String fellow

Looking at the results from season 1920/21, City were in the second tier (Division 2) when they ended the season with 5 consecutive home games without scoring, but 4 of those ended as 0-0 draws.

Surely it was an og by the goalkeeper.

Anyone who sits outside in the freezing cold for perhaps three hours, paying a small fortune to do so, watching a match that's being shown live on free TV, needs their brains testing. 70-odd thousand is a lot of brains to test!

Could this perhaps be the first time ever the we've been knocked out of both domestic Cup competitions in the same season, against the same opponents, at the same venue, by the same score or margin, and with our manager having been in charge of the opposition for the first of the two ties?

Start: Beating Sunderland 4-2 in the PL, on the first day of the title-winning season. Finish: Losing to Man Utd 2-1 in the Community Shield and then to newly-promoted Hull City 2-1 in the PL, at the start of the following season.

The shipping forecast was ruined when they changed Finnisterre to FitzRoy.

Here's a look at the stats of the 12 PL matches under SC and the 12 so far under RvN, although he wasn't officially in charge for match 13: PL W D L GF GA GD PTS SC 12 2 4 6 15 23 -8 10 RvN 12 2 1 9 10 30 -20 7 ........................................................... TOT 24 4 5 15 25 53 -28 17

The tree surgeon who this morning came to remove some large shrubs from my neighbour's front garden. Not only did he park his van directly across my driveway, but then finished off by using a leaf-blower to blow large amounts of sawdust and other debris all over the road and onto my driveway. Being too polite to go out to complain, I waited until he'd gone then swept up all the mess he'd made everywhere. What is the point of leaf-blowers?

My GP's surgery. To make an appointment by phone, you have to ring between 8am and 9am. So this morning I rang at exactly 8am and the automated message said I could press '1' for the dial-back service, and they'd ring back when I got to the top of the queue. So I did. Big mistake! 50 minutes later and still no call back, I rang again and the message said that all today's appointments were now taken and I'd have to ring again tomorrow. What a crap system! Luckily it wasn't anything too urgent, but even so, it really doesn't reflect well on their overall level of service.

Injury-hit Spurs' home league form is woeful at present - 2 points from their last 5 games, with 15 goals conceded. On that basis, and recalling how they struggled to beat Tamworth in the FA Cup (one of three cup competitions that they are still in!), maybe our chances of getting a decent result are better than we might expect.

Relegation virtually Nailed-on!

I'm struggling to find when City previously lost 4 home league games in succession without scoring. However, in 1971/72 under Jimmy Bloomfield, they did play 5 successive league games at home without scoring, but 2 of those ended as 0-0 draws.

Time to get rid of the goalposts at the end of the KP that we're attacking. They're redundant. Better still, get rid of both lots. At least then, we're guaranteed to get a 0-0 draw.

When did we last go 4 home league games without scoring once?

Our graph of points gained against games played is currently flat-lining over a longer than expected period of time.

After that amazing 5-3 win, we got just 2pts. from the next 39pts. available. But despite that, we never went 3 home games in a row without scoring, unlike now, and 6 of the 11 defeats were by a single goal margin and the rest were by two goal margins. So on that basis, the current run of results, if it continues, could be worse than that 'absolutely repellent' run, even though we're one position higher in the PL than at that time.

Over the last 6 matches, Forest have gained 18 times as many points as City. It seems that the Foremost footballing power in the East Midlands isn't us any longer!

Apart from Everton, I think every match between now and the start of March is against a London club, assuming we either lose to QPR or win and play another London club in Round 4.

Using the letters-to-numbers coding system of: A=1 B=2 C=3 up to I=9, J=10 K=20 L=30 up to R=90, S=100 T=200 U=300 up to Z=800, the number of the beast, 666, represents FOX!

The amber weather warning for snow - shouldn't that be a white warning?

Change of month (and year), change of fortune. This match has all the makings of a surprise (to outsiders) City win and the start of a huge revival, which will see us move rapidly away from the danger zone, helped by a good run in the FA Cup. Even the pundits on MotD will spend a few moments analysing our performance, instead of focussing on the opposition, which is what normally happens. The green shoots of recovery were there for all to see against Manchester City, despite the result.

Living through a year that's a perfect square: 2025 = 45 x 45. The previous one was 1936 (= 44 x 44) and the next one after 2025 will be 2116 (= 46 x 46), so they don't happen very often!

In a branch of Tesco near me, 7 of the 8 checkouts are currently card only. But does that stop some of the thoughtless card payers from using the one and only card-and-cash checkout when some of the other machines are available? Nope! Imo, there should also be checkouts that are cash only, to stop those who wish to pay by card from holding up the queue of folk who wish to pay by cash. It feels as though those of us who don't want a Clubcard either are discriminated against twice - once by the price differential on Clubcard discounted items and secondly by our desire to pay by cash.

After today's game, City are half way through the season. In 2024 they have played 40 league games, winning 14, drawing 7 and losing 19, and gaining a total of 49 points.

Both Manchester clubs will be pleased with that result!