Sunderland were open, attacking, and brave at the Etihad Stadium, and it was this expansiveness that led to us conceding goals we’d usually not.
We fell behind three times and levelled twice, and for periods of the match we pinned back one of the best teams in the world with a high press which they struggled to break out of. The away end was electric — one of the best I’ve ever been a part of — and was up there with our 2-1 win at Chelsea around a year ago as three tiers’ worth of the red and white
army sang their hearts out, and we backed the Lads until the very end.
Manchester City have won everything there is to win in football.
They have some superb footballers that were sublime against a Sunderland squad that battled out and stood up to the challenge. However, if our fan base becomes anything like theirs, a large chunk of what our club means to me will be gone.
This isn’t sour grapes; as I said, they’ve got some fantastic players, and when they move up the gears they’re brilliant. But the fans? Dear me.
The jokes about the Etihad being full of empty seats and having no atmosphere or emotion are nothing new, but on Sunday, I felt like I’d seen it in the flesh. I was last in the away end in 2009 when we lost 4-3 to a City side with Mark Hughes in charge, and there were far more about the home end then.
I couldn’t remember City!s supporters making a sound and I can only imagine how loud we were from our corner of the stadium, but what compounded it was hundreds and hundreds of City fans leaving with about ten minutes to go.
You don’t get any awards for staying to the end, but this is a team that’s won five straight games and is top of the league — yet so many fans left before the end of a 5-3 win.
The soul of City is long gone, and obviously they aren’t the only club that this has happened to, but they’re a prominent reminder of what some people at the top of football want us to become, and it’s not good.
City and Arsenal will more than likely battle it out for the title, and we’ll win more games than we lose, but the trip to City is a reminder of what the top Premier League sides can and will become if they know more money can come from fans visiting for the day rather than the fans who have been born into their club, rather than hand picking the best club.
Sunderland stood toe to toe with a giant of world football on Sunday.
I couldn’t be more proud and I feel far better supporting a team I’ve picked up from my dad after being there for the Man City Etihad experience.
We’ve three weeks off now, and it’s three weeks where Régis Le Bris and the coaching staff will be able to draw on the positives and try and iron out the negatives from an eight-goal thriller in Manchester. During this time, we can all look forward to what this team can do, and the away end at the Etihad was a reminder (if we ever needed it) that we have one of the loudest and proudest followings.
