| Trevor Sinclair's brilliant volley sparked a five-star
Manchester City performance as the Blues returned to Europe in style
tonight - beating Total Network Solutions 5-0.
 The England winger became the first player to score a
competitive goal at City's new Eastlands home and marked the moment in
style after 14 minutes, lashing home a first-time effort from the edge of
the area after Welsh minnows TNS had failed to clear an Eyal Berkovic
corner.
Second-half strikes from the persistent Shaun Wright-Phillips,
defensive duo Sun Jihai and David Sommeil as well as record signing
Nicolas Anelka ensured City will travel to the Millennium Stadium in a
fortnight with few fears of an early exit and dreams of emulating their
1970 Cup Winners' Cup triumph.
Sinclair was the pick of the City pack, creating two as the hosts added
four second-half goals to his 14th-minute effort.
But the loudest cheer of the night was reserved for injury-plagued
Paulo Wanchope, who has not played for the club since January last year.
The unpredictable Costa Rican showed he had lost none of his abilities,
producing a couple of mazy runs which had the crowd on their feet, even if
the goals came from other sources.
With City celebrating their return to European combat after a 25-year
absence, the only thing the visitors were expecting to celebrate was
having the green light given by UEFA for their proposed merger with
Oswestry.
And in the opening stages at least, City led their opponents a merry
dance, with Wright-Phillips prominent in a succession of home attacks
which should have brought more than Sinclair's single strike.
Wright-Phillips could have had a hat-trick on his own, but was unable
to find the target with a string of shots, the worst of which followed his
own exceptional control when he took down Sylvain Distin's long ball in
two touches only to lash a right-footed shot wide with the goal at his
mercy.
By naming his strongest possible line-up, Keegan had signalled his
intention to go for the kill early, so it must have been a considerable
disappointment to the former England coach that his side seemed to lose
their way once they went in front.
Eyal Berkovic drifted out of the contest after sparkling in the early
stages, his incisive passes cutting the TNS defence to shreds before the
Welshmen hauled even more players back to help out.
Paul Bosvelt and Michael Tarnat both looked good on their debuts, the
latter stepping up to fire a free-kick wide after Anelka had been bundled
over on the edge of the box.
For the most part, though, Anelka was a link man, and while Robbie
Fowler had one shot cleared off the line by Chris Taylor, he was not
getting too many chances either, smothered by the TNS defensive blanket.
City needed to encourage the visitors out of their own half, which they
achieved by dropping off slightly, offering TNS some room to push forward.
It brought the Welshmen their first corner, which saw John Leah shoot
well wide and another shot shortly afterwards from the same player with
the same result.
The confidence surge kept TNS going forward after the break and
consequently City had the tie wrapped up within 15 minutes.
A confirmed Blues' fan, visitors' keeper Gerry Doherty will not
remember facing his favourites with any affection after somehow allowing
Wright-Phillips' long-range effort slip under his body.
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| Sun Jihai had the
third goal in the UEFA
qualifying.[Soccernet] |
City's third arrived on the hour when Fowler stood up an excellent
cross from the by-line, which dipped just beyond Doherty and was headed
home by Jihai.
With victory secured, the home fans reserved their loudest cheer for
the arrival of Wanchope, whose 18-month absence has done nothing to quell
the love for his unpredictable style.
One senses it will be the Central American, not Fowler, who gets the
best from Anelka, although it was Wanchope's own work which forced the
corner from which Sommeil tucked home the fourth.
It rounded off an impressive victory, even given the standard of
opposition, but Keegan knows he will have to find a way of incorporating
Wanchope into his plans for longer than tonight's brief cameo.
No targets for Keegan
After the match Kevin Keegan predicted a season of promise without
setting any targets for Manchester City.
Last season Keegan boldly announced his team would mark their
return to the Premiership with a top-six finish, a target they missed out
on yet still qualified for the UEFA Cup through their position in the Fair
Play League.
Keegan is refusing to put his head on the block again, but believes
his squad is better than it was 12 months ago and there is no reason why
they can't be pushing for towards the top end of the table again.
'I stuck my neck out last year but I maintain we should have
finished in the top six,' he said.
'If you look back, we lost eight times at home. If we had won just
two of those and drawn a couple more, we would have been there.
'I am not setting targets this year but if we can stay clear of
injuries we will do very well.'
Keegan also revealed that former Northern Ireland international
Kevin Horlock is on the brink of joining West Ham.
Horlock's first team opportunities at City look to be limited
following the summer arrival of Paul Bosvelt from Feyenoord and the
emergence of Joey Barton towards the end of last season.
And, while Keegan would have no problems if Horlock decided to
stay, he can understand why he wants to leave.
'He is talking to West Ham and if he agrees terms it is a done
deal,' said Keegan.
'He is not a player I was looking to get out but we had an offer,
so I had a chat with him and now it is up to him. I could understand it if
he didn't want to be spending all season on the bench.'
Keegan also confirmed that the proposed ?million transfer of
Cameroon defender Lucien Mettomo to Wolves is now unlikely to take place.
'He will come back here and battle for his place,' said the former
England boss, who added that there had been no offer from Derby for Dutch
central defender Gerard Wiekens.
TNS coach Ken McKenna blamed individual errors for the City goals,
including a couple of blunders from goalkeeper Gerry Doherty, a lifelong
City fan.
'There were two goalkeeping errors but that is why he is playing
for TNS and not Manchester City,' said McKenna.
'Last year we were 5-0 down after the first-leg to the Polish side
Amica Wronki.
'We threw everything at them in the second match, got to 2-2 at
half-time, then eventually lost 7-2 and then got slated by the Welsh FA.
'I think we need to take that into account when we look at the
second leg in a fortnight's time.'
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