Premier League - Wasteful City do just enough

Eurosport - Mon, 23 Mar 08:10:00 2009

Micah Richards headed the only goal as Manchester City beat 10-man Sunderland 1-0 at Eastlands, although City should have won by many more.

2008-2009 Manchester City-Sunderland Vincent Kompany George McCartney - 0

Sunderland defender George McCartney was sent off for a professional foul early in the first half after pulling back Shaun Wright-Phillips, while referee Steve Tanner also showed eight yellow cards.

Robinho saw a poor penalty saved by Marton Fulop and City missed a host of other chances, but Sunderland failed to make their hosts pay and City leapfrog Tottenham to go 10th in the Premier League table.

City's fine home form this season has kept them in with an outside chance of qualifying for the inaugural UEFA Europa League - the new name for the UEFA Cup - and they were quickly into their stride.

Shaun Wright-Phillips sounded a couple of early warning shots before he was played clean through over the top on eight minutes, lobbed Fulop and watched, agonised, as the ball dropped inches wide of the right-hand post.

Sunderland's offside trap was in tatters, and the pacy Wright-Phillips exploited the defensive chaos five minutes later when he raced onto another through-ball.

George McCartney hauled the winger down and, perhaps harshly, Tanner sent the left-back off.

Sunderland manager Ricky Sbragia immediately brought on defender Calum Davenport for striker Daryl Murphy as the visitors attempted to keep City at bay.

They were highly unsuccessful in this venture - within five minutes Steed Malbranque brought Richards down clumsily for a clear penalty.

Valeri Bojinov, and Phil Bardsley were booked following a contretemps in the box but not Malbranque, despite the crude nature of his foul.

But Robinho let Sunderland off the hook with a truly awful penalty. He paused an age on the final step of his run-up before passing the ball weakly to the left of Fulop, who made an easy save.

Elano, Bojinov and Wright-Phillips squandered presentable first-half chances for City, while at the other end the visitors were limited to a Kenwyne Jones volley and Grant Leadbitter's free-kick into the wall.

The second half began in much the same vein, as City toiled to break down the visitors in front of an increasingly agitated crowd.

Wright-Phillips was guilty of a particularly bad miss, skying the ball over after a pull-back from the excellent Richards.

It was Richards himself who made the breakthrough three minutes before the hour mark, heading home an Elano free-kick. Robinho got a final touch at the far post but the ball had already crossed the line.

Disappointing Brazilian duo Robinho and Elano both failed to add to City's lead, adding further glaring misses to profligate displays.

Sunderland nearly scraped an equaliser with six minutes to go, as Nigel De Jong was forced to volley behind his own goal with the ball bobbling around the box.

Alex Chick / Eurosport

Comment 10 - 29 of 49

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  1. 9 posts on this article alone from your good self and­ not one about football. Oh the "aye-ron-ee"­ of it. Is that how you spell it Mr. Jacksy sir?

    From Bob R, on Wed 25 Mar 3:34PM

  2. bobsy you're too old,you're a figure of fun to­ everyone who knows you and even those who don't,I­ recommend Diazepam,it's painless and you'll­ just slip away.

    From jack torrance, on Wed 25 Mar 3:16PM

  3. ah yes bobsy wobsy your bumchum clint magnum the­ cagefighting lawer ha ha never heard from him again­ after asking for his pro-fighter record . .NUFC fans eh­ you gotta laugh,and you say bob isn't your real­ name,is it fingerbob?Bob you come on your site and ours­ and never mention 'your' team or football at­ all,do you even like the sport or is this just a life­ substitute for you,sad,pathetic,let's move on .At­ least Cameron and Tony have a sense of humour

    From jack torrance, on Wed 25 Mar 3:14PM

  4. Jack you are about 40, make up names like­ "malgay4free", state your overweight stats­ whilst trying to pick an internet fight and then bottle­ it when someone offers to meet you, attempt to give­ people spelling lessons when you are barely literate­ and make some comical mistakes during your­ "lesson", contradict yourself regularly and­ name yourself after a character who tries to kill his­ wife and child. Says it all really. Not a lot going for­ you. Goodbye.

    From Bob R, on Wed 25 Mar 10:26AM

  5. I'm off out tonight for a few pints of­ BEAR.....i'll only have 4 I couldnt BARE any more­ coz the wife would call me an alcoholic if i came home­ sozzled, honestly the BEER faced cheek of it...

    From Tony K, on Tue 24 Mar 4:58PM

  6. damn and blast just spilled my tea laughing at you two­ football surrender monkeys

    From jack torrance, on Tue 24 Mar 3:35PM

  7. mal !! look out behind you,it's Bobsy wobsy dressed­ as a ginger bear with his strap on dil+o in one hand­ and his dictionary in the other !!p.s your team are­ doing really rubbish aren't they . .in the­ relegation zone I believe.Who could have forseen the­ day when there was only 2 worse teams in the­ premiership than NUFC eh.

    From jack torrance, on Tue 24 Mar 3:33PM

  8. yes Bobsy wobsy (I too can talk in your juvenile­ manner) you've got nothing to say and you're­ saying it too loud . .as usual.At least mal-godfrey has­ his learning disability to blame,what you got?

    From jack torrance, on Tue 24 Mar 3:28PM

  9. No Jacksy what I did was comment that a man who cannot­ spell basic words should not give out spelling lessons­ to others as you attempted to do with mal and to blame­ an alcohol problem is frankly, as usual, pathetic.

    From Bob R, on Tue 24 Mar 3:04PM

  10. HA HA good old reliable Bob R his life's a mess­ his team's a mess so what's he got left to do?­ go through people's comments for spelling­ mistakes,Bob you're a sad,sad little man.

    From jack torrance, on Tue 24 Mar 12:47PM

  11. Always best to know how to spell "ryming" and­ "educationly" before having a pop at someone­ else's spelling and making yourself look a tool I­ find Jacksy. Just a friendly word of advice from your­ Geordie mucker. No need to reply.

    From Bob R, on Tue 24 Mar 11:32AM

  12. sorry patrick,few too many reds with lunch ha ha

    From jack torrance, on Mon 23 Mar 7:47PM

  13. Come on Jack - don't let your standards slip -­ check your spelling

    From PATRICK, on Mon 23 Mar 5:48PM

  14. p.s mal, cockney ryming slang only works if you spell­ it right e.g Ginger beers=Que*rs,what you seem to be­ calling me and Tony are bears with ginger hair,you­ really are educationaly sub-normal.

    From jack torrance, on Mon 23 Mar 1:28PM

  15. mal it's called having an adult debate,please­ don't tax youself by trying to understand,I'm­ sure you'll have seen the Stroke warning­ bulletins.P.s is your sister still selling her a ss?­ it's just I've got this mate who's butt­ ugly but hor+y as hell . .

    From jack torrance, on Mon 23 Mar 1:25PM

  16. Tony & Torrance are you's for real ( ginger­ bears )­ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm­ mmmmmmmm

    From malcolm, on Mon 23 Mar 10:06AM

  17. He is a "waste of money" that most managers­ would love to have in thier squad. They probibly spend­ a large amount of thought on how to stop him. And also­ how to make the most of the hole behind him :)

    From Andy, on Mon 23 Mar 8:21AM

  18. Robinho worth 32M, come on ghet serious. The guy is a­ show pony, he has not scores for months, what a waste­ of money really

    From goff, on Mon 23 Mar 7:23AM

  19. After their exertions in Europe City will be happy to­ have just won this game and get to the international­ break, all their fixtures have just started to get them­ so it was never going to be emphatic

    From Patricia V, on Mon 23 Mar 12:27AM

  20. The ref was paid off... definitely a dodgy pay off job,­ and I'm a Spurs supporter! The ref is a walking­ train crash!!!!

    From surfwindsnow, on Sun 22 Mar 10:33PM
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