City show their battling qualities

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

IT was a good old-fashioned battle at St James’ Park on Sunday, but thankfully City came through a really tough afternoon.

I was impressed with Newcastle. City beat them quite easily at the Etihad earlier in the season, but their quality players worked hard and made it difficult for us this time around.

There were a few talking points and incidents in the game and Alan Pardew might get in trouble after he had a go at Manuel Pellegrini, but huge credit to the City manager. He got on with the game and coolly walked over to shake hands with Pardew at the final whistle.

It was a huge three points for City, though it could have been a disastrous day for Samir Nasri.

The tackle on him from Yanga-Mbiwa was outrageous and his injury was a bad one. The Newcastle player should have been shown a straight red card.

Samir has had a terrific season so far, so it’s a real shame for him personally. Since the new manager came in the summer Samir has really come out of himself. His talent has been shining through of late.

Samir will be badly missed for a couple of months that’s for sure. He’s a big part of the City team.

So it’s back to the FA Cup tomorrow and the replay against Blackburn.

They gave City a really good test at Ewood Park last week, but we should have enough about us to get the win and a good draw – at home to either Bristol City or Watford – awaits the winners.