BILLY BUNTER

Weblog: The football punter

Craig looks geared to be the bell of the ball

THERE used to be a time when we didn’t see much of Manchester City.

They were a team many pitied. They never seemed to be in the shake-up for anything except a relegation struggle, but now you can’t switch your telly on without them being plastered all over it, playing their dazzling football and wiping the floor with everyone put in front of them.

And now they are in the Carling Cup semi-finals and even have the gall to take the whole thing seriously.

It’s a big game for them against Liverpool after they were sunk by United in the other cup on Sunday and I don’t know if they aregoing to get through it.

Vincent Kompany is going to be a big loss (he misses both legs) and They might not be the force they were now Yaya Toure has headed off to the African nations Cup.

Liverpool are heading in the right direction, Steven Gerrard (sorry, I forgot the rules. It is, after all a capital offence to refer to him as anything other than Stevie G) is back and if they can just show a bit more in the final third then things will really look up.

So I’m backing Craig Bellamy to do his bit against his old club.

We’ll be toasting absent friends as Luis Suarez is ruled out as well, but Bellers is the man to give us all a first-goalscorer boost.