What a fantastic week to be a City fan. Premier League survival, aided by comedy goalkeeping at its finest and another strike from the most prolific City goalscorer never to actually play for the club (Gareth McAuley), followed by the superb victory by the Under 18s in the FA Youth Cup final which completely derailed ITV4’s Chelsea love-in.
And so, after a roller coaster week, City’s fate is back in their own hands. However, whereas every other team in the relegation dogfight seems to have found a way to eke out a win when it was most needed City have been flatlining their way towards the abyss.
The long awaited demise of QPR on Sunday was a pertinent reminder not only that second season syndrome is a reality but also that throwing huge sums of money around doesn’t guarantee anything in football.
Given the amount of criticism of officials in last week’s column I should probably start this week’s with a pat on the back for Mike Dean for by far the best refereeing performance I’ve seen at Carrow Road since City returned to the Premier League.
In nearly 50 years of going to football matches I can’t remember coming away feeling as angry as I did on Saturday, having seen one man make five game-changing errors in the space of as many minutes, every one of them in favour of the home side.
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