Goater on target as City climb to summit

Manchester City took advantage of the cold snap and some seasonally generous defending to achieve their manager Kevin Keegan's target of starting the New Year on top of the First Division.

Postponements elsewhere meant a draw would have done but the division's leading scorer Shaun Goater rediscovered his scoring touch 10 minutes into the second half to bring the game to life and set City on the way to a victory which puts them two points clear at the top.

"The first goal was always going to be crucial and fortunately we got it," said Keegan. Indeed in the first half it was difficult to see where a goal of any sort would come from.

The energy with which City swept aside the previous leaders Burnley on Saturday did not survive the New Year celebrations, and with Eyal Berkovic and Danny Tiatto unable to find their touch it was left to young Shaun Wright-Phillips, playing his fourth different position under Keegan, to try to generate a spark in City's sluggish midfield.

Wright-Phillips tested United's goalkeeper Simon Tracey with a low 20-yard drive through a wall of defenders and found the net two minutes before the break, though the whistle had already gone for an infringement. "He's a wonderful talent," said Keegan. "He can play anywhere and this is the best game he's played for the club at any level. He started to run the game in the second half and he's learning really quickly from Berkovic and Ali Benarbia."

Saturday's hat-trick hero Paulo Wanchope had cause to feel aggrieved when he, too, steered the ball beyond Tracey, feeling the referee should have allowed him the advantage when he was tripped as he burst into the box. All he got was a free-kick which came to nothing.

But, perhaps fortunately, neither side played with the passion of their Maine Road meeting, which saw Kevin Horlock sent off and United's defender Rob Kozluk put out of the game for a year.

Before Goater's intervention, it was the Blades who came closest to scoring. Carl Asaba met Shane Nicholson's corner with a free header which Carlo Nash punched from under his crossbar before palming the ball away again when Paul Devlin thumped it back at him.

So when the breakthrough came it was inevitably a soft goal. Horlock's free-kick reached Wanchope at the far post, he nodded it back to find Goater unmarked in front of goal and the big Bermudian gratefully accepted his 24th of the season, thereby ending a four match barren spell.

Berkovic doubled City's advantage with similar ease. The defender Richard Dunne was allowed to gallop down the right, Goater stepped over his low cross and the Israeli ran in unchallenged to side foot home from six yards.

But there was still time for a characteristic City wobble. Their old boy Michael Brown pulled one back in injury time, heading in Devlin's corner from 10 yards, and as the Blades pressed Wright-Phillips broke clear, exchanging passes with Wanchope before side-footing home from just inside the box to make victory safe with a well taken and well deserved goal.

The Sheffield United manager, Neil Warnock, was still pleased with his side. "I thought it was a super game and we put in a great deal of effort, but you can see the quality in their squad," he said. "They will finish the season 10 or 12 points clear of everyone else in this league as champions. You only have to look at the quality and depth of their squad to see that they will be pushing for promotion."

Sheffield United (4-4-2): Tracey; Uhlenbeek, Murphy, Page, Nicholson (Ndlovu, 75); Montgomery, Santos (Suffo, 69), Tonge, Brown; Devlin, Asaba. Substitutes not used: Curle, Ford, De Vogt (gk).

Manchester City (3-5-2): Nash; Dunne, Howey, Mettomo; Edghill, Wright-Phillips, Horlock, Berkovic (Haaland, 84), Tiatto (Ritchie, 69); Goater (Huckerby, 87), Wanchope. Substitutes not used: Négouai, Weaver (gk).

Referee: A Wiley (Staffordshire).