Man City 3 Norwich City 1

Last updated : 13 January 2002 By
Nigel Worthington made two changes to the Norwich side that drew with Chelsea eight days ago - Darel Russell came in for Phil Mulryne, who failed to shake off his ankle injury in time to play, and David Nielsen cam back from being ineligible for the FA Cup tie - demoting Marc Libbra to the bench.

Manchester City started brightly, having lots of possession early on. Norwich had a very lucky escape when Craig Fleming brought down Wright-Phillips in the area, but the referee didn't award the penalty. Man City were on top with Steve Howey heading a cross over the bar.

The referee endeared himself to the Maine Road faithful even further when he sent off Danny Tiatto in the 11th minute for violent conduct after an ugly clash with Steen Nedergaard, and rightly so. The rather foul-tempered Tiatto then lashed out at the NCFC watch bottles on the touchline, and was then forcibly dragged into the tunnel by a steward and a rather peeved Kevin Keegan.

The game changed almost as soon as Man City were down to ten men - Norwich began to dominate, much to the annoyance of the Man City fans, who took their anger out on the ref and Steen Nedergaard - booing him every time he touched the ball.

After Rob Green had got down low to save from Wright-Phillips Norwich had a string of chances - first Nedergaard's cross was headed away by Howey, then Russell's effort went wide, and then Nedergaard's low free-kick was saved by Carlo Nash. Another Nedergaard cross was headed away before Norwich nearly took the lead - McVeigh's header from - guess who - Steen Nedergaard's cross being superbly tipped wide by Nash.

Norwich were having chance after chance - Mackay's weak header was saved from Nedergaard's cross, and then Drury played a clever one-two with Alex Notman, but Drury's eventual low cross into the box was palmed away by Nash. Next it was Nielsen involved in the action - Holt's pass to Nielsen resulting in the ex-Dons man just putting it wide.

The home side responded with a Kevin Horlock free-kick driven straight at Robert Green. Then play immediately moved up the other end - Nash saving Gary Holt's strike. A good passing move from Norwich between Holt and Nielsen was to come to nothing - Nash collected the ball, but Neilsen had been offside anyway. The end-to-end play continued - Berkovic's powerful shot thankfully put wide by Holt.

On 42 minutes another Berkovic shot went wide before he finally did put the Blues ahead. Paulo Wanchope went on a brillaint run, somehow evading three Norwich tackles, and the ball was collected by Goater who crossed to Berkovic - who tucked the ball just past Rob Green's outstreched hand into the bottom corner of the net.

Half-Time Score: Manchester City 1 Norwich City 0

Things suddenly looked a whole lot better two minutes into the second half when Nedergaard played his corner short to Mackay, who played it into the box for David Nielsen to head home - keeping up his impeccable goal a game ratio for the club, making it 6 in 6.

Norwich kept the pressure on, Darrel Russell's brilliant long-range effort saved at the second time of asking by Carlo Nash.

Man City were awarded a penalty on the hour mark after Rob Green's sliding two-handed tackle got the man and not the ball. Paulo Wanchope promptly scored his 11th goal of the season, though Green almost got a hand to it having gone the right way.

Five minutes later and Norwich fans' hopes of another comeback were dashed when a quick throw-out from Nash released Berkovic who ran half the length of the pitch, went past three Norwich defenders and put the ball between Green's legs for his second goal of the match.

Two minutes later Norwich boss Nigel Worthington made a triple substitution to try and get something from the game - Libbra coming on for Notman, Rivers for Nedergaard, and Clint Easton making a rare apearance, coming on for Darel Russell.

There was then a moment of worry when Gary Holt looked like he might have to come off injured, reducing Norwich to ten men also, since we had used all our subs, but thankfully he was able to continue.

Norwich then had a few good chances - Libbra's header from Rivers' cross going agonisingly wide. Drury's hopeful shot then flew over the cross-bar, and Nielsen's speculative volley also went wide. Substitute Marc Libbra was making a good impression - it could have been 3-2 when Libbra pulled the ball back from the byline into the path of Nielsen, but a tackle by the aggressive Stuart Pearce put pay to that. In the last minute of normal time Norwich could have had a penalty when a good run towards goal by Libbra on the byline was ended when he was felled by a Man City defender, but it wasn't to be.

Full-Time Score: Manchester City 3 Norwich City 1

A win would have taken us joint top with Man City on points, but we just couldn't put our chances away, despite then being down to ten men for 80 minutes - but still, we remain a respectable 5th in the table. Let us now look forward to Wedneaday's game at Stamford Bridge :)