City spirits soar for derby D-day

Manchester City supporters spent the majority of this game blinded by the light, but they can at last see the sun shining back down on their club now after an extraordinary day.

Even the most optimistic of their traditionally pessimistic band of supporters would have struggled to see a scenario whereby they will regain the lead at the top of the English Premier League if they beat Manchester United next week.

They trailed their great rivals by eight points just two weeks ago but reduced the deficit to just three with a narrow, nerve-jangling victory that relegated their battling opponents Wolves in the process.

City fans are starved of success, not winning a top tier title since 1968, so even after Everton’s barely believable comeback from 4-2 down to draw 4-4 earlier in the day, the blue half of Manchester would still have felt the worst after missing a catalogue of chances in the first 27 minutes.

Sergio Aguero scored the 29th goal of a fine personal season to banish the initial nerves and, despite a less than convincing display, they at last had a dream in their heart contrary to their famous Blue Moon song when Samir Nasri converted a controversial second 17 minutes from time.

But while City could celebrate, it was a frustrating day for Wolves, who were put out of their misery with a relegation-confirming defeat that appeared to be a cast-iron certainty ever since Mick McCarthy was unceremoniously dumped as manager after an embarrassing 5-1 home defeat by local rivals West Brom in February.

Wanderers competed well with Roberto Mancini’s millionaires and came agonisingly close to opening the scoring courtesy of young midfielder David Davis, whose drive from the edge of the area was brilliantly kept out by England keeper Joe Hart.

City’s poor finishing of their own had many of their fans needing to grow new fingernails.

Carlos Tevez missed the target inside the first 17 seconds and then Aguero shot wide.

Aguero then shot wide again after a moment of near calamity by defender Richard Stearman.

The Argentine was to get his deserved goal as he ran on to Gael Clichy’s perfectly weighted ball, and, despite a slip, did enough to beat De Vries, making his first Premier League start for Wolves in place of the injured Wayne Hennessey.

The hosts though stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half, with Hart forced to save from Steven Fletcher.

Mancini was worried and withdrew David Silva for Nigel De Jong to regain more control in the midfield.

City may well feel Lady Luck is on their side after their clinching goal. Sebastien Bassong was down on the ground but City played on and Tevez’s incisive pass led to Nasri gleefully converting to ensure their fans could breathe easily.

City could have wrapped up victory by an increased and harsher margin, with Adam Johnson forcing De Vries into a save and Yaya Toure and Joleon Lescott going close.

The home fans kept their spirits up ahead of a season of Championship football, singing: “que sera, sera, we’re going to Barnsley”.

But for City supporters, spirits of a different kind were set to flow long into the night after the title race was again turned on its head.