Fowler eases City nerves

A true tale of two halves and a striker who came in from the cold summed up City's 3-1 victory over a battling Scunthorpe side.

As they had done at Chelsea last year Scunthorpe found themselves a goal ahead at premiership hosts. City may have started the brighter but it was Scunthorpe who drew first blood, Keogh scoring after just 17 minutes. Scunthorpe took heart from such a start and dominated the rest of the half, much to the joy of their large traveeling army. The City first half performance however was rightly met by a chorus of boos as the whistle signalled half time.

Pearce brought on Croft for Onouha at the start of the second half. The winger made an immediate impact on 48 minutes when he crossed for Fowler to convert his first of the season in his first start of the season. Scunthorpe visibly wilted with the goal and it came as no surprise that City took the lead within 8 minutes. Fowler was again the scorer this time finishing neatly from the edge of the area. The tie was effectively over as a contest just after the hour when Fowler completed a 15 minute hat-trick, converting a penalty awarded for a foul on Sun Jihai. City continued to dominate, the gulf in class now apparent, but were unable to add to their tally.

All in all an effective second half performance was enough to take City into the 4th round draw. If we forget the first half we can perhaps kid ourselves that all is well going into next week's derby. This game again made obvious the shortcomings in the squad and highlighted the need to strengthen. On a positive note, good to see Fowler back and scoring goals.

Fowler .... first start of the season, three goals, what more could you ask? Well keep it going Robbie and get yourself fit. Psycho got it right with his half time changes and ensured it wasn't two cup embarrasments, well for now anyway. Scunny were up for the tie but by the end the gulf in class showed. Great support and my good wishes for the rest of the season. A far easir game is next on the agenda. A simple matter of embarrasing our American cousins. Want to write about City? Contact Andy by e-mail at editor@mcfconline.co.uk for full details.

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