New stadium will be a fortress - Keegan

Manchester City boss Kevin Keegan is convinced he has the players to ensure the club’s new £120m (€170.2m) stadium becomes a place to be feared.

City bade an emotional farewell to Maine Road three months ago, and while everyone connected with the club retains fond memories of their 80-year-old ground, the home faithful had sadly become accustomed to seeing their side lose more often than not in recent seasons.

In switching to the City of Manchester Stadium, a venue the club have waited eight years to move into after it was given the green light to stage last year’s Commonwealth Games in 1995, Keegan is hoping to turn it into a fortress.

City certainly made the right start as they ushered in a new era with a 2-1 victory over Spanish giants Barcelona in front of a crowd of 36,000, three quarters of its capacity due to licensing restrictions.

The atmosphere took time to build as the fans grew acclimatised to their new surroundings, but by the end it became evident the crowd can certainly play their part in fulfilling Keegan’s vision.

“We have started with a win, so it’s a good start, and against a good Barcelona team rather than someone people would expect us to knock over,” said Keegan.

“But we have got to try and make it better than Maine Road had become in the last two Premiership seasons because we lost 12 games under Joe Royle and eight under me.

“That’s 20 games out of 38. That’s over 50 per cent of our home games, so for now a mini fortress will do. But a true fortress would be nice.

“Looking around, there appeared to be more than 36,000 in the ground, but I just think it is a stadium that will be the making of this football club. I really do.

“We are the luckiest team in the world to have a place like this and we have got to make it work for us as we did against Barcelona.

“The atmosphere was terrific and to think it was only three quarters full. When I went out there I thought to myself ‘the players will want to play in front of this’.

“Those who can’t will have to go, but I don’t think I will have a problem with that. We have got players who will be spurred on by it and they are the ones you want at your football club.

“Anybody who is scared of playing in front of an atmosphere like that or a stadium like the one we have got, then they are no good to you because they cannot take you where you want to go.”

It was a day of high emotion for City fans, poignantly so as a minute’s silence was held for Marc-Vivien Foe who tragically died in June while playing for Cameroon in a Confederations Cup match.

The game also marked a special farewell to striker Shaun Goater and midfielder Ali Benarbia, the latter given the privilege of captaining the side for the opening 30 minutes.

Goater earlier this summer joined Reading for £500,000 (€709,560), while Benarbia is to now play for a club in Qatar, but both were given standing ovations given the part they have played in the club’s recent past.

For City, they now move on to welcoming European football back at the club for the first time in 25 years as they host Welsh side TNS in a UEFA Cup tie on Thursday.

Keegan is looking for his team to build on the victory over Barca as he said: “You cannot read too much into friendlies, but I thought we played some great football against an excellent side.

“What surprised me is how many problems we caused them. By the end of the game we could have scored another two or three goals, so I’m really pleased.

“But I’m not going to get too carried away. We have got TNS on Thursday which is a completely different game, yet more important. So we have got to carry the momentum with us.”

City won yesterday’s match with goals from Nicolas Anelka and new boy Trevor Sinclair, sandwiching a strike from Argentina international Javier Saviola.