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Sunday 27 April 2014

Royals stun below par City

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Thompson - Not good enough

Steve Thompson cuts a frustrated figure as Man City lose again

Pre season title favourites Manchester City slumped to their third defeat of the league season last night as they were beaten 2-1 by Reading in front of a near 34,000 crowed despite the defeat City remain in 3rd place in the division by the gap between them and league leaders Coventry City has now extended to 5 points following Coventry's 4-2 success over Southampton.

The major talking point in the stands ahead of the game was Thompson's decision to leave star man Lionel Messi on the bench and hand a first league start to highly rated Spanish midfielder Iker Munian. Messi had been in terrific form scoring an impressive 7 goals in his last 4 outings and his exclusion from the starting XI certainly had tongues wagging among the terraces.

Reading took the lead with 17 minutes on the clock through highly rated German midfielder Johannes GEIS who finished a fine solo run with a neat low finish from the edge of the box 0-1. The visitors made it 0-2 just over 10 minutes later thanks to a powerful long range strike from Hakan ÇALHANOĞLU which stunned most inside the Etihad.
The crowed were certainly getting restless as the game ebbed away from City but with just over 20 minutes of the game remaining they reduced the deficit, captain John TERRY bagging his first goal in the colours of Man City with a wonderful long range effort 1-2. City did pile on the pressure in the remaining twenty minutes introducing Messi but the Argentine magician could not weave his magic as Reading held out for a surprise win with boos heard from around the Etihad at the final whistle. FULL TIME 1-2.

Man City manager Steve Thompson was clearly a frustrated man when speaking to the press after the game....


"It's just not good enough the demand and deserve better than what they have seen at the Etihad and i cannot blame them for booing that performance. I was in positive mood ahead of the game our performance in midweek was first class but you could not get any more chalk and cheese after tonight's display i am bitterly disappointed and frustrated. 
Most managers would give their right arm to have the resources i have available to me at this club but at the minute the players are just not giving enough. We do not have a Divine right to win this division. You win things by working hard and remaining consistent at the minute we are struggling to get out of first gear and it's up to me to find a set up that works and enables us to bring out the best in this group of players.

We have a cup game on Monday against Aldershot where i will once again make changes and then we go back at it again in the league on Wednesday against Burton Albion who have made a steady start to life in this division so that will certainly be a test"

Thompson was also quizzed about his decision to leave star man Lionel Messi on the bench .......

"He was simply not fit enough to start the game. He has played in every game this season and he looked a little tired in training so i held him back. He won't start on Monday either but he will certainly be in the match day squad. We have lost one player to injury tonight in John Terry but thankfully it doesn't look too serious, he will certainly miss Monday and will be touch and go for Burton but we have Simon Kjaer, Stefan Reinartz and Federico Fernandez who can all come in and do a job for us in John's absence"



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