At least we kept it to three . . .

The City kit manager and former Latics star writes every week for Chron Sport

MANCHESTER City’s 3-0 defeat at Liverpool last night was very disappointing, with our misery compounded by the hamstring injury suffered by Carlos Tevez.

We were too slow out of the blocks and it is hard to take many positives from the performance, other than we did not concede any more goals in the second half.

Goal difference is crucial in such a tight Barclays Premier League table.

That said, our season is very much alive. We are battling for a top-four finish and on Saturday, we face Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.

Sadly, it looks like Carlos will not be fit. I was in the dressing room when he limped off and he was very down, because he probably realised immediately he would miss the derby.

Micah Richards is recovering very well from his groin injury and he believes he has a genuine chance of being fit for Saturday.

It is a match no player would want to miss, and I am sure Micah is pushing himself to the very limit to win his race against time.

The majority of our players — even experienced internationals — will be playing at Wembley for the first time.

It is new territory for the likes of Vincent Kompany and Yaya Toure, but familiar to our England contingent.



IT was interesting to hear about Robbie Fowler heading to Bury to assist with coaching.

I worked with Robbie during his four-year stint at Eastlands and he is a great lad.

Unfortunately he arrived at the club after suffering a serious hip injury at Leeds United, and for quite a while he was not 100-per-cent fit.

But he worked hard to get back to something approaching his best and once he got a run of games, we started to see his ability.

Robbie has an awful lot of experience and wisdom to pass on. He is a legendary goalscorer.

I actually played against him in 1992. I was player-coach for City reserves (I was about 40 at the time) and we were away at Liverpool.

I played sweeper behind Steve Lomas and Gary Flitcroft and we got hammered. The Reds put five past us and a very youthful Robbie scored three of them. Even then, his touch and awareness stood out.