City In The League Cup – 3rd Round Stats

It has been well documented that The League Cup is the last trophy that City won and last season, the blues came agonisingly close to a trip to Wembley.

Hopefully the blues will go one better this year and make it to the final. In anticipation of City’s third round game at West Brom on Wednesday, Man City Blog takes a look at this fixture over the last ten years.

In November 2000, City had been drawn at Villa Park. It was City’s first season back in the Premiership after an absence of four years which had included a spell in the third tier of English football. The blues were struggling under Joe Royle but a Kevin Horlock goal secured a 1-0 win for City and a place in the fourth round.

The following season, City found themselves back in the First Division and under the guidance of Kevin Keegan. By the time Birmingham arrived at Maine Road, City were already flying high and promptly dispatched the Midlanders 6-0. Darren Huckerby scored four alongside a Shaun Goater goal and a Birmingham own goal.

2002 saw a shock defeat for City. A visit to Wigan on Bonfire Night ended City’s participation in the cup and set a precedence for Wigan to hold the Indian sign over City when they finally achieved promotion to the Premiership.

In 2003, City didn’t allow their European campaign to interfere with the cup when they travelled to QPR and won 3-0 thanks to two goals from Shaun Wright-Phillips and one from Jon Macken. City faced London opposition the following year when a young Arsenal side visited Eastlands and won 2-1, Robbie Fowler scoring City’s only goal.

Then came the disaster years. In 2005 and 2006, City failed to reach the third round after being knocked out at the second round stage by lower division teams. Doncaster in 2005 was followed by Chesterfield a year later.

Sven Goran Eriksson’s blues beat Norwich 1-0 at Eastlands in 2007 before Mark Hughes’ richest club in the world again failed to make it to the third round after being beaten on penalties by Brighton. Last season’s route to the semi-finals saw City needing extra time to knock Fulham out at the third round stage.

In 1975, the blues beat Nottingham Forest 2-1 in the third round at Maine Road with goals coming from Colin Bell and Joe Royle.