I popped down to the City of Manchester Stadium today to grab a ticket for the away end. Manchester City's low support levels had been flagged up by the club's own management earlier in the week, and a number of tickets for the away end went on sale before the match as it was clear that City weren't going to fill the ground. There were any number of Thus I found myself in the upper tier behind one of the goals belting out the old favourite Spurs chants with a couple of mates, which, considering that my alternative Sunday was to be spent in the quite horrific Trafford Centre, was a huge improvement.

The ground itself is impressive, although it doesn't do a good job of keeping in noise, which seems to dissipate quickly, and the stands seem a little too far back from the pitch, symptomatic of the conversion from athletics I imagine. Sitting towards the edge of the Tottenham island of support I was near a number of teenage City fans, who purposefully sit there to bait away fans I don't doubt, and whose inept insults and rude gestures were an amusing addition to the afternoon. Any irritation caused by them was easily dissipated by the warming thought that none of them will ever have sex without money changing hands.

The match started at a frenetic pace, the usual early sparring developing into a grip on the game being established by Spurs. This was confirmed by a free kick from the left taken by Huddlestone floating in deep and Davenport's head guiding it in. At the time I thought it was a straightforward header on, however at half time I checked the replay and it was almost a backheader as Davenport angled it past the keeper with an impressive awareness of where the goal and keeper were.

We went further ahead with Huddlestone's delicious goal, a half volley which slammed into the net. I wasn't aware of it at the time but someone was led away after trying to give Stuart Pearce a piece of his mind at this stage. I wasn't surprised to hear this; City had been shocking up to this point, had hardly managed to string two passes together and were really on the rack. It was hard to believe that they'd only conceded one at home up to this point.

Frankly the second goal was a product of some delicious football as City stood off us, and they should have been further down at half time as Spurs flowed forward. As often this season, we were not as cutthroat as we should have been, and chances were missed, although given recent history I'm not sure how I'd have felt being three up at half time.

City came out after half time predictably shaken by the rocket they'd got from their manager and quite rightly. They pressed forward, and as we all wished we'd scored more in the first half, Barton slid in at the far post to fire in a goal, which livened the previously soporific home support. That said their play wasn't great, and Spurs managed to hold out without coming under too much pressure. There was a City shout for a penalty at the end but I felt Barton went over very easily and didn't get it because of that.

I've gone through our players, but not given them marks out of ten because they really don't give anyone a decent picture of how the game's gone.

Paul Robinson: No chance with the goal, did all that could have been asked of him otherwise, was England no. 1, etc etc etc.....

Calum Davenport: Is ahead of Gardner in the central defensive pecking order for the simple reason that he can come into the side after weeks of not doing very much as Gardner used to, and be on the pace immediately, as Gardner didn't. He didn't put a foot wrong today, and scored. A good day.

Ledley King: One of his solid-as-a-rock, lead-by-example performances. Nothing else to say, if Ledley was a car he's be one of those high performance Bentleys. Brilliant.

Pascal Chimbonda: As always was good to watch, an energetic presence on the right. I would have liked him forward more, certainly during the first half huge gaps were showing up on the City flank which should have been used more. That said, I'm glad we've got him.

Young-Pyo Lee: Was fine really, still useless with his left foot but still eager to get forward and combined well with Malbranque. No great problems.

Tom Huddlestone: Bears a great deal of responsibility for my sore throat due to the constant singing of his name. He combines an "intimidating" physical presence with an ability to glide around the pitch in a manner eerily similar to Carrick. However, whereas up until last season Carrick had a frustrating habit of fading out of games for long periods Huddlestone (who is only 19) shows none of that, remaining a relevant and forceful presence throughout. He doesn't show any particular pace, but is always there just where he needs to be - his ability to read the game was as awesome to watch from a Spurs perspective as it would have been frustrating from a Manchester City one; passes and aerial balls alike get hoovered up by the man mountain and efficiently played forward. He is almost impossible to shake off the ball and doesn't give possession away under almost any circumstances - indeed a lot of his passing is sublime in its dexterity and execution. And my God, what a shot this man has on him. Even given that we were at the other end of the ground we realised that his goal was a bloody special one and if you haven't seen it you need to go onto Youtube right away and pray that someone has uploaded it. Certainly there were some from the Spurs contingent such as me who were late out for the second half as they were busy drooling over the goal as it was being replayed on the screens above the bar. And he'll do it over and over and over again.

Teemu Tainio: His usual self, I don't consider him as effective as Jenas or Zokora, however he is a perfectly serviceable Premiership standard midfielder who didn't really do a lot wrong today, was motivated, and had his foot or head in wherever it was needed in order to make a tackle or get us out of danger.

Hossam Ghaly: A bit of an enigma; he does a lot of useful stuff, wins the ball, is aggressive and doesn't lose the ball much in general play. That said, he has a habit of getting himself into promising positions from where he can do real damage and then sodding it all up: the final pass is mishit, the shot sail wide, that sort of thing, which in the context of a professional football match is the equivalent of jumping on a Piccasso. Unfortunately it's just that sort of moment which sticks in fans' minds, like it has in mine when he did it twice today.

Steed Malbranque: Did a lot of roaming on the left hand side of midfield and was a useful presence there all afternoon; he has a lovely touch and uses the ball intelligently, his movement is also very good - he's a clever player who I enjoyed watching and he'd clearly be comfortable playing all across the midfield, which gives us a whole lot of flexibility. Especially enjoyed his movement on the left in the second half (partly as it was directly in front of me).

Jermain Defoe: Not one of his most effective days, ran into channels well but never got hold of the game in the manner he has in the last few weeks. He has an irritating manner of running at defenders, then just when a burst of pace would take him through on goal, he checks back to reassess his options and is tackled. When he is direct, as in the opening seconds of the second half, where he wriggled through two defenders and almost slammed the ball home from a tight angle, he is highly effective, but he didn't do enough of that today for my liking. Got taken off in favour of Mido but that was more a reflection of the team's needs at the time rather than his own performance.

Dimitar Berbatov: Won his share of balls in the air, used his touch well to move and create chances and coupled with the movement around him he is an expert at bringing others into moves, especially from deep, which is especially useful when placed against the more one-eyed Defoe. Had one shot cleared off the line from a very tight angle, should have done better with other chances at the beginning and end of the first half. I was disappointed he didn't score.

Mido (on for Defoe): Did what was needed, which at the time was to use his physical presence to win the ball and hold it up as far from possible from our goal, which he did extremely well. Now he's fit I'd like to see more 0f him than we currently do as he looked lean and hungry and going forward he can be a direct and effective presence. There wasn't much time to see how he measured up alongside Berbatov as his job by this stage wasn't really to score, more to help us hold onto what we had.