Manchester City...5 TNS Llansantffraid...0: There are many things Manchester City will miss about Maine Road but not the sense of foreboding. Had this match been played at the old stadium it would have been engulfed in trepidation.
As it was, the first competitive game at the hugely impressive City of Manchester Stadium ended with a Mexican wave sweeping through the stands, a place in the UEFA Cup guaranteed, and the general feeling that the club might no longer be prone to bouts of what Joe Royle used to call "Cityitis".
Doubtless, TNS and the clutch of boisterous sightseers who had followed them from mid-Wales harboured aspirations of inflicting painful humiliation on a club who had waited 24 years since their last venture into Europe.
With City emphasising the gulf in status almost from the first minute it quickly became apparent and Trevor Sinclair opened the scoring 14 minutes into an uncomfortably one-sided opening half.
It was a classy way for Sinclair to register his first goal since his arrival from West Ham, although he might reflect on the fact that he had missed an easier chance only moments earlier when, clean through, his poor connection allowed Christopher King to clear off the goal-line.
From the resultant corner Sinclair did better, positioning himself 25 yards from goal in the hope the ball would fall invitingly for him. Unwittingly, the TNS centre half Chris Taylor provided the perfect assist with a clearing header and Sinclair scored with a volley combining power and precision.
The remainder of the first half was a recurrent theme of City exerting pressure on their opponents to be denied by a combination of poor finishing, bad luck and desperate clearances.
City had every right to smoulder with indignation that their superiority had not been rewarded with an impregnable first-half lead but it needed only five minutes of an even more dominant performance in the second period for the home side to double the lead.
For that they owed a debt of gratitude to the Russian referee Alexey Tiumin, who had noticed Gary Brabin's stamp on Paul Bosvelt but chose to play the advantage rule. David Sommeil played a short pass to Shaun Wright-Phillips who tried his luck with a shot that went in of TNS goalkeeper Gerard Doherty.
TNS were looking increasingly beleaguered and there was no surprise when Sun Jihai converted Robbie Fowler's cross nine minutes later. Perhaps it was cruel on the part-time side when Sommeil added a vital touch to substitute Joey Barton's shot to make it 4-0, and when Nicolas Anelka scored the fifth with a powerful 20-yard drive, but the score did not flatter a club intent on looking to the future rather than the past.
MAN CITY: Seaman, Sommeil, Distin, Berkovic, Jihai, Tarnat (Tiatto 80), Bosvelt (Barton 65), Wright-Phillips, Sinclair, Anelka, Fowler (Wanchope 73). Subs Not Used: Weaver, Huckerby, Wiekens, Dunne. Goals: Sinclair 14, Wright-Phillips 51, Jihai 60, Sommeil 74, Anelka 87.
TNS: Doherty, Naylor, King, Brabin, Taylor, Ruscoe, Bridgewater (Wood 80), Nicky Ward (Toner 65), Simon Davies, Leah. Subs Not Used: Dean Williams, Wild, Justin Perry, Steve Evans, Aggrey. Booked: Brabin.
Referee: Alexey Tiumin (Russia).
