Manchester City v West Brom 2001/02

CITY 0 WEST BROMWICH ALBION 0

Nationwide Division One

26th December 2001

Attendance 34,407

Ref Roger Furnandiz

City Nash, Howey, Wiekens, Mettomo, Tiatto, Benarbia, Berkovic, Edghill, Horlock, Wanchope Goater - subs Wright-Phillips(52), Haaland(74), Ritchie(84), Dickov(unused), Weaver(unused) West Brom Hoult, Sigurdsson, Moore, Clement, Balls, McInnes, Johnson, Jordao, Cummings, Roberts, Dichio - subs Butler(45), Dobie(61), Fox(74), Chambers(unusued), Jensen(unused) .

WHAT THE PRESS SAID

City fans face more anxiety

ANOTHER year will start as most tend to for Manchester City, their long-suffering supporters guaranteed an anxious wait to learn their team's fate. A point against one of their more serious promotion rivals came despite the 49th-minute dismissal of defender Richard Edghill and featured some stunning play and an equally noteworthy lack of finishing prowess.

The draw also came at the start of a five-week period which sees five promotion contenders visit Maine Road, most relevantly leaders Burnley, whose idle afternoon allowed City to cut their advantage to four points ahead of Saturday's meeting.

But Kevin Keegan, the City manager, was convinced that lead should now be two points, and would have been without referee Roger Furnandiz's decision to hand Edghill a second yellow card for "diving". Having cautioned Albion's Jason Roberts in similar circumstances, and with similar injustice, in the first half, he had little option but to send off the City wing-back. "That finished us from winning the game," said Keegan. "When he sees it, I think he will say it was a penalty. He doesn't have the advantage of slow motion action replay, but their guy never got the ball, he got Richard." OLIVER CLIVE WRITING FOR THE TELEGRAPH

RICHARD EDGHILL IS ADJUDGED TO HAVE DIVED AND IS SENT OFF

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