Fill up the tank and ‘go again’.

Well, I’m sure the fuel tank of most of our players will have been almost empty after yesterday’s frantic, amazing encounter with Spurs in the Champions League quarter final 2^nd leg; a game that had almost everything! A thriller and one of the best games I’ve witnessed in many ways.

4 goals in the first 11 minutes; 5 goals in 21! An uncharacteristically bad game from Aymeric Laporte that handed our visitors their first 2 goals; a 10/10 performance from Kevin De Bruyne - the Belgium must still be on his knees this morning he worked so very, very hard with end product aplenty.

Fffffff…lippin’ V.A.R., hey? I’m sure, when it comes in fully, we’ll have plenty of games where we’ll be glad of it but last night it wasn’t our friend whenever called on. Forgetting about the blasted thing for a moment, I leaped around like crazy when our ‘5^th goal that wasn’t’ went in; hugging anyone within reach. Oh, the feeling to be pulled right back down again to a point where I had my head in my hands just seconds later was awful.

Moved on quickly.

Once I’d absorbed what had just happened after the final whistle, I honestly then thought to myself, ‘Well…that’s us now winning the Premier League’. I’m sure I recall also muttering that to some other disconsolate City fan; I’m sure I recall him agreeing with me too.

But it’s all about not only how our players recover physically – Spurs have to do likewise of course – but how they react mentally. With the likes of Pep, Kompany and a number of other calm, extremely experienced players & staff in the camp, I honestly can’t see that being an issue once Champions League disappointment lifts.

But we’ll need both strong minds and bodies in order to ‘go again’, with yet ANOTHER encounter with The Lilywhites in just 2-days’ time before the Trafford v Manchester Derby 4 days later! I’m not for one second saying that league games will be easy after that but come out of those 2 games with 6 points and I think we’ve got one hand on retaining the Premier League trophy (and I think it’s more-a-case of ‘advantage us’ with Liverpool having-to-also concentrate on a certain Champions League semi-final…and a certain Barcelona).

Blog announcement.

I want to take this opportunity to say that it’s highly unlikely that I’ll have the time to get yet-another pre-match posting out ahead of Saturdays, early KO game (12:30pm BST) and in this intense period of fixtures where I’ve not yet missed getting a pre-match posting out but I hope to be able to do one before we travel to the Borough of Trafford on Wednesday.

Chin up Blues – the treble for our record-breaking club is still well & truly on!