How slender is the dividing line between success and failure. With 16 minutes of a compelling tie remaining at Maine Road yesterday, Manchester City stood expectantly on the threshold of a victory which could have transformed a wretched season which may yet yield new horrors. After Steve Potts had impeded Paul Dickov, the ball lay on the penalty spot requiring just one precise blow from the left boot of Uwe Rosler to move City noses in front of West Ham United.
Rosler missed, horrendously so and taken, inexplicably, with his right foot. Less than two minutes after his kick had sailed over the crossbar Steve Lomas, a former City player, drilled in a half-cleared corner and the boys from the Premiership were home and dry.
This result, quite probably, leaves the City manager Frank Clark with just one more opportunity to prolong his tenure at a great club in terrible trouble. If City are defeated at home by Charlton Athletic on Wednesday night, Clark is likely to be a statistic and not a manager.
"You simply cannot afford to miss penalties," said Clark. "What we have left now is a real battle until the end of the season."
City's reliance upon what is known locally as the Georgi Kinkladze Effect is now almost total. It is also rather embarrassing, for to heap the lofty expectation of an entire club upon the slender shoulders of one individual, however gifted, smacks of callousness. City's stadium rises as one when the scurrying Georgian shapes as if to cast his spell.
The faithful are drawn heavenwards as if pulled by invisible strings, there is a sharp intake of breath and, fleetingly, magic in the air. Kinkladze is often accused of delivering only when it suits him, a harsh assessment of a player governed as much by mood as by circumstances.
But, yesterday, the opposition was tasty and the television cameras were present so he was ready. Kinkladze's first contribution was memorable indeed, a ferocious rising drive from great distance which struck the angle of post and crossbar. His moment was still to come, however. West Ham seemed reluctant to dominate but their football was always crisper and more daring.
Subsequently, it held more potential but only as the opening half neared its end did they begin to create chances. With City's back line displaying all the repellant powers of sodden tissue paper a breakthrough was, if not inevitable then always likely.
It came just before the half hour and served to reinforce the belief that a poor defence will survive for just as long as it is permitted to survive. It was a lovely goal, John Hartson guiding the ball between Richard Edghill and Kit Symons to the feet of Eyal Berkovic who swept a low drive just inside a post.
Thereafter, City were sinking like a stone until Kinkladze remembered those television cameras. At the precise moment West Ham were threatening to claim a second goal, Kinkladze intervened to quite startling effect. Picking the ball up on the right hand touchline some 75 yards from goal, Kinkladze tore forwards taking on and then bidding a fond farewell to Berkovic, Potts and, finally, Rio Ferdinand.
The denouement was a blow with his left foot which sent the ball curling away and in off the far post. It was magnificent; even the West Ham supporters burst into spontaneous applause. In the end, it was not enough but it was a memory to cherish.
Manchester City: Wright, Brightwell, Shelia, Brown, Symons, Edghill, Whitley, Russell, Dickov, Kinkladze, Rosler. Subs Not Used: Bradbury, Margetson, Brannan, Van Blerk, Crooks. Booked: Dickov, Brown, Shelia. Goals: Kinkladze 59.
West Ham United: Forrest, Potts, Ferdinand, Pearce, Unsworth (Breacker 19), Lomas, Lampard, Berkovic, Lazaridis, Abou (Dowie 87), Hartson. Subs Not Used: Lama, Rowland, Bishop. Booked: Berkovic. Goals: Berkovic 28, Lomas 76.
Referee: D J Gallagher (Banbury).
Guardian Service.
