A bright start.

[Clayton]

I grew up in Lancaster and at the age of 11 moved to a village called Torrisholme, this is tucked in nicely between Lancaster and Morecambe, at the age of 12 I began playing for the village team Torrisholme Rovers and slowly rose through the ranks. At the age of 16 I was spotted by a Morecambe scout when playing near the end of the 2004-2005 season. At the end of June 2005 just after my 17th birthday I reported at Morecambe's ground Christie Park (which is luckily only a 15 min walk from my house) for a trial. The trial was excellent and soon after I recived a call informing me they had a contract offer for me. I didn't even need to read it, I knew I would accept, to be playing football at a level I had never really thought I would even make it at, and to be getting paid to play football was excellent. I just had to remember now that football wasn't just for fun anymore, now it was my job, I was paid to preform. The contract was 5 years long, which I was delighted about, it meant I wouldn't hopfully have to worry about such matters for a long time off and I would receive at least £390 per week, not including goal and assist bonuses.

My first few weeks flew by, pre season was enjoyable, I got a good hour or two of football in friendlies and then put a lot of effort in on the training ground, I knew I had to, I didn't believe I would make it into the first team anytime soon, we already had a good number of goal scorers in the squad. I traveled with the squad to every game, I wanted to show my support and watch how they play so I could get ideas on how to adapt my style of play, we won our first game at home 1-0 to Northwich, and we worked hard for the same result against Rusden and Dimonds, next was 2-2 at home to Kidderminster, then 1-1 away to Grays Athletic, after that was a disapointing 2-0 defeat home to Forest Green Rovers, then a 1-1 draw away at Dagenham and Redbridge. We were sitting 12th in the table but were lacking that cutting edge, we just needed that little bit extra to turn those draws into victories. This saw the manager decide to give me a go, I expected just to be on the bench but on Friday night was told I would start our home game against Cambridge United.

On Saturday the 27th of August I made my Morecambe debut, a day I will never forget. I had worked a lot on my heading ability because I felt I lacked the pace to break through defensive backlines and score so I believed I would have to relay on our wingers crossing balls in for me, but that isn't how it worked, well football never goes how you expect. On 4 mins I lobbed the ball over the backline in hope Cerlton would get onto it but the ball was too fast for him, I then thought it was going to be a long hard slog but it wasn't, a few moments later Smoth put a loverly ball through for me I ran onto it, and saw two defenders running stright for me, I just about got through and from about 20 yards out I just closed my eyes and hit the ball. Everything seemed to go in slow motion, the next thing I knew I was on the floor with the whole team on top of me, I HAD SCORED!!! I went on to make a few more good passes and have 4 more shots on goal, 3 of which were saved and the other was a volly which went miles over the bar. I was subbed on 74 mins and was delighted to see my goal gives us our first victory in 4 games. I believed the future was bright for me. My reviews in the paper that week made me so proud, and my whole family, it was amazingly weird to see myself on the back page, but according to my Father something I would have to get used to. One thing I had learnt from my debut though was I had to work on my stamina, there was no way I could last a whole game, let alone recover in time for another.

[JJU]

Stamina's a bitch innit! :lol: Smoth and Cerlton though? :confused:

[Clayton]

It is a pain at the start, it is the only thing I am really working on,
There real names are Carlton and Smith, but I thought I'd go with the game rather than the real names.

[JJU]

I figured about the names, surprised you're not using the patch ;) Look forward to more on your career anyway!

[Clayton]

Thanks, I started the career before thinking about getting the patch, and it doesn't as far as I know work on a game already started.

[Clayton]

We went on to lose 6-2 to Aldershot, draw 0-0 with Working and 1-1 with Tamworth, I came back into the starting line up for the game at home to second from bottom Stafford on the 17 of September. The game for me was another succsess but notfor the team, I scored after a one two with Twoss, it was a nice neat goal from about 12 yards. Things looked good untill the 26th min when we gave away a free kick and Stafford scored, I made many good passes to our wingers in that game but all came to nothing, I was hoping they would whip in a good ball as I stuggled to find space in the centre but the good ball never game, I eventually broke through in the 78th min but my shot when horridly wide, it must have been one of the most poor shots I had ever taken. I felt I had let the team down, but I had gave my all, nothing more could be asked than that, and the manager knew this and told me in privet he had been delighted with my efforts. Although to me we still weren't good enough we were a side that should be challenging for promotion and drawing to a side second form bottom was far from good enough. My stamina was still lacking so I decided that I would take time out from matches and work on stamina, the boss was willing to accept this, as he wanted my stamina to be good enough so he could have to possibility of me playing week in week out.

Results that fallowed

Southport 0-1 Morecambe
Morecambe 2-0 Oxford United
Altrincham 1-2 Morecambe
Halifax Town 1-2 Morecambe
Morecambe 1-0 Bolton (English Cup)

After a run of good results and me working on my stamina for the past few weeks the boss decided he would rest one of his strickers and play me against Gravesend and Northfleet.This was a though game, we went out briming with conifdence after one of the biggest giant killings in the cups history beating Bolton who were 4 leagues above us. We went 1-0 down before the end of the half and much to our confussion as well. It is weird how you can go from 1 week ago when we were beating Bolton of the Premier League 1-0 to a week later when we are 1-0 down to a team 16th in the Conference. I came out in the second half determind to score, but I couldn't even get a shot through, my frustration got me my first yellow card, but with time running out I managed to get a pass through to Cerlton, his shot was saved but the rebound was then drilled home by Thumpsun. The game ended in a draw and I still needed to boost my stamina a little more, as I still found it hard to recover for the next game. I also spent some time out to visit my friends, and family, most of all my father who had supported me all the way,
he lives in Nelson, near Burnley, an hour drive from my home, this was because him and my mother split up when I was young. Even though he lived an hour away and was always working he somehow managed to get time out and travel to anygame I took part in, even the away games. Our form was good going into the next few games, the highlight was another giant killing in the cup, this time beating Reading 4-2 in extra time, I then played my forth game that Wednesday, it was away to Burton. My headed goal gave us a well earned 1-0 victory, and I was Man of the Match for the first time in my career. I rested again for the next match on Saturday against York as I found it hard to recover still. I played again two weeks later against Stevenage, we lost the game 1-0, it was a poor game, I hardly ever got the ball, and my frustrations boiled up and I lashed out at an opposition player gaining my second yellow card. I finished the game with a rating of 3, my worst yet, I just wasn't recieving the balls I wanted or expected. Our amazing cup run also came to an end a week later losing 2-0 to Sheffield Wednesday, another hard game where I hardly saw the ball. After a few games out I went on to start quiet often for the first team, grabbing a few goals also, my best preformance came in my last game of the season, and the teams second to last game, I got a goal and made many great passes, we went on to win Stevenage 2-0. We finished a respectable 10th in the league.

END OF SEASON STATS

Apperences 15 (all starts)
Goals 6
Assists 0
Man of the Match 3
Yellow Cards 3
Red Cards 0

[Cookie Monster]

Damn it they really needed you! :)
Hoping to read next season :)

[Clayton]

Thanks ;), shall get next season to you in a day or two I hope.

[Clayton]

During the off season I went to Germany with my Father to watch England in the World Cup, England reached the 2nd round losing 1-0 to eventual winners Mexico much to everyones disapointment. Dispite the teams underachievement I had a great time. I also got my first car, a Volga 3110, a few days after my birthday.

Preseason went by nicely but our season started poorly, and after a disagreement with the manager I handed in a transfer request, but soon backed down after no offers came through for me. I admited I acted too quickly without thinking. I had one major problem though. I couldn't score, I got my first assist but could not score, 5 games into the season I had managed 20 shots and no goals, one game I had 6 shots, more that some teams have in a whole game and I still couldn't score, for a while I thought I might not be cut out to be a stricker. I almost walked of the pitch in tears after one game, after I had two shots when I was one on one with the goalkeeper saved and hit the bar 3 other times. In training I could score easily but in a match I just couldn't. The boss said to me that night that he is giving me one last chance if I fail to impress I might not start again till at least Christmas. I went into the game against Northwich extreamly nervously but I managed to grab two goals, mainly out of luck. The first goal wasn't really a great one, and the second was a penalty but a goal is a goal and it looked like I might be keeping my place. I was delighted, and it was about time, although I slightly let myself down recieving a red card in the last min, but we won 2-1 and that was what mattered. The boss told me he was delighted that I had scored, but I needed to sort out my discipline problem on the field. Everytime I got frustrated I lashed out at the other team. My good form contiuned into November and I then signed my first sponsership deal with Hi-Tec Boots worth 58,000 per year for 2 years. They also designed me some yellow boots. At this stage it appeared that I was attracting attention from bigger clubs, and an internet poll voted me one of the most promising players in the lower leagues. I was flying and briming with confidence and was almost scoring on average every other game, this made me the teams top scorer for a brief time, but I had though competiton with Cerlton. A definite highlight at this point was a 5-0 win at home to Altrincham, I scored my first hat-trick and grabbed two assits, that game was a stunning team effort and showed that after our bad start Morecambe were no pushovers and people began to think we could be promotion contenders once again.
During December we were attracting alot of attention with out exciting style of play, at a charity I was asked if I would donate my Mazda RX8 for a prize an an event to rise money for charity, the money rised would go towards helping those wih drug problems and alcohol problems in the Lancaster and Morecambe area. I decided I would, I still had my Volga, and I saw it as a very worthy cause, I also got much praise from my sponsors, family, fans and the media. On the 9th of December we played away to Crawley Town and midway into the first half I went of with an injury in my shoulder, it looked as though I would be out for about at least 2 weeks and many fans believed that game for Morecambe could be my last. And it was. On January the 1st 2007, with Morecambe sitting pretty in 4th place 2 points off Conference leaders Southport they recieved 5 offers which theey saw as too good to refuse, all off Premiership teams. These were:
Charlton Athletic
Chlesea
Crystal Place
Manchester City
Newcastle United
All these offers were in the region of £400,000. I said I would accept the offer from Manchester City. An offer from childhood team would never be turned down, no matter what else was offered. I dreamt of playing for no other team, this offer was a dream come true. All I had to do now was drive to the stadium on Tuesday the 2nd for the medical and to sign a contract if I passed the medical. I was leaving Morecambe in a very health position with there future looking bright. I was 4th highest scorer in the Conference with 11 goals in 20 starts and topping the assist table with 8 assists.

Overall Morecambe Stats

Apperences:31
Sub Apperences:0
Goals:17
Assists:8
Man of the Match:6
Yellow Cards:10
Red Cards:1

[Cookie Monster]

I have the same problem with discipline, can't seem to control rage attacks :lol:
What are your player's stats?

[Clayton]

Yeah I wouldn't make a very good football with that problem although I'm not doing that bad recently.
My stats:
Set pieces:13
finishing:14
heading:13
dribbling:13
passing:13
tackling:5
flair:16
control:10
both feet:10
pace:16
strength:12
stamina:26
positioning:14
vision:14

[Cookie Monster]

Wow you're really investing in stamina... how often do you go to rehab? :lol:

[Clayton]

I will have you know I have never taken drugs!!!
It is the only thing I really trained on the first few weeks, then when I got playing more games in improved most games, so went up pretty easily, although most came down to training.

[Cookie Monster]

I will have you know I have never taken drugs!!!


Everyone should do like you because when you get busted you end up paying 50000 and get your relationships at 0 :blimey: And if you get busted at the start of your career, I think you might as well just start a new game :lol:

[DS]

Getting busted for drugs is good...you lose your sponsors and get new ones which offer you more cash!

[Cookie Monster]

At the start of a career it's horrible. You can't play straight because your friends and family don't like you. Your boss doesn't like you. If you are transfer listed you won't be bought because you don't haven't proven your value yet. Id you aren't playing in Amateur your mates won't pass you the ball. But if you are rich and have sponsors already it's great xD

[Clayton]

Well thanks for that

[Clayton]

So here I was on a cold wet Tuesday the 2nd of January 2007, I was driving up to the City of Manchester Stadium in my little Volga, things had passed by so fast, a year and a half ago I had just got a trial for Morecambe now I was arriving at a stadium I had been many times to as a fan but now I was arriving with the prospect of playing there. I parked near the reception and made my way inside, a small women popped her head up from the desk and said "You must be Mr. Clive, the manager will be with you shortly."
He came in moments later and took me to have my medical, I passed with flying colours, which was good as they were a little worried about my shoulder injury, I was then shown around the stadium, mainly to the areas I had never seen before, and I walked around the pitch, trying to take it all in, I had goosebumps I just couldn't wait to get a chance to play on that pitch. I was then taken to the Chairman's office where I would sign my contract and have my pictures taken with the manager and chairman.
"Any problems with the contract?" I was asked,
"No not at all, I would happily play here for free, the money is just a bonus to me." I said with a large grin on my face,
They both seemed to like me instantly, I think it was because well there arn't many players now with that attitude, to me playing football for Man City was a dream come true anything that came with that was a bonus and I would always give my all for the club.
The basis of my contract is shown below.
CONTRACT
Weekly Wage: £14,650
Goal Bonus: £1,200
Assist Bonus: £1,000
Expiry date: 1-1-2011
Signing on fee: £41,000

I was asked what squad number I wanted, and as always it was number 13, I have never really known why, I think it is because people often believe it is unlucky and I liked the "risk" that came with that.
Me and the manager then discussed my future and did an interview for a fan magazine called "CITY" and the next home game match programme.
The idea was I would be a player for the future, no disrespect for Morecambe but there league was pretty much like our reserve league so I had a lot of work still to do, the boss wanted to help me improve as he saw a lot of potential in me and saw me as a definite one to watch for the future, he was delighted he signed me. I was delighted not just because he signed me but the belief everyone had in me was great, it was the first time I heard "future international" mentioned. The plan was I would be pushing to start every game in a years time, and would also then psuh for a place in the England squad, the time frame for that was around the World Cup 2010 qualifiers although I wanted to push for Euro 2008 although that was maybe a tad unrealisitic.


The boss gave me the first day off training this was basically to get things sorted, I would be living in a hotel for the first few months untill I could get something sorted and the club kindly stated they would pay half the bill, I then gave my Volga to my Dad as his car was coming to the end of it's time and me and him went car hunting for myself, I decided to go for an Audi TT and hopfully no one would persuade me to give this away, I fell in love with it instantly.

The manager told me I would travel to every away game so I could watch the team, get to know everyone, see how things work and how we play, and our first game was away to Sheffield United and I saw us win 2-1. Then there was a 1-0 win at home to Ipswich and a 2-0 defeat away to Everton. We then had a week off because of cup games and I spent a lot of time doing extra training, and making friends, I got on with everyone at the club it was a very nice place to be everyone was very friendly and knew one another.
On Friday the 26th I recieved a phone call, it was the boss, he told me that he wanted me to be a part of the next game at home to Chelsea as Dockov was out injured, I thought I would be on the bench as he normally was, but I was told I was starting!
I couldn't believe it, I was told just to give everything and the fans would be happy and he would and the team would.

The game, well it was amazing. When I went out I nearly passed out, it was the most amazing feeling in the world, during the first half I made a number of good passes but we soon went 1-0 down to Chelsea as most neutrals expected, the odds of us winning weren't good at all, with moments left of the first half Vessel pulled one back, and we went in at half time a lot more confident, we would have been happy with that as a result be we went out looking for a win. I soon won us a corner and saw the bal floating in Lemperd got a little to it but that directed it stright to me and I just stuck my foot out... it went in! I ran stright for the fans and all the players fallowed me, I was delighted and I had about 5 strangers hugging me in the crowd, the reff gave me a yellow card for the celebration and I didn't care.
Vessel also grabbed another goal from a corner and we won 3-1, it was one of our best results that season and I was a part of it. We went into that dressing room partying, we were all delighted and everything was going great for me. The next day proved it, I got a call from Lotto a sports clothing company and they offered me a 3 year deal worth £1.2 million a year. I accpeted, I would be stupid not to, all I had to do was pose for some photos for a magazine and star in a few adverts, they wanted to boost sales and thought using a new young football with a bright future was the way to do it, I was honoured in a way. I spend the money on a new house for myself, it was an aparment in the centre of Manchester and I also bought many gifts for my family and friends as well as stuff for the apartment.

Our next game was away to Bolton on the Wednesday, I would also start this game. We hammered them 4-0 and I got my first assist and my second goal.
The week after I saw a Bentley Continental for £277,000, I saw it and my words were something like "WOW!" and I of course bought it, I was spalshing the cash after the sponsorship deal and loving my life, and had no complaints, and didn't see why footballers would complain, life was brilliant.

The season began to fly by, I spent a lot of time in training but every now and again I also started a game, it looked as though I was making it in Manchester.

[Clayton]

The team's great form carried on through February and many great preformances came with that, my personal highlight was the 5-0 hammering of Newcastle, in which I scored a hat-trick.
A few days later I also met a girl called Rosie who I began to date, my life was brilliant, I also made a good friend in Liam Ridgiwill, he moved to City from Aston VIlla at the end of January and as we were both new at the club we were both in the same boat, when I bought my apartment he was still looking for one and living in a hotel so I let him move in till he found somewhere else. The 5-0 win put us into 6th and things were looking great, we were now 4 points off the Champions League places
that sort of finish wasn't expected but would be a big bonus and people were starting to believe it could be more likely by the day. I went on to play a part in 2 more games that season, a 1-1 draw with Fulham and our final game of the season against already relagated Cyrstal Palace.
We went out with everyone expecting a win, if results went our way we could have ended up forth. At half time we went in at 0-0 but were delighted to hear Arsenal 3-2 down to Manchester United, if we could win we could finish 5th. Moments into the second half I recieved a through pass from
Berton and broke through of the backline, I then hammered the ball home from 15 yards, Crystal Palace didn't give up and did their fans pround, it could be expected as they had nothing to play for they might just roll over, but they didn't, they pushed us to the end, although on the 89th min I managed to seal the win with a great cross which was met by the head of Vessel. The win put us 5th, our best finish since the 1991-92 season.
I ended the season with 6 starts, and 6 goals, I also managed 3 assists.

I enjoyed the preseason break at start and spent a lot of time with the family and friends, my girlfriend also moved in with me, but soon I got bored, I enjoyed my holiday but was very eager to get back into action and playing again. I did have one problem emerging, although at the time it was only little, well when I wasn't playing football, lets say out injured or out because of a ban and in this case on holiday, I would blow a lot of my money in casinos and bookmakers, although I didn't have anything else to spend it on, and at the time I thought I wasn't going over to top, it was just a bit of fun to me. All I could really think about was playing football again, I couldn't wait to walk out on that pitch and play, I guess I missed it, but that is expected if you go a while without someone or in this case something you love you are bound to miss it, all I kept saying in my head was "Roll on August!"

[JJU]

Keep it coming, good reading :)

[Clayton]

Thank you, I will do!

[Clayton]

Soon July had come and it was nice to be back in training and playing friendlies, this month flew by and soon came our first game of season, home to Chelsea. This game would go down in history, it was a game no one would forget anytime soon, and it saw the immediate departure of the Chelsea manager.
We trashed them 5-0, it was a stunning game, my first goal came on 12 mins it was meant to be a cross but found its way into the net, I didn't admit it at the time, but it was accutally a cross, I then played a part in Vessell's first goal as he went on to grab a hat-trick, and with moments to go in the game I got a second goal, this was a beautiful 30 yard drive.

A few days later Evian offered me a sponsorship worth £2.4 million per year for two years, I of course accepted, I would have been a fool not to. I recieved the money that day and a few days later we filmed an advert and I was needed for 4 photoshoots over the fallowing month, I soon saw pictures of myself on billboards and bus stops, it was rather weird at first but I soon got used to it.
With the money I bought a Beach House in California to use as a holiday home worth £1million, this house was a project for my girlfriend, I bought it and she did the whole interior, I couldn't think of anyone better she was a deginer and it would keep her busy.
I also buy a Bugatti Veron for £750,000, I was lucky to get it but I was determind I a had need for speed, I loved fast cars and going fast, I got a buzz from it, this would get me in trouble later on, but we will come to that when it happens.
I then started the next two games (results below)

City 3-1 Fulham (1 goal and 1 assist)
City 0-1 Bolton

The Bolton game was very frustrating nothing went our way, and as often happened my frustrations boiled over and in the last few mins I recieved a yellow card for a hard tackle on Nolen.

I then took a few games out after my poor preformance, I wanted to do extra training and the boss sent me on a course to find ways to keep my frustrations inside me. The course helped a little and I managed to keep out of trouble on the pitch from then on, most yellow cards I got from that point were from poor tackles.

The next game I started was on the 12th of September, we were home to Sheffield United, I grabbed an assist early on with a nice simple pass to Semeres but after that nothing else really worked I made several good passes but every shot I managed to get through was saved. Near the end of the game things went very badly wrong, Semeres was sent off for picking up a second
yellow card and moments later I went of injured and we had run out of subs so we had to finish the game just holding on with no forwards and only 9 players. My injury was only a little strain in my leg and I would be back in a week at the most I was told. I came back after missing the midweek match and started our game home to Middlesbrough, I grabbed an assist and we won 2-0. Another game that would go down in history came a week later, it was our 6-2 thumping of Tottenham, in which I scored 4 goals a record at that point in my career. In the first few mins of the game we were 1-0 down, but myself and Semeres both pulled goals back, we went in at half time 2-1 up, Spurs caught our defenders by surprised and scored 20 seconds into the second half, but we then gave them a lesson in Total Football, our whole team ran rings around them, all of us helping and getting back and forward when needed, soon I scored, and scored and scored, all goals pretty simple from one on ones inside the area, and just to top it off Semeres got another goal seconds before the final whistle. I respected Spurs fans a lot after that day, because even with their team being battered they stayed in the ground and even applauded us when we scored.

Soon the newspapers got hold of pictures of me gambling and coming out of Casinos drunk in the early hours of the morning, it was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life, seeing myself on the back pages and some of the front pages of the newspapers being trown out a casino.
My family and girlfriend started to help me out, when I went to Casinos I would always have a limit from that point, and I started to spend my money on things I wanted, my girlfriend took me out to get a new car, and I got a Aston Martin DB9. She decided that rather than wasting money gambling I should collect cars, and I loved this idea, this was a little boy's dream come true. As a child I grew up collecting little toy cars but now I could collect the real thing, and pretty soon over the fallowing months I pretty much stopped gambling.

October went by nicely although there was one major disapointment, we were knocked out the cup, I didn't play the game as I had picked up a slight knock in training so to be on the safe side I sat the game out. I had never really felt so down, I believed with the side doing so well we must have been in with a chance of getting to the final, but it wasn't our year. On 27th of October there was a funny story of how 5 of my 12 goals at that point had been scored from a rebound off the keeper, this made me either the luckiest or most well positioned striker in the Premiership, although the press went for the luckiest. The day later we played a home game against Southampton, I scored 2 goals in the 4-1 victory, the first was a rebound which was slightly annoying I serpose, the second was a stunner, even if I say so myself, I recieved the ball just outside the area and kicked the ball up into the air and made a quick turn to face the goal, then as the ball came down I volleyed it, and it went beautifully into the back of the net, and I lifted my shirt to show a vest saying on it "Call that luck? Or can you do that too?", and that was the perfect goal to go with that t-shirt. Pictures of me displying that shirt to the photographers in the stadium appeared in every newspaper and is to this day still very popular on posters; it featured in many match programmes and on many t-shirts.

November started badly for me, I was sent off in our game away to Reading after picking up two yellow cards for late challenges, that game was our worst so far that season we lost 3-0, but we were still 3rd in the table, preforming above all expectations. The up side to being banned from a match was it gave me plenty of time to put in some extra hours on the training ground which the boss found pleasing, and happily let me off for my mistakes in the last game. The boss then told me after missing two games I would be back in the squad for the Manchester Derby on Wednesday the 21st of November 2007...

[Please forgive any spelling errors you may find, I didn't have much time to check it.]

[Clayton]

It was a very dark and gloomy day, with little bursts of rain every so often, I was driving up to Old Trafford in my Bugatti Veyron, well I felt the need to show off, as far as I knew no Man United player owned one, and I loved the attention it got me, rather than people whispering to one another "Look it's that footballer." When I drove the Bugatti people were whispering "Wow look at the car!" It was a nice change I suppose.
The Boss had told us all to drive to Old Trafford and get there for about 1.30 at the latest, we drove because it was rather pointless getting a team bus as we all lived just as close to Old Trafford as the City of Manchester Stadium. I finally got to the stadium and saw a large group of fans mainly United fans make there way over to the car, and as I got out they seemed very disapointed it wasn't one of their players. They all asked the same thing if they could take a picture with the car, I got one of the near by security guards to watch over the car before he took it to the safe area for all the players cars.

After the normal boring stuff that went on and warming up we all made our way back to the dressing room, with the Boss going through tactics and the team talk. The it hit me as he spoke, this was the biggest game of my career at that point, and in my opinion still is one of the biggest, especially as a Manchester City fan. We didn't have a better time to play United either, they were second from bottom with only 13 points from 17 games. They were 4 above bottom of the leauge Southampton and 3 behind Everton. The press also expected if United failed to win this match Sir Alex Ferryson would be sacked, it looked like we could ruin them, and be a big part in the down fall of their greatest manager.

The adrenaline was pumping through me as we walked out on the damp Wednesday night, Old Trafford was filled to bursting point, the sounds of both sets of fans singing could be heard for miles around. We all shook hands and cameramen were flying around us. The first half was very hard for me, everytime I recieved the ball a United player crashed into me, and I am sure they must have fouled me at least 5 times maybe more, it was usually Ferdinend crushing me. Both of my shots in that half went wide but luckily, I managed to get a ball in for Semeres, his first shot was perried by the keeper but he managed to get on to it, and with his second attempt he scored! With 5 mins left in the first half Rooniy broke through our defence and it became easy to see why United were underachieving, they had everything till it came to the finishing touch, they just seemed unlucky, and because of that lacking confidence, Rooniy's shot hit the bar, and the rebound fell to Roneldo who managed to miss what was pretty much an open goal. After this the whistle blew for half time.

I walked in and I was not happy, well I was delighted we were winning but nothign was working for me, and my frustrations were about to boil over. The boss said to me that they were going in hard on purpose trying to make me lash out or get injured, and he wouldn't be bothered if I picked up a yellow card if I wanted to go hard in on them, so I did.

Seconds into the final half Ferdinend recieved a back pass, I slide into him and he went crashing to the ground, he had picked up a slight injury, it would turn out he had strained his wrist in the landing. From the tackle I got up and carried on with the ball, I saw Semeres to my left, I played it took him, and he hit it first time, it went right through the keeper's legs and into the back of the net. The fans went wild, we all ran over to them, it looked like we must have sealed our first win at Old Trafford since 1974! In the 80th min I was tackled hard by Roneldo and lost the ball, but I managed to get back up and win the ball back off him, when I got the ball, there was a roar from our fans, fallowed by a long ring of "Boos" from the United fans, with that in mind I decided I would wind up the United fans a little more, I took on there whole defense, and to that they fell scilent, I then struck the ball from about 20 yards, and it struck the bar, the sound of the bar ringing went on for about 30 seconds. I expected the United fans to cheer at my miss, but they didn't, they were still scilent, and then I noticed a few clapping.

The match from the way quiet tight and with United failing to break us down we won 2-0. It was a great victory for us and the fans, for United it meant that Ferryson would be sacked the next day. Our season couldn't get much better.

[Clayton]

Sorry about no updates my PC died and no longer have the saves and only just got the internet back :(