Forthcoming Fixtures

Senior Cup Defeat

MCFC Reserves 1 - 2 BWFC Reserves

City started their defence of the Manchester Senior Cup with a very lacklustre display at home to a much more experienced Bolton Wanderers side. That however seemed to affect City as all they could muster was a very late consolation penalty from Karl Moore to halve the deficit from a brace scored by Zoltan Harsanyi.
City just never got out of the traps till Bolton stepped off the gas in the second half and even then there was no real desire to try to get bodies forward and penetrate when Bolton’s defence did not always look as one complete unit.
With City playing Garry Breen and Clayton McDonald as the two centre halves the back line lacked a bit of pace and it was a through ball that out did the pair of them that Breen could not get back that half a yard he gave to Zoltan and he slotted the ball past Joe Hart as he rushed out to try to close the angle down.
Adam Clayton came on for Emile Mpenza who looked far from being ready to fight for a first team place that meant that City played more of a four three three formation and Clayton was afforded a little more space, but unfortunately Adam is a very good footballer but lacks that little bit of pace and just could not get through.
The closest that City came to scoring though was when Ashley Grimes’ shot hit the inside of the bar, but rebounded straight to the Omani international goalkeeper, Ali Al-Habsi who was linked with City last season.
Bolton doubled their lead in the seventy third minute when Harsanyi was given far too much space in the left of the penalty area where he was able to volley a powerful shot into the far corner past Joe Hart in goal.
City’s goal came just as the ninety minutes drew up when Karl Moore was brought down on the left hand edge of the penalty area. Karl to his credit after not a very auspicious game by his standards stepped up to convert the penalty by sending the keeper the wrong way and putting the ball into the bottom left hand corner.
Ironically City also lost to Bolton in the senior cup last season, so City can still progress if either they win their remaining matches or they allow other teams to beat each other.

City: Hart(GK), Logan(Obeng 74), Breen, McDonald, Williamson(Capt.), Grimes, Laird, Fernandes, Moore, Evans(Poole 67), Mpenza(Clayton 46).

Subs: Martin(GK), Marshall, M Daly, Vidal.


Bolton: Al-Habsi(GK), Gbemie, Jamieson, Basham, Fojut, Michalik(Capt.), Sissons, Guthrie, Braaten(Andranik 46), Harsanyi, Wilhelmsson(Woolfe 46).

Subs: Kazimierczak, Thompson, Eckersley.

Att: 306.