Former Blues get fresh opportunity

Sunderland boss Roy Keane is taking a look at former
Manchester City midfielder Kiki Musampa.
Musampa is training with Sunderland,
having severed his connections with Turkish side Trabzonspor. Keane said: "He is
having a few games for us. We'll probably play him in reserve next week and he's
someone we are looking at. There are one or two players that we're checking out
and he is one of them."He has been in Turkey but he has been released. We are
still looking at things because bringing in players can be a bit of a nightmare
in terms of contracts."Hopefully the work permit situation won't be a problem
and he can have a look at us and we can have a look at him."

- Sunderland Echo.

Southampton have completed the signing of Cameroon defender
Lucien Mettomo on a short-term contract.The 30-year-old centre-half, who had a
spell with Manchester City in 2001, was a free agent having been released by
Lucerne and Saints manager George Burley has snapped him up following a
successful trial.“Lucien has been here on trial and he did well so we’ve given
him a short-term contract,” Burley told the club’s official website,
www.saintsfc.co.uk.“We will work hard to get him fully fit and then he will give
us extra cover at the back, where we are quite short with injuries to Darren
Powell and Claus Lundekvam.“He is very experienced and a full international with
Cameroon. He’s played in different countries as well as in the Premiership with
Manchester City.“He’s a strong, dominant centre-half and I’m pleased to have
signed him.”

- Ireland Online.

City 3 Southampton 1

Just a quick post as pushed for time a little this evening.

Despite the scare of going a goal down, we quickly rebounded through Vassell's equaliser and from then on it appeared as only being a matter of time before we would ultimately go on to the win the game.

Perhaps it was fortunate that we got back in the game so quickly as if we had gone 10-15 minutes into the second then the pressure may have begun to build a little. A great ball from Ireland through to Barton got the second and good to see Beasley get on the scoresheet as well to add a little insurance to the scoreline.

A comfortable afternoon all in all and despite their league positions being relatively similar, I expect a far tougher contest at Preston in round five.

Reports:

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Independent
Telegraph

Reaction:

"We were well worth our victory. The players really showed
that they wanted to go through.
"That is just one defeat in eight games now
which is pleasing for me and is credit to the players.
"We'd be delighted if
we got a home tie next and we might have a couple of new faces in our side by
then too."

- Stuart Pearce

"We gave it our best shot and worked our socks off but
overall City deserved to win the tie.
"Their goals came at a bad time for
us. We had started badly and got our noses in front but conceded quite soon
afterwards and right on half-time.
"We had chances but I could not ask from
any more from my players." - George Burley

Southampton preview

Where and when:

City of Manchester Stadium, Sunday January 28th 2007.

Current form:

Both sides have a decent Cup pedigree in recent season, with Southampton making the last sixteen in all but one of the past five seasons and ourselves aiming for a fifth appearance in the round five over the past seven seasons.
This season, George Burley has guided the Saints to the playoff spots in the Championship and are unbeaten in their past eight games and have not conceded in three.

Until the Blackburn defeat, we had picked up in both performances and results and ultimately brushed aside another Championship side Sheffield Wednesday in round three.

Team news:

City welcome back Joey Barton after suspension but Trevor Sinclair must serve one.
Loan signing Djamel Abdoun, 20, could make his debut for City.

Southampton could welcome back Nathan Dyer after an ankle injury but Inigo Idiakez, Rudi Skacel, Andrew Surman and Djamel Belmadi are out.
Full-back Chris Makin is set to return after hamstring trouble, while in-demand Gareth Bale plays and Bradley Wright-Phillips is pushing to start. (Courtesy of BBC Sport)

Keys to the game:

It is upto us to dictate the pace of the game early on in the game, as the crowd is (again) not likely to be a large one and the danger is a flat atmosphere would be more beneficial to Southampton, who are likely to come out flying in the early stages.

Barton's return will help and if our midfield get a grip of the game and control proceedings then we should have enough to win through. Up front though, whichever pairing Pearce goes with need to eliminate some of the wastefulness we have seen in recent games, as chances will probably be at a premium so we need to be far more ruthless than we have been in recent games.

City link:

Bradley Wright-Phillips. Discarded by Stuart Pearce, he must glance over at our striking woes and think 'what if'? This is his chance to prove Pearce was wrong to let him go.

Why City will win:

Despite Southampton's good form this season, this is a big game for us with last years disappointing FA Cup exit serving as a spur to go even further this season. Barton's return should take us through.

Why City will lose:

The Blackburn result signalled the end of our mini-revival, and could be the catalyst for another second half of the season meltdown.

Prediction:

City 2 Southampton 1

Opposition view.