OH, OF course Manchester City won. Of course they scored five goals away from home. Of course they thrashed their nearest relegation rivals. Of course it was their best performance of the season. And of course they went down... Even the writers of the most far-fetched soap opera wouldn't have dared script yesterday's extraordinary events, though before the game City fans, used to their team's remarkable penchant for self-destruction, were openly predicting just such an outcome. And, while there's certainly fascination, and a deal of sniggering, to be had from watching a huge club lumbering, Titanic-style, toward the iceberg, you wouldn't have wished City's fate on your worst enemy. Certainly not on their amazing supporters. Having said all that, though, City have to face the truth that theirs is the most astonishing demotion of all time. Look at the facts. In the course of the season, they have used an astonishing 13 players who, at one time or another, have represented their country (the four Georgians, Beardsley, McGoldrick, Symons, Horlock, Rosler, Whitley, Van Blerk, Goater and Wright); their squad contains eight players who cost £1m or more; their crowds are, by any standards, huge. All of this going for them and they're going to the Second Division. That bizarre prospect brings with it a whole new set of lunacies. Lee Bradbury will become the most expensive player ever to turn out at this level. He left Portsmouth (for an unbelievable £3.5m in Terry Venables' only decent bit of business for the South Coast club) because he wanted to play in a different league to the one in which Pompey were likely to be; well, he's got his wish. Oh, and six goals, at over half a million quid each. City's travelling support will be bigger than the average gates of many of the teams they will visit. The club whose fixture with Manchester United used to be one of the highlights of the football calendar, will now play their local derbies against the likes of Wigan, Burnley and Preston. Not to mention Macclesfield; if you'd suggested that one even two years ago (when City were in the Premiership and Macc in the Conference) you'd have been straight onto the list for state-funded Prozac. And the club who once won the European Cup-Winners' Cup can now look forward to a good run… in the Auto Windscreens Shield! The whole thing is almost surreal, and yet there is no doubting the realities of the situation, harsh facts that all of yesterday's melodramatic heroics cannot cloud. Mighty Manchester City have been cast into what they will no doubt regard as the outer darkness of Division Two because, for a number of years now, they have made too many poor decisions, bought too many bad players, appointed too many, and too many useless, managers. None of which should let the current crop of players off the hook. Not until the very last day of the season did they ever look like they were giving their all for the great club they represented (usually on contracts that would turn most of the other professionals in the First Division emerald with envy). If they were fighting for their lives, I'm damned glad they weren't fighting for mine. All need to take a long, hard look at themselves; most should hang their heads in shame. It can go one of two ways now. In living memory, both Aston Villa and Blackburn have been in the third divison and come back to be champions of England, and the likelihood is that the sheer weight of Manchester City's resources and tradition will see them lord it over Division Two next season and begin the long climb back to their former standing. Mind you, that's what, many years ago, they would have said about Preston, Burnley, Blackpool… Danny Kelly FOR THE RECORD, HERE'S HOW CITY WENT DOWN IN FIVE-STAR FASHION… Predicted fan trouble materialised virtually before a ball was kicked and various fans were hauled out following running battles with stewards and police. Shaun Goater sparked off wild City celebrations by giving his side a deserved first half lead and Paul Dickov extended their lead, lashing home after 49 minutes. Peter Thorne pulled a goal back for Stoke almost immediately before Lee Bradbury restored City's two-goal cushion with a header from Richard Edghill's cross. Goater got his second and City's fourth after 71 minutes; Thorne pulled another back for Stoke and Kevin Horlock completed the scoring with a close-range fifth just before the end. STOKE CITY: Southall, Pickering, Heath, Sigurdsson, Tweed, Keen, Forsyth, Wallace, Thorne, Lightbourne (Taaffe 57), Kavanagh Subs Not Used: Holsgrove, Whittle Booked: Wallace, Thorne MANCHESTER CITY: Margetson, Edghill, Horlock, Wiekens, Symons, Vaughan, Jim Whitley (Brannan 45), Pollock, Goater (Kinkladze 73), Dickov (Jeff Whitley 90), Bradbury Booked: Edghill Att: 28,000 Ref: MC Bailey (Impington)

RELEGATION TIMELINE Statistics And Facts   START OF THE DAY Stoke City and Manchester City in the automatic relegation places, with Reading already down. QPR, Bury, Port Vale and Portsmouth in reach of Stoke, Vale and Pompey within reach of Manchester City. 2 mins Huddersfield 0 Port Vale 1: Vale out of reach of Stoke and Man City 24 mins QPR 0 Bury 1: Bury out of reach of Stoke and Man City 25 mins Huddersfield 0 Port Vale 2: two-goal cushion for Vale 31 mins Stoke 0 Man City 1: Portsmouth into the bottom three, City out 38 mins Bradford 0 Portsmouth 1: City back into the bottom three 49 mins Stoke 0 Man City 2: City still in bottom three, though 60 mins Huddersfield 0 Port Vale 3: three-goal cushion for Vale 62 mins Stoke City 1 Man City 2: no change 63 mins Stoke 1 Man City 3: no change 65 mins Bradford 0 Portsmouth 2: two-goal cushion for Portsmouth 70 mins Huddersfield 0 Port Vale 4: four-goal cushion for Vale 71 mins Stoke City 1 Manchester City 4: no change 74 mins Bradford 0 Portsmouth 3: three-goal cushion for Portsmouth 79 mins Huddersfield 0 Port Vale 4: four-goal cushion for Vale 87 mins Stoke 2 Man City 4: no change 87 mins Bradford 1 Portsmouth 3: two-goal cushion for Portsmouth 90 mins Stoke 2 Man City 5: no change Final whistle Stoke and Man City relegated P Pts Gls GD Bury 46 52 42 -16 Port Vale 46 49 56 -10 Portsmouth 46 49 51 -12 QPR 46 49 51 -12 Man City 46 48 56 -1 Stoke City 46 46 44 -27 Reading 46 42 39 -38 FACTS Last year, Bradford stayed up with 48 points, two ahead of Grimsby. This year it was Bradford's 3-1 home defeat to Portsmouth that sent Manchester City down with 48 points. Wolves, who finished ninth this year, scored one more goal than City. Their goal difference at plus four is only five better than City's. West Brom, in tenth place, have a goal difference of minus six, five worse than City, and scored six fewer goals.

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