Positive reception a nice send-off for City legend Dunney

It was a peculiar sight, seeing a man who served our club so well for so many years sauntering around the quite lavish tunnel area at Villa Park, as much a stranger there as the players who lined up for us. For years we've come to see him in our colours, built like a shed but the perfect gent, sometimes good, sometimes bad, always a club man, and forever a blue, seeing him in the claret shirt was plain odd.

Whilst the ending to his career at City might have come with a bit of a sting in the tail, the player being forced out against his will with the manager trying to save face by denying all knowledge, and Garry Cook confusingly blaming the balance-sheets, most of us can perhaps see why the parting of the ways had to happen, though to a man we remain a little uncomfortable about it.

Richard Dunne's not a bad player, neither, truth be told, is he a top one. He simply found himself in the peculiar situation of no longer being good enough to play week in, week out for where we're hoping to go, but being too good and experienced to sit around as a backup. A move had to happen. For him, with the chance of a World Cup next summer, games are vital. For us, five centre-halves was simply one too many.

We'll all have different opinions on whether it was right or wrong to move the lad on. What we'll all agree with is that his nine years service deserves a hell of a lot of respect. Hearing those who travelled to Villa Park last night greeting him with rousing applause and song warmed the cockles, for me anyway, especially as the home support quite roundly booed their returning former captain, Gareth Barry, one laughable idiot brandishing fake banknotes in order to earn himself a few seconds of airtime.

The reaction today has been mixed amongst our supporters. Some have suggested that the love-in might have gone a bit too far. Dunne, after all, scored a goal and put in a sterling defensive showing that contrived to cost us two points. Whilst none begrudge him a token of appreciation of some sort, for sections of our following a welcome pre-game would have sufficed, and as soon as the whistle blew, that should have been that.

I disagree, for two reasons, i think this is a special case. Primarily, we were never really given the chance to say a proper goodbye. As the transfer was dragged out we never got the opportunity to show our appreciation for the shift he put in. A ripple of applause before kick-off really wouldn't have been quite enough. He had to go and bloody score, the law of the sod, etc, etc, but whoever pay his wages now he'll always be one of us, and i've no problem at all with what some have deemed over-the-top appreciation.

Secondly, the unnecessarily pantomime-like reaction of the Villa fans towards Barry only reflected badly on them. It's nice that in the weeks following the incidents against Arsenal, overplayed but disappointing nonetheless, that against West Ham, in terms of Carlos Tevez's celebration, and last night against Villa by our support not stooping to such pettiness and disrespect of a club legend, that we're showing ourselves in a good light.

Our reputation, largely unfairly it must be said, both as a club, and as supporters, has taken a bit of a battering over the last year. We're thought of as a vulgar club now, and bullies, and our fans to be big-heads and to have lost their sense of humour, all shite. It's refreshing that as well as talking about another good game of football the commentators and neutrals noticed the warm reception afforded to Dunney.

I wish him all the best, well, as long as they don't finish ahead of us or deny us any more points. I think that last night brought a certain amount of closure, both for player and fans. He knows we'll be eternally grateful for his commitment to City, his lack of celebration on scoring shows the respect goes both ways, not that we ever doubted it. If he'd have bagged another some of us may feel a little differently, but it was a fitting send-off, in the days that football fans aren't known for their humility, that such a gentleman of the club's recent past should be allowed as well-mannered a send-off.