City take to left winger

"One thing I'll never forget is Quinny (Niall Quinn). Quinny got taken off. He's obviously gone in and got changed and I can remember him running up the touchline trying to get everybody going. He was waving at them all - they had come back from 2-0 down to 2-2 - and one of their players, I don't know who, started running the ball into the corner and obviously thought they just needed a draw. He didn't realise everybody was screaming at him `Get the ball into the box, get it in the box'. Toward the end Robbie Fowler had a chance which nine times out of 10 he would have put away. Ironically, they (Manchester City) went down anyway."

Of all the many, many painful days in the recent history of Manchester City, May 5th 1996 was without doubt the worst. This was the bright sunshiny day when City kicked their last kick in the Premiership. Steve Lomas was the man who took the ball into the corner. A cupboard in the main stand would have been more appropriate.

Speaking on the fourth anniversary of that red-faced sky blue embarrassment yesterday, Lomas' name was the one Mark Kennedy could not remember. Footballers generally have a reputation for inaccurate recall but then Kennedy had other priorities that day. He was playing for Liverpool, not City, still a young man coping with the tag of being Britain's most expensive teenager. He had enough on his plate worrying about his own diminishing future, never mind City's.

Now, though, having completed a curious circle, Kennedy and City's futures are interwoven. Not one of City's side from that day in '96 may be at the club now, but Kennedy is. Both he and City are all about coming back.

It is a weekly endeavour, beginning again tomorrow afternoon. A point at Blackburn Rovers and Manchester City will return to the big time, a status their huge following demands - but nothing is secured yet.

Which made the scenes last Friday night at Maine Road all the more alarming. Following the bruising 1-0 victory over Birmingham City that took Joe Royle's team to the precipice of success, there were people on the pitch. Thousands of them. They thought it was all over. It wasn't. Less than 24 hours later Ipswich won at Charlton. Consequently all is dependent on the final fixture.

Kennedy sensed the premature nature of last Friday's jubilation but also understood the cathartic impulse that overtook Maine Road. "I came off with about eight minutes left," he said in a quiet corner beside City's surprising trophy cabinet yesterday. "We all got called out by one of the senior people at the club and I actually said: `Are we not doing this a week too early?' To be fair, he said: `Just show your appreciation to the fans, it's been a great season.' That's all it was really. People have criticised certain players for being up on people's shoulders, but when you're on a pitch with 20 people holding you up, what can you do?"

Being let down is a more frequent City emotion. After the euphoria of last Friday the players were reacquainted with depression the next day when the Ipswich news came through from The Valley. "We were all in London for the PFA awards and I must admit we were all gutted when we saw it," says Kennedy. One consolation for the man from Blanchardstown was that he had been voted by his peers onto the first division team of the season.

Yesterday Kennedy chose to focus on the "weirdness" of no other City players being selected, but there remains a doubt whether the team could hold their own in the top division.

Nevertheless, as Kennedy argues, "it's still been a great season". Great for Kennedy in particular. A year ago he was completing one of only seven Premiership starts for Wimbledon, which, coming after his 19 appearances in three years for Liverpool, was in danger of branding him forever as the boy-wonder nobody wondered about. City's Stg £1 million cheque brought him back into the consciousness.

Thankfully, for him, he is neither resentful nor unrealistic about his past. He will be 24 on Monday week and said of his career to date: "In my situation, because I haven't played for so long and because I hadn't really done anything for two clubs, that's up to other people (to assess), but I didn't come here to prove I wasn't a gamble. I'm not out to justify myself. I'm just keen to prove to myself that I was right all along: if given a chance, I could do it. But I haven't done anything in the Premier League. I haven't even done anything in the first division.

"Wimbledon was strange. I'm disappointed about Wimbledon. I'm certainly not bitter, but I am disappointed because when I went down to speak to Wimbledon I rang my agent to say I didn't really want to go down. I had other options. Wimbledon were Premier League but a couple of other big clubs were in. I thought out of courtesy I'll go. So I did, I sat with Joe (Kinnear) for about five hours and he really changed my mind. After the three years at Liverpool I thought: `This man really wants me'. As soon as I went there that just sort of changed. I went to see him on numerous occasions. I didn't really get an answer. I don't want to have a go at Joe, because I never really got to know Joe."

Too often Kennedy found himself behind Michael Hughes in the creative left-footed pecking order - even when Hughes was injured. Naturally Kennedy's confidence dried up. It swelled only when he arrived at Maine Road. "When I was at Wimbledon I just didn't want to give the ball away. I know now that if I try to take the ball past somebody and it doesn't go right I'm not going to be dragged off or dropped for the next game. At Wimbledon I knew I didn't have that chance."

His feelings of release at leaving south London were such that he scored four goals in his first six City games. Only five have come since but Kennedy pointed to his "17 assists" and said of his first Moss Side season: "I'm satisfied. I'm not stupid, I know it could have gone either way. Now I've got my confidence back."

He is starting to resemble the potential Liverpool paid Millwall u1.5 Stg £1.5 million for just over five years ago. Achilles heel injuries on the first day of consecutive seasons seriously curtailed his impact at Anfield, but Kennedy was lavish in his praise of the Merseyside club - "I've got a lot of fond memories" - and he revealed that he has recommended it to Wimbledon's Ben Thatcher.

Next season they could meet at Anfield but first Kennedy has a job to do at Blackburn. "If, come Monday, we're in the Premier League, I'll be happy to talk to you all day about it. I really don't find any point in talking about it now. Because we're not in it." Wise words from someone who saw, first hand, what happened the last time Manchester City thought they were a Premiership club, when they weren't.