Training Saturday 26/2

[Douglas Higginbottom]

A gentle session today given the current run of matches and a few EDS players involved to balance the numbers. On show were all the team from Thursday except Silva and Vinnie plus SWP,Vieira,Milner,Kolo,Boyata,Chantler,Guidetti,Wabara.After the initial warm up jogging Mancini did his little bit with an 11 and then changed the formation and personnel a few times.

This was perhaps 20 minutes in and then most of the Thursday team went in. Kolarov,Dzeko,Mario stayed out for a few minutes just passing the ball around but even they went in leaving the rest to have a game of about 6 a side on a small pitch with very small nets and no keeper. Very gentle stuff so I left early to go to watch the 2nd half of the academy game at Platt Lane.

Nil nil when I got there and it ended 1 nil for City with captain Keiran Kennedy scoring the only goal converting a free kick from Robinson at the near post. Looked like a planned move for the goal as well. Not a great game at all but we had plenty missing including the attacking trio of Roman,Bunn and Henshall plus 2 or 3 others away on international call ups. Given the hammering last week at the swamp it was at least good to see a better defensive effort today albeit right near the end West Brom did put some pressure on and nearly score.Scott Sellars son Conor made a 2nd half sub appearance!

The word on Gunnar Neilsen is that he will be out for 5 months with his broken leg and Ryan McGivern who was involved in the collision is likely to be out for 5 weeks. Tom Smith,also injured on Wednesday,probably did break his leg as well but nobody i spoke to was 100% sure.

[blues2win]

Thanks as usual Doug. Any chance of Milner starting/ featuring tomorrow? Any news on Nigel? Any chance for him on Wednesday? I imagine not unfortunately. No mention of GA or MJ training today. Were they training with the EDS?

[Duckman]

thanx Doug

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Thanks as usual Doug. Any chance of Milner starting/ featuring tomorrow? Any news on Nigel? Any chance for him on Wednesday? I imagine not unfortunately. No mention of GA or MJ training today. Were they training with the EDS?

Milner was looking fine to me so I expect will at least be on the bench tomorrow. Nothing on Nigel since during the week so not likely Wednesday but a chnace for next weekend.

I didn't see any of the EDS players out there but certainly GA and MJ not with the first team squad.

[marvin]

Is Silva OK?

[Mark (Blue Army)]

Cheers Doug

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Is Silva OK?

Must have had some issue which made him not go out at all ( they virtually did nothing anyway)but I fully expect him to be fit for selection.

[Goataldo]

Cool, cool, cheers.

Good to see Vinnie OK, was a tad concerned when he was clutching his hip t'other night.

[johnny crossan]

Cool, cool, cheers.

Good to see Vinnie OK, was a tad concerned when he was clutching his hip t'other night.

why do you think he is OK - he wasn't training

[Goataldo]

Cool, cool, cheers.

Good to see Vinnie OK, was a tad concerned when he was clutching his hip t'other night.

why do you think he is OK - he wasn't training

Bonus points to you for spotting my deliberate misreading of the original post! I was in between cooking a roast, and the spuds were splendid btw.

OK, now i'm rather concerned. Couple of lads I was with were thinking hernia, but it looked morelike he'd got a knock round his hip to me. Would've hoped he was ok to train today...

[john@staustell]

Cool, cool, cheers.

Good to see Vinnie OK, was a tad concerned when he was clutching his hip t'other night.

why do you think he is OK - he wasn't training

Bonus points to you for spotting my deliberate misreading of the original post! I was in between cooking a roast, and the spuds were splendid btw.

OK, now i'm rather concerned. Couple of lads I was with were thinking hernia, but it looked morelike he'd got a knock round his hip to me. Would've hoped he was ok to train today...

Elbow on the hip mate, it was confirmed during the match. Must've caught him right on the spot. May need another day or two to get better in which case Kolo or Boateng can play with Lescott. Plenty of games coming up to play Vinnie.