MOSS SIDE BARROW BOY PART TWELVE

There were ten days to wait before our clash with Norwich at Carrow Road, and I made it clear to the boys that I expected better than we had produced against Wolves. In the meantime, World Cup qualifiers were being played so I settled down in front of Eurosport to see how the City lads fared. As expected, Sweden were convincing winners over little Azerbaijan, running up a healthy 3-0 scoreline with Par Zetterberg and Yskel Osmanovski prominent. Stefan Selakovic featured for 55 minutes of action, during which he played decently but without too much distinction. Kristian Bergstrom did not feature. Eyal Berkovic was much more integral to the Israel side that drew 3-3 with Austria, and afterwards I discovered on the web that Everton were interested in signing him. Good luck to them, I thought. As long as they made an offer that was worth my while, I couldn't see myself standing in his way. Another much more solid piece of transfer activity saw Leicester City fax through a £400k bid for youngster Shaun Wright-Phillips. I turned their sheet of paper over, wrote a terse message and sent it back. Bloody cheek. That said the forward was meandering in the stiffs, so I decided to promote him to the first team for a while, so that I could keep a better eye on him.

We took a full strength side down to the south east, and as promised Tommi Gronlund started in the holding midfield position in place of Alf Inge Haaland. Trapped in lower mid-table, the Canaries weren't going anywhere fast, but Nigel Worthington's side still managed to drag 21,000 fans out for the Blues' visit. Perhaps it was the half-time cookery demonstration by Delia Smith that captured their hearts. Today's recipe was flapjacks, which I was looking forward to. Norwich's best player was the young Scottish striker, Alex Notman, who punished us for defensive laziness in the 14th minute when he scored from Mark Rivers's head down. Then we got a break, or at any rate Notman did when soon after he was carried off with a dislocated shoulder. I made a mental note to ask our scouts to give me a verdict on him when he returned to fitness.

Without their biggest threat, Norwich's grip on their lead loosened considerably, and Andreas Andersson took advantage. Berkovic laid off a lovely ball to the Swede's feet whose first shot - and a weak one at that - was turned away by Crichton. The ball was palmed back to him though, and Andersson hit it with strength to equalise. This forced the home side to concentrate on defence, and we started to attack with gusto. Bergstrom and Selakovic looked potent on the wings, whilst Mark Kerr looked huge in midfield. Toffees target Berkovic didn't come out for the second half. In what turned out to be strained knee ligaments, we were going to be without our Israeli attacker for three weeks, so Tonton Zola Moukoko was introduced.

In the end our pressure was too much. Andersson latched onto Bergstrom's searching ball and spotted Kerr, who was advancing from a deep position. The Scot jumped with the keeper to see who would win the ball and the result was a lead. But if we thought we had wrapped up the match, we were wrong. Late on, Paul McNeish had the final say for Norwich in a desperate final assault, taking hold of Nedergaard's right-sided cross to score. That was how it ended, 2-2, in a contest we should have won. But I wasn't too concerned. This was a great improvement on the previous match, and a reminder that we had to take the division seriously.

We were rewarded for our improved concentration in midweek, when we romped over Watford. Gianluca Vialli brought a decent outfit to wet Manchester - yes, it was chucking down as always - that had battled its way to third. Steve Howey was in no shape to take to the field after his exertions against Norwich, so Haaland played on the right side of our three-man defence. This was Moukoko's game. He proved his worth to us as early as in the 6th minute, when he beat Stephen Hughes and Paul Robinson to score with a left-footed shot. The Hornets turned to attack, and in the 11th minute were perhaps unlucky to have a penalty shout turned down. Gronlund was the fortunate perpetrator. His hack at the skilful Hughes hadn't been pretty, and the Finn knew it as he sheepishly acknowledged the verdict. Watford did put themselves level when Stephen Glass latched onto Allan Neilsen's cross and ended a quick dart for goal with an equally unstoppable shot. But that just riled us.

Paulo Wanchope made no mistake late in the first half to head in Selakovic's centre. It was his 5th goal of the season. The second half was beautiful for Blues watchers. Bergstrom's assist just after the break gave our Costa Rican a chance to add to his account, and two minutes later he had a hat-trick. 'Phyllis' Pearce's free kick was well struck and found him perfectly placed to turn it in. By now, Wanchope was elated but tired, so Wright-Phillips came on to get in some experience. Moukoko turned the screw on Vialli. He clamed his own treble to make the final score 6-1 and officially a rout. I was delighted for the boy. Whilst not a starting player, he had yet scored ten goals all season and was making a case to be included all the time that was hard to ignore. Were you watching, Berkovic?

We had another match in just three days time, but in the meantime I was able to get rid of a couple of unwanted players. Bolton wanted Paul Ritchie, and added £1m to our account to land the Scottish defender. Andy Morrison then went to Birmingham for £240k, which wasn't an ideal sum but helped. I was pleased to see the back of the red-faced Scot, who promised to sharpen his flat-top for the new challenge he faced in the midlands. The sales lessened our weekly wage burden by £11k, and I considered this to be a significant saving.

Howey was back in the line-up for the weekend march to SW19 for the Wombles of Wimbledon, or at least to Selhurst Park. Ibrahim Said wasn't available for this one, as he was involved in an international for Egypt against the Ivory Coast. In a brilliant defensive performance, Said helped the 'Cradle of the Gods' to a 3-1 victory, and I looked at his contract, which said he could go if someone offered us £2.9m. When Gareth Ainsworth left the field early on, I knew our chances of winning the game had improved. Ainsworth was a very decent right-sided midfielder, and his torn groin muscle was an injury that always made me wince. You all know how it is.

The Dons put themselves ahead through David Nielsen's top corner flyer; I held Haaland personally responsible for the chance. We soon wormed our way back in though. Feuer's sloppy goalkick shortly before half-time was picked up by Moukoko, who scored clinically. In the second half, Gronlund fed Selakovic, who was trapped by defenders and had only Andersson to pass to. This was fine, Seconds later, the Swede was wheeling away in celebration as his hard-struck effort left Feuer with little chance. Andersson doubled his account in the 64th minute. Moukoko passed to him and he shot for the bottom corner on his favoured right foot. The forward earned further applause from our away fans when he revealed a vest saying "F**k you Kenny Dalglish". Classy stuff. The match was in our pocket moments later. A strike from the pushing Bergstrom wasn't held, and Wanchope had no chance of missing the rebound.

So it was back to the top of the table, and a match against the Albion of West Bromwich to follow. I signed the agreements sending Andrew Tunnicliffe and Lee Croft to Leek and Bury respectively in something like a daze. It was working. The press loved us. The supporters had latched onto the vibe and treated Maine Road like a party. Venables was the talk of the town, and this time not for the sorts of reasons that had Panorama journalists muck-raking.

Unlucky for some? Part 13 over here...