He was the man at Arsenal George Graham’s No 1 and I was in awe
“He was the man at Arsenal, George Graham’s No 1, and I was in awe of him,” said Hartson, remembering his early days at Highbury. They’d have been terrified to go out, beaten before they got on the pitch. Today I went in there and Wrighty had the music up, Razor [Neil Ruddock] was going round geeing everybody up, they wanted to get out there.”The consequence was a goal in the fourth minute. Wright’s attitude had a lot to do with that.”When I first came back,” said Redknapp, “and even last season, I’d have walked into the dressing room before a game like this, after a defeat like that, and it would have been dead quiet with no-one prepared to meet your eye. West Ham United 2 Liverpool 1
IT WAS 10.30 on Saturday morning when the phone rang in John Hartson’s home “Big Fella, it’s Wrighty,” bellowed a Sarf London voice. “We’re gonna murder this lot today.”
This, as much as the goals, is why Harry Redknapp moved for Ian Wright when he decided to leave Arsenal in the summer.While West Ham did not exactly murder Liverpool, they gave them a fair going over and certainly did not look a team still reeling from the midweek capitulation against Wimbledon. Substitute not used: Crooks.Bookings: Macclesfield: Payne, Sodje.
Manchester City: Horlock.Referee: K Leach (Codsall).Attendance: 6,381.Man of the match: Wood.. BARCELONA, WHO face Manchester United in the Champions’ League on Wednesday, secured their first win of the new Spanish League season, beating Extremadura 1-0 at the Nou Camp on Saturday thanks to a first-half strike from their captain, Luis Figo. Patrick Kluivert made a quiet debut for the Catalan club, who were far from impressive in a close game. But a calm finish from the Portuguese international Figo, after he had been set up by Rivaldo, proved enough to secure the three points.
The mega- salaried saviour from All Black country booked himself a prime seat in the main stand and watched Cardiff inflict all manner of indignities on a Saracens outfit as close to full strength as made no difference.No sooner had the final whistle blown than he was off down the M4 to watch Neath’s officially sanctioned fixture with Bridgend, which was rather like taking in a Chas and Dave singalong after spending the afternoon in the company of the Three Tenors. Barcelona fielded just two Spanish players.
The former Middlesbrough striker Juninho made a dramatic return to league action, inspiring Atletico Madrid to a 2-0 home win over Salamanca after coming on as a substitute. The substitute Jim Whitley continued the theme, almost passing back to Ryan Price, the Macclesfield goalkeeper, after 80 minutes in an effort to register a shot on target.But, with four minutes left, came undeserved salvation. Whitley lifted a pass over the tiring Macclesfield backline and Goater fired a bobbling left-footed shot across Price.”The pitch here is excellent, but it’s a strange environment for league players,” Joe Royle noted absent-mindedly, forgetting, perhaps, that his team had just played a league fixture.If his side are to win promotion, it’s games like this, they have to win, and for the sake of their fans, one hopes that they can do so with more style than they showed on Saturday.Goal: Goater (86), 0-1.Macclesfield Town (4-4-2): Price; Tinson, Payne, Sodje, Ingram (Howarth, 55); Wood, Sorvel (Sedgemore, 68), McDonald, Durkan (Whittaker, 72); Askey, Barclay.Manchester City (5-2-3) Weaver; Edghill, Tiatto, Vaughan, Wiekens, Fenton; Mason (Whitley, 31), Horlock; Goater, Dickov (Allsop, 67), Bradbury.
Steve Wood, a sprightly 35-year-old who had only played non-league football until Macclesfield’s promotion, was their leading scorer last season and he thrived again in a free midfield role. However, a dedicated striker of note would make his job easier.Manchester City had the same problem and the fact they did not score until the 86th minute was due to the wasteful finishing of Bradbury, Paul Dickov and Shaun Goater, all of whom missed clear chances. Defensively, Macclesfield were well- organised and competitive, with their captain Steve Payne and his fellow central defender Efetobar Sodje solid in defence. The former brought Lee Bradbury’s dangerous run to a painful conclusion with a crunching tackle just before half-time.Macclesfield’s deficiency seems to be at the other end of the pitch as they have yet to score at home this season but, with Sammy McIlroy as manager and Peter Davenport as coach – both former Manchester United players, they have a canny management team with good local contacts. Macclesfield Town 0 Manchester City 1
THE LATE 1990s have not been kind to Manchester City.
After their ignominious relegation to the old “third division” for the first time in their history last season, a trip to Macclesfield Town opened fresh avenues of previously unexplored humiliation against a team who were playing non-league football just two seasons ago. In a week when Manchester United became even richer, to lose against “the likes of” Macclesfield – the accepted prefix for smaller clubs nowadays – would have been too much to bear for City fans.
The last time Manchester City finished above Manchester United was in 1991. The following season, United won the inaugural Premiership title and a graph of the teams’ subsequent fortunes would resemble the comparative value of the dollar and the rouble. Consequently, Manchester’s under-achievers have to travel that bit further afield for their newest local derby.”There won’t be many teams who come here and win,” Joe Royle said His team were lucky to be one of them. Both incurred 10 penalties for two fences down, which dropped them to fifth and seventh.
Third place went to Kristina Gifford and the big ex-show jumper, The Gangster II, whose only mistake yesterday came at the first fence..