This time around it was Carmarthen Town who gained the “honour” of dumping us out of a tournament which we so obviously regard an irrelevance on a foul night in West Wales as a City team comprising of Jermaine Darlington, Phil Mulryne, Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu and eight youngsters went down 2-1 after Byron Anthony had put us ahead in the opening minutes.
Predictably, only Mulryne and Nsungu were included in the sixteen for the visit of Play Off rivals Burnley four days later, but there were three team changes from the Arsenal game. Glenn Loovens had limped off at Highbury and his injury kept him put of action for the best part of two months (he did try to make a comeback at the end of January, but the injury flared up again), Jeff Whitley was beginning a two match ban after picking up 10 bookings and Kevin Cooper was dropped - into the team came Willie Boland (Scimeca had to be content with a place on the bench), Jason Koumas and Steve Thompson.
The first hour or so of the game provided virtually nothing in the way of goalmouth action - Alexander saved well from a Harley free kick, Akinbiyi fired just over and that was about it, but then, out of nowhere, City had a purple patch which ensured that the game was over as a contest virtually within the blink of an eye! They did need visiting keeper Jensen's help to get things going though as, under pressure from Jerome, he spilled Boland's cross to Thompson who calmly sidefooted home a debut goal from the edge of the box. Thompson needed no help for his second though as he took one touch to control Jerome's pass and another to blast the ball beyond Jensen and then Koumas beat three players in a thirty yard run, fed Ardley and then planted a precise header from the resultant cross into the corner of the net.
All of this happened between the 58th and 63rd minutes and if Jerome's fine shot had gone in instead of flying a foot wide with Jensen beaten it would have been four goals in six minutes, but it didn't really matter, Burnley were a broken team and the game now returned to it's sleepy old ways as Scimeca and Nsungu were able to make league debuts for the club under no pressure whatsoever as they came off the bench to replace Thompson and Koumas.
City's 3-0 win had repaired some of the damage done to their Play Off challenge over the Christmas period and there was another boost for them a week later when they returned from relegation haunted Leicester with a 2-1 victory. Despite a marvellous FA Cup win over Spurs in which they had turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 win in their last home match, the home team were in the middle of a six game losing League run which eventually saw manager Craig Levein sacked a few days later and City, with Scimeca in for the unlucky Boland who spent what looks like being his last season at the club very much as a squad player, exploited Leicester's fragility in the thirteenth minute when Barker played a fine crossfield pass to Ardley whose excellent cross was powerfully headed in by Jerome.
However, instead of kicking on from there, City found themselves increasingly forced back and the home team grabbed a deserved equaliser just before the break when Fryatt out jumped Alexander to get in a header which was adjudged to have crossed the line before Purse cleared. If City keeper's was a at fault for Fryatt's goal, he made up for it early in the second half with a marvellous save from the same player and after that, City had the better of things with the match being won in the 56th minute by another terrific goal as Koumas bent a free kick from twenty five yards across keeper Douglas and into the top of the net.
Frustratingly, City now had a ten day delay before their next match and in that time attention switched back to off field matters with more news on the new ground scheme. Although the promised second retailer had not been announced in early January, as the month came to a close there were reports that, far from there only being the one retailer interested in becoming the second anchor tenant in the retail development there were three with Asda and Sainsburys joining Tescos in the bidding. It became increasingly clear that Asda were winning the battle and on 31 January a press conference involving the club, Council, developers and retailers confirmed that they had joined Costco in signing up.
Surely, now, that was it and building could start soon? Um no, the Council now needed to be satisfied that the club's Business Plan (which had not even been filed with them yet!) stacked up and so the whole tiresome saga rumbled on like a bad soap opera that made Crossroads look like a BAFTA winner!
Despite my cynicism, I have to admit that Asda signing up had to be a significant step forward for the scheme which could not be viewed as anything but good news and I believe that this was reflected in a larger than anticipated gate that turned up later that day to watch City entertain relegation bound Millwall.
Although a crowd of 12,376 wasn't great, it was pretty good when you consider it was for a game played on a Tuesday night in January against a struggling side who brought only 143 supporters with them. Those present saw a good City performance which deserved much more than a 1-1 draw - City were well on top and had come close on numerous occasions when Jerome put them in front with a low shot from about twenty yards as he ran onto a good pass by the influential Scimeca and, although they were not so dominant after that, they still looked comfortable. However, there was the nagging suspicion that they should have killed the game off with a second goal and this feeling grew when they were denied a blatant penalty by referee Marriner when Jerome went down in the penalty area under a challenge from Ifil. This feeling turned to reality on the hour mark when the visitors new signing Dutch striker Berry Powell scored a debut goal three minutes after coming on as a substitute.
Throughout the season the team's inability to stretch two game winning runs any further held them back - although they were unlucky on the night, the fact had to be faced that the two points dropped were another example of the team not being able to make home advantage count against sides a long way below them in the table.
Having failed to beat one South London team, City travelled to face another one in Crystal Palace a few days later in what was a real six pointer in the battle for Play Off places. Increasingly it was looking as if Leeds and Watford had got too far in front of the chasing pack to be caught, so, effectively, only two of the four Play Off places remained up for grabs and it looked like there was a four way battle for those with Preston, Palace and Wolves joining City to fight things out.
City went into the game in seventh place, with a game in hand on Palace, so a draw would not have been a bad result for them and this was reflected in a selection by Dave Jones that saw Steve Thompson (who had badly cut a finger in a domestic accident) drop to the bench as the 4-5-1 system made a return. Predictably, it turned out to be a game of few chances - apart from a Jerome goal dubiously disallowed by referee Bates, City never came close to scoring even though Palace were reduced to ten men for the last eight minutes after Fitz Hall was dismissed following an off the ball incident with Jerome. What chances there were went to the home team and eventually they made one count with twenty minutes left when Andy Johnson beat three defenders and crossed low for Riihilahti to net from close range.
Although it wasn't apparent at the time, what City's 1-0 defeat had done was to ensure that they only had the one Play Off position to chase - Palace now began a process which would see them move well clear of City in the following weeks. All of this meant that victory was essential against Stoke at Ninian Park the following week and, worryingly, it would be a patched up team that took to the field as Thompson's injury kept him out and the inspirational Koumas would be missing through suspension.
Nsungu came in for Thompson , but the big question was how would the team cope without Koumas. The answer to the question was provide din the form of a 3-0 win that turned out to be one of the most comfortable the team had all season - Koumas' replacement Kevin Cooper gave City fans a rare glimpse of the scoring ability he used to show on a regular basis at Stockport and Wolves on 18 minutes when he cut in from the right to fire a great left footed shot beyond Simonsen from the corner of the penalty area and Neil Cox got his first goal for the club on the half hour mark when he swept in a Scimeca flick from a corner from six yards out. After that, City were comfortably in control and Cox, who was proving doubters like me wrong at this time with a series of good performance, got a second after the break with a header from an Ardley free kick.
City's win was so comfortable that there was even speculation that the available again Jason Koumas may have to settle for a place on the bench in their next match, but that was never going to happen and the playmaker came in for Willie Boland for what turned out to be a remarkable match at Luton.
Attention after the game tended to centre on City's tremendous second half display and referee Woolmer's injury time denial of what looked an obvious penalty after Nicholls felled Koumas in the box, but it couldn't completely overshadow a dreadful first half performance by the team. City were second best all over the park in the opening forty five minutes and were lucky to go in only two goals down courtesy of a couple of Rowan Vine goals in a two minute spell midway through the half. Indeed, there was little in the City's display after the break to suggest the fireworks to come until Jeff Whitley replaced Cooper - true Koumas had pulled a goal back on 55 minutes with a superb long range shot past Beresford, but the home team had taken only five minutes to restore their two goal advantage courtesy of a Barker own goal.
Once Whitley came on though, City looked a different team and they pummelled Luton for the rest of the match with an attacking assault which really should have seen them take all three points. It really was one way traffic as City went for it knowing that defeat could see the end of their play off dreams and their pressure eventually told when Scimeca powerfully headed in from an Ardley cross. Luton were somehow clinging on to their lead as the game entered it's final five minutes, but, Koumas, who had been anonymous before the break, was dictating things and he cut in from the right to fire in a low shot that flew past Beresford on his near post.
At 3-3 there was no hint of City sitting back and accepting a point as they continued to make the running and they would, surely, have got the reward they deserved if the officials hadn't bottled that penalty decision.
The team's stirring fight back had some supporters asking why City couldn't play like that all the time, why did they play more cautiously when they could cause such havoc with an all out attacking policy? Well, I may be wrong, but I think it would be impossible for a team to play with the intensity and fire that City showed in the last hour at Kenilworth Road all the time because they would be burned out by October! I think subsequent events back me up as well, because from that night on, quite a few of their players seemed to be running on empty. For the last two months or so of the season, City lacked energy and looked lethargic when compared to almost every side they faced and I feel that certain players, who had very little left in the tank beforehand, put so much into that Luton game that they were almost like hollow shells of the players they had been afterwards - at other clubs these players could have been given a rest., but with our tiny squad, this wasn't an option.