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Why Wigan in the FA Cup is Manchester City’s most important game this month
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Why Wigan in the FA Cup is Manchester City’s most important game this month
After decades of hurt, Manchester City have an awful lot of making up to do in the FA Cup
As Manchester City prepared to embark on a February of adventures, their FA Cup tie away to Wigan Athletic was viewed as an unimposing footbridge on the horizon requiring only a few short steps to navigate.There was naturally no outright assumptions made from a fan-base warier than most of banana skins and pratfalls but certainly in relation to the other challenges that awaited them this month – two testing league encounters, a Carabao Cup final against Arsenal, and the resumption of a Champions League pursuit that is beginning to dominate all other considerations. A short trip across Greater Manchester to League One opponents was, in comparison, something of an afterthought.
Podcasts discussed it only in terms of team selection, a timely opportunity to rest the war-weary legs of Kevin De Bruyne should he start against Leicester and Basel; perhaps a chance to unleash Brahim Diaz for a full ninety.
But now Wigan is upon us - no longer on the horizon; no longer the least pressing of February’s concerns – and only at this late juncture does the importance of the fixture make itself known, as too its trickiness. The Latics presently reside a mere point from the summit of League One with two games in hand having impressively regrouped from a demoralising relegation last season. In front of the BBC cameras and with a free pass at grabbing a third of the following morning’s front pages they are to be approached with great care.
Furthermore, from a City perspective, this is a rare chance for revenge with Ben Watson’s last-minute header in the 2013 cup final still an unhealed scab. That afternoon was supposed to complete Roberto Mancini’s successful cycle at the club but in the event the wheels came off in thoroughly dispiriting fashion.
The following year Wigan then had the temerity to compound the Blues’ misery by pulling off a similar upset at the quarter final stage. Yet the most substantial reason of all why tonight’s game has an importance to it that is deserving of significantly more recognition than its pre-match build-up has so far afforded renders the opponents and circumstances almost irrelevant. This is the FA Cup and in the FA Cup Manchester City have an awful lot of making up to do.
Some clubs have an FA Cup pedigree. Spurs spring to mind and so too does Manchester United while in the 21st century Arsenal and Chelsea have virtually taken it in turns to lift the treasured trophy.
City also boast a fine pedigree only in their case it is almost entirely historical with stories handed down through the generations of 21 year old keeper Frank Swift fainting on his goal-line at hearing the final whistle in 1934 and his successor Bert Trautmann incredibly carrying on with a broken neck in ’54 against Birmingham. There is additionally the record breaking 84,569 who jam-packed Maine Road in the pre-war era to witness their side get the better of Stoke.
In their 123 years of existence as Manchester City the club has won the competition a total of five times and reached the final another five which is a tally that compares favourably to most. It’s the rest of the time however where a shortcoming arises.
Here’s the rub. Since Neil Young broke Leicester hearts at Wembley Stadium in late-April 1969 City have failed to progress past the fifth round on 39 occasions from 48 attempts. Between 1988 and 2006 their best effort was to singularly reach the quarter finals.
In just shy of half of a century they have gone all the way once, finished as runners-up twice, but mostly exited the world’s most famous cup competition apologetically early. In 1979 and 1980 they were mortifyingly the victim twice-over of giant-killing acts, first to third division Shrewsbury then succumbing to fourth division Halifax at a muddy Shay.
These humiliations were only followed by a further string of ‘upsets’ in the years thereafter: to Blackpool, Brentford, Notts County, Cardiff and Oldham. For a long while City were the club to be paired with if you wanted to make the leap from local news to national back pages: the household name with a shotgun aimed squarely at its own foot.
These embarrassments only gave rise to deluded optimism on the few occasions when the early rounds were successfully negotiated. In 1993 Spurs travelled up to Maine Road for a quarter final clash back in the days when any televised games that involved your team necessitated the allocation of a VHS tape to keep forever. Prior to kick-off Alan Hansen tipped City for the cup and it was a sentiment shared by most of the fan-base too until Tottenham deconstructed the dream with four deadly strikes.
Terry Phelan’s late consolation sparked a pitch invasion by fans who had grown weary of the club’s flawed DNA and an extremely limited chairman in Peter Swales who presided over it.
2006 was also going to be City’s year and a home draw versus mid-table West Ham only added to the feeling that the gods of fate were finally smiling down on east Manchester. A clinical Dean Ashton double soon put that fanciful notion right.
Even when City did manage to avoid the pitfalls and travails of five rounds and reach the magical twin towers it was sod’s law that they were undone by the maziest, most memorable individual goal a cup final has yet offered up. Destined to be replayed ad nauseum for the remainder of time what is all the more galling about being on the receiving end of Ricky Villa’s slalomed trickery is that it wasn’t even the best goal Wembley entertained that year. That accolade belonged to Steve Mackenzie’s firecracker of an equaliser an hour earlier.
Two years after Dean Ashton’s bleached thatch curtailed yet another cup run City’s fortunes dramatically changed both figuratively and literally but while the post-takeover era has unsurprisingly produced a better return in the FA Cup don’t be under any illusions that the club and competition are now the best of pals. In fact just three months in to the new dawn the Blues hosted Championship strugglers Nottingham Forest at the Etihad in the third round. With a team sprinkled with Robinho and Elano they went down 0-3 without much of a fight. Since 2008 only Spurs and Liverpool have a worse record from the established top six.
The modern era has also vomited out its fair share of injustices. Vincent Kompany’s erroneous sending off just twelve minutes into 2012’s derby scrap with United immediately springs to mind. As too does a wrongly disallowed goal against Arsenal in last season’s semi that left half of Wembley traipsing back up the M1 feeling cheated.
This season the narrative has been set in that Pep Guardiola and his extraordinary Manchester City team are to be ultimately defined by their Champions League exploits. The league is all but won while any success in the domestic competitions will be externally regarded as window dressing. It’s how they fare against Bayern, Barca and co: that’s how they will be measured in a sliding scale that runs from good to great.
Which is fair enough if not wholly accurate. Because before any hall of fame contender can run they need to walk. Before continents are conquered countries must be ruled. And in the FA Cup Manchester City have an awful lot of atoning to do first.
By Stephen Tudor..(not me )
blueboy- Legend
- Posts : 25330
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