Kovar and Schanbel keep Lightning in Czech

MANCHESTER PHOENIX  4 - 3   MILTON KEYNES LIGHTNING 

An entertaining encounter with goals and a line brawl late on, saw the Manchester Phoenix prevail over the Milton Keynes Lightning 4-3 at the Altrincham Ice dome on Sunday evening.

Although this may not be put in with past classics between the Phoenix and Lightning, it was certainly action packed for sure with the Phoenix completing a 4 point weekend and a draining weekend to for many reasons too.

It didn`t start all that great for the home side, as they came out a bit sluggish and slow compared to their opponents early on after their Roses victory the night before.

Phoenix was missing the services of young Defenceman James Neil, who was injured the night before in Sheffield as he was shoved head first into the boards, so the Phoenix were a defenseman down for the encounter.

Their Buckinghamshire opponents saw them play some very good hockey in the early stages of the game as they took it to the home side with the home side not full up and running and due to that the Lightning struck first, when they scored after a bit of good fortune saw the referee get in the way of the Phoenix down the right wing, giving MK possession and from it Janne Jokila jumped on the puck passed to Blaz Emersic, who put the puck to the back post for Leigh Jamieson to tap in at 3:23 and gave Nick Poole`s men the 1-0 lead.

Things got worse for the home side, when Janne Jokila turned from provider to scorer as his shot to the far side beat Steve Fone for a 2-0 lead for the MK Lightning at 8:25, with Jordan Cownie and Ben Russell assisting on the Finnish forward goal in want was a quick counter attacking play by the visitors  as they made a great start to the game and shown that Lightning does indeed strike twice.

Michal Psurny was then sent to the penalty box by the match official for Boarding at 9:55, this then put the visitors on a power play to which the home side successfully killed off.

Eventually the home side grabbed a goal to start them on the comeback trail as they got pulled a goal back,when the puck was sent round the boards by Rob Schnabel, the puck came to Tony Hand he made a quick pass to James Archer in the slot and Archer skated towards goal and shot while down on one knee to accuracy one time it through the legs of Stephen Wall for a goal and make it 2-1 at 12:57, giving them a footing back in the game.

Phoenix tied the game up with a delayed penalty goal at 15:02, as a penalty against Milton Keynes defenceman Ross Green was going to be called for holding Frankie Bakrlik by the boards. Play continued on and saw the Yorkshire duo of Phoenix Captain Luke Boothroyd and James Archer combine with Robin Kovar tipping in from Archer`s blast from the blue line to make it 2-2.

Tom Carlon then headed to the box for the visitors, as he was called for Tripping at 16:03, that was before Psurny was then adjudged to have Hooked down a Lightning player at 18:13 and so for the rest of the first period, the home side was on the penalty kill.

In the Second period of play Phoenix took control of the game without finding the goal that would put them ahead in the match, MK had glimpse of attacking threats with the closest coming from Blaz Emersic, whose blast pinged off the goalpost and went away for the visitors.

Manchester Phoenix were creating the better chances of the two sides as it seemed like the Lightning had burn`t themselves out early on in the game, when they took a two goal lead.

Ross Green was then put in the penalty box for a Tripping call at 24:42 which gave the home side a power play opportunity and a chance to try to take the lead for the first time in the game. Leigh Jamieson took one for the team, as he Hooked down Michal Psurny to give the Phoenix another power play opportunity and one they couldn`t capitalise on either.

Schnabel fists do the talking 

Play started to get a bit chippy then, with both sides looking to grab the advantage in the tight game, a penalty then came when a loose puck down by the corner in the Phoenix zone, saw Joe Graham and Janne Jokila battle for it with Jokila throwing what looked like an elbow to the head of Graham and the Phoenix man wasn`t too happy with it, as he slashed and shoved the MK player, with the Finnish forward drawing the penalty on the Manchester man for Roughing at 33:27.

The power play for the visitors didn`t last long at all, as seconds later Lukas Zatopek was called for Holding, which saw the Lightning man completely disagree with the call and so he sat in the box carrying on his arguments and included some verbal abuse towards the official and in doing so, picked up a 10 minute misconduct penalty at 33:37 as well.

The breakthrough goal came in the form of Phoenix Captain and defenceman Luke Boothroyd at 38-42, the Phoenix Captain edged his side ahead in this tight contest with Michal Psurny and Richard Bentham assisting on it. Boothroyd picked up the puck just inside the MK zone and with him waiting for the perfect shot then found the gap to light up the lamp for a 3-2 score line, giving the home side control from that point in the game.

The final period then saw an action packed 20 minutes of hockey in a riveting game indeed, with goals and fights all happening. Phoenix seemed to have finally taken the game away from the Buckinghamshire club, when Tony Hand scored to give his men a 4-2 lead at 44:55 with Joe Graham helping on the goal. That should have been it for the away side as the home side looked to have full control of the match at that point, a few minutes later we had Phoenix forward Richard Bentham put in the box for Boarding at 48:55 as John Liptrott pointed him to the penalty box.

Line Brawl break out

The last 10 minutes of play saw an explosive passage of play with the Lightning and Phoenix both having different tasks. Phoenix were trying to close out the game while M.K still in search of a third goal as they hoped to put pressure on the home side and their pressing paid off, with it resulting in a 3rd goal for the Lightning.  Stanislav Lascek seemed to back hand it towards the back post and it hit the inside of the post and went in over the line for a one goal game with the score 4-3 to the hosts, with assists going to Lukas Zatopek and Tom Carlon at 55:22,  however then it all kicked off!

At 55:44 in the game, an incident with Frankie Bakrlik getting pushed along the boards by Ross Green, saw the Czech sniper not happy at all and shoved Green behind the MK nets after the whistle was blown and then we had Lukas Zatopek skate behind Bakrlik, pushing him into the plexi glass and saw Grant McPherson get involved in as both him and Green went after the Phoenix man.

Andy McKinney for Phoenix then came over to equal the sides as he grabbed McPherson and then when Lascek got hold of McKinney all three then fell to the ice, before Ben Wood injected himself to the mayhem as he came over to pull them apart latching onto Lascek, from the other two players.

Leigh Jamieson was holding Robin Kovar while the Lightning captain was on the boards, which had Zatopek`s stick waving near Kovar head and he then proceeded to punch the Czech forward in the back of his head 4 to 6 times with no officials around to stop it, with Jamieson holding onto Kovar. 

Robert Schnabel then came over and broke the grip of Jamieson as he outmuscled him and took him down the ice, while an irate and angry Kovar got loose and saw the Phoenix man lose it as he looked for Zatopek, who wanted no part at all of his fellow countryman and it showed as he tried to go to ground avoiding the punches of Kovar, but Kovar wasn`t letting his countryman get away without some form of revenge, as he managed to throw a few punches on the MK player before he was separated.

Teams come towards end of Heated arguments

Kovar threw one more punch before heading to the box and was finger pointing towards the direction of Zatopek, while Kovar was met by an angry Stephen Wall who came over towards him and confronted Kovar who then gave him a mouthful  back too.

With the players in the box and gloves and sticks lay strewn behind the nets, we then saw a ‘David v Goliath’ match up in the form of the smaller Grant McPherson, offering to take on the huge Robert Schnabel with the Phoenix man looking to call out Jamieson, who refused flat out.

Credit where credit is due, McPherson knew he wasn`t going to come out on top in the fight, but he tried to throw a couple but couldn`t avoid the fast flying Czech fists of Schanbel, as he well and truly pasted the young Scottish forward. 

Phoenix in all the rough stuff showed they meant business as in every battle on the ice that occured, the home side came out on top in the encounter.

Tom Carlon and Andy McKinney nearly dropped the gloves when words by Jamieson to McKinney wasn`t took well and saw Carlon step in, before the officials stepped in. Rob Schanbel had disappeared to the locker room by this point after he picked up a Game Misconduct penalty with McPherson picking up 10 misconduct penalty for Inciting.

Both Czech players involved the line brawl that being Robin Kovar for Phoenix and Lukas Zatopek for the MK Lightning, both picked up 2+2 for Roughing in the brawl and a couple more penalties should have been handed out that wasn`t called  as the official had lost control it seemed of the game.

Manchester were under the cosh for the remaining two minutes of play, as Andy McKinney was called for Holding at 57:39 after Michal Psurny nearly made it 5 for the home side when only the pipework deny him a goal.

Frankie Bakrlik collected a penalty with five seconds of play in the match left, for a Cross Checking call at 59:55 and meant the Phoenix were on a 6 on 3 penalty kill as the away side pulled the goalie looking for the tying goal.

Phoenix held on for a tough and hard fought 4-3 win to complete a tough weekend for Manchester and meant a 4 point weekend as well. As it saw two wins in two tough games over the weekend, which started off with a win over bitter local rivals the Sheffield Steeldogs, as Manchester picked up a 5-3 victory at Ice Sheffield which also saw Michal Psurny score a hat trick in the game too. 

The win leaves Manchester top, but level on points with the Guildford Flames, along with the Basingstoke Bison breathing down both their collective necks too in third place.

1	Manchester Phoenix	16	11	1	2	2	82	37	26
2	Guildford Flames	17	12	0	2	3	80	54	26
3	Basingstoke Bison	16	11	1	1	3	67	43	25
4	Milton Keynes Lightning	14	8	1	0	5	59	48	18
5	Swindon Wildcats	16	4	3	1	8	47	59	15
6	Sheffield Steeldogs	17	5	2	1	9	55	71	15
7	Slough Jets	16	6	1	0	9	58	65	14
8	Peterborough Phantoms	15	5	0	2	8	48	67	12
9	Bracknell Bees	16	3	1	2	10	41	69	10
10	Telford Tigers	15	3	1	0	11	42	66	8

links: 

 PHOENIX PODCAST: http://manchesterphoenix.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/going-for-jokila.html

PHOENIX TV:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAM8hBYQjBQ

Line brawl from seat: http://youtu.be/QnL09DGb1b8

City make shredded tweet out of the Canaries

MANCHESTER CITY 7 - 0 NORWICH CITY

Johnson (o.g) 16' Silva 20' 

Nastasic 24 'Negredo 36'

Toure 61' Aguero 70' Dzeko 86'

Nastasic celebrates his 1st City goal and the home side 3rd

Manchester City gave the Canaries a good thrashing at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday as they well and truly clipped their wings, winning 7-0 with five different scorers for the home side in the massacre.  It also means the Blues have scored 20 goals in 5 Premier league games at home this season, with 2 being the lowest amount of goals they have scored, it was inspired City side whose performance  was equal to that of the drubbing they handed out to their cross city rivals Manchester United last month.

City came into the game with talk yet again focusing over Joe Hart and would City boss Manuel Pellegrini had the courage to drop the England no 1 in place of Romanian keeper Costel Pantillimon for the goalkeeping jersey for the match.

Pantillimon was handed the duties between the posts for the game and in all honesty he was merely a by stander in the game ,while he watched his team mates rip apart Norwich from the opening minute of play as the home side dominated their visitors in a fairly one sided game. Norwich seemed to try and play football, however City shown them how to use the ball and create a lot of headaches as the Norwich defence was pulled them all over the place and had them at sixes and sevens in the half.

The architects in attack for the home side were mainly the midfield trio of Yaya Toure, Samir Nasri and star of the show the player named "Merlin" by City fans, Spanish star David Silva. City had their first chance of the game in the 14th minute of play, when good link up play between the forwards and midfielders saw a move started off by Samir Nasri nearly finish it off too, but the Frenchman  strike hit the outside of the near post and go for a goal kick. City dominant possession and good play eventually brought them a goal, as in the 15th minute a mad scramble near the 5 yard line box saw the ball balloon over John Ruddy in the Norwich goals as the keeper had already dived one way after a blocked Aguero shot came off a couple of Yellow shirted players legs and looped in after it came off Bradley Johnson last giving the home side the 1-0 lead.

Ruddy HELL! John Ruddy watches ball loop in for City 1st

Pellegrini men doubled their lead a few minutes later, when the home side build up from the back and when Nasri took control half way in his own half he put a high through ball towards Sergio Aguero up field who controlled it well, the Argentine then took it into the penalty area before spotting the run of David Silva in the area and he unselfishly laid the ball off to Silva whose effort was struck well and hard to which Ruddy couldn`t stop it from going in for a 2-0 score line after 19 minutes.

David Silva celebrates City 2nd

City weren`t in the mood to just settle for two nil, as four minutes later they made it 3-0 game thanks to a goal by Serbian defender Matija Nastasic and a first for his club as well when he headed goal wards to the near post with a despairing dive by Ruddy who was having a bad day at the office for the visitors. Talk of John Ruddy being the rival for Joe Hart as the England number 1 on this performance was light years away as he was anything bar a rival, though if it was on errors then he would be challenging for Hart. City`s fourth of the game came after an 11 minute spell without a goal, as yet again a beautiful crafted move by the home side down the Norwich left, saw Fernandinho Silva and Toure all combine before the Ivorian midfielder chipped a ball over the back line and saw Aguero latch on to it, with him then playing a ball across the face of the Norwich goals for the 'the Beast' Alvaro Negredo to put home into the roof of the net for a 4-0 lead and make the game safe already after only 35 minutes.

Norwich tried to respond, as the ex Manchester United youth striker Anthony Pilkington had an effort tipped away by the Pantillimon as that was the only bit of action he faced all game.

The home side had a lot of possession and could have had more goals in the opening 45 minutes of play, as they battered the away side and even had the odd home fan shouting out the infamous outburst of Norwich City fan and board member Delia Smith in the crowd, with cries of "We need the 12th man here, Where are you?, Let`s be havin you!". Phil Dowd mercifully put the Norwich side out of their misery in the first half at least as he blew for half time.

Negredo makes it 4-0 :Pic: BBC SPORTS

Norwich in the second half made a couple of changes after the start, with Josh Murphy and ex-Bolton Wanderers striker Johan Elmander coming on for the Norfolk side, meanwhile Manuel Pellegrini was looking ahead to Tuesday night and the Champions League game against CSKA Moscow, as he replaced Alvaro Negredo with striker Edin Dzeko for the second half of play. Norwich were gifted a couple of half chances by City Centre-back Martin Demichelis as the Argentine defender was giving the ball away sloppily on a couple of occasions and thankfully for the home side nothing came of them.

City seemed to take their foot off the gas as they weren`t as forceful in attack as in the first half. They just played the ball around like it was a training match as they didn`t have as much cutting edge as in the first 45 minutes of play, City were playing like they did against United as they just controlled the game and never gave the Canaries a sniff of the ball, as it was really men against boys stuff. 

Norwich then was gifted yet another chance by the City centre-back, as Demichelis had slid to cut out the pass, but as a result gave it right back to the opposition and from it saw Elmander trying to divert the ball at the near post and failed to find the target with no one near him at all and wasted a great chance for the away side.

The Blues had a chance to make it five when good passing play by the City players on the right wing, saw Silva nicely cut a ball to Pablo Zabaleta and as he tried to get free passed it to the feet of Nasri who then fired on goal and was stopped by Ruddy, with the ball running loose towards Aguero, who tried to dink it over the keeper only for Ruddy to spread himself big and make the forward put it side netting.

Yaya Toure scores another spectacular free kick for 5-0

Edin Dzeko then won a free kick for the home when Bradley Johnson brought him down in mid strike, which gave them a free kick from just outside the area and the Ivorian another opportunity with a set piece. From the free kick he curled it high and quickly over the Norwich wall and past Ruddy`s out stretched hand for 5-0, just before the 60th minute.

City all but killed the game off really with the 5th goal if they hadn`t already, Aguero then tried his luck with an effort from outside the area as it dipped and curled away from goals and shown City weren`t finished yet looking for goals. Pellegrini made a change with Samir Nasri getting a standing ovation from the home fans as he was replaced by James Milner and saw City hit Norwich for six soon after. Silva was switched to the left side and it instantly paid off as he evaded a strong challenge down the Norwich right before crossing into the area where Bassong for Norwich saw his clearance fall to Aguero and he smashed home in the back of the net for 6-0 after 70 minutes of play.

David Silva got a standing ovation himself and a well deserved one too as he was running the show and pulling the strings too as he was then replaced by fellow Spanish midfielder Jesus Navas. Fernandinho who had a exceptional game in his defensive midfield role himself was an unsung hero for the home side and he had a little run on goal, before he was stopped and the ball went out for a corner kick.

Dzeko and Aguero then linked up well, with the Bosnian striker flicking the ball back to Aguero and saw his shot blocked by the defender and safely to Ruddy hands, but they were playing fantastic football the blues much to the home fans joy. Martin Demichelis then kicked one down field and had Navas chase it down like a greyhound on a hare to catch it , as his shot was saved by Ruddy to deny them a goal. 

The home side won a free kick after Michael Turner tackled Aguero off the ball as the striker tried to run into space.Yaya Toure had another free kick and his blast through the wall fell to Demichelis in the penalty area and his effort was well stopped by Ruddy produced a good stop to avoid it being seven for the home side.

Norwich however couldn`t stop the juggernaut known as Manchester City scoring again, as Edin Dzeko made it 7-0 for the home side to put them in seventh heaven with Jesus Navas coming in off the right wing, he then played the ball to Dzeko inside the penalty area and Dzeko turned sharply and curled his effort low at the far post to beat Ruddy.

Dzeko celebrates City 7th  pic: IBN LIVE

The Blues nearly made it eight when a chip by Toure into the area was brought down by Dzeko, but saw his effort blocked and saw the ball fall to the in running Sergio Aguero who tried to score only for Ruddy to deny him a second goal, as the little striker was like a magnet to the ball all game.

As the rain fell down on the Etihad Stadium, the City fans were still demanding more goals by their side as with three minutes added onto the ninety, Zabaleta was given a chance to score as Aguero passed to his fellow Countryman and he just couldn`t get his shot on target. 

Pantillimon celebrates his side scoring PIC: Yahoo sports

The Full time whistle came and the Blues had hammered their guests 7-0 and shown they are tough nuts to crack at home at the Etihad stadium with the home side avenging their 3-2 loss to Norwich at the end of last season and show they are still a side to reckon with in the league.