Hero Jim felt the pain after saving Woody

Manchester City’s roving reporter writes every week for Chron Sport

I WATCHED the first leg of the FA Youth Cup final the other night and I thought Manchester City did pretty well despite losing 3-1 to Chelsea at the new Academy complex.

The young lads have left themselves with an awful lot to do in the second leg on Monday, but were always going to be up against it; Chelsea were a bit older and a lot more experienced.

City gave a great account of themselves at times. They had 25 minutes in the second half when I thought they were well on top, but Chelsea always looked strong.

It was good to see the first team back to winning ways against West Ham, too, in what was a fairly

routine victory. Hopefully City can repeat that result this weekend against Aston Villa and keep the pressure on in the top four.

There’s five games left now, and I’m sure the manager and the team will be looking to pick up at least 12 or 13 points. Three of the matches are at home, with away games at Swansea and Tottenham in between. Confidence will be high that City can end the season on a really positive note.

I’m glad to see the little magician David Silva is okay again. There’s been talk he could be back for the Villa game. It was a nasty-looking knock at the time and the physios and doctors do take every possible precaution thesedays.

It’s all a far cry from when I was a player.

I remember one night at Latics against Workington in a Northern Floodlit Cup game. Our defender Ian Wood clashed heads with a Town player and went down with a mighty bump, swallowing his tongue in the process.

He started having a fit and was in a right old state, but our physio Jim McGregor charged on and sorted him out. It came at a cost, though. Poor Jim’s hand was cut and bruised where Woody’s teeth had been biting him as he tried to drag back his tongue.

Thankfully Woody ended up walking off the pitch after everything had calmed down. Jim was a real hero that day.