Beauty from Adam seals an ugly win

The Manchester City kit boss and former Latics star writes every week for Chron Sport
IT is always important for a club to sign off with a win before the international break, and City did exactly that with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Newcastle.

I was impressed by the visitors: they were a better team than I expected, and it was a tough contest.

Quite a few of our players looked jaded following their midweek exertions against Juventus in the Europa League.

We were lucky that a few questionable refereeing decisions went in our favour.

Assistant manager Brian Kidd was right to label it an ‘ugly win’, and I think we were fortunate to earn all three points, which took us to second place in the Barclays Premier League table.

Nigel De Jong’s challenge on Hatem Ben Arfa has been in the news but I was in the dressing room at the time of the incident, so I honestly could not comment on it.

However, it was a lovely goal that won the match. Adam Johnson came on and showed fantastic technique to beat a couple of defenders and curl the ball home.

He has two great feet and is a sight to behold when he is in full flow.

The City fans have taken to him and sing his name, which is a good sign.

When I was a player supporters used to sing a cover of ‘Give It To Me’ by The Troggs, with the lyrics changed to ‘Give it to Les, give it to Les, on the wing, on the wing’. Happy days!


THE international break has given me not one, but three days off! Even 24 hours away from the job is almost unheard of this season, due to City’s involvement in Europe.

There is much less for me to do because even the players who are not involved with their national sides or are injured, have flown to Abu Dhabi.

The likes of Wayne Bridge, Aleksander Kolarov and Patrick Vieira will be taking part in photoshoots while they are out there, but the club decided Mario Balotelli should not join them.

He is still recovering from knee surgery and the flight may have set him back.

The reserves play next Tuesday so I will be back at the club later on this week to make sure their kit requirements are met.