Plymouth were in the process of pulling their way clear of the relegation zone under new boss Tony Pulis. Typically for a Pulis side they offered a massed defence which, admittedly, did make it hard for City to create anything, but, so clueless and short of attacking threat were they that the visitors were probably guilty of paying us far too much respect! Despite City's ineptitude, they may have got away with a 0-0 if referee Probert hadn't ignored a foul by Mickey Evans on Purse in the build up to an incident which lead to a Plymouth penalty on 72 minutes when our skipper held back Chadwick in the box. Fair enough, it was a penalty, but Probert's decision to show Purse a straight red card was a very strange one as there were other City players between him and the goal - even more idiotic than the referee's decision though was that of the FAW disciplinary panel which turned down the player's subsequent appeal against the decision which meant that Purse missed the next two games!
Dead ball expert Paul Wotton scored from the spot and it has to be admitted that, even with Purse still on the pitch, City were playing so poorly that their chances of getting back into the game would have been virtually nil, so Norris' goal with ten minutes left was never really needed by a Plymouth team who picked up one of their easiest wins of the season.
Two out of form sides met at Loftus Road two days later as City opted for a return to 4-5-1 against a QPR side without a home win in over two months. However, there was no repeat of the Leeds success here as City made it just one goal scored in around seven and a half hours play in a match decided by Marc Nygaard's header two minutes after the break.
On New Years Eve City returned to Ninian Park to face a Southampton side finding life in the Championship much harder than had been anticipated. With the visitors not far off the relegation zone and having suffered three straight defeats under new boss George Burley, it was a good time for a City team in need of a win to restore flagging momentum to be facing them and, for the last time during the season, the team made one of those fast starts that had been a trademark of theirs in the early months of the season. After six minutes good work by Koumas enabled Jerome to cross to the far post where Parry knocked the ball back for Ledley to score comfortably from close range and three minutes later the goalscorer turned provider as his clever through ball was fired past Niemi by Jerome to end a personal barren spell stretching back to that night at Hillsborough nearly two months earlier.
City's performance hit no great heights after their spectacular first ten minutes, but they were still pretty comfortable against a Southampton team playing with no confidence - Blackstock got a goal back for the visitors on twenty five minutes and, for the rest of the first half, his team were probably just on top, but they barely threatened after the break and City's win was in truth quite a bit easier than the 2-1 scoreline suggests.
However, all the good work of the Southampton game was undone two days later when the side got their only real thrashing of the season at the hands of runaway leaders Reading who would end the season with all sorts of records which confirmed them as one of the best teams seen at this level in a long time.
City bravely decided to have a go at Reading and they certainly had their moments over the ninety minutes, but, overall they were very much second best to the home teams, pace movement and fluency as wide men Little and Convey had a field day.
Two down at the break to goals by Sidwell and Sonko, City conceded another early in the second half to Dave Kitson the man Lennie Lawrence thought wasn't good enough for us, but, from this awful position, they then went on to have their best spell of the game - Jerome scored a beauty from twenty five yards and, for a while, there was the feeling that if Reading conceded again they may begin to wobble. However, like true Champions the home team reasserted themselves and second goals from Sidwell and Kitson from the penalty spot meant a heaviest league defeat in terms of goals conceded since Preston's 5-0 victory over us on Boxing Day 1995.
I'm sure City's poor Christmas and New Year period couldn't be explained away by the players being distracted by the upcoming FA Cup visit to Highbury to face Premiership giants Arsenal, but, judging by what was said on here, some supporters were because, from the moment the draw was made in early December, that's all some seemed to talk about!
When Robert Pires added to his earlier goal to put the home team 2-0 up after just 18 minutes, it looked as if City were on their way to a even worse beating than the one they got at the Madjeski Stadium, but, to their credit, they competed well from thereon in (especially when you consider that West Brom had refused to allow Koumas to play in the game) and they deserved the honour of becoming the last team to score an FA Cup goal at Highbury when Jerome was credited with what looked a dubious goal on 87 minutes following a scramble after a corner. Although City gave the home team a couple of awkward moments in the few remaining minutes, it would be stretching a point to claim they deserved anything from the game, but at least they emerged with credit and their honour intact from their 2-1 defeat.
Having had a spell where the games had come thick and fast, now entered a period where the first team only played three times in twenty four days, so, inevitably attention now turned to off field matters and the fact that the transfer window had just reopened.
Off the field the first week in January came and went without the promised second retailer signing up for the new ground project. This meant that on 19 January a year had passed since the Council had given the go ahead to the retail planning applications at Leckwith with Sam Hammam proclaiming “let's get started” and that the only outstanding matters would be “a cup of tea”! Yet in that year, the only definite sign of progress being made in the saga for me was that Costco had signed up to be one of the two retailers required to take up the lions share of space in the planned shopping area - given these circumstances, is it any wonder that supporters have become cynical and disenchanted with this scheme which has dragged on for so long?
Who knows, if and when the stadium does get built, it could turn out to be all that Messrs, Hammam, Ridsdale and Temme claim it will be and more, but what seems beyond doubt to me is that it has been like an albatross to the club over the past two years which has stifled any hope of significant progress on the pitch as the those in charge try to prove to a doubting Council that they are capable of managing their financial affairs in an efficient manner.
The new stadiums depressing influence was certainly present in the club's transfer dealings in January. Whilst the more optimistic hoped to see a deal which would bring Jason Koumas here on a permanent basis, nothing encapsulated the reality of the City's situation more than the identity of the club's first signing in January as Dave Jones signed Darlington striker Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu on a contract for the rest of the season. Nsungu's six month contract with Darlington had run out at the end of December so he was actually a free agent. Nsungu had been in good goalscoring form in recent weeks, but there was nothing in his past career (spent with Sheffield Wednesday, Preston and Colchester) which really suggested he was a Championship striker and our manager admitted he was “taking a punt” on the player.
If Dave Jones wanted to be more ambitious in his transfer dealings, he would have to move players out before he could get any in and, with the continual transfer rumours concerning Cameron Jerome coming to nothing, he didn't had an awful lot of room to manoeuvre, but he was able to wheel and deal enough to get two more players in.
The confirmation of Tony Warner's permanent move to Fulham helped matters, as did the return of Michael Ricketts to Leeds after a loan spell which had started well but tailed off (although, to be fair to Ricketts, Cameron Jerome was not as effective after he left) and Toni Koskela's substitute appearance at Highbury proved to be a postcript on a City career that never really got going as he was released to join a Greek club, similarly, young striker Stuart Fleetwood was allowed to join Conference side Hereford, but I suppose the real surprise was the sale of Alan Lee to Ipswich for £100,000 - as far as I was concerned, Lee had done many things well during his time with City, but, ultimately, his very poor goalscoring return meant that his time with us couldn't be judged as anything else but a failure.
All of the money from the Lee and Warner deals (and a bit more) was spent on Rangers target man Steve Thompson who signed on a three year deal for a fee of £250,000 - while 16 caps for Scotland suggested Thompson had a good pedigree, his golascoring return throughout his career was a pretty modest, so it seemed City hadn't bought a twenty goals a season merchant.
The other new player was experienced utility player Ricardo Scimeca who arrived on a free transfer from West Brom. Scimeca had played most of his career in the Premiership having started at Aston Villa, before moving on to Nottingham Forest and then the Hawthorns. It was generally assumed that the 30 year old Scimeca would operate in defence and, in particular occupy the troublesome right back position, but, in fact he was to be used solely in a central midfield role as he, more often than not took the place previously occupied by Jeff Whitley.