Full focus on Tottenham after wobble at Everton

The City kit manager and former Latics star writes every week for Chron Sport
MANCHESTER City can all but secure their passage to the Champions League qualifiers tonight by getting a positive result against Tottenham Hotspur at Eastlands.

A draw would prevent Spurs taking fourth place from us this season, and even though Liverpool could

mathematically catch us, it would take a dramatic collapse in the final two games for that to happen.

It is a chance for us to bounce back from the 2-1 defeat at Everton at the weekend.

In a strange game at Goodison Park we dominated proceedings in the first half and should have gone into the break three goals to the good.

But the Toffees — our jinx team without a doubt — came back strongly in the last 30 minutes and played well.

The key is to put that out of our minds and do the business tonight.

Gareth Bale is missing for Spurs after being ruled out for the rest of the season with an ankle injury. He would give any team a headache because he has been tremendous this season.

A good result tonight can give this club a huge lift ahead of Saturday's FA Cup final against Stoke City at Wembley.

The focus is on the game against Spurs at the moment. The only people even talking about Saturday's match are me and the rest of the lads in the kit department — and that is only because our duties for the trip to London have already begun.

We are getting various items of clothing ready, and the special cup final shirts arrive at the stadium on Thursday.

Once we have played Harry Redknapp's side this evening, everyone's attention can turn to our long-awaited final appearance and we can all start buzzing.



AFTER Paul Dickov's retirement from playing duties at the weekend, some of the City lads and I took it upon ourselves to pay our own tribute to him.
We wrote ‘We will never forget Wembley’ on a noticeboard in the changing room at Everton, and texted it to him.

Obviously it was in reference to the famous stoppage-time equaliser 'Dicky' scored at the home of football in the play-off final against Gillingham back in 1999.

For those who don't know, we went on to win the game on penalties, and escape the third tier of English football.

Dicky can now concentrate purely on his management duties at Latics, who he guided to safety on a shoestring budget.

He will work hard to bring in players despite the financial restrictions, and build a team around those he decides to keep at Boundary Park.

I am sure he will be looking forward to the new season. Management is such a learning curve and he comes back in the summer a year older and wiser.