Wolves 0, Manchester City 3: Lisa Smith's big match verdict and player ratings

Dec 29 2009 by Lisa Smith, Birmingham Mail

MANCHESTER City finally found their first win on the road since August but Wolves fans were left feeling deflated, not just by the defeat but some controversial decisions by infamous “beach ball” referee Mike Jones and his assistants.

A Carlos Tevez strike either side of a free-kick from substitute Javier Garrido was Wolves’ undoing, although the home supporters will feel aggrieved the kick was even given after the linesman and, in turn, the referee refused shouts for offside seconds earlier against Craig Bellamy.

Instead Jones chose to give City the advantage for a Michael Mancienne foul on Gareth Barry and the visitors were on their way to a second win in as many games under their new manager Roberto Mancini.

The win pushed City level on points with Villa in sixth place in the Premier League while Wolves sit in 16th place.

But for 25 minutes Wolves, led by determined skipper Karl Henry, made it tough for their guests and it was perhaps a compliment to them that City switched to a 4-4-2 formation early in the game as they tried to break Wolves down.

Manager Mick McCarthy had started the game, not with 11 wholesale changes this time, but five with Chris Iwelumo, Kevin Foley, George Elokobi, Andrew Surman and Mancienne coming in, while City called back Bellamy and Micah Richards.

The home side were looking to emulate fine recent wins over Tottenham and Burnley and started brightly enough with Foley finding Kevin Doyle twice in the opening exchanges before Surman scuffed a half-chance just wide.

But if you don’t take your chances at this level you pay and it was perhaps ironic that Bellamy was in the end involved in City’s opener.

The fans in the South Bank gave Bellamy dog’s abuse throughout the game, even chanting the name of the player once dubbed “the most hated man in football,” ex-Wolves defender Kevin Muscat, who was responsible for putting the Welshman out of the game for four months in 1998 during a clash when the two met while Bellamy was at Norwich.

But the fans’ attempts to rile him merely served to spur the midfielder on and it was his telling run and cross which found Tevez for City’s first goal of the night – with a bit of a deflection from Christophe Berra for good measure.