Man City - 2 Blackburn - 2Kevin Keegan left the ground consumed by anger yesterday and with an expression that said Do Not Disturb. The Manchester City manager had enjoyed his side's stirring fightback, recovering from being two goals down with 10 minutes remaining and having already had a player sent off, but any sense of satisfaction was tempered by the realisation that City's season is threatening to be undermined by indiscipline, on and off the field.
Do not expect Danny Tiatto or Richard Dunne to play for Keegan any more after this wild and eccentric encounter. Dunne was suspended on the morning of the match after the latest boozy misdemeanour of his painfully immature career while the red card that Tiatto earned for his two-foot lunge into David Thompson's midriff, just six minutes after coming on as a second-half substitute, can only be described as an act of thuggery.
Keegan made that clear in his post-match analysis but refused to elaborate on the reasons for suspending Dunne. City, however, have never been very good at keeping secrets and it emerged that the defender failed to arrive in time for training on Friday, having allegedly been drinking into the early hours.
Initially, he had been out with his parents, who were visiting from Dublin, and afterwards he went on with friends to several establishments in the Alderley Edge and Hale Barns area so favoured by Manchester's footballers.
Keegan fined Dunne for a similar offence last season and when the player finally turned up, Keegan smelt alcohol on him and immediately sent him home. The chairman David Bernstein discussed the matter with the other directors at the weekend before deciding, with Keegan's backing, that Dunne should be suspended for a fortnight.
"We're having a board meeting this week and we will decide our next course of action then," said Keegan. "It's not the first time he has broken club rules, but it may be the last."
He was even more scathing about Tiatto, a player whose hot-headedness belies his talent. "I can't abide people doing things like that," said Keegan. "I've got no qualms about the sending-off and I will fine him the maximum that I can. Those sort of players are no good to anybody. I'm disgusted with him. As far as I'm concerned, Danny Tiatto doesn't exist right now."
The only surprise, in fact, was that Thompson was not maimed.
As for the football, Marc-Vivien Foe, a player capable of an infuriating range of reckless mistakes, was culpable for the first Blackburn goal, playing what should have been a simple pass to Sun Jihai straight into the path of Thompson. The midfielder, with a drop of his shoulder and a change of pace, cut from left to right before driving an emphatic shot beyond Peter Schmeichel.
Then Shaun Wright-Phillips squandered possession in his own half nine minutes after half-time, and the ball was worked forward for Andy Cole to score his first of the season.
Only in the final stages did City raise themselves. With the first fans already drifting homewards, Ali Benarbia and Eyal Berkovic teed up Nicolas Anelka to score with a shot that took a deflection off Lucas Neill and then, in the final minute of normal time, Sylvain Distin whipped in a cross from the left and the substitute Shaun Goater scuffed it past Brad Friedel.
MANCHESTER CITY: Schmeichel, Jihai, Bischoff (Tiatto 61), Distin, Wright-Phillips, Berkovic, Foe, Benarbia, Jensen, Anelka, Shuker (Goater 61). Subs Not Used: Nash, Ritchie, Horlock. Sent Off: Tiatto (68). Booked: Foe, Wright-Phillips, Berkovic. Goals: Anelka 80, Goater 90.
BLACKBURN: Friedel, Taylor, Short, Berg, Neill, Gillespie (Mahon 78), Flitcroft, Dunn, Thompson (Tugay 86), Cole (Grabbi 56), Yorke. Subs Not Used: Kelly, Johansson. Booked: Neill, Gillespie, Grabbi. Goals: Thompson 26, Cole 54. Attendance: 34,130.
Referee: M Dean (Wirral).
