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Manchester City 2 West Ham United 1: match report
Read a full match preview of the Premier League game between Manchester City and West Ham United at Eastlands on Sunday, May 1 2011.
PREVIEW
LIVE
REPORT
MANCHESTER CITY
2 - 1
FT
WEST HAM UNITED
Sunday, May 01 16:10
Premier League
City of Manchester Stadium
de Jong (10)
Zabaleta (15)
(HT 2-1)
ATT: 44,511
Ba (33)
Committed: Man City matched West Ham for physicality Photo: AFP
By Jason Burt 6:30PM BST 01 May 2011
Follow Jason Burt on Twitter
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Reality will dawn for both these clubs this morning. How different that will feel.
For City there is now clear, sky-blue water between themselves and Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur for that fourth-place and, with it, the end of the rainbow: the Champions League. The gap is now a daunting seven points.
For West Ham there are far darker thoughts. Their world will feel more monochrome than ever as they stare at the rising likelihood of relegation and the trauma that will cause.
It was, as ever, a self-inflicted wound. On 80 minutes, manager Avram Grant tossed his notebook towards the away team’s bench only for the wind to catch it, blow it back past him and scatter the pages onto the pitch.
It summed up how West Ham tossed away this match, how disorganised they appeared at the start. Like those pages fluttering in the wind, they were all over the place.
Two goals down after 15 minutes and it was over and the words of chairman David Sullivan in these pages last week, when he questioned the desire of some of the “spoilt” players, appeared prophetic.
The winning goal? An own goal, of course, and it’s now five losses in a row. Interestingly Sullivan, like the rest of the club's board, didn't attend the match.
Grant was bullish at the end, far more than he had been during the match, but predicted that his team needed seven points to survive.
“It is a pressure, but more it is a challenge,” he said. For the supporters it’s just a pressure. Full stop. “There is a good chance to do it,” Grant added but he’s running out of evidence.
At the point of that second goal it was a sunshine stroll for Manchester City, it could have been any margin of victory.
That they greeted the final whistle with relief, after a nervy second-half, spoke more of their own wastefulness and errors than the threat posed by the desperate visitors.
Everyone will study the run-in. City, with four matches left, are almost over the line. Two more wins will do it.
West Ham, with three games to play, are teetering on the brink and dependent on a remarkable turnaround under a manager who appears incapable of inspiring.
They will have Scott Parker back and he will have to fulfil that function. As he has done throughout this campaign.
Never mind the performance, think of the prize, City will tell themselves but the sight of Mario Balotelli losing the ball cheaply and then hacking down Demba Ba summed up their sloppiness. Inevitably when he was withdrawn,
Balotelli gestured half-heartedly towards manager Roberto Mancini. It was all too predictable, also.
Dealing with all that can wait. For now Mancini remained concentrated on the task in hand. “We will relax after May 22 until then we will do the maximum we can do,” he said. “We have four games (left), the others have three.
"Everything is in our hands. For all the season we have stayed between first and fourth and so we deserve to be in the Champions League but we have another four games.”
They opened this contest at a canter. A corner was won, swung in and flicked on by Vincent Kompany. The ball ricocheted off Thomas Hitzslperger’s chest and ran out to Nigel de Jong.
Twenty-five yards out and urged to shoot the midfielder did just that, his low effort beating Robert Green’s dive for his first City goal. That simple.
Then, David Silva, who appeared to be on a different plane from the others, chipped a wonderful return pass to Pablo Zabaleta who held off Danny Gabbidon and sent in a low cross-cum-shot which panicked Lars Jacobsen.
His clearance slammed the ball into the net.
It looked like the score would continue to mount but, then, Jonathan Spector slipped a pass through to Robbie Keane. The striker’s run was clever but his finish wasn’t as he delayed and delayed and then tried to lift the ball over
Joe Hart who saved with his knee. But, soon after, Hitzslperger crossed, Keane flicked on and as Joleon Lescott handled the ball dropped to Ba who showed a predator’s instinct to fire it past Hart.
It was an unexpected reply. City’s supremacy took a jolt but they should have added another goal when Silva broke, fed Balotelli who steadied himself before curling a right-footed shot which struck the bar.
The rebound fell to Yaya Toure whose effort was blocked by Green. The goalkeeper then did well to hold up Silva, who had been played clear by Toure, until he had to pass to Balotelli’s whose low shot was scrambled off the line by James Tomkins.
City should have been out-of-sight but substitute Manuel Da Costa reached a corner to force Hart to push out his header before the home side threatened with a deflected shot by Silva spinning up for Green to parry.
Time and again City poured forward only for the final pass to go astray or a cross to flash across the face of goal. West Ham could not take advantage, however, and the scoreline was a flattery.
“If you play against a squad who face relegation, it’s hard,” Mancini reasoned. But West Ham should have made it harder.
avram grant, west ham united, jason burt, eastlands, david sullivan, clear sky, s board, league game, city2, man city, chairman david, seven points, hotspur, manchester city, relegation, blue water, gap, good chance, premier league, champions league
Northampton Saints 23 Perpignan 7: match report
Read a full match report of the Heineken Cup semi-final game between Northampton Saints and Perpignan at stadium: mk on Sunday May 1 2011.
Bulldozer: Soane Tongauiha ploughs through the Perpignan defence Photo: ACTION IMAGES
By Mick Cleary 5:00PM BST 01 May 2011
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On a dizzy, sunlit afternoon well might the Northampton faithful have belted out their songs as their Saints went marching on to Cardiff.
Never was an anthem more appropriate. There was an ease and a swagger in Northampton’s performance, a real sense of overwhelming superiority.
At times it was almost one-sided, testimony to the force and cleverness of a Saints side in its pomp. They were steely-eyed and spring-heeled in equal measure.
Only the lap of honour was conducted at a sedate pace. In a new-look stadium in Milton Keynes, this was a moment when the fans saluted a coming-of-age side, a team that has the capacity to emulate the heroes of 2000 in lifting the Heineken Cup.
As then, so now, with an Irish side standing in their way, albeit Leinster are more formidable opponents than a callow Munster of all those years ago.
But Northampton should fear now one as they pursue a cup and Premiership double. They could yet be the first side in the tournament’s modern history to go through to the end undefeated.
Leinster will have a rather significant opinion as to that. Northampton were all-consuming here: raw-boned and defiant up-front, vibrant when they needed to be behind.
They more than withstood the expected pummelling in the scrum from the so-called Catalan ogres, tellingly shunting a Perpignan scrum on to its backside just moments from the end.
So many Saints stood tall: prop Soane Tongaa’uiha, back-row forwards, the understated Phil Dowson and the tireless Roger Wilson, the full-bore midfield duo, James Downey and Jon Clarke, with Ben Foden sharp and eager at all times from the rear.
Foden was a real handful in the first-half, back to doing what he does best, being the bane of defences and not late-night taxi drivers.
But above all this was a performance of a team happy in its own skin, each player confident in his own ability and of those around them.
There was a composure in the way they went about their business, fierce yet disciplined, keen yet not overenthusiastic.
Of courses, their foundations had to be secure and their tight scrummage gave one of the great European performances in dealing with the vaunted Perpignan eight. Northampton have answered those critics who consider them to be solid but not exceptional.
“On its day, this team can beat anyone,” said Northampton captain, Dylan Hartley. “People still pick holes in us. We were playing for ourselves today. It was quite nice to stick two fingers up to the doubters.”
The contest was as good as run by half-time, Stephen Myler’s second penalty edging his side 20-0 clear by the 38th minute. True, Perpignan did raise a flicker of hope among their colourful, small band of fans when hooker Guilhem Guirado blasted his way over from a line-out drive on the stroke of the break but it was to be fleeting.
Perpignan were never allowed to settle, never allowed to generate tempo. As so often happens in Anglo-French encounters they bore a sense of grievance at the imbalance of the penalty count, over two to one in favour of the home side.
There was merit in some of their complaints, Irish referee, George Clancy, wrongly calling back centre David Marty for offside after he had gathered a superb chip kick from his fly-half, Nicolas Laharrague, in the 25th minute looking set to scoot 40 metres to the line.
Instead, he got in a huff at the decision, Northampton remained calm and took full advantage, Myler banging over the goal from distance and within two minutes Clarke scoring a well-worked try that seemed, even at that early juncture, to break the heart of Perpignan.
They allowed themselves to get rattled and ratty, losing focus and clear purpose. They were beaten all over the field. It was a disconsolate retreat for them, out of this season’s tournament and almost certain not to qualify for next year’s competition given their lowly standing of ninth in the French league.
It took barely a quarter-of-an-hour for Northampton to find their range. After an edgy opening, Saints struck hard in the 15th minute.
Downey, who is emerging as a genuine contender for Ireland’s World Cup squad, made a lovely break and found Dowson on the inside.
The flanker himself made great inroads and was only hauled down two metres from the line by Perpignan fullback, Jerome Porical. No matter. His mates were in support. Wing, Paul Diggin stepped in as scrum-half, wheeled to switch play, flummoxing Perpignan, leaving Foden to canter over the line.
It was to trigger a calamitous period for the French side, the Marty incident prefacing a ten point concession. Shortly thereafter wing, Julien Candelon, was yellow carded for a reckless tip-charge on scrum-half, Lee Dickson, at a restart.
The second-half had the air of a formality about it as Northampton shrewdly preserved their lead, Myler’s 49th minute penalty the only score of the half.
Northampton, who still need two points against Leeds on Saturday to guarantee a top four Premiership finish, are all too aware that Leinster will be of a different order altogether.
“They are all used to big games on the big stage,” said Saints’ director of rugby, Jim Mallinder. “ We’ve done remarkably well but we’ve won nothing yet.”
True, but on this evidence Northampton are genuine contenders.
phil dowson, northampton saints, mick cleary, james downey, overwhelming superiority, heineken cup, sedate pace, full bore online, milton keynes, irish side, photo action, roger wilson, action images, rsquo, foden, ploughs, leinster, final game, scrum, bulldozer
North Lake Toho
Taken @ Lake toho north shore (lake shore blvd park)
Taken @ North lake Toho Shore
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Another Sunny Day At Bibra Lake
Beeliar Regional Park, Bibra Lake, western australia.
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regional park, western australia, sunny day
