City XI (89-09): Forwards

Picking a couple of decent strikers who've represented the club over the last couple of decades was surprisingly easy given the woeful, couldn't hit a cows arse, bone-idle eejits that have played upfront for us during that time. For every one who regularly did the business, there have been three or four Creaney's, Kavelashvili's or Conlon's. The realistic contenders would've been picked by most of us, all very different, most of them unorthodox, all whose sales left the fans non-plussed.

Niall Quinn arrived from Arsenal in 1990, where he'd been nudged out of the first-team by another beanpole striker, Alan Smith. In a way, Quinn's height tended to take away from his quality. As with others of his build people perhaps forget that they can actually play a bit, too. Niall was tidy enough on the ground, but will ultimately be remembered for his partnership with David White, be the latter upfront with him or playing wide. His first two season's at the club were his most fruitful, but he brought so much more to the side than just goals.

Uwe Rösler seemed to play with the will and urgency that many of those who loved him wish they could. Signing initially on loan towards the end of the 93/94 season following a disappointing spell at Dynamo Dresden, Uwe won the fans over immediately, bagging almost a goal every other game and steering the club clear of relegation. The following campaign saw him bag twenty as we somehow managed to play some superb stuff all year yet again finish just a couple of wins above the drop. He'd go on to be underused by Alan Ball, before regaining his place under Frank Clark, ultimately leaving the club after our relegation to Division Two.

His partner in crime for just over a season of that was Paul Walsh, who'd previously been in and out of the team at Liverpool and Spurs, joining us from Portsmouth a week after Rösler, and for a similar fee. He'd be one of an attacking five that would, as mentioned above, play such expansive football, especially at home, yet still contrive to struggle. Walsh was a great player to watch, and to this day the decision to sell him makes no sense whatsoever.

Shaun Goater, somehow, i still can't work out how, probably turned out to be the biggest terrace hero of the lot. The man was completely unique. Everything about him just had you asking 'How?'. He didn't look like he could possibly be good, he had the close control of a distressed elephant, he was from Bermuda, had earnt his reputation at Rotherham, he wasn't meant to ever be brilliant, but he was, because in him we all saw ourselves. I too was a bit of a funny-looking lad who missed sitters for fun, but The Goat gave me hope. He scored fifty goals in two season's, some went in off his arse, hands, or face, at least a dozen off his shin, but they went in, that's all that that matters, he swung a limb and the ball went where he'd intended, admittedly not how sometimes. Without that half-century of strikes we may not have got out of those two divisions.

Alongside him for those two promotion campaigns was Paul Dickov, perhaps the only good thing to have ever happened to the club during Alan Ball's year in charge, assuming it was Francis Lee who had the final decision on signing Kinkladze. Paul wasn't a great player, he'd tell you that himself, but vital, and not just because of that goal at Wembley ten years ago. Just over forty goals in six seasons, not even one in four, and that average heavily helped by his terrific season in the third tier, but he sweated more for the cause than perhaps any other player has done in my time at the club, and we seem to have made an impression on him to the extent that the club now sounds like it means as much to him as it does most of us.

The last in a half-dozen-long list of candidates, and perhaps the antithesis of Dickov, is Nico Anelka. For all of his faults; the strops, the patchy form, the countless offsides or wasted one-on-one's, he was and still is a special player, and easily the most naturally-talented striker i've seen in my time following the club. He's world-class, in my opinion, and even now, when we can afford any player on the planet, i still feel privileged that we had him here, and i'd gladly see him back tomorrow.

Picks: Uwe Rösler & Nicolas Anelka