It’s over seven years since the last time we met City and it’s fair to say a few things have changed in that time. As a 16-year-old I was watching Championship Wednesday take on Stuart Pearce’s side in the third round of the FA Cup in January 2007, dreaming of an upset to see us through. At the time, picking out star players in the City side before Vincent Kompany, Sergio Aguero, and all the rest wasn’t too easy. Joey Barton was having what remains the best scoring season of his career to date, right-back Micah Richards (who played in midfield against us at Hillsborough) was gaining a lot of attention at 18, but there were no players in the squad that struck fear into me as an opposition supporter.
As it transpired, Georgios Samaras’ late penalty was cancelled out immediately after by Steve MacLean in the 1-1 draw at Hillsborough. In the subsequent replay, Stephen Ireland put City in front, with Barton going out of his way to point to the Premier League badge in front of the away fans. Although a division lower, we equalised through captain and current assistant coach Lee Bullen as he headed Chris Brunt’s free-kick past Nicky Weaver. It was a brilliant moment for our 6,000 fans in the away end and one that has been referenced a number of times since the draw was made for this upcoming tie. Darius Vassell got the winner for City in that FA Cup replay and ended our cup run in a season where we finished 9th under Brian Laws in the Championship, four points from the play-offs. City fans will remember well how badly they struggled for goals in that 2006-07 campaign, particularly at home, but we meet a very different team and club this Wednesday.
There has been a great deal of excitement for this game from Wednesdayites and it won’t have come as too much of a surprise that we sold out our allocation. Despite our ‘takeover that never was’ this summer, the good feeling around following the club is as high as it has been in a very long time, our promotions from League One in 2005 and 2012 apart. Stuart Gray was named caretaker boss after Dave Jones was sacked in December last year and he went from the ‘cheap option’ nobody really seemed to want, to a full-time manager that is extremely well liked by the fanbase and indeed the players.
Gray led us to safety in the Championship last season and despite the uncertainty around the club over the summer he has done tremendously in the early exchanges of this campaign. After the weekend’s win over Reading, we are 6th and have racked up seven clean sheets already, five of which have come in the league. To put that into perspective, it took until November for our first win of last season under Dave Jones and until December before we first kept the opposition from scoring.
There is no real expectation from Wednesday fans going into our game at the Etihad, yet at the same time we have a lot of belief in our team this season – it’s a strange one! Looking at the names in the City squad, whoever Manuel Pellegrini gives a chance to, we’d just be happy in a performance that gives us a continuation of the sense of pride we’ve had in recent weeks. The togetherness and the effort have been fantastic and hopefully we can make it difficult for the home side on the night. Of course there are plenty who are also thinking ‘what if?’!
Up front, although we haven’t been scoring hatfuls, the ‘little and large’ combination of livewire Stevie May and the Austrian giant Atdhe Nuhiu has been serving us well. The defence, marshalled by ex-City youngster Keiren Westwood in goal, has been solid, and another former Blue in the shape of French winger/full-back Jeremy Helan might just have a part to play at Eastlands. Chris Maguire out wide, although perhaps not firing on all cylinders at the moment, is always capable of scoring or creating a goal. More importantly than any individual, we have an excellent team ethic and it’s been great to see.
I remember all these little details of the two FA Cup games the last time we met. Sylvain Distin nearly slicing into his own net, Micah Richards throwing Glenn Whelan down and escaping a red card, the ‘Psycho, give us a wave’ chants from the City fans to Stuart Pearce at Hillsborough, veteran Owls keeper Mark Crossley wincing in pain as he struggled to play with a back injury, defender Graham Coughlan’s golden chance to score at Eastlands, Marcus Tudgay firing over as the tie got away from us, and of course, that aforementioned Bullen goal. I recall feeling pretty proud at the performance that night and besides hopefully seeing the likes of Frank Lampard against us, I’m just after more of the same this Wednesday, although that won’t stop us dreaming of a little bit more.
You can follow Chris on Twitter @chris_brookes and check out his site Beats & Rhymes FC where he interviews footballers about music, as well as their teammates, and their life/career. As well as World Cup finalists, Premier League, Bundesliga, and others from around the world, ex-City midfielder Claudio Reyna features on the site.
