Forthcoming Fixtures

Its a brand new ground for City and their followers as they turned up at Ship Lane, the home of Thurrock FC for an afternoon kick off against West Ham reserves.

Two second half goals within about five minutes; the first goal from Abdisiliam Ibrahim and the second an own goal from the player that has a history of scoring own goals for City, Winston Reid; was enough to win the game for City despite a late headed goal from Frank Nouble.

There was a healthy crowd in attendance as both sides looked to get back to winning ways after defeats in their previous games.

West Ham were in the ascendancy in the opening minutes with Gonzalez diverting a cross from the flanks onto the shoulders of an oncoming West Ham player, fortunately for City it went wide of the post. The home side then threatened again on a couple of occassions before City had their first sniff on goal when the keeper Stech blocked a shot from Scott Kay with his legs.

Jeremy Helan then forced his way into the game with a number of tricky runs down the flanks which were certainly troubling the Hammers defence. City then continued to create the better chances with Abdisalam Ibrahim and Kelvin Etuhu both having good opportunities to open the scoring in what became an evenly matched encounter.

City's opening goal came about when Ibrahim was the player to break the deadlock, holding off his marker and smashing a low left-foot drive past Stech from about sixteen yards out.

Ciity doubled their advantage when they knocked the ball around with real patience on the edge of the penalty area. Kelvin Etuhu, Scott Kay, Ibrahim and John Guidetti were all involved before Chris Chantler set Jeremy Helan away. He beat Jonathan Spector and  crossed low and with Reid sliding in at the near post he can only divert the ball past Marek Stech in the West Ham goal.

West Ham got themselves back into the game when Jordan Brown got up well again and crosses dangerously, but it was just too strong for the lunging Cristian Montano. Oliver Lee recovered the ball on the far side and crossed instantly. Nouble was able to lose his marker and planted a firm header into the top right-hand corner from eight yards out.

City next travel to group leaders Newcastle for their next league encounter hoping to continue what has mainly been a very good season so far.

Teams:

West Ham United:

Stech, Spector, Spence, Reid, Brown, Kovac(Subuola 62), Lee,Moncur(Lletget 62), Abdulla, Montano, Nouble

Subs:Mehmet, Sanchez, Powell,

Manchester City:

Gonzalez, Logan, Chantler,Kay, Wabara, Mee, Etuhu(Elabdellaoui 85), Tutte, Guidetti, Ibrahim, Helan

Subs: Johansen(GK), Veseli, Benali, Smith,

Attendance: TBC