VENUE #56 MANCHESTER CITY The Etihad Stadium

BARCLAYS PREMIER

Manchester City... 3

Crystal Palace... 0

Saturday 20th December

              2014

@ The Etihad Stadium

         Manchester

     What an absolute idiot I must be, travelling to the Etihad the ground of Manchester City just five days before Christmas day.  I managed to get a seat this time around on the train although the carriages were crammed with people, a lot of them having to stand for long periods as you would expect for this time of year.  No problems with delays as I've had on many of my train journey's this season, both trains were on time and things went pretty smoothly for a change.

     I had a ticket for Ashburys which is a station nearer to the Etihad than Manchester Piccadilly but decided to walk from Piccadilly for it was only a twenty minute walk and the route was easier to follow and the area was more populated and less "back streets". 

     I had my route worked out on Google so as to find the Etihad easy from Piccadilly but when I left the station I couldn't recognise where I actually was, I hung around a bit and saw a man wearing a Crystal Palace scarf with a young girl, probably his daughter, so I followed them hoping that they knew where they were going.  After about five minutes in pursuit I started to realise where I was and began to make my own way in the quicker manner that I'm used to and made it to the Etihad in good time.

 

The North stand joining the West

 Last Saturday City took on Leicester at the King Power Stadium and won 1-0, Manuel Pellegrini has made a staggering six changes to the team from that game most of them forced by injuries, missing out are Bacary Sagna, Vincent Kompany, Gael Clichy, Fernando, Frank Lampard and Edin Djeko to be replaced by Pablo Zabaleta, Martin Demichelis, Aleksandar Kolarov, Fernandinho, Jesus Navas and James Milner.  Crystal Palace were at home last weekend earning a one all draw with Stoke City and boss Neil Warnock only makes the two changes, Wilfred Zaha starts from the bench replaced by Jason Puncheon and Marouane Chamakh ruled out with Fraizer Campbell brought in.

      The first half was a little disappointing with City without a recognised striker in the team failing to impress and hit the back of the net with Crystal Palace at times looking the better side and it was Palace mid-way through the first half who had the ball in the net only to be ruled offside by the linesman who was a little late raising his flag.

     But in the second half it was more like the City we know, with Pellegrinis's words ringing in their ears it only took them four minutes to take the lead, Fernandinho found Zabaleta charging down the right flank and he cut the ball back to David Silva who's shot struck a sliding Scott Dann and the ball looped over keeper julian Speroni into the corner of the net.

Players coming out the tunnel

     Twelve minutes later and Silva made it 2-0 and this time it was Kolarov on the opposite side of the pitch making his way to the by-line and cutting the ball back again to the City midfielder who struck the ball cleanly past Speroni for his and his team's second of the afternoon.

     It was all City after that and for all their dominance it was another twenty minutes before they finally put the game to bed with a third goal, Frank Lampard coming on as sub for Silva in the 69th minute won the ball in his own half and combined with Navas and Milner to the brink of the Palace penalty area where the ball was fed to Yaya Toure who drilled a powerful shot via the post into the Palace net.

     One more goal would have put them ahead of Chelsea in the table on goal difference for a couple of hours but it ended 3-0 and at the end of the day City remain three points adrift of the league leaders.

   

Countdown to kick off

The Etihad is a marvellous Stadium and I would say the best I've seen so far, built in 2002 for the commonwealth games City moved in August the following year moving away from Main road which had been their home for the previous 80 years.  It is a 48,000 capacity all seated stadium costing around 90 million pounds.  The ground has a bowl design and totally enclosed with the two stands running the length of the pitch being three tiered and the two stands behind the goal being two tiered.  I was sat in the East stand right up with the Gods in the third tier, across the pitch is the main stand, (Colin Bell), and the two at each end are the North and the South.  One corner of the South stand that leads on to the East is reserved for away supporters which seems a bit small so I supposed that a larger area would be designated for teams with a larger away following such as neighbours United.  

     Although the Palace fans numbers were on the small side they did out-sing the City fans especially in the first half when they looked the better team.

                                                        Match Details

          

VENUE #55 MACCLESFIELD TOWN Moss Rose

VANARAMA

CONFERENCE

Macclesfield Town... 2

Woking... 1

Saturday 6th December

             2014

@ Moss Rose Ground

        Macclesfield

     Travelling to football matches using the train as my main form of transport is becoming a real pain and I'm seriously considering a change.  I always check on Nation Rail Enquiries website before I set out on a journey to see if there are any problems that may cause delays to the trains that I plan to catch and on doing so today I find that my train from Wolverhampton to Macclesfield had the yellow triangle with the black exclamation mark warning sign saying that this train could be delayed due to a person being hit by a train in the Coventry area.  You may remember that I had a similar problem last time out when I was stuck in Peterborough on a train for more than a hour and a half which subsequently meant I missed almost half hour of the game. This time however the train was only half a hour late and made up ten minutes during the journey.  

     Although there seemed to be an awful lot of people alighting the train at Wolverhampton when I finally managed to get aboard I found the carriage that I'd selected still rammed with people.  There were no seats and people standing in the passageways and in between the carriages.  This could have been a knock on effect from delays and cancellations of trains due to the earlier incident in Coventry or it might have been the fact that it was three weeks to Christmas and the trains final destination was Manchester Piccadilly.  I stood by the door and luggage compartment for three parts of the journey managing to get a seat at Stoke-on-Trent for the last twenty minutes.

 

pictures on the wall outside the ground 

   Macclesfield Town going into today's game are currently fifth in the table with a chance of going second if today's results go for them and if they manage to topple Woking who currently hold that second spot.  Manager John Askey makes just the one change from the 3-1 defeat at the hands of the league leaders Barnet at the Hive Stadium last Saturday, Andy Hall comes in for Alex Grant who sits it out on the bench for this one.  Garry Hill boss of Woking makes two changes from Tuesday night's 2-0 home win over Altrincham, Jack Marriott and Scott Rendell retire to the bench while Joe McNerney and Dean Morgan start the game.

     This wasn't a "Silky" performance at all by the home side for it was Woking who started the brighter and in the first ten minutes of the game Macclesfield found it hard to get out of their own half but after 13 minutes and with their first attack of the game they took the lead when Danny Whitaker found himself in space with the ball just outside the Woking penalty area, he fired a low left footed drive which was only parried by the Cardinal's keeper Ross Worner and into the path of the Silkmen's striker Matthew Barnes-Homer who slotted the ball home from six yards for his third goal of the season.

Teams shaking hands before match

     Macclesfield had several more chances before the break to increase their lead and started to look stronger than their opponents but failed to take the initiative and put the game beyond Woking and ultimately paid the price for six minutes into the second half and Woking were level  Dean Morgan found himself in the Macclesfield box with the ball at his feet and he fired a shot which was blocked and came straight back to him but this time he hit the ball wide of the Macc's keeper Rhys Taylor and into the bottom corner of the net.

     The game went from one end to the other after the equaliser and both teams squandered good chances and it looked like a draw would be the final outcome until the last minute of the game when Barnes-Homer got free down the right and pulled the ball back and towards  Paul Turnbull via a mistimed clearance and he fired the ball through a crowd of players and inside the bottom near post to send the Macclesfield fans wild for their side hung on till the final whistle and extended their unbeaten home run.

   

The John Askey stand

 Macclesfield Town have been playing football at Moss Rose since 1891, it has a capacity of around 6,335 of which just over 2,500 are seated.  The Silk FM main stand is covered and stretches a third of the length of the pitch and straddles the half way line.  Across on the other side of the pitch is the Henshaw's stand and is where I watched the game, it is a fully covered, single tiered and a all seated stand which was built in 2001.  At one end behind the goal to the right as you're sitting in the Henshaw's stand is the Macclesfield Audi stand which is a mix between seating and terracing with the terracing being behind the seats, (strange), and is fully covered.  At the other end behind the goal is the John Askey's terrace which is uncovered and designated to away supporters as is a third of the Henshaw's stand. 

                                                           Match Details