by Douglas Higginbottom » Tue Dec 20, 2011 2:07 pm
It's probably true to say that I probably saw more from behind the fence than inside! But first things first I got the extra priviledge when I was in reception of meeting Mark Allison ,son of the great Malcolm who was over from Australia and there today to watch the training with son. And he also had the David Silva shirt that he scored in on Sunday which hopefully will get signed today.Nice to know that he reads the training reports over there on the gold coast.
Most of the players were out when I was escorted out and I entered the fray with Silva and Aguero.Not a bad start.I could see one fan perched high in a tree and another peering through the curtains but no sign of any photographers so hopefully that's sorted.The excellent news was that we had a full squad on show.That included Kolarov and Hargreaves and no injuries from Sunday although we all saw a few niggles during the match.
After initial warm up jogging and work Mancini took al the players away to the middle pitch where I couldnt see a thing and wasn't allowed any closer.In the past I could have just moved position to see but although I knew it was all about preparation for tomorrow I didn't see a thing.No doubt a lot of positional stuff as usual.Then back out for some regular one and 2 touch work switching between the diddy nets and the full sized ones. One touch finishing in the small one sand headed goals only in the big ones. Silva scoring very cheekily in the little ones,Micah goal hanging to head home in the big ones before AJ finished it off with a strong shot.
At this point the Sunday team went inside for a rest and the game was started with the addition of Bridge,Suarez,Rekik. Nedum was already involved.A flurry of early goals was quite unusual coming from Rekik,lowinto the corner,Hargreaves bursting through onto some sloppy defending and then AJ,high into the top corner.Maybe a little casual play but then it tightened up a lot. Kolarov was attacking a lot and as you might expect shooting a lot without any success.
Then finally Milner got one back and suddenly goals flowed and 3 nil was turned into 3.4. Suarez with a good finish,Kolarov a side foot after some poor defending and then Milner again with a great left footer turned it right around. One of the most notable things about the game was the constant noise coming from Joe Hart.Very loud,always shouting good advice to his defenders,very suuportive but at the same time showing when not happy. A good part of his game I would say and of course some great saves as well.
Regular faces stayed back for some shooting practice.AJ,Milner,Clichy and today Suarez.I would have to say they all lookked pretty good and I was impressed with Suaraz.Milner taking most of his shots left footed and Clichy with his right.So that was that and I can only hope for more.I don't have an automatic pass but hopefully it will be fairly regular each week.
So no photographers at training but as was coming back home there were some of the familiar faces taking pictures of a funeral outside a church in Ashton.Lots of cars and people around but I have no idea who it was.
