The Man In The Stands This may sound like a lie, but The Man is actually happy with things at Carra Rud.Honestly. I was going to give it the big up. David McGnarly whipping the boardroom into shape.

The Man In The Stands

This may sound like a lie, but The Man is actually happy with things at Carra Rud.

Honestly. I was going to give it the big up. David McGnarly whipping the boardroom into shape. Paul Lambert grabbing things by the scruff of the neck.

Walsall would be the perfect chance. Not only were they rubbish, they were missing two international players - admittedly, one of them with Trinidad and Tobago.

And what do the boys do? Prove it doesn't matter who the manager is, who the players are. When we all expect us to win, we don't.

Never have, never will.

One of Lambo's first jobs was to remove the 'entertainment' of our first few weeks. Mission accomplished.

Even then, we were robbed by a referee who decided he'd play to his own rules.

We were awful - and still did enough to win, because we scored a perfectly good goal.

Anyway, Monday's game is when we really see what we've got.

We owe The Franchise MK a performance from last season and a win could finally see us close in on where we should be in this god forsaken division.

I expect us to deliver - and this time, The Man wants the exception that proves the rule.

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I could barely hide my shrug of the shoulders at England qualifying to join Party Patta out in South Africa next summer.

Obviously, these things are better with a proper team to follow - and that's not Ireland.

The Man has always seen international football as a good chance for us to sell our best players or see them get crocked.

But, as we don't have any players good enough to play for their countries anymore, even that edge has gone.

Still, The Man needs to be careful he doesn't get carried away with our chances next summer. I'll try. Really, I will.

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The Man can't make up his mind on the Season Ticket Two.

Clearly, you can't have people running onto the pitch, and the club can't encourage it.

Yet Ewe-gate's ridiculousness pretty much mitigated it.

Quite why the club needed a huge investigation to work out that two men ran on during the game and were then escorted off, who knows.

I'm glad the ST2 haven't been banned for life - and I'd expect the 'indefinite' ban to be quietly brought to an end sharpish.

After all, the ST2 took one for the team - or at least us fans.

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Dear Gunny's hair, or lack of, was always a winner at the Carra - but The Man sees a successor.

As McGnarly headhunted his main man, he inadvertently brought Ian Culverhouse's yellow'n'green blood.

And with him, the silver fox dugout flashes similar to those of Mike Walker - always a good thing in The Man's book.

Let's hope Cullers has the winning touch of his old boss' hair - even Walker's second spell.

Who wouldn't take midtable in the Championship, huh?

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So the man The Man wanted, twice, is at the Ewes - and the other man The Man eyed is at the Tykes. Man-o-man.

I can't wait to see where Mark Robins and Aidy Boothroyd's new sides end up in May.

Both would have come to City. In fact, Booth would be here had we offered him more than six months in January, The Man understands.

At least our actual man is doing a good enough job so far - even if it does feels like we're waiting at the airport for the plane back from our honeymoon.