Man City res 2 – 1 Boro res

AT the reserves game last night Bradley Wright-Phillips popped up with five minutes to go to score the winner against a good Middlesborough side.

A crowd of 1,001 turned up maybe hoping to see Spanish international Pep Guardiola and young Qatari midfielder Yasser Hussein, unfortunately neither was in the team.

But the game was entertaining with both teams keen to secure a win early in the season, with the best chances of the first half falling to Middlesborough.

However, as the half progressed Manchester City began to get a hold of the game with left sided midfielder Ishmael Miller asking questions down the wing.

Senior player Antoine Sibierski played alongside Wright-Phillips in attack but he was struggling to find his touch and looked very low on confidence.

With just a few minutes to go to half time City broke down the right wing and when the cross was cleared to the edge of the box Stephen Ireland crashed the ball into the back of the net.

At the opening of the second half Man City played with much more confidence and Ireland in particular was keen to get on the ball and was involved in much of City’s best work.

However, Middlesborough were still in the game with Italian forward Massimo Maccarone causing plenty of problems for the City defence that included Nedum Onuoha.

And it was him who broke into the box to squeeze a shot past the advancing Kasper Schmeichel to score the equaliser after 51 minutes.

City began to enjoy more possession as the game wore on with the impressive Ireland very much pulling the strings and it was no surprise that he was key in City’s winner.

As tiredness set in Boro player Colin Cooper played a loose ball into midfield that Ireland snapped up and quickly fed Bradley Wright-Phillips as the young striker slipped in behind the visitor’s defence.

Facing a one-on-one with keeper Jones the City striker made no mistake slotting the ball into the right-hand corner to secure a hard fought win.

TEAMS:
Manchester City:
Schmeichel, Warrender(c), Collins, Onuoha, Richards, D’Laryea, Croft, Ireland, Miller (Etuhu 65), Wright-Phillips, Sibierski (Laird 65).
Unused subs: Matthewson (GK), Bennett.

Middlesbrough:
Jones, Liddle, Hines, Cooper, Wheater; Doriva, Cattermole, Kennedy (Walker 75), Johnson; Maccarone, Craddock (Watling 75).
Unused subs: Clough, Pennock (GK), Burgess.