I don’t spend as much time in Manchester as I used to but I do try to go to every Manchester City game that I can.

I do of course make YouTube videos about the games I attend , well almost always , first at Home to Brentford.

A pretty iffy first half but thankfully after a bit of a howler mainly involving Johnny Stones and a bit of Ederson, Erling Haaland came to the rescue with a brace, but we couldn’t quite kill the game off with Haaland hitting the woodwork twice and nearly bagging a third consecutive hat trick. Brentford played well and at the end of the day happy to have got 3 points as Brentford could have been 2-0 up before we got into gear.

I try to bring a post match pint and review after each game, this time from Reasons to be cheerful craft beer cafe on Fog Lane Didsbury/Burnage. I was lucky to catch some London Black porter before it got rotated , I really adore this porter made by Anspach and Hobday , and James the bar manager extraordinaire really does keep his beer well. I can’t wait for it to come back on at R2BC.

City 0-0 Inter Milan

On to Wednesday, and the much anticipated opening game of the Champions League in its new format. In the past the seeding system meant that City avoided any of the European giants in the group stage but the group stage did become a bit of a procession for the better teams so I hope this makes the earlier stages a bit more exciting.

I was invited to start my vlog at Bar Calcio, a football themed bar in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, and it’s an incredible place for football fans to visit. Screens and gaming stations galore ,a choice of up to 3 games, a wide range of drinks, football quizzes, game and memorabilia, but most importantly, food. It’s really hard to find anywhere to watch football and have something decent to eat at the same time and Calcio really does hit the spot here.

I’d recommend the £28 dry aged ribeye steak deal, very reasonably priced for a full meal involving such a quality piece of meat.

I then proceeded to the Edinburgh Castle as many of my instagram followers recommended it. My intention had been to review a pint there and then move to Bar Fringe to revisit the London Black porter there.

I have no idea why I’d never visited this fine establishment before, the Guinness was certainly good here, even though there were only 4 people drinking it. I shudder to think how good it could be if this wonderfully fitted and cozy bar were full of punters on the Guinness!

Anyway to cut a long story short, I couldn’t resist a second pint and the staff offered me their signature “Chip Butty”. Triple cooked chips in beef fat on a brioche style bun with garlic mayo. Really good, not something I’d normally order and although I don’t think stout and food usually pair well, this actually did!

Anyway , on to the game, not exactly the thriller in Manila

City did have some chances in the second half but kept firing at the keeper. Inter did defend well though and were value for their point, they did have a few good counter attacks which thankfully kept fizzling out.

I moved on to the Northern Monk refectory, and found quite a positive from the result, a very short post match wrap. I visit the Monk before and/or after games with some regularity so I was a bit disappointed to see the cask offerings to be a bit light or sweet. So I plumped for Eternal pale ale on keg though I massively prefer it on cask.

My internet is incredibly slow at the moment so it’s taking forever to get the videos out. I look forward though to the next game, a massive league clash against Arsenal, and then a carabao cup tie against Watford and I do take the carabao cup seriously but with extra CL games the might be impossible for Pep Guardiola . Although I hope and expect to win every home game , it doesn’t always work out that way, just make sure we don’t get mugged off by a dirty 0-1 to the Arsenal!

I’ll see you on the next one Muttonistas!