Last gasp

The veteran midfielder kept his cool to beat David James from the penalty spot with just seconds remaining in a game City could have won ten times over.

He was being taunted by Citys desperately disappointed players but was oblivious to the pressure as he sent Wanderers fans wild with derby delight.

I just didnt think about it, Speed said. I was getting a bit of barracking from the City players but my dad was in the stand and I was thinking about him I dont know why, but I knew hed be quaking and would probably not have been able to watch.

So I thought about him and concentrated, just hoping to get a clean strike, and luckily I did.

Luck was a word that littered the post-match analysis of Wanderers third win in six Premiership games.

For how they were still in with a shout at that late stage must rank as one of the great sporting mysteries of our time. They had been battered, almost into submission, by a City side that did just about everything but score.

But a combination of good fortune City hit the woodwork five times (twice with one Antoine Sibierski header in the first half) and outstanding goalkeeping by Jussi Jaaskelainen ended the Blues 13-match unbeaten run and inflicted their first home defeat since Wanderers won there in March.

As Sam Allardyce admitted, sometimes there are forces at work, other than those that either players or managers have any control over.

It was so ridiculously unbelievable that, at one stage, City manager Stuart Pearce looked at the Wanderers boss and just burst out laughing. Yet he must have felt like crying wh

en, with 93 minutes on the clock, Henrik Pedersen coaxed Richard Dunne into handling the ball and referee Mike Dean had no option but to award the penalty.

Stuart was jumping up and down and couldnt believe what was happening, Allardyce said. I just stood there and blew a sigh of relief that another City shot had hit the bar and gone over.

But, like he said, you can sort of smell it coming. When youve had those chances and not converted them, somebody is going to slip up somewhere in your team and its going to be even more costly than it should be. And thats what happened yesterday.

I know we probably shouldnt have been at 0-0 at that stage because of the chances City had, but Henrik, who got in those positions time and again and probably got in more crosses than anyone else in the whole game, produced a great bit of skill to flick the ball over Dunnys head and hes put his hand up to give us the penalty and the opportunity to take the three points.

Wanderers can point to the various occasions when they have suffered at the cruel hand of footballing fate most recently when they lost 1-0 to Everton at the Reebok, having completely dominated the game.

But they have never suffered as many unlucky breaks in one match as City did.

If it wasnt the woodwork denying Sibierski, Kiki Musampa, Joey Barton or Sun Jihai, it was Jaaskelainen, whose reaction saves from Sibierski in the first half and Claudio Reyna and Stephen Ireland in the second, underlined his credentials as one of the best keepers in the Premiership.

Wanderers might actually have set City a different kind of test had Kevin Davies not planted a free header straight at James in the 17th minute.

But that was the only time James was tested, until he faced Speed from 12 yards in those dramatic dying seconds.

But they are deserving of some credit. This was the first test of their ability to run domestic and European campaigns in tandem and no one can argue with the results.

Indeed, they can take immense satisfaction from having achieved two victories in four days a second successive Premiership win at the City of Manchester Stadium on the back of Thursdays 2-1 win against Lokomotiv Plovdiv in the UEFA Cup.

A triumph for the new Tinkerman.

Ever since Wanderers qualified for Europe through their astonishing feats in the league last season, Allardyce has warned of the need for squad rotation and he believes the proof is there for all to see.

He tinkered with his team in midweek and tinkered again yesterday, when only four of the team who played 90 minutes against Plovdiv Jaaskelainen, Radhi Jaidi, Bruno NGotty and El-Hadji Diouf started against City. Yet it still took adjustments during the game before Wanderers were able to ask serious questions of the City defence.

One was enforced with Abdoulaye Faye, who had impressed in the holding midfield role, picking up a groin injury and having to make way for Ivan Campo at half time.

But there was certainly a marked improvement when Ricardo Gardner and Hidetoshi Nakata were sent on for the last half hour or so, allowing Pedersen and Kevin Nolan, who had been industrious in their respective roles at left-back and midfield, to push into the front line.

There was also a significant tilt in the balance of play, the Gardner-Pedersen axis on the left posing the most dangerous threat and giving Wanderers some respite from the nerve-racking pressure at the other end. sssYet it still looked like City would snatch the victory their efforts deserved, even into injury time, when Jaidi had to make a desperate, tangled, last-ditch challenge to prevent Darius Vassell turning in a Danny Mills cross.

Speed acknowledged that City were unlucky and that Wanderers had taken three points with a distinctly below-par performance.

But he has been around long enough to know the value of a victory, however it is achieved.

Manchester City have got to count themselves unfortunate, said the Whites skipper, in the absence of the injured Jay Jay Okocha.

We were probably lucky to still be in it but, if you keep a clean sheet, especially away from home, youve always got a chance.

Weve got three out of six now, which is good and shows what you can do ssswith a bit of luck and good defending.

We havent played well in the last two or three games but, if youre getting results when youre not playing well, its a bonus.

If we can start playing well and producing the stuff we were playing last season, well hopefully stay in the top six.

Id rather play indifferently and win or draw than play great and lose. Hopefully, when we do hit a bit of form, we can capitalise on it and get some more good results.