A GHOST of Christmas past came back to haunt City and push them closer to the bottom three.
Nicolas Anelka, once the é12m jewel in Kevin Keegan's squad of glittering stars, scored twice to plunge his old side into further turmoil.
Amidst growing disquiet in the stands, boss Stuart Pearce could soon be facing a battle for his job as well as against relegation.
One point from the last twelve since the away win at Villa has City perched perilously close to a crisis with the Boxing Day trip to in-form Sheffield United now one that could have all kinds of implications.
Bolton's fetching plum coloured away strip lent a festive air to proceedings but whilst this game was a cracker for the visitors it was a real turkey for home fans sick of their goal-shy side not looking the part.
Anelka, City's former record signing and a man who topped their goal-charts whilst ever he was at the club, did what all old boys seem to do to the Blues and made them wish he had never left.
The enigmatic Frenchman, who is still a wonderful talent, scored first in the eighth minute from Kevin Nolan's flick on.
The Blues were really masters of their own problems having lost a series of 50-50 challenges in the build up to the opener with Ishmael Miller's slowness of thought the last act of self-destruction.
Not that the home side were in the mood to immediately lie down. Paul Dickov thought he had equalised within two minutes but Jussi Jaaskelainen scooped out his header - from Hatem Trabelsi's cross.
Neither linesman nor referee Mike Riley felt the whole of the ball had crossed the line. Numerous replays proved inconclusive.
Decision
That decision didn't make Mr Riley overly popular and his esteem dropped still further in the 13th minute when Nedum Onuoha's shot cannoned off Wanderers makeshift left back Henrik Pedersen and out for a corner.
Most of the ground went up for handball but this time the cameras showed that the ball had hit nothing more illegal than the Dane's head.
Still, at least the crowd had a pantomime villain to shout at in Mr Riley and their mood was not improved in the 25th minute when Pedersen's low cross from the left skipped past three defenders all moving the wrong way and Anelka side-footed into the same spot that he'd deposited the ball seventeen minutes earlier.
The second goal took the wind out of the Blues sails - they were booed off (again) at half time and after the break Pearce attempted to breathe new life into his troops by changing to a 3-5-2 formation with Thatcher and Dickov sacrificed in favour of Georgios Samaras and Ousmane Dabo.
Joey Barton, one of the precious few home players to shine before he was sent off for a ridiculous lung at Faye and so managed to get himself banned for the rest of the holidays, went close with a free kick and Darius Vassell might have had a penalty when grabbed by Meite but the venerable duo Gary Speed and Ivan Campo combined with Kevin Nolan to dominate whatever formation City threw at them.
Eight goals in ten home games, the last two of them lost, is simply not good enough. The latest uninspiring ninety minutes left City fans asking, not for the first time, how their club with twice the number of regular fans and a wage bill é10million per year more than Bolton's can manage to finish below them every year.
This term promises to be no exception with Wanderers heading for European place and City seemingly bound for a journey that's a lot less enjoyable.
The Blues desperately need new blood in terms of pace and penetration and if they don't get it in the January window then Premiership status could be disappearing as fast as would-be investors and é40m television money.
What do you think? Have your say
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ex pat manc, swansea (23/12/2006 at 17:27)
Rather be dead than red., Manchester (23/12/2006 at 17:27)
Hampton Skraczer, ny (23/12/2006 at 17:30)
ctid, blue moon (23/12/2006 at 17:32)
god, chorley (23/12/2006 at 17:35)
Ayub Khan, Batley West Yorkshire (23/12/2006 at 17:35)
I also say it is time to get rid of Pearce. He has completely lost it.He is to soft and tries to be a gentleman, and thats why we get sod all from refs, knowing our manager is going to sy the refs have a hard job
MANC BLUE, Cork (23/12/2006 at 17:35)
Ste, Manc (23/12/2006 at 17:38)
ste, manc (23/12/2006 at 17:39)
Blackley lad., ny (23/12/2006 at 17:42)
Simsim, Finland (23/12/2006 at 17:43)
Tristan, nottingham (23/12/2006 at 17:44)
gazza, margate(exiled manc) (23/12/2006 at 17:46)
Bristol Blue, Bristol (23/12/2006 at 17:52)
Gary, Didsbury (23/12/2006 at 17:52)
Nicolas Anelka, Bolton (23/12/2006 at 17:54)
Eddie, Bottom block (23/12/2006 at 17:57)
mark jenkins, nottingham (23/12/2006 at 18:02)
TONY, DENTON (23/12/2006 at 18:04)
Blue John, The Real World (23/12/2006 at 18:09)
There's no happy ending to this story. We have four forwards at the club. One is a big pudding with no pace, one is a small pudding with no pace, one is a coward, and the other has spent nearly the entire season on the left wing, cos his manager didn't have the foresight to buy someone to fill that particular hole during the summer. They have scored five goals between them in 19 matches.
And so to the future. We need variously, two pacy, powerful, goal scoring, centre forwards right now. We need a left winger right now, and we need a playmaker right now. We have the grand total of fivepence ha'penny to buy them with, and that's assuming we can persuade anyone to come here. If I was Billy Sharp or Izzie MacLoed's agent, I'd steer my charges well clear. And you can forget about the phantom 'investor'. There's more substance and less spin in your average Government 'crackdown'. Pearce is a young manager who is not up to the job, plain and simple, a man who is having to learn in the full glare of the Premiership spotlight. He should never have been placed in such an invidious position. That he was appointed, was due to one factor alone. He was cheap, and having all but bankrupted us, the Board saw him as the only logical choice, the only person in fact who would want such an impossible task. For that same reason he will not be sacked, not after we've lost the next three games to make it six defeats in a row and secured a place in the relegation zone, not after Sheffield Wednesday knock us out of the Cup, not after we finish the season with around 30 points, not ever as long as the current Board remain in situ. Some people on here are always trumpeting the line that we should be grateful to John Wardle for LOANING the club 20m quid. They're right, we should be grateful. What we should not be grateful for however, is that not only did he invest that initial 20m disastrously, but that he allowed a situation to develop whereby expenditure (largely on wages) outstripped income to the tune of roughly 10m a year for the last 3 years. Effectively then he turned a 20m investment into a 50m debt, which has only been offset so far by selling SWP for 21m, and which, looking to the future, will also require the departures of Micah Richards and Joey Barton for a further 21m. Truly appalling financial management. At the start of this season, I stated that my biggest worry was not whether we would survive this season in the Premiership, but whether we would survive next season in the Championship, and that still holds true now. We are the worst run club in the history of the game, and with home fixtures (I won't even pretend that we can win away) to come against the Rags, Everton, Liverpool, Chelsea, and even well organised lesser teams like Blackburn and Wigan, I can't see anything other than more pain, and relegation, on the horizon. Merry Christmas everyone!
CutmustardChris, Manchesta (23/12/2006 at 18:09)
Brett, Denton (23/12/2006 at 18:10)
Kent Blue, Kent (23/12/2006 at 18:13)
Money is not enough, transfers need judgement which has been lacking.
Kent Blue
Icicle Boy, Wokingham (23/12/2006 at 18:18)
Love Pearce, but a duo of Wigley and Pearce is doomed for failure. I gave up my season ticket this season and I am so glad that I am not stuck on the M6 feeling desparately depressed with a three hour journey home. Respect to all Blues that are still going to games. Don't know how you do it. Bottom three by start of January, it's curtains unless we change manager. CTID
jelle, Denmark (23/12/2006 at 18:18)
Looking at our record the last 1½ years, it is now time for the board to say, "not good enough, Pearce" . The results havent come, and there are no signs of it improving. Get in the game Wardle and think of the future of the club.
Pearce out and btw, didnt he have a rolling contract so he could leave for free?? Surely now its time to activate it!