester City's £92.6million

Total players' wages - Iron £4million, City £120million

Average players' wages - Iron £160,000 pa, City £3,800,000 pa

Highest paid player for the Iron - Paul Hayes £220,000 pa, and for Mcr City Robinho £8.32million.

Based on the above, and other statistics, the Sunday Times came up with the conclusion that only one of the clubs kicking off at GP today, can hold any realistic hope of being self-sustaining, breaking even, or even returning a profit in the near future, and they are not Manchester City.

Anyway, a train trip to Scunthorpe it was, accompanied by good friends, Man City supporters and occasional Iron followers Russ and John Freer (meeting up with lifelong Iron supporter and Man City season ticket holder Dr Vic at the Honest Lawyer for gallons of great ale). The train journey was made more enjoyable by hoards of good-natured City fans (more about that later). Logic said that in view of this being the only feasible train from Manchester to get to the game on time, then British Rail would add an extra couple of carriages. They didn't!

The Iron did not let the supporters down, but produced a very spirited performance. I did not appreciate quite how well they played, and how good the game was, until I watched a recording of the entire match, a few days later. However, they got off to the worst possible start when Petrov beat Thompson on the left, and rocketed an unstoppable shot in from distance in the 3rd minute. Heads did not fall, and Scunthorpe got more into the game following this early setback. Woolford went close in the 10th minute, and then shortly afterwards from a corner, Hooper centered for Cliff Byrninho to head against the bar, when a goal looked certain. In the 29th minute we did get the equaliser we deserved, when Woolford played the ball to a very offside Hayes, who volleyed in. The goal stood.

Just when we thought that 1-1 at half time would do fine, Onuoha scored after being put through by Ibrahim. In the 57th minute Sylvinho scored with a superb 25 yards shot, which appeared to have settled the game, but back came Scunny to reduce the deficit to 3-2, when Byrninho scored from 12 yards with a slight deflection, after a long throw in from Togwell found Cliff in the area.

Could we go on to win it? Mein Got, how we tried. But, the answer was Nein. The man who had been ridiculed by the home fans with songs such as 'what a waste of money' clipped the ball past Murphy, who incidentally had a superb game, as did all the Scunthorpe players, after an excellent Man City passing move. So, Robinho had the last laugh in the 85th minute, and was then substituted.

The Iron players can all be very proud of this performance, especially when the stats tell us that we had 50% of the possession, but Manchester City are a class act, and always looked like they could conjur up a brilliant goal, which sadly they did four times.

The Man City fans were very respectful, and appreciative of our wonderful little team. There were no mocking football songs whatsoever, aimed at the Iron, during the game or over the course of two long train journeys. Their fans entertained the entire train with songs of one theme only. These were all aimed at their bitter rivals, from the other side of Manchester (well, not the City of Manchester, but the borough of Stretford in fact). I say aimed, but I really felt 'love' in these lovely little modern urban folk songs. There is obviously enormous sympathy for Man United's plight. I heard songs describing how Man Utd went on a visit to the Vatican, but the Pope did not recognise them, and asked them politely to leave. One song almost brought tears to my eyes, telling the sad tale of Ryan Giggs, who was born out of wedlock, and had lost his proof of birth. The lyrics then explained that he had an incurable illness, and to top it all, he is not Welsh after all, but German. Why does he choose Wales to play for? A very sad story.

The Man City choir then finished off with two further songs. One relating to a mix up in the Maternity Hospital, and Mr & Mrs Wayne Rooney being presented with the wrong baby. It appears that they were handed a slightly darker child than they were expecting, and by the most amazing coincidence it actually belonged to the Manchester City player Emmanuel Adebayor. How could this happen? There is no wonder the country has no faith in the NHS.

Lastly, City fans, very touchingly, pointed out that there is a spelling mistake in United's name. and it actually spells DEBT, and in view of the massive indebtedness at the Theatre of Dreams (compared to City's zero debt), they had given their rivals phone number to Ocean Finance, who would try and sort them out. How moving. I can see the two clubs pooling their resources in the very near future, and producing one Manchester Super club. Then again, maybe not.