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Last week we were once again at The Miner’s in Acomb and again had a pleasant evening – apart from Claire and I finding it hard to stand all night as all the chairs were taken and we both felt very uncomfortable by the end.

As there were 7 of us, we drew the names randomly as usual but the last name left would sit out – this happened to be Claire which was a bit unfortunate as, like me, she has already missed several games. Our playing order was: Simon; Senior; Billy; Paul; Me; Graham.

We won both trebles; the first two doubles; and Simon’s singles games and went from being 1-5 up, to losing 6-5! We’re not sure how exactly My own darts were poor again, sadly, but the out-and-out hotshot of the night was Simon who was brilliant.

City went in to this 2nd leg a goal down and it would be a tall order to score 2 or more goals at Anfield. When I saw the starting line-up I thought it would be impossible, and I was certainly worried about Savic playing again as he had been very shaky against Spurs last match.

I watched the match on TV, resigned to us losing and was therefore fairly relaxed. Certainly as the first half got under way, there was nothing to make me think that we’d get anything from the game. And then, out of the blue, we scored – De Jong of all people – and what a goal! Just a few minutes later, though, Liverpool were awarded a penalty – one that never was! The ref decided Micah cleared the ball with his hand but there was absolutely no way he could have foreseen the ball bouncing off his foot to his hand! A dreadful decision, and one with which even the biased commentators disagreed. Naturally, Gerrard converted it. Grr! What made it worse was that City should have had a penalty when Adam blatantly fouled Dzeko but nothing was given! 1-1 at half time then, City with a steep hill to climb.

Liverpool came out after the break looking very dangerous and Hart made a couple of brilliant saves. Then, once again, against the run of play, Dzeko put us in front. We’d scored twice at Anfield! Now I WAS nervous. The hope was far worse than the resignation with which I’d started the game. Cue deja vu as we again lost the lead minutes later – only this time it was a great goal by Bellamy, and in fairness, well deserved.

So it was a draw on the night, putting Liverpool through on aggregate, and although I had been expecting them to win, and they deserved it more than we did (we’d been so poor both legs, especially the first) I was very annoyed by yet another poor refereeing display.

MCFC’s 60 second highlights here.
MCFC’s match report here.

Being unable to afford the petrol again, a friend used my season ticket and I watched this crucial match on TV Spurs, as last year, are one of our main rivals and it was vital that we won this game - but by no means likely to be easy. I’d had a bit of pre-match stress getting my ticket safely delivered to my friend but finally, just after kick off, this was sorted out and I tried to relax a bit.

The first half was pretty much as you might expect – very cagey with both teams being more concerned NOT to concede or lose. Though few in number, the chances that were created were by Dzeko and Aguero, but it was 0-0 at half time.

After the break, the game finally got going and WHAT a 2nd half! After about 10 minutes, Nasri scored a stunning goal and then Lescott scrambled the ball into the net just a few minutes later. 2-0 and I dared to breathe again. However, almost straight away Savic slipped up and Defoe was through and scored to get Spurs’ tails up and they went on to score again – a brilliant goal by Bale just 5 minutes later. ARGH! It was edge-of-the-seat time – right to the end of the game!

Mario came on for Dzeko and towards the end of the game he had a shot which Parker blocked – as he went down, Mario appeared to aim a kick at his head. In real time I said to Billy that it looked bad. The ref was right next to the incident, however, and gave nothing. We then saw several replays in slow speed and depending on the angle, I wavered between thinking it was deliberate / accidental. Watching his feet it looked deliberate, but watching his head/face it appeared he had no idea Parker’s face was there. I could see a case for either interpretation and feel that only Mario will ever really know. I wouldn’t have argued against a red card had it been given, but it wasn’t.

We had a scare just into extra time when it looked like Defoe was certain to score unopposed, but somehow he missed! PHEW! Just as I was resigned with a hard fought point, Mario was brought down by King and earned a penalty – which he very coolly converted to make it 3-2 with almost the last kick of the game. Somehow, we’d pinched the 3 points and naturally I was delighted with this turn of events, but acknowledge that Spurs were somewhat unlucky and a draw the more fair result. This was a HUGE win – a 6-pointer and I won’t have been the only Blue breathing a huge sigh of relief. (What a game to have had to miss out on )

Sadly, what followed this was a media witch hunt regarding the Mario/Parker stamp. As I already said, had the ref given a red card it would have been a fair enough decision and I’d have respected that as such. But this was the media jumping on the Mario bandwagon and making sure it was replayed ad nauseum and ensuring the FA would bring a charge against Mario. Not only did this non-football pressure annoy me, but I also fail to see how the ref could possibly claim not to have seen the incident. City fans can’t help wondering just how it is that we and some of our players are being more scrutinised than others. After all, Rooney was (wrongly) reduced to a 1 match ban for a blatant kick in the Euros, Crouch has got away with an eye-gouge and even in this match, Parker escaped so much as booking for any of his fouls on our players. That said, I am STILL not defending Mario nor arguing the red card – just the manner in which it has come about. Either we use technology to make decisions or we don’t – and if we do, this should be under the control of the FA (who need to sort themselves out, make the rules, stick to them, and grow some backbone!) rather than the media and their thoroughly unprofessional biases.

MCFC’s 60 second highlights here.
MCFC’s extended highlights here.
Kippax Blue’s photos here.

On Friday we played our first home game since mid December, and we were playing the Unionist Nomads. Claire was away and Simon had been delayed getting back so the rest of us played and the random order was: Junior; Paul; Me; Graham; Senior; Billy.

What can I say? We were all pretty rubbish (me especially – I just kept hitting treble 1′s and 5′s, much to my frustration.) We only managed to win: Junior & Paul’s doubles (eventually!); and Paul’s singles! Thrashed 2-9

Thursday was Nel’s birthday and she wanted me to have the day off work so I worked overtime on Wednesday and Friday this week, making it a strange week for me.

She wanted breakfast in bed at 6.30am (as she was working) so I agreed to do my best, but I don’t use an alarm to wake up, I just wake naturally. I woke up at 6.17am so I leapt up, ran downstairs and after feeding the cats, made Nel’s bacon sandwich and drink, arranged them nicely on a tray with serviette and presented it to her at 6.30am on the dot! I then left her to eat to open her cards and presents. We’d given her the “Thor” DVD as requested as well as her usual cash and she had a card and present from Mum, and cards from Rick and from an aunt.

When the children were little I always used to make them a birthday cake decorated with whatever character or picture they wanted. Over the years I’ve done everything from Power Rangers to Forever Friends and used to enjoy the challenge. As they’ve grown older, they haven’t wanted them any more, but this year Nel decided she DID and the picture she gave me to try and reproduce on a cake was this:

Well I had great fun and games trying to mix the right colours for the icing for a start! The red food colouring I used turned the white icing a peach colour instead of pink! So I tried again with the red gel food colour and thankfully this WAS pink, but I still couldn’t get the exact shades I wanted.



Eventually I started the design, and it was much harder than I remembered from when the children were little! I struggled resizing the picture, even allowing for overlapping the sides a little, and I wasn’t happy with the accuracy, but in the end decided I wasn’t going to achieve perfection and just did my best.



(The flash on the camera has drained much of the colour – the icing is pinker than it looks, and I used the peach colour as the background.)

I stuck with it and Nel came in to watch me finish it, just as I was bemoaning the lack of black icing colour – which she just happened to have upstairs having used it for her art occasionally To my utter frustration, when I tried to use the red gel colour to outline the mane, it looked dreadful and ran everywhere so I attempted to remove it – ruining the whole thing Nel remarked how we were similar in spending hours on something, wanting perfection and feeling like scrapping the whole thing when one of the finishing touches spoiled it. Well at least she understood, and could appreciate that I’d spent hours and done my best. (It tasted good anyway )

In the evening, Nel, Billy and I enjoyed a Chinese takeaway and a bottle of win whilst watching “Captain America” (the last of the series of Avengers films out thus far which we had yet to see) It wasn’t bad but not the best of them (Thor was my favourite, and Nel’s too.)

The last bit of her birthday celebration was a sleepover at the weekend, but the day itself was over and I think Nel quite enjoyed it, which was the object of the exercise It’s hard to believe that my BABY is now 19!

Monday night football struck again so Billy, Raji and I sat down by the fire to watch Wigan v City. I was hopeful of a good result but a bit nervous in case we messed up the chance to re-open the 3 point gap at the top of the table. After seeing the starting line-up, Raji confidently predicted that Aguero would score in the first half, but since Raji has now dropped Dzeko from his fantasy football team, Billy wanted Dzeko to score first. The bet was on; the stakes a cup of tea at half time

The gamewasn’t the greatest but I was pleased with a resolute performance and having Silva back made all the difference. Wigan went on the attack early on but we survived, thankfully! Even surviving claims for a Wigan penalty when there was a bit of a bundle in the box – decision that could have gone either way I thought, not clear cut for the ref. After that we were once again playing against a team who kept men in numbers behind the ball, and when we did make the break through it was from a set piece – Dzeko headed the ball in about half way through the first half. YAY! After cheering the goal itself, I was further entertained by Billy and Raji’s reactions – Billy was unashamedly gloating and Raji was cursing I was also exchanging texts with mum who was watching and I warned her she was not to will Moses to play well (he’s an ex Palace player) and later when Watson came on I reminded her again – just tongue in cheek of course as she was firmly supporting City.

The rest of the game continued in much the same vein – City with much of the possession, Wigan trying to score on the break – and some fine goal-keeping by both keepers. There was a comedic moment (picture Raji’s wrath ) when Aguero went past one defender, then two and almost walked up to the goal with the ball, when Dzeko tackled him took the ball off him and stopped him scoring! To add to my bemusement after this, City were on the attack again when Figueroa blatantly, and very deliberately put his hand in the air to stop the ball – openly, as though he was playing volleyball! The ref gave a yellow card but arguably it should have been a red, and since it was so intentional, regardless of whether the ref thought there was a clear goal scoring opportunity denied or not, I’d vote for a red anyway.

As it was I was delighted we’d hung on for a win, kept a clean sheet, and gained another 3 points.

MCFC’s 60 second highlights here.
MCFC’s extended highlights here.

Last Friday, we played away at The Rose and Crown in Slaley, for the first time in 2 years (the team had had to play from other pubs for this time) so for the second week we had to get a taxi. Billy was away and Graham was poorly so the rest of us were needed.

The random order was: Me, Senior, Claire, Paul, Simon and Junior. It seems to be becoming a habit me heading the order :S

We were narrowly beaten in both trebles. Senior and I won our doubles – eventually! Both teams had come down to x1 but I finally managed it to give us the win. Claire and Paul were beaten but Simon and Junior won fairly comfortably after both throwing very well. So the score was 3-2 and we were on to the singles…

I threw nice and steadily and although my opponent was a good player, I think he allowed a couple of my good scores to rattle him… and I managed to hit my x6 after splitting my doubles. When Senior stepped up to play, he noticed that my game had been played down from 601 instead of 501! Ah well… Senior won his game too – and afterwards realised he hadn’t even been wearing his glasses! Claire, unfortunately, was only just beaten, and Paul slot when we thought he should probably be able to win. Simon made up for that by playing brilliantly and winning his – so it was 5-5 and all on Junior…………. who sadly was narrowly beaten. Still, 6-5 wasn’t a bad result.

After playing we enjoyed some really tasty sandwiches before hopping in the taxi to come back. Claire, Simon and I went straight home this time – none of us had the energy to stay out longer this time.

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After a busy day on Wednesday Billy, Raji and I enjoyed the rare treat of a takeaway curry thanks to my favourite brother-in-law Yummy! That was accompanied by a beer which set us up nicely for the evening watching City on the box.

I wasn’t expecting much as I thought the intensity of Sunday’s derby would have an effect – and I wasn’t wrong.

The game wasn’t great viewing and Liverpool had plenty of chances in the first half, with Hart making some good saves. Disappointingly, a slightly flustered looking Savic gave away a penalty less than 15 minutes in and Gerard converted it comfortably. Mario was back but he soon looked to be a liability – he wasn’t playing well and was clearly getting heated – I was urging Mancini (via the old microphone-in-the-living-room trick ) to sub him as I feared he’d get a booking (or 2) if he wasn’t. Thankfully the microphone was working and Mancini followed instructions, bringing on Nasri, and we looked much better after the change.

In the second half we had more possession and a few excellent chances, though couldn’t make it count against a Liverpool side that had decided to play 9 men behind the ball at all times. It was a frustrating second half with us dominating but it wasn’t to be. Just to add insult to injury, Johnson made a very poor challenge on Lescott late on – a leg breaker had he made contact – but he didn’t get so much as a yellow, never mind the red he should have had. It was a far worse tackle than Kompany’s and I think we can rightly feel doubly aggrieved over his red and Johnson’s failure to be booked.

That aside, it ended 0-1 and we have it all to do in the second leg though I can’t see us scoring 2+ goals at Anfield. Then again, are Liverpool going to park a bus when at home? We’ll have to see.

The media have irritated me (as they often do) after this match by reporting that Mancini called for Johnson to get a red card when in fact he was commenting (quite legitimately) on the lack of consistency on the part of referees. Also the headlines were all about Gerard inspiring Liverpool to a win – inspiring? He didn’t do much bar knock in a penalty! :S

MCFC’s 60 Second highlights here.
MCFC’s extended highlights here.
Kippax Blue’s photos here.

Billy has been needing a new bed in his room/spare room for a long time and we decided it would make sense to put our queen-size (small double) one in there and get ourselves a king-size (large-double) for our room as we do tend to disturb each other in the queen-size one.

I’d found one with a nice deep mattress on e-bay about a year or more ago, at the really good price of £139, and added it to my watch-list for when I could afford it. Unfortunately this never happened as we’ve never had the money.

Finally, Billy and I pooled our Christmas money and bought it just in to the New Year. Even better, it was in the post-festive sale so even more of a bargain!

Homefurnishingsuk, the seller, was brilliant and we got to pick our delivery date – and having expected a wait of a week or two, I was amazed when we could have our bed just 2 days later on a day to suit.

Billy and I spent the morning moving furniture around and making room and just as we had done so, the new bed arrived. Perfect timing and a perfect bed. Soon it was all made up ready for use.

Although I sleep in a king-sized bed at mum’s, I am usually only it literally for sleeping. At home, I tend to snuggle under the duvet and watch DVD’s with Nel for the evening so I am awake and sitting up in the bed more. I feel like Anji in Wonderland – it’s huge! Even Billy commented that I looked small in it, and it’s plenty big enough for both of us to sleep without disturbing each other.

The one thing to which I’m having to adjust – and which is my own fault as I somehow completely overlooked it – is that it is so much softer than I am used to. I am used to very hard beds as army beds are rock hard and I grew up sleeping in army beds so have just carried on with hard mattresses. I don’t think it’s a BAD thing having a bed I sink into – just weird.

All in all, we’re delighted with our new bed – and we now have a decent spare bed for guests again I would recommend this e-bay seller if you’re after one yourself by the way.