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In any success story in football there is usually always a turning point where things started to go right. A juncture that fans always point to years later when reflecting on how their team managed to finally drag themselves out of adversity to go on to enjoy the giddy heights of success.
A famous one at City was in the old days of Division Two under the stewardship of the recently appointed Joe Mercer and his young sidekick Malcolm Alison.

It was an away game at Rotherham. Not a very exciting prospect you might think. But it became so important here at City that we still sing a song about it. (Well us fans of more advanced years do when we've had a sherbert or two.)
We needed to win that game to go back into the big time of the first division, now the premier league.

We indeed won that game and the rest is history, unfortunately we've had to continue to pick the scraps from in the last thirty odd years of famine.

I wasn't fooled by the Boxing Day mauling of Hull. I enjoyed it and much as we needed it to climb away from the dreaded drop zone, I knew it wasn't necessarily a sign that things were going to change. We've had a few results like that this season and then let ourselves down badly in the next game. I was more impressed with the comeback at Blackburn. Something happened in the last few minutes at Ewood Park that gave me more hope than anything i've seen so far this season. The team showed a fighting spirit. They refused to be beaten, they were determined not to give up the ghost. I've not seen that for some time. Certainly not in recent weeks amidst rumours of disgruntled players and dressing room unrest. This was different. This was more like I'd expect from a Mark Hughes side. In fact he almost cracked a smile himself!

So, have we turned the corner? Has Hughes finally got a grip of his charges? Do they finally want to play for him?
We've had so many false dawns at City it's way too early to say. But maybe, just maybe, after a couple of Premiership titles and the odd Champions League trophy we'll one day look back to the fightback at Ewood Park as the moment when things changed.

Spike