City played with ten men for the majority of the match, and despite taking the lead twice, were held for a draw by Manchester United.
What happened
We went into the game 15 points behind our local rivals, but as it has been said many times before, form goes out the window on derby day!
That saying rang true in the early stages of the game, as City started strongly, moving the ball well and pressing Manchester United high up the pitch.
After a few corners and a couple of great saves from United ‘keeper Jacob Carney, City were rewarded in the 17th minute when D’Margio Wright-Phillips prodded the ball in from close range to open the scoring for Gareth Taylor’s side.
City continued to look dangerous throughout the first-half, and after some solid hold-up play from Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, skipper Ben Knight unleashed a powerful effort which just flew over the bar.
Just after the half-hour mark, some unsavoury scenes saw City go down to ten men. An altercation between City’s Sammy Robinson and United’s captain Brandon Williams led to Robinson seeing red, and Williams escaping with just a yellow, alongside his teammate Largie Ramazani.
The visitors made the extra man count less than ten minutes later, when Ethan Galbraith calmly finished to equalise.
A few minutes before the break, we were unlucky not to be ahead. Knight turned onto his left foot and fancied his chances again, this time his effort arrowed towards the top corner, only to be denied by a fantastic diving save from Carney.
Soon after the half-time break, we restored our lead. Wright-Phillips tricked his way down the right wing before cutting inside and crossing with his left foot. The delivery found Knight at the back post, who this time got the better of Carney with a powerful strike into the bottom corner.
Manchester United pressed to try and find the equaliser, and if it wasn’t for an athletic diving save from Louie Moulden, they would have. Ramazani struck a low effort, but the City ‘keeper matched it down to his left-hand side.
The away side equalised again with just under ten minutes to go through a Dylan Levitt penalty.
Up next
We travel to high-flying Derby County for our next game on the 16th of April, before returning to the City Football Academy to host Sunderland four days later.
