City Hold Out Blackburn Rovers

MCFC Reserves 2 – 1 BRFC Reserves

City reserves put back to back wins together for the first time since early October as they opened their 2007 account with a victory.
Right from the start City were under pressure and goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel failed to reach a Sergio Peter corner and Joe Garner headed goal wards, but Karl Moore stood his ground and cleared of the line.
A minute later saw Blackburn’s number seven, Alan Judge, hit a rasping twenty five yard free kick that took a slight deflection, but Kasper got down well and hold on.
Yet within a minute City had taken the lead, when Moore burst through down the left hand side when played in by Ishmael Miller, and on into the penalty area to beat the former Gillingham keeper, Jason Brown, and fire into the corner of the net.
City could have been two goals up just after the quarter hour mark, but good work by Michael Johnson was finished of by Ched Evans, but he was adjudged to have been offside.
Blackburn should have been level just before the half hour mark when a great timed run by Garner beat City’s static defence from a good through ball, but Kasper made himself big and cut the angle down to deny him.
The pre-game rain had allowed the ball to zip around on the surface and both sides continued to play some really good football, with only the referee blowing his whistle far too often to stop the total enjoyment of the game.
With ten minutes to go before half time it was City who found the net again when Michael Johnson played a lovely cross field pass to Ashley Grimes who drove into the box and centred the ball where Johnson had continued his run closely marshalled by Tony Kane and it was unclear as to whether it was Kane that put the ball into the net as Johnson’s shot ricocheted of Kane. I am sure the Channel M footage will help clear the matter up as we all know the vantage points around the athletic arena are not the best.
The second half was a different story as City’s midfield never got going and suffered a heavy possession deficit because of this and it was not a surprise to see Blackburn halve the arrears.
Schmeichel will definitely be disappointed with the goal as he had performed so well for most of the match. He allowed a Sergio Peter corner to be headed in past in at the near post by Joe Garner without attempting a clearance.
This spurred Blackburn on for the remainder of the half but changes by Frankie Bunn to eventually end with a City side that contained no forwards to batten down the hatches and doggedly defend culminating in another great save by Schmeichel from Alan Judge with four minutes to go meant that City gave themselves an outside chance of competing for the title this season.
City face Bolton in the senior cup next week where I’m sure they will want to avenge that dreadful display in the torrential rain last November.


City: Schmeichel(GK), Logan(Obeng 90), Williamson, D’Laryea(Capt.), M Mills, Johnson, Grimes, Laird, Evans(Williams 85), Miller(Marshall 71), Moore

Subs: Matthewson(GK), Mee.


Blackburn: Brown(GK), Kane, Taylor, Matteo(Capt.), Winnard, Nolan, Judge, Stopforth, De Vita, Garner, Peter.

Subs: Fielding (GK), Barker, Woods, Rowntree, Hodge.

Att: 364

MotM: Karl Moore – scoring regularly and always looking to go forward and cause problems as well as tracking back and tackling superbly.