Gary Gowers

It’s only seven days since the nightmare that was the 2019/20 season ended, but, oddly, it does feel like an age ago. Just as well really. Part of this is down to the club’s insistence that we move forward, prepare for the new season, and not dwell on the wrongs of last season. Which is […]

Thank God it’s over. You only have to put up with my whining one more time. I guess it was only fitting that five a half weeks of footballing torture should end with the biggest spanking of the lot. That we somehow ended up content that it was “only five” says everything about just how […]

So, for one final time. A season that promised so much, yet delivered only a big, fat, Family Fortunes-type UH UH. At least when we headed to Anfield on August 9, we had hopes and dreams. Okay, so there was a little bit of fear over the level of damage the reigning European champions may […]

There’s no escaping the paucity of City’s performances since Project Restart became more than just a project. Even the most yellow and green-tinged, happy-clapping, Delia-adoring optimist must be able to admit that the quality of performances have been dire and that something has gone badly wrong? The fact that some refuse to get fired up […]

♫ I had a wheelbarrow, the wheel fell off… ♫ So sang the NCFC fans, and never had it rung truer. Okay, so by NCFC I mean Notts County, and I’m not even sure it’s a song they sing anymore, but for one day only – maybe one season only – it should replace On […]

Well, it wasn’t the catastrophe many were expecting. We can say that much. On a night when Wigan hit Hull for eight, many of us were understandably fearful. And in any given season, if you come away from Chelsea having lost 1-0 then nine times out of ten, it tends to end up in the […]

At least it’s done now. But it did feel like death by a thousand cuts. A slow, painful, inexorable slide back to whence we came, with not the merest hint of resistance. These are difficult and surreal times – and of course, there are far more important things going on than our football team getting […]

That we’re all slightly chirpier this morning having witnessed an improved City performance says a lot about the level of the current bar. But we are. And it was. It’s hellishly thin gruel though if our spirits are lifted by what was ultimately another error-strewn defeat against some very mediocre relegation rivals. But, there’s no […]

How was your Super Saturday? Even those who were able to resist the call of the pub may have been tempted to turn to drink after City’s latest post-lockdown offering. But let’s forget the performance level for a minute and look at some numbers. *Look away now if you’re of a nervous disposition. One goal […]

Remember when they told us one of the drivers behind Project Restart was to boost our morale? Well, how’s your morale this morning? Since that first ball was kicked against Southampton, it’s not just been the stadiums that have been soulless. City’s lack of quality has been laid bare for the watching nation to see […]

In terms of performance level, that was light years ahead of the first two post-lockdown offerings. Against Southampton and Everton there was little to excite and even less to be proud of, but not so last night. Okay, so it may have ended in that glorious, heart-breaking failure in which our club seems to specialise, […]

The three-month hiatus, during which time football became a virtual irrelevance, played a cruel trick with the collective mind. It convinced us the “little miracle” of which Daniel Farke spoke at length was do-able. And no football – with far more important things going on in the world – meant the agonising and the navel-gazing […]

Our friends at Along Come Norwich have just launched fanzine number three. Having just read it, I can tell this one’s a corker (the first ‘chapter’ aside). If you fancy it, there’s a link at the bottom of this Q&A with the zine’s brains, Mr Jon Punt… So… up to number three, Jon! This must […]

Last night’s breaking news – that a City player had tested positive for Covid-19 – was the denouement of what had been the most miserable and troubling week imaginable. First things first, and it goes without saying (even though I am saying it) that everyone’s best wishes are with the player and his family. The […]

In last Sunday’s column, I tried – unsuccessfully I should add – to dream up a set of results that would, upon the resumption of Premier League battle, see City haul themselves clear of the bottom three. Even armed with every good luck charm in the book it was nigh on impossible to dream up […]

So, in theory, depending on what the TV schedule throws up, this time in three weeks I could be musing over City’s game with Southampton. Just imagine if it’s a win I’m writing about. Just imagine. Okay, so there’ll be no descriptions of Carrow Road reverberating when City inevitably take an early lead – this […]

I don’t tend to use ‘From The Archives’ for my own columns – they’re wholly undeserving – but given that it’s five years to the day that we all descended upon Wembley for that never-to-be-forgotten afternoon against Boro, I thought this may be worth another airing. Written early the following morning, so please forgive the […]

Despite being not much further forward in knowing exactly where, when, and even how, the players returned to Colney this week. While it was good to see them doing Colney stuff, albeit in a socially distanced and responsible way, the fact there remain so many unknowns makes it tricky to get too excited. It felt […]

As is the wont of someone in lockdown who writes, eats and breaths football, in the absence of any live action I’ve been gorging on the retro stuff the TV companies have been churning out in their attempt to sate our footballing appetite. Among the offerings have been ITV’s Saturday teatime ‘classics’, some Match of […]

Before I begin, if you’re a Liverpool fan, look away now. I incensed so many of them last Sunday they’re not going to find this one any more soothing. Just go. Leeds fans too. And to that West Brom bloke who has questioned my parentage on numerous occasions over the last week … I really […]