Key men back for City

The City kit boss and former Latics star writes every week for Chron Sport
MANCHESTER City’s hard-earned 1-0 win at Aston Villa in the Barclays Premier League was crucial because we now enter a kind run of fixtures with the return of a few key men.

Mario Balotelli, Kolo Toure and Yaya Toure will all be available for the home clash with Blackburn, which follows two Europa League meetings with Porto.

After the visit of Steve Kean’s men on February 25, we host Bolton on March 3 and, with all due respect to our North-West neighbours, we should be looking for six points from those two games.

The one thing that did not please me at Villa Park was seeing our former captain Richard Dunne in considerable discomfort at the end of the match.

He fell awkwardly and did some damage to his shoulder, as well as a few ribs. I went to see him afterwards because we are still close, and he was gutted because he could be out of action for a while.

However, he should still be fit for Republic of Ireland’s Euro 2012 adventure in June.

We deserved the victory, having dominated the first half, and although it got a bit hairy at the end that is to be expected when you have a slender lead.

Next up is Thursday’s trip to Porto, who won the competition last season under the guidance of Andre Villas-Boas, who is now Chelsea manager, of course.

I have never been to Portugal in a football capacity so it is a new experience for me, although we only have time to see the hotel and stadium!

It is another competition to try to win and as I have said before, this is when it comes in handy to have a big squad full of internationals.