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Interesting morning at Carrington. First of all it was a mad media scrum with so many cars in and trying to get in they were backed up into the road.That at least told me training was on but also a big match coming up with the press conference shortly to start.

As I walked around the fences there was plenty of cordening off tape! Not the crime scene yellow police stuff but blue and white.trouble is it was all over the floor and cordening off nothing at all.I got the message tho and as I got through the undergrowth and round to the Sale Sharks side I was met by 2 security guards. Sounds like they will be a permanent thing from now.Partly to stop balls being nicked but more it seems to stop cretins from jumping over the fence and nicking stuff as apparently happened yesterday.They have the tossers on camera and hope to get them but it's such a shame they exist.

They did ring through to check me out but I think they got the message I was a harmless old git and couldnt get over the fence if I tried. I did check out the tree again Beefy and the soft landing is about 100% nettles!

Eventually the players came out but not before a group of about 30 watchers who I think were all or mostly a Turkish group.Their coach was in the layby outside and they saw a lovely fairly gentle session of the team working and having a lot of fun at the same time.Vinnie and Barry were fully involved at the start but Barry went off for some running work as he is bound to be further behind the rest in his preparation.No Suarez today but Razak there again and RSC also involved.

Plenty of the players reflected it was a very hot day and Mancini did bow to the sun when he came out.Lescott had his woolly hat on as usual. Mario's hair and boots were the same as yesterday.The work today wasn't taxing and mostly around passing in two groups and then in one big keep ball circle but the bounce and banter in the group was exceptional.

Nigel always seems central in the fun but two voices I heard plenty of were Joleon and Zaba.Fun to see AJ and Silva wrestling to try shove the other into the middle and a good laugh when the majority of the squad all voted Joleon into the middle under Nigel's direction.The biggest cheer though and round of applause followed a nutmeg on Mario and then the achievement of I think 25 passes which was probably a record.

Foolowing that session Mancini took a group which worked solely on defending corners and free kicks.Only for about 10 minutes and then they went in while the remaining players went through the same tactical work and then they went in.Only about an hours session in total today.Just a few left out as the goalkeeping work carried on with some help from RSC and Milner and Kolarov did some practice on free kicks at the other end.

I will try again next week but I doubt whether there will be any vantage points to view from.

Oh no, it could be the end........... :O(

Thanks Doug.

Cheers Doug.

Was that Omar fella there still?

Cheers Doug. Didn't you just tell them to move aside and show them your pass?

twosips wrote:Cheers Doug.

Was that Omar fella there still?

Not involved today

Cheers Doug. I really hope that this isn't the end of an era as your reports have been one of the highlights for me since being on here ... come on City, sort it out!

GIve Doug his OAP bus pass!

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:

twosips wrote:Cheers Doug.

Was that Omar fella there still?

Not involved today

The reason being he was playing for the EDS this afternoon against TNS.I didn't know about the game till I saw it was starting on Twitter.Got there just before half time with the score nil nil and we ended up well beaten. Pretty well all the City coaching staff were there too,cant think of anyone missing and best of all Sharon was there and I got a hug to make my day.

As for the match I think the key difference was that we weren't a team and TNS were ,plus they were older,stronger and better organised.We seemed to be a mixed up group of players and there seemed very little cohesion at all.

Suarez flitted around with the occasional nice bit of play but didn't do enough for me to really try and influence the play.Evans also didnt do much,Lopes much the same and even less influential. A few triallists around as well and the left back and center back seemed pretty good.A bit concerned about Wabara who didnt seem bothered to be out there. I felt we looked a little better when Rusnak came on for Suarez but the 2nd half was full of changes and we probably ended with only a couple of players who started the game.

We did have a few chances in the 2nd half but mostly falling to a chinese guy who seemed a decent footballer but just lacked finishing touches. Must try and find his name.