Fulham - Talking With the Opposition (Man City)

On the eve of our Premier League trip to play a vibrant Manchester City, we got up close to Vital Manchester City and asked them five pertinent questions.

1. - Do you miss the European nights or were they not as big as your dreams obviously are?

The short answer is no. Whilst I enjoyed the experience, I think it proved too much of a drain on our somewhat limited squad and cost us a fair few points last season. I don`t think it`s any coincidence that some of our more "questionable" defeats in the Premier League came immediately after we`d played in Europe, and I hope Fulham don`t have the same problems as we did.

2 - Maine Road! Was your move away greeted with universal acceptance or did some of you not wish to betray your roots?

I loved Maine Road and was a Kippax Kreature, but there was no disguising that the facilities were somewhat antiquated. The atmosphere at Maine road was second to none and there is no doubting that the move killed off some of that atmosphere, but I am genuinely pleased to bits with our new stadium. There are still a small minority that don`t like CoMS, but if we want to step up a level we need to be playing in a state of the art facility. And I don`t think the ADUG would have bought us if we were still at Maine Road!

3 - Select a Man City and Fulham combined side, we`ll let you have a ratio of 7:4, we`re feeling generous!

I`m pretty pleased with the squad we`ve got and am generally very impressed with the players Hughes has brought in. If I had to combine our squads, I would have the following team: GK - Given; RB - John Pantsil; CB Kolo Toure; CB Brede Hangeland; LB Wayne Bridge; MF Gareth Barry; MF Steven Ireland; MF Nigel De Jong; MF Danny Murphy; CF Emanuel Adebayor; CF Craig Bellamy - Subs - Mark Schwarzer; Carlos Tevez; Vincent Kompany; Santa Cruz; Clint Dempsey, Joleon Lescott; Michael Johnson.

Managed to squeeze 3 of your players into our starting 11 and another 2 on the bench, must say that Hangeland is a fantastic player and I`ve always had a soft spot for Danny Murphy.

Hope you don`t think I`m being cheeky when I point out that we have spent nearly £200m on players!

4 - Your favourite fixture between the two sides is?

That would have to be the 4-0 thumping we gave you at Maine Road on January 16th 2000, back in Division1. I remember the old place was rocking that day, with the catalyst being a bad foul on Michael Brown by one of the Fulham players. We later went on to finish 2nd in the league and win promotion, so not a bad season for us City fans.

5 - Predict the result please?

Given the way your reserves gave us a game in the Carling Cup last month we`ll definitely not be taking you lightly. Saying that, I expect your players to be very heavy legged after Thursday`s exertions against Roma, so will predict a straightforward 2-0 to City.

All the best, see you on Sunday!

Our thanks got to the Vital Manchester City Crew for their co-operation.

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