This was a point that satisfied nobody. Manchester City need far, far more to
drag themselves away from the relegation dogfight, and Sheffield must view this
as a failure in their hunt for a play-off spot.
Fresh from their stunning arrival in the FA Cup semi-finals, the Yorkshiremen
played within themselves and were rarely stretched by desperate City.
The Maine Road men, with new tough guy midfielder Jamie Pollock in place of
want-away Georgi Kinkladze, can see their First Division lives slipping away.
Francis Lee may well have departed as chairman, but musical chairs in
the boardroom mean nothing out on the pitch as City rarely looked like grabbing
all three points.
The other results from the drop zone didn't really help them much as boss Joe
Royle opted for toil rather than Kinky's talent.
The little Georgian, laid low with a virus, would have been left out anyway by
Royle who considered his £7million asset was not in the right frame of mind -
considering continual transfer speculation - to concentrate on a dogfight like
this.
After a week of boardroom shuffles, there was nothing that new chairman David
Bernstein could do but sit and watch in anguish from the directors' box.
On the pitch is the only place that City can survive and Royle now has just
seven games to save City.
United defended with confidence and ability, Nicky Marker and David Holdsworth
outstanding.
Pollock's instant contribution to City's cause was the fight and passion from
midfield that has been so sadly lacking.
It got him into a dust-up after just 11 minutes when he followed through late
into Lee Sandford. The United defender reacted by grabbing the £1million man by
the throat, and a dozen players dived into the mayhem that followed.
Referee Roy Pearson booked both Pollock and Sandford when peace had been
restored.
That level of commitment was evident from Pollock from then on. New man on the
block certainly, but he was constantly urging his new colleagues togreater
activity and may well have been a little surprised that he needed to involve
himself in such rallying, considering the state his new club are in.
City had plenty of possession but little penalty box action against United's
well-organised back line.
The nearest they got in the first-half was when Uwe Rosler burst onto a long
ball and forced it away from keeper Alan Kelly, managing to chip his resulting
cross onto the bar.
Pollock was never far from the action, and produced a string of potentially
damaging corners.
Rosler saw one scrambled effort hacked clear, and then Kelly was forced to
flatten the German as he hurled himself out to punch away another of Pollock's
flag kicks.
Holdsworth saw a diving header from Vassilis Borbokis' free-kick flash inches
wide, while Graham Stuart shot wide from another Borbokis cross.
City's best chance of the first-half fell to the unfortunate Lee Bradbury.
He helped set up the opening with a run and pass out to Jim Whitley, andwhen
the cross reached him unmarked in the box eight yards out, the £3.5million
record signing managed to head wide.
The second period saw Bradbury's early touch set up Rosler for a close-range
shot that Kelly saved superbly, but there was so much tension in the air,
anything but desperate football was all that could be expected.
One Pollock free-kick whistled over, but United defended with calm assurance.
Bradbury was eventually taken off to allow the spirited Paul Dickov into the
fray, but it was United who had the few reasonable chances on offer.
City 'keeper Martyn Margetson saved brilliantly from an Ian Rush drive after
good work by Bobby Ford, and substitute Gareth Taylor saw a header drop inches
over the bar from Paul Devlin's cross.
Teams:
Man City: Margetson, Jeff Whitley, Edghill, Jobson, Symons,
Tskhadadze, Jim Whitley, Pollock, Bradbury (Dickov 72),
Weikens (Brannan 84), Rosler.
Subs Not Used: Heaney.
Booked: Symons, Pollock.
Sheff Utd: Kelly, Derry, Quinn, Borbokis (Devlin 76), Sandford,
Holdsworth, Ford, Marker, Rush, Marcello (Taylor 78),
Stuart (Dellas 48).
Booked: Sandford.
Att: 28,496
Ref: R Pearson (Peterlee).
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