The James Ramsden Column

Wednesday 25 September, 2002

The Quarterly review

10 games in (we'll forget away at Wrexham) and we've won 3, drawn 5 and lost 2. I've got to admit that my opinions and expectations have grown since I excused myself from a family lunch and nestled down on the sofa with a hangover, to watch City vs Wolves on Sky for the first game of the season.

I thought the City team would be sharing my hangover, and I had prepared enough Resolve for the two of us. However, I was the only one nursing a sore head, and it seemed City already had resolve of a different kind. Unlike me, they were hungry. In fact we could have gone one up in the opening minutes if Ashley Ward had headed towards the goal instead of across it. I liked the look of our new midfield pairing of Paul Evans and Tom Kearney and on the whole, the team looked together, willing to fight tooth and nail to prove ratts like Ronnie Moore wrong.

Then came Gordon Gibb, seems to be doing well so far. My only gripe is that how dare he be three years younger than me, have obvious wealth and own the football club that I love. I only hope that he's had to do something disgusting to flamingo's in his early life, to get this far!

Next followed a draw at Palace and a defeat against Stoke. Losing to Stoke was hard to take, and took the shine off my optimism. Maybe this negative emotion had something to do with the fact I was in Belgium at the time indulging in their national pastime - (I'm not an alcoholic honest).

As the text message came through, I couldn't believe that we'd lost to a team that had just been promoted this season - another one of those seasons, I thought. Feelings that were later confirmed by a poor 0-0 draw with Grimsby and the ever depleting squad losing Tom Kearney for the season.

Then things changed - we beat Ipswich at Portman Road! Listening on the internet via 'BantamsWorld' (nice money spinner Gibbo!) I was on the edge of my seat until the final whistle. We then beat Ronnie McDonald's, sorry, Moore's Rotherham and then Walsall.

Beating Rotherham to me was sweet justice. They were 'riding high' at the top of the table, and quite frankly, we walloped them, before giving them a chance with two late goals - something that happened at Wrexham and more recently Burnley (ok we had nine men) and Coventry.

This seems to be an alarming quality City have about them, possibly due to the fact that we have a threadbare squad, and literally the players are hobbling around come eighty minutes. Incidentally, talking about the Coventry game, I was half expecting Mills to score at the death, just like Blakey did on Saturday - its another alarming quality that we have - we love our ex players to score against us (ie Windass in the pre season friendly).

So what now? Loan signings. We are allowed to get one in long term as well as have others on short term. The players are feeling the strain of the small squad, and as much as I love seeing City playing 110% every game, its taking the toll on the injury list.

Aidan Davison and Andy Myers are the latest to be watching 'Trisha' and 'Good Morning' and unless we bolster the squad, there will be more added to the ten attending Andy's coffee mornings. A keeper is a priority, and I only hope that Aiden's injury is not as serious as first thought.

Michael Proctor can stay long term, bring in another midfielder such as Thomas Hitzlsberger, start playing Claus Jorgensen and Paul Reid on a more permanent basis and possibly one or two from the youth team ie Robert Morgan, Craig Fishlock and Danny Forrest, to rotate the players at the end of 80 mins to save tired legs.

So Mr Law, well done. You can always base how well you are doing, when other teams claim that you are joining them. You've got us up to biting distance of the playoff positions whilst working for the majority of time with a depleted team.

You've made some very useful acquisitions, and show a good eye for potential. First quarter passed with flying colours, looking forward to giving you a glowing half season review. You are definitely a candidate up for promotion at the end of the season.

Index of column & Biography | Mail