Blue Monday: the history boys

There is a Manchester United fan in the office who never tires of reminding me that it has been close to 35 years since Manchester City last won a major trophy.

He even has an iPhone app that can pinpoint to the second the time that has elapsed since Dennis Tueart's bicycle kick at Wembley propelled Mike Doyle and company up the old stadium's 39 steps to pick up the 1976 League Cup.

Those intervening years have rarely been kind to City, a truth made harder to stomach by Sir Alex Ferguson trophy-laden tenure at Old Trafford. But times are moving on, aren't they?

Or at least we thought they were until City suffered another predictable and premature exit from the Carling Cup last week at the hands of West Brom.

It was a result which no doubt set off some smug alarm bells on that aforementioned iPhone app, although I doubt that little piece of technology made any sound louder than a whimper in the latter part of the week, when another notable date in City-United relations ticked over.

Last Thursday marked the 21st anniversary of City's 5-1 defeat of United in the Maine Road massacre, a day when the Ferguson project looked doomed to failure.
 
Of course, this was also a piece of selective memory on my part, a case of rooting out a warm moment from the history books to guard against the cold chill of an unexpected defeat.

Turn another page and you'd find that 14 years ago this week City were beaten home and away by Lincoln City at the same stage of the League Cup, or that 28 years ago they were sliding to a 4-1 away defeat at West Ham in a season that would end in relegation from the top tier.

Thankfully, City's stirring league victory over champions Chelsea on Saturday stopped any further thoughts of times gone by and offered a welcome reminder of how far City have travelled in just two years under new ownership.

LP Hartley once famously wrote: "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there."