Manchester City 5 Barnsley 0: Tevez is driving force as Barnsley swamped

Shortly after classy Spaniard David Silva turned a one-sided scoreline into the proverbial rout with City’s fifth goal on Saturday, the anthem which is synonymous with the Reds’ meteoric rise to the top fight in 1996-97 could be heard – ‘It’s just like watching Brazil’.

It was decidedly tongue in cheek as they were not referring to the hosts’ performance.

On a day when several inflatable bananas could be seen scattered around the Etihad Stadium stands, in deference to the terrace craze instigated by City supporters at Maine Road in the late Eighties, there was emphatically no slip-up by the hosts.

Fourteen years to the day since Shaun Goater blasted a hat-trick for City in a 6-0 away win at Burnley’s Turf Moor ground, Carlos Tevez, a present-day forward who has stolen the hearts of the blue side of Manchester, took home the match ball.

‘He scores when he wants’ – alongside a brazen chorus of ‘He drives when he wants’ – was the song from the City contingent regarding their man Tevez, who scored three goals in the space of 39 bewildering minutes to bull-doze Barnsley.

Thirty nine is the number of teams which separated City and Barnsley in the league before Saturday’s programme got underway. You could certainly tell.

Barnsley’s red army had travelled in hope over the Woodhead Pass, but that dissipated following the opening 10 minutes at the Etihad.

And after Aleksandar Kolarov’s second goal for the hosts, three minutes before the half-hour mark, it became an exercise in stoicism for many in the away end. Others simply prefered to laugh in the face of on-pitch adversity and commendably sang their hearts out.

For Tykes punters, it was overwhelmingly about the day out. For Barnsley fans on Saturday, read Bradford City’s 35,000 supporters at Wembley last month. Identical result as well.

For Reds manager David Flitcroft, on a big day for his family – with his two sons and two nephews mascots for Barnsley and City respectively and his elder brother a former Blue – it was a most sobering of evenings back in his native Lancashire as he surveyed the increasing wreckage from his technical area. After the game came a touch of humility in acknowledging he may have picked the wrong line-up.

Truth be told, it probably would not have mattered a great deal. City were simply too good on the day.

Roberto Mancini’s side maintained their parsimonious statistic of not conceding a goal in this season’s competition with the shut-out against the Reds following clean sheets against Leeds, Stoke City and Watford.

A consolation goal would have been greeted wildly by the Barnsley contingent, who made themselves heard all game, regardless of the abject scoreline. But it was not to be.

Flitcroft acknowledged: “It is tough when you are getting beaten in a stadium four- or five-nil. It is tough to take as a fan.

“Massive respect to all the Barnsley supporters and I want to thank them personally because it kept me up because at times it was a slow death.

“I am just glad there was only one minute of extra time although, to be fair, our game plan was to score in the last four minutes of extra time. But we couldn’t.

“The fans have been brilliant. They want to fight to stay in this league (the Championship) like we do as a management team, and since I have taken this job they have been fully behind our effort and the way we have galvanised the town.

“The support has been fantastic. The MK Dons’ Cup game will live long in my memory and was just like a home game, and they were with us for the full journey on Saturday as well.”

After taking five minutes to open their account in the 4-0 drubbing of Leeds in the previous round, it required a tad more patience for City this time around. All of 11 minutes to be exact.

Kolo Toure’s dink over the top of the Reds’ defence after some probing build-up play was seized upon by Silva, whose low shot was parried onto a post by Luke Steele.

Tevez – who started just 48 hours after being arrested on suspicion of driving while disqualified – was on hand to obligingly tap in the rebound.

City, whose top-scorer Edin Dzeko had headed a presentable earlier chance over, had to wait 16 minutes to double their tally.

A mistake in midfield by David Perkins saw Dzeko dispossess him and supply the threatening Tevez, whose inviting centre was dispatched clinically by Kolarov Four minutes later Silva supplied Tevez, who turned Martin Cranie in an instant before clinically firing past Steele.

From that point, the game became a damage limitation exercise for the battered Reds.

Thankfully, the visitors held out for the sanctuary of half-time, but shortly after the second half got underway three became four when Samir Nasri got past ex-City midfielder Kelvin Etuhu all too easily down the left before picking out Tevez, who evaded the challenge of Cranie and clinically fired home.

To conserve some players’ energy ahead of tomorrow’s game with Brighton, Flitcroft made a treble substitution with Jason Scotland, Jacob Melllis and Jim O’Brien replacing Chris Dagnall, Tomasz Cywka and Etuhu.

Mellis’s snapshot then saw Costel Pantilimon forced into action for the first time with Ryan Tunnicliffe also going close.

But the irresistible telepathy between Silva and Tevez came to the fore again with the former netting on 71 minutes.

Substitute James Milner hit the post late on, but mercifully for Barnsley the scoring was over.