Man City Vs Sunderland [R]

[Alan D]

Man City v Sunderland Preview

http://images.skysports.com/images/playerpics05_06/Premiership/preview-badges/Aug23-24/sunderlandvmancity.gif

Sky Sports 1, Kickoff at 1:30pm Sunday

Manchester City have won their last five home games and will be confident of seeing off a Sunderland side virtually resigned to Coca-Cola League football next season.

Mick McCarthy faces one of his former clubs but the Black Cats boss is short of firepower, with his side scoring only 18 goals this season.

With next year in mind, young midfielder Grant Leadbitter could fight off competition from Tommy Miller to keep his place, despite Miller's return from suspension.

Stephen Wright is out for the rest of the season but Stephen Elliott played for Republic of Ireland in midweek and will be desperate for a chance to shine against his first club.

George McCartney should be fit enough to start, despite a hamstring worry, and Rory Delap is also tipped to be drafted into the line-up.

Young midfielder Martin Woods is likely to be unavailable after hurting his ankle with the Scotland Under-21 side in midweek.

City are missing influential midfielder Joey Barton, following his sending off at Liverpool last Sunday, but former Sunderland star Claudio Reyna should be fit enough to replace him.

The USA international played an hour for the reserves this week after returning from a broken ankle, although Andy Cole is definitely still sidelined.

Antoine Sibierski is likely to recover from a knock sustained at Anfield in time for the match, which looks set to come too soon for Sun Jihai. Darius Vassell is continuing to try to shrug off a hernia problem and should be available.

http://home.skysports.com/list.asp?hlid=368063&CPID=8&clid=&lid=&title=Man+City+v+Sunderland+preview

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We should almost 100% win this game against the bottom club in the Premiership. They've only won two all season and City have been doing great at home recently.

[Frankfurt Blue]

I am predicting giving the Mackems a 3-0 tonking.
Come on City!!! :D

[Alan D]

We won the game 2-1 with Samaras scoring twice within the first ten minutes. After that, the players didn't play their best football and gave away possession on a number of occasions. We held on and should have gotten a penalty towards the late stages of the second half because Sunderland's goalkeeper ran out and almost flattened BWP but he wasn't awarded it for some reason. Main thing is the three points and it moves us up to 9th, but Wigan could move ahead if they get a point tomorrow against Man Utd and we're not too far from the European places again. Next Saturday we're playing Portsmouth away and we really should win that one as well.

[L'OM15]

The kid is going to be special.

[Alan D]

Pearce lauds Samaras
By Stephen Bateman - Created on 5 Mar 2006

Manchester City boss Stuart Pearce believes Georgios Samaras will only get better.

The Greek striker bagged a brace during Manchester City's faltering 2-1 win over Sunderland on Sunday, and Pearce revealed he believes he is still learning the game.

"He's an uncut diamond. He's learning the game and it's for the long term," he told Sky Sports News.

"He and one or two others have a lot to learn in the game. The goals are a bonus, it's also what you do team-wise."

Pearce also felt that Sunderland were unlucky not to get something from the game, and added that his players were far less than happy with the way they played.

"Credit to Mick McCarthy's side, they played well for two games against us this season and have come away with nothing," he continued.

"We asked them to come out of the traps and set a tempo - really have a bash at them - and they did that for ten minutes.

"We had a similar game at their place, got 2-0 up very early on and for whatever reason took our foot off the gas.

"We dropped off a little bit and didn't retain the ball well enough when we got it forward to sustain attacks.

"Our lads have got their heads down in our dressing-room because they're disappointed with the way they've played. But I've told them, sometimes you have to take results like this."

http://home.skysports.com/list.asp?hlid=368643&CPID=8&clid=&lid=&title=Pearce+lauds+Samaras

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Samaras has scored four goals in three games now in the last week! Two today and two for Greece when he played for them last week in a couple of international matches.

[Alan D]

Not a good time to play Man City if your a manager under-fire :D Mick McCarthy has been sacked today after Sunderland lost to Man City, Souness got sacked in January after Newcastle lost to Man City and Perrin got sacked shortly after Man City beat them.

[Leto]

Not a good time to play Man City if your a manager under-fire :D Mick McCarthy has been sacked today after Sunderland lost to Man City, Souness got sacked in January after Newcastle lost to Man City and Perrin got sacked shortly after Man City beat them.

So Stuart Pearce has a job for life? :D