Long season ahead: City 0-1 Deportivo

First match of the new season for us today, a friendly against Spanish la Liga team Deportivo la Coruna.

On the evidence of today, it's going to be a long hard winter for City and their fans.

Firstly, we still have major off-field problems. We have continuing difficulties in paying tax, threats of winding up orders and transfer embargos preventing us bringing any new players in.

We have a squad of 21 which includes three goalkeepers, two youngsters who have only just been offered professional contracts, and the centre midfield lynchpin is out injured.

Apart from that, things are OK. (That was a joke, but not a funny one).

So, to today. Deportivo didn't really look like they could be bothered - at least in the first half, although they did make more of an effort in the second period. City looked brighter in the first half, but given the visitors apathy, that wasn't too difficult.

0-0 at half time and with the inevitable rash of substitutions for both sides, things became quite fragmented after the break. Deportivo though did up the pace (from walking to jogging), and eventually through a series of close passes just about walked the ball into City's net. In truth, City offered very little in the second half, and that's the problem fr the season ahead.

We have no creativity in midfield. To be honest I'm not sure we've had any for a long time, but there's none there now for sure. New loan signing Danny Drinkwater (from Man U) looks capable, and (thankfully) positive, trying to get forward at available opportunities, but he's hardly pulling the strings.

And up front? Welll, Bothroyd felt his hamstring in warm up so didn't play. We've no other target man, but still persist in lobbing high balls up for the shortest front pairing in the Championship of Chopra and McCormack. They huffed and puffed, and both had decent chances, but if we can't score against a side who are hardly bothering, what are we going to do against battling Championship teams?

I'd like to think things will sort themselves out, and everything will be OK, but somehow I've got a feeling that this isn't what's going to happen.

Another tough season for City and their fans methinks.