BARNSLEY 1, MAN CITY 1

Martin Petrov spares blushes for megabucks City

GOOD AD - Emmanuel Adebayor rises high against Barnsley

KOLO SO LOW - Kolo Toure before picking up a knock against Barnsley

Man City exclusive | Eastlands wage bill tops £100m a year

Robinho, Adebayor, Tevez, Toure and Barry all on huge deals

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By AIDAN MAGEE, 01/08/2009

MARTIN PETROV saved a full-strength City side from an embarrassing defeat at Oakwell as Kolo Toure suffered a minor injury on his debut.

The Bulgarian turned in Craig Bellamy's cross two minutes from time just when Daniel Bogdanovic's late strike looked to have given Barnsley a memorable win.

New signing Toure left the field in the 64th minute after suffering a knock to his thigh. The £16million signing from Arsenal is not a doubt for the start of the season.

"We think Kolo might have had a bit of cramp and he took a knock," said City boss Mark Hughes.

"We took him off because we didn't want to take any chances so close to the start of the season. Overall it was just the sort of workout we needed."

City named a starting line-up which included Emmanuel Adebayor, Robinho, Kolo Toure, Craig Bellamy, Shay Given and Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Gareth Barry was left out after suffering a minor training ground injury this week. Bogdanovic's opener looked to have left City with a pre-season run of three defeats from four games.

"We looked at the line-up with all those superstar players and and wondered what score they would knock up against us. But when they gave us the ball they let us play," said Tykes boss Simon Davey.

Your comments

This article has 13 comments

Why is that nobody appears to be able to spell. some of the comments are okay but so badly written. Anyone fancy some lessons on sentence construction and grammar!!

By Jeremy.. Posted August 9 2009 at 12:32 AM.

I like Mark Hughes but it seems he may be the first casualty at Man City. This is because he does not look like the guy who can manage the stars to victory.
He needs to have a fall back position because if he loses four matches within two months, he is gone.

By John.. Posted August 2 2009 at 5:04 PM.

The idea of friendlies is to get your players used to playing with each other and trying to gel. yes maybe the first friendly of pre season is just a kick about but as you get closer to the season you should be trying to win... this tells me man citeh have bought a load of greedy mercenaries that are their just for the money... i mean how can players hearts be with a team with no back bone or history?

By John.. Posted August 2 2009 at 1:14 PM.

You don't win anything in friendlies, its a run out for the lads, running at 60%, bring the season on.

By Andy Law.. Posted August 2 2009 at 12:09 PM.

Haha I love all these jealous football fans that flock to the Man City stories to unleash their pent up frustration at their own teams lack of ambition/summer activity onto Manchester City!

It is laughable! It is obviously good for MCFC as these same morons will be watching our games next season and you by the end of the season they would have seen such amazing football (something their own team will never be able offer) and will be become closet MCFC fans.... winner!

As for the game ....it was nothing more than a kickabout with Hughes switching players are formations to give players a run out ..... it is not like we are going to fly in and break our own players legs at all costs to win such a meaningless game! These players have never played together before.....

The idiots who are making their vitriol remarks are the same iditos who say 'why was their no people on the earth the day after the big bang.......' (in other words they are completely uneducated on football).

At least when the season starts we will still have the best fans in football......we will not rise to such childish jealously!

By Edski Vega.. Posted August 2 2009 at 11:57 AM.

The 2009/2010 premier legue sumit: Manchester united, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool.....Man City will reach the Tittle afta sacking many managers after Mark Huges and spending over 300mill...thats like in 6 years time.

By Marcel Cruz.. Posted August 2 2009 at 11:24 AM.

oh yes, it was only friendly and with a strongest squad available you didn\t really want to score any goals. what a laugh!

By zigzag.. Posted August 2 2009 at 10:16 AM.

It's was a friendly warm up game to get the players match fit.
We will see what happens when the blue machine starts the new season.
CTID

By Colin .. Posted August 2 2009 at 8:35 AM.

Well-done Bogdanovic, we are proud of you, you made Sliema Wa0nderers FC in Malta a football team to fear now you are making Barnsley same with your goals keep it up Daniel, greetings from Tiny Malta with a Big Heart

By Joseph M Muscat.. Posted August 2 2009 at 8:25 AM.

Get real. Sure, Hughes would have relished in a drubbing of Barnsley but like it has been sated many times, it is preseason friendlies. Even if Hughes goes 0-0-6, I say the management give him time to get the squad to gel. Though I am hoping I won't have to endure such a dismal start. I would rather they started slow and finished strong within the top six, rather than dying off at the death of the season. Come Boys in Sky Blue, make us proud!

By Halvy.. Posted August 2 2009 at 4:29 AM.

Mark Hughes sacked within 6 to 10 games Guaranteed

By paul morrissey.. Posted August 2 2009 at 2:46 AM.

You can't judge anything by friendlies,
don't get too excited.

By SB.. Posted August 2 2009 at 12:12 AM.

haha there not going to grt anywhere nearthe title

By andrew cunningham.. Posted August 1 2009 at 11:59 PM.

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