MOSS SIDE BARROW BOY PART ELEVEN

It was very nearly a sell-out Maine Road that welcomed Neil Warnock's Sheffield United. 32,339 fans made for a wall of noise, much of this coming from the small cohort of Yorkshire folk entrenched in the away end.

"Get the bugger won!" they screeched in unison, though 'screech' was perhaps the wrong word, as these people had the thickest voices imaginable, like dumplings dipped in Bovril. And that was just the women.

"Hello Neil mate," I said to my opponent, shaking his hand in the rain. "Nice to see you again."

"We're here to get the bugger won," he replied gruffly.

And for a while it looked patchy for us. I had reintroduced Tonton Zola Moukoko for the unfit Eyal Berkovic, and the Israeli sat and sulked from his place on the bench. Mark Kerr was the only one of our players who really looked awake, and controlled midfield all on his own. I had to admit the young Scot was looking like being amongst my best buys, certainly the finest since I introduced Dean Windass to the Riverside, and he proved it in the 26th minute. Stefan Selakovic roamed out to the right and sent a pinpoint cross towards Kerr, who connected with his forehead. De Vogts was well positioned, but the venom of the shot meant he could only parry it, and Moukoko was there, unmarked to kiss the ball into the net.

All the same, Kerr aside we didn't look too happy, and allowed the Blades to equalise almost straight from kick off when Peter Ndlovu collected a flick-on from Paul Devlin and rocketed a shot straight past Daniel Andersson.

"Pick that bugger out," the away fans ordered our Swedish keeper. Knickers, I thought. But I was soon allowed to calm down once again. Moukoko came out with one of the nicest individual goals I had seen in some time, reminiscent of former City great Gio Kinkladze. From the halfway line he went on a mazy run through the United defence, dribbling past both Devlin and Paul Peschisolido with all the arrogance of the young before shooting. It was a hopeful effort more than a biting one, but it was too good for De Vogts.

The second half was like a lovely dream as we clicked into place, taking out all our frustrations on the visitors. It stopped raining also, and as though to prove how rare this was it started up again at the final whistle. In the 51st minute, Kristian Bergstrom found Andreas Andersson in the area. De Vogts came out of the goalmouth to challenge our Swedish forward for the cross, but the latter won, heading down for Kerr who was waiting with intent. 3-1. Things got desperate for Warnock soon afterwards. Andersson made another dash into the six-yard box, but only got as far as Keith Curle who made a blood-curdling tackle. If Curle had hidden switchblades in the toes of his boots, the intent of his challenge on Andreas couldn't have been any clearer. It was inexcusable, dangerous, and he was off. Later Ray Wilkins, in his highlights commentary, would be heard to remark that Curle's actions were "Terrible, terrible, but lovely, lovely."

The rest was a blur of blue attacks. Andersson got his revenge for being scythed down when Selakovic's free kick was deflected off the wall and into his path. 4-1. With half an hour to go, Moukoko completed his hat trick with a prosaic poacher's goal that was assisted by Ibrahim Said, making a rare attacking foray. We spent the remaining 30 minutes giving some of the colder lads on the bench some action to warm them up, and the disruption to our shape ensured no more goals were scored.

"Bugger, bugger, bugger," Warnock murmured over and over, and you can imagine what he said when I went to console him as he made his way to be a bastard in the dressing room at full-time.

That weekend, we travelled 30 miles up the road to take on Burnley, an even more remote place than neighbouring Accrington. It was a grim town, and things were looking grim also for Stan Ternent, who was under pressure to start turning things around at Turf Moor. They were 20th in the table, and not looking promising.

We helped to increase his ire in the 8th minute, Moukoko collecting Selakovic's right-sided cross, then easing past Clarets captain Steve 'Interesting' Davis to score a ridiculously easy opener. Ternent himself could have opened the door for us to knacker his team it was that simple. Things got worse for him as Jean-Michel Ferri and Paul Mitchell both went off injured, and for a time I thought the match was just going to peter out. David D'Avria had other ideas. A free kick deep into the second half for his team saw him score direct from 30 yards, somehow avoiding the City wall and bending freakishly into the top corner. Worryingly our lads looked unconcerned, and continued to make lazy chances for themselves without a conversion. We were well into added time when we found a winner. Substitute Kevin Horlock took a corner from the left that Kerr had to jump for with Alan Moore. The Scot won. And so did we.

The result wrapped up an interesting September during which we reasserted our authority (City had moved back to the top) in the division and unearthed two gems in Moukoko and Kerr. We also found ourselves with a new acquisition, when Tommi Gronlund arrived from Sweden to join the squad. I told the Finn that he wouldn't play against Wolves on Wednesday, but that he should prepare himself for an intensive season. Watford's Luca Vialli received the Manager of the Month award, whilst Dougie Freedman clinched the Player tankard for scoring freely with Crystal Palace. I only felt like arguing with Andy Johnson's award of being the Young Player of September. No offence to the young Birmingham striker, but what did Moukoko have to do to earn recognition?

Eyal Berkovic was back in the XI that took to Molineux for the Wolves clash. Though in tenth, the Wanderers were clear rivals for promotion, and had a wily man to do the job in Dave Jones. Nearly 30,000 midlanders watched their heroes beat us 3-2, with - in a typical irony - former City midfielder Mark Kennedy in inspired form down the left. I was also impressed with Kenny Miller, the young attacker on loan from Rangers who scored their third. Their first two were created by Irish international Kennedy, who made goals for Nathan Blake and Temuri Ketsbaia. Andersson and Kerr scored for the Blues, but no one was about to convince me that we weren't poor. We had actually led in all areas, apart from the all-important goal tally. I blamed defender Steve Howey, who had let Kennedy destroy him throughout the game. Another who copped for some Tel Treatment (actually Vinny Treatment - I refused to get my hands dirty with rough stuff) was Alf Inge Haaland, who just didn't have sufficient authority in midfield. I didn't warn him; all it took was notification that he was dropped for the next game in favour of Gronlund.

Click here for part 12.